Issue 2

Photo courtesy: J. Stephens

Table of Contents:

Page Article

1-2 Leader’s Report - Mike Beamish

2-3 Editor’s Notes - Yvonne McInnes

3-5 Why bother? - John Stephens

6-7 Plants in my garden- Mike Beamish

7-8 Cox’s Corner- Pamela Cox

9 Rainfall Registration Charts

10 APS Latrobe Group Calendar of Events 2017

PLEASE NOTE THE NEXT MEETING:

9th November at 7.30 pm in Morwell

Newsletter November 2017

Issue: 259

Australian Plants Society Latrobe Valley Group Inc.

No. A0045337C

http://www.apsvic.org.au

Leader: Mike Beamish Phone: (03) 5169 6543

Leader’s Report Hello Folks, Did you all enjoy our weekend at Inverloch as much as I did? I hope so, and to all those who weren’t able to make it or who arrived late or left early, you missed out on some good times. Here’s a quick recap. Most of us arrived Friday evening and installed ourselves into our various allotted accommodations. As expected, we had all brought enough food to stay for a week, so we settled in for an evening of conviviality, shared meals and a drink or two. Or three or four for some! Most had hit the sack by 10.30pm, but the stayers (aka the drunks, me included) hung in there until well after midnight. Perhaps surprisingly, Saturday morning arrived with a clear(ish) head and breakfast beckoned, rather than something to be avoided. First item on the agenda was a trip to the APS South Gippsland Flower Show in Leongatha. We arrived soon after opening time, but we were still too late for all the rarities, the place was packed with people and plants were walking out the door at a great rate. We spent a bit of time catching up with familiar faces (Chris Long - APS

Victoria President, Jim Lyons – APS South Gippsland President), browsed a bit, bought a few plants for planting around the digs in Inverloch and a couple for home, socialised a bit more, then finally headed back to Inverloch for lunch. The afternoon entailed another quick car shuffle west to Wonthaggi, where we took a short walk through the Heathlands Reserve. For the record, I did not try to kill anyone! If participants opted to take the longer route, that was their own personal decision, the shorter option was offered and rejected. Although the walk was pleasant enough in itself and there were quite a few flowering plants about, there were no large white spider orchids sighted and very few orchids in general. One Red Beak, one Green-comb Spider and half a dozen Leek Orchids in the burnt area were all that we found. I think the Leek Orchids were Prasophyllum spicatum (see photo) but I could be wrong. Saturday evening was a less alcoholic repeat of Friday, another lovely shared meal, great conversation, a much abbreviated “meeting”, just everyone enjoying the location and the company.

Sunday morning was early for me; as Cathy had a restless night for some reason and kicked me out well before dawn. It was a nice sunrise, but it took a while for everyone else to surface, tackle their breakfasts and ready themselves for the day. There was no fixed agenda for the day, so some hit the Sunday market in town, others hooked in to a working bee to plant out the plants purchased yesterday.

We had bought a Waratah, two Bottlebrushes, a Westringia and a Tetratheca to install beside the new paved pathway beside the Chambers residence (behind the “Barn” where we all congregated for our meals), so they went into the ground, along with a number of plants that Doris had bought for her own garden. Then, a final lunch to finish up all the great food that we had brought along, a clean-up of our accommodations and we all wandered off home mid-afternoon. Many thanks to Alan and Doris, Brian and Marilyn for organising and hosting our weekend, and also to all the participants, for the great food (I particularly enjoyed the pumpkin soup, the curried snags, the pavlova and the sticky date pudding with caramel sauce, though it was all excellent) and companionship over the weekend. Back home in the garden, things have been progressing slowly. A few plants have gone into the ground, replacing the losses from frost and old age. A bit more pruning has occurred, although I’ll defer the rest until the spring flowering has finished. A nice young chap from Murphy’s Tree Lopping knocked on my door twice last week and offered me fresh mulch from their local powerline clearing operations, so I’ve scored about 6 metres of fresh eucalypt mulch for $50. He noticed the native garden and thought I’d be interested in the mulch, clever chap! Knew his stuff, too, took one look at the gum tree at the head of the driveway and correctly identified it as an Omeo Gum! I should have recruited him as a new member! Happy Aussie Planting, Mike

Editors Notes

Hello all, it’s hard to believe there are fewer and fewer days left till years end. Whilst some gardening projects were revisited and completed, others remain & new projects are added to our wish list. Tomorrow help arrives to move some more mulch. We were gifted a big clump of stag ferns which I have separated if anyone would like one. Also gifted were 2 tree ferns however we are unsure if they will survive being uprooted and left out in the sun for several days without any moisture. As we already have a stag fern I can bring those along to our next meeting should anyone like one. Glad to hear that Inverloch and surrounds excursion was enjoyed by all who attended. Sorry we were unable to get there. On our last trip to the Murray River, we visited the Mildura Native Nursery which is located at 363 Cureton Avenue quite near to the lovely Apex River Caravan Park. The nursery is in a quiet bushland setting and they have a wide range of native plants. We bought several plants for our garden and particularly liked the range of the many different coloured Eremophila. We opted for tube size pots so that the small plants can find their feet in our garden. Fingers crossed that they will grow in our ever changing weather conditions. It’s now four years since we moved to live at Traralgon South. In that time, our garden has grown substantially and continues to surprise us with the changing of the seasons and especially when shrubs come into flower. It’s a joy to see lady bugs, a wide variety of birds and bees visit on a regular basis. We have families of Eastern spine bill flitting in and out of the Wooly Bushes and of late a band of Black Cockatoo have taken to drinking out of the lily pond as well as perching on the arbours in the garden. We particularly love the song thrush who has a most beautiful song. Not so well liked is a black cat who is often seen

crossing the back garden en route to our neighbour’s property. Sadly I found many feathers from one of its prey in our front garden beneath the sprawling Grevillea. As this is the final newsletter for me/us, I would like to take the opportunity to say that apart from the frustration re my lack of computer literacy, it has been quite rewarding and lovely to read members’ contributions. A big thank you goes out to those who supported me in this role. Thankfully Pamela has been able to problem solve issues so a special big thanks to Pamela. As you all know, Col Jackson is now the New Editor, thanks Colin!, therefore could I request that you please send your articles, rainfalls etc, to Col at the close of January, for the production of the February Newsletter in the New Year 2018. Finally Pamela and I are most happy to report that we have booked an overseas holiday to Europe in May and June 2018….a rather lengthy one with a hefty price tag however one to tick off the bucket list to be sure. Therefore we will be an apology for both May and June’s meetings. We are also planning to take our “pre-loved” “new van” on some road trips interstate later in the New Year, budget allowing. Just call us the gypsies ha!ha! Looking forward to seeing you at the next meeting 9th November at 7.30 and Christmas dinner on Friday 8th December at 12 noon. Special request from Marg, could you please let her know if you will be attending the end of year break up in December so that she can confirm numbers with Fozigobble. Phone Marg:0428-601-425. Happy Native Plant Gardening. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays in advance! Yvonne McInnes. Out- going Editor.

Why Bother?

By John Stephens

This may be my last article for the newsletter.

Sometimes we wonder why we even garden at all! Yes I know there are lots of positives – peace, pleasure from blooms, aromas etc. and of course the exercise. However there are some down sides.

My wife Susan loves pruning and is often seen with a pair of secateurs or something bigger and more destructive, such as hedge clippers and even a battery-powered trimmer! No, she has not progressed to the chainsaw as yet! We have found that tip-pruning Correas, Croweas, grevilleas and many other plants can be advantageous in that it promotes new growth, prolific flowering and improves the general shape of the plants. I am certain that pruning is Susan’s favourite pastime in the garden which leaves me mountains of material to mulch & occasionally burn. I tend to be quite negative when she is in full flight as I see the mountain of work piling up that I am facing in the near future.

Well some years back we had some shrubs on the boundary fence, beside a vacant block, hacked to within an “inch of their lives” and I blamed local children armed with

machetes (or similar) for the bonsai plants that resulted. The shrubs were reduced to half their size with trunks/branches as thick as my thumb cut completely through. As Susan was quite distraught about our loss I was reasonably confident that she was NOT the culprit in this particular case. A closer inspection revealed that the limbs had been chewed off rather than clean cut - a real mystery.

Late last year and earlier this year we had a similar occurrence with Eucalypt branches that were up to about ten centimetres in diameter and we cursed the strong winds that we had recently experienced.

There were about two dozen of these branches that were littering the area under our large stringy-bark gums. A closer inspection revealed that the limbs contained some type of borer holes, running through the centre of these branches that had possibly weakened them. Anyway, when dried, the branches would provide some handy smaller material for the wood heater, so the mess was cleaned up and forgotten.

Sometime later I pieced together the two incidents and was absolutely certain when recently I discovered the culprits in action, again on the Hakea shrubs. Yes, it was a small flock of Calyptorhynchus funereus or Yellow–tailed black cockatoos. It appears that they had read the “Land for Wildlife” sign at the front entrance of our property. We do encourage local wildlife with our big trees, containing hollows, our numerous watering points and our native plants. We also provide infrequent feeds for the birds, generally in the form of wild-bird seed, that to our pleasure attract Crimson and Eastern rosellas, Galahs and King parrots. We love our visitors and have had kangaroos, koalas, goannas, skinks, frogs, blue-tongued lizards and of course many species of native birds. We also have possums, unfortunately some introduced birds and the occasional red-bellied black snake! This year the cockatoos have completely denuded the two Hakeas on the fence line and to date I have picked up four wheel barrows of “clippings”! Since this disaster and despite there being little left to chew they have produced another estimated two wheel barrows of extremely prickly pieces for me to retrieve. We thought that as there was little left of the bushes that they would disappear to “greener pastures” or similar. Well not so – they have discovered several other different Hakeas in our garden and “gone to work” on them. Not to be deterred, they have also started ruining most of the Banksia species and flowering eucalypts as well!

They are slowly eating their way through our garden and there is little we are apparently able to do to deter them. Usually a shy visitor where one of a pair will remain in the top of a tree while the partner descends to have a drink from our bird-bath, they now remain in a shrub despite hand-clapping and yelling until you are about two metres distant. This time, next year, we are afraid that we will have no requirement for garden tools other than the ride-on lawn mower! There will be nothing but grass!! As I stated – I will have nothing to write about!

We have had the Yellow-tails visit our property for many years and have not experienced this behaviour previously and one has to wonder why this has happened.

They do like to eat the seeds from pine cones so perhaps the removal of nearby pine forest has reduced their habitat and in particular their local feeding area.

Below you can see photographs of the damage inflicted by our veracious visitors.

Plants in my Garden By Mike Beamish

Species: Chorizema cordatum Family: Fabaceae Derivation: Chorizema: Probably from Greek, chorizo,

meaning to divide, and nema, meaning thread, referring to the separated stamens. However some authors derive the name from Greek, choros, meaning dance, and zema, meaning drink, because the original author, La Billardiere, was said to have danced for joy at finding a flower beside much needed fresh water, although his own account does not support this derivation.

cordatum: From Latin, cor or cordis, meaning heart, and used in the botanical sense as cordate, or heart-shaped, referring to the leaves of this species..

Common Name: Heart-leaved Flame Pea. Distribution: Common in WA forests on the west coast from Jurien to Augusta and the south coast from Collie to Esperance, usually growing in clay soils. Description: A dense shrub or scrambler to 1.5m tall and broad, with many slender branches. Leaves are up to 8cm long and 1cm wide, cordate at the base and then oblong, tapering to a soft point. They can be waxy and the leaf margins may be toothed or lobed. Flowers occur in winter to early summer and are pea-shaped to 1.5cm across, borne in terminal racemes up to 15cm long. The flowers have an orange, red, pink or yellow standard with a purple-pink keel. Opinion: This is another new plant for the garden, having scored a win in the June raffle. I have tried this species previously but it has not survived the conditions here in Boolarra, hopefully this one will do better. I have placed it on the eastern side of the western bed

where it will get morning sun, but will be protected from the afternoon sun by the taller shrubs growing behind it. These bigger neighbours will also tend to dry out the soil, so I will have to be careful over the coming summer to maintain the “moist, but well-drained soil in dappled shade” that this species prefers. The literature recommends pruning after the flowers have finished to extend the life of the plant, another little job to add to the list that never gets any shorter! Sources: Sharr: WA Plant Names and their Meanings.

Elliot and Jones: Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants, Volume 3. Wajon: Colour Guide to Spring Wildflowers of Western Australia – Part 2 Perth and the Southwest.

Cox’s Corner

Our garden continues to amaze me. Fortunately for us John’s visitors don’t find our garden anywhere near as inviting, yet. The bees however are present in their droves especially sourcing nectar from our prostrate grevilleas in the front garden; their presence provides a gentle continuous buzzing all through the day. The bees are also very active in our back garden especially amongst our tea trees which are sporting vibrant, colourful blooms. I have captured some of the bees hard at work. The first photo is Leptospermum “Mesmer Eyes”

The second shot is Leptospermum “Merinda”

Lastly, one of my favourites, the Geraldton Wax plant or Chamelaucium uncinatum.

Rainfall Registration Charts

How much rainfall do you get? If you measure the rainfall, please let Yvonne know so she can record it.

RAINFALL CHART FOR 2016 IN MM

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JLY AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC TOTAL

Wayne 98.00 12.00 65.00 59.00 107.00 144.00 172.00 98.00 77.00 52.00 91.00 61.00 1036.00

John 86.50 6.25 47.25 34.25 77.50 87.75 157.75 44.50 46.25 96.75 66.50 27.50 778.75

Diane 104.00 18.50 71.50 46.5 103.50 95.50 129.00 75.00 96.00 119.00 97.25 74.00 1029.75

Mike 83.00 17.50 61.50 39.00 93.00 113.50 148.50 71.00 63.00 127.00 67.50 72.50 957.00

Carolyn 39.75 36.75 32.50 74.50 64.50 139.00 147.25 57.50 60.00 81.50 56.00 49.50 838.75

Brian 96.70 13.90 65.30 51.00 77.00 108.50 121.20 97.30 83.69 115.10 71.70 68.70 970.09

Warren 71.75 10.50 55.25 44.00 94.00 91.00 132.50 66.50 61.75 110.00 63.25 800.50

RAINFALL CHART FOR 2017 IN MM

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JLY AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC TOTAL

Wayne 41.50 79.50 50.00 64.00 67.00 36.00

John 20.25 45.50 25.50 28.50 43.75 19.25 55.50 97.25 121.5 (43.75)

Diane 48.00 75.5 50.00 92.50 68.00

Mike 24.50 60.50 25.00 62.50 63.00 42.00 82.5 (56)

Carolyn

Brian 26.9 66.80 36.8 81.3 57.7 20.5 29.9 141.5 137.9

Warren

Calendar of Events

Month Date Day Activity Details Time Nov 9 Thurs. Meeting Grand Specimen Table, Propagation.7.30 pm Dec 8 Frid Christmas lunch End of Year Celebration-

Fozigobble Yarragon at 12noon.

Leader: Mike Beamish 0447452755 Deputy-Leader: Colin Jackson 0429095527

Secretary: Rosemary Race 0418173360 Treasurer: Delma Hodges 0408398385

Newsletter Editor: Y. McInnes 0428194733 Website Officer: John Stephens 0439755013

Librarian: Marilyn Ingram 0428150018 Publicity: Delma Hodges & Col Jackson.

HOMEGROWN NATIVE PLANTS MAYBE SOLD AT EACH MEETING.COPYRIGHT: ARTICLES OR INFORMATION ARE NEEDED FOR EVERY MONTHLY NEWSLETTER. PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE THE SOURCE AND ORIGINAL AUTHOR. SEND YOUR ARTICLES TO THE NEWSLETTER EDITOR; note SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS THE 25TH OF EACH MONTH. MEMBERSHIP FEES; per ANNUM: TO BE PAID BY 30TH JUNE FOR BOTH LATROBE VALLEY GROUP Inc. AND AUSTRALIAN PLANTS SOCIETY (SGAP Victoria) Inc.

Produced with the assistance of Latrobe City Council.