Australian Plants Society

Central West Group

March 2001

Calendar at a glance

March 31 st: Meeting and guest speaker willi be Spencer Harvey on Australian plants and their re'lationship with local soils. Explorers Motel, Stewart Street, 110 am start....

May 26th: Meeting at Mudgee to be confirmed.

July 28th: Meeting and slides some where cosy

Aug 5th: Seminar, Blue Mts Group. More inside.

Sept 15th and 16th: Blue Mts. Open day and Native Plant Fair.

Sept 22nd: Meeting at Burrendong Open Day

Sept 29th to Oct 5th: ASGAP Conference. More inside newsletter.

Nov 17th and 18th: Marcia Bonham has Open Garden Day at home, 'Bondura' Bridal Track, Duramana Road,Bathurst. Will need helpers on the days.

President Sue Wakefield 1307 Ophir Rd Bathurst 2795 Phone: 02 6337 4853 email: peckatoe@netwit.net.au Vice President Terry Rath 490 Freemantle Rd. Mt Rankin Phone:02 6336 9091 Treasurer Joanna McLachlan 1566 Orange Hwy., Dunkeld, Bathurst 2795 Phone: 0263373810 email: library@lic.gov.au Secretary Fiona Ogilvie St. Anthony's Ck. Raglan via Bathurst 2795 Email: fio@lisp.com.au Phone: 02 63373 419 List Collator Geoffrey Windsor Wattle Flat 2795 Phone: 0263377155 Editor Oily Forman Duramana Rd Bathurst e-mail: itsok@ix.net.au Phone: 02 6337 1733 Date Due for contributions for next edition: May 10th

Presidents Report

Hello everyone, Hope you all received some lovel y rain and that your gardens are enjoy­ing an autumn flush. It is good to see the last of the extreme Summer weather. If this is global warming, I can live without it!

Many thanks to those members who have taken on the executive positions for this year. Fiona steps into the breech as secretary (thank you, thank you, thank you!), Joanna continues as treasurer and Oily as newsletter editor. A warm welcome to Terry Rath who has taken on the position of vice president. Lyn Thompson continues as membership officer and State Council rep. So as you can see, the group is in good hands!

Thanks also to Jill Campbe~l, who was our guest speaker at the AGM. Jill has an outstanding reputa­tion as a Research Horticulturist with NSW Agricul­ture, with a particular interest in pome fruits. In her spare time, she is a competent and knowledgeable ornithologist. Through her informal and light hearted talk, Jill was able to impart a little of her extensive knowledge of birds, their habits and habitats, as well as her passion for the subject.

Our meeting program for the year is coming together nicely. There are also a number of other activities, such as Open Days at Glenbrook Reserve and Bur­rendong Arboretum which all members are welcome to attend. And don't forget the Association of Soci" eties for Growing Australian Plants (ASGAP) 21 sl Bi­ennial Conference in Canberra on 29th September to 5th October. This is the national "get together" of all of the state-based societies, and promises a full sched­ule of tours and seminars. If you would like more in­formation contact me or Fiona, or see the January 2001 edition of Native Plants for NSW.

Closer to home, our next meeting will be on Saturday, 31 s1 March at the Explorer Motel in Stewart St, Bathurst. Our guest speaker will be Spencer Harvey from the Bathurst Gardeners Club. Following Spencer's talk, we will be having a "swap and sell" of plants, seeds, cuttings etc, so bring some plants, or your "wish list" of plants that you would like to acquire.

See you there! Sue

A warm welcome to new members

L. Burgett, Bathurst C. McRae, Mudgee and F & R McGregor, Duramana

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Blue Mountains Group

Annual Seminar

Sunday 5th August 2001

Problem Solving With Native Plants

The Program wjll explore the potential of native plantings for comminity environmental problems such as salination, drainage pollu­tion, site degradation and fauna habitat loss.

Blaxland Neighbourhood Centre

Hope St Blaxland

10 am to 4pm Admission: $12.00 incl catering

Inquiries Lyn Thompson 4758 6637

Some Notes on Australian Plants in Maine (for amusement I think rather than scientific value). Anne Peaston.

- A local former grows Eucalyptus seedlings as an annual crop, for fo'liage. They die in winter when the ground freezes.

- Mauve and white Scaveola are highly popular sum­mer pot plants here; I saw a hummingbird trying out my Scaveola, but only once.

- Another popular pot and bedding plant is the small mauve daisy (name escapes me for the moment, apologies!) - I think a W.A. variety, feathery leaves, flowers approx 1cm across, yellow centre, plant about 6- high and will form attractive mounds or slightly trail out of pots. (No prizes for the right name - ed.)

I am here in the wilds for a 2-3 year job contract and love to receive the journal to remind me of home. I daydream of planting a garden of Australian cold country natives - with proper mulching I think they would do fine. Well, maybe. I wonder if they'd be deer and squirrel proof.

(Letter from Anne via Lyn Thompson which she passed on for us to read. Lyn has sent Central West plant list for Anne to peruse.)

I

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Riverford

119 Newry Island Drive URUNGA

Welcome to Riverford. We hope you enjoy your visit and --thank you for your interest in our garden.

Set on three acres with a water frontage on the Kalang River, Riverford was purchased by us in October 1997. Prior to this it was used as a holiday home with consequently minimal gardens. InitiaUy, 300 plants (mainly tubestock) were brought up from Sydney as a start to the garden.

The first plantings were along the front of the house to soften the hard lines of the building. This was closely followed by a large planting along the Southern bound­ary, adjacent to the long driveway, partly as a wind­break and to reduce the starkness of the straight line of concrete and border fencing.

The next areas to be planted were the garden immedi­ltely in front of the garage at the Southern end of the house, dominated by a beautiful specimen of Grevillea Golden Lyre, and the "Cricket Pitch Garden" which comprises mainly Callistemons and other moist area plants. These were both completed by July 1998.

Rainforest Garden

Completed in JUly 1998, this garden took many months to complete. At this stage the garden comprises mainly trees as the aim is to establish the canopy before adding the understorey. Current specimens include the Firewheel Tree (Stenocarpus). the Fine Leaf Tuckeroo (Lepiderema pulchella) and several Syzy­giums. When established, a variety of ferns and tree ferns will be introduced.

Grevillea Garden

his garden is an example of the range of both flower and foliage forms displayed in the genus Grevillea. Containing approximately 70 plants representing around 60 different species. Completed in July 1998.

West Australian Garden

In addition to around 100 Kangaroo Paws, the West Australian Garden contains some interesting plants, among them, the Eucalyptus macrocarpa which has the largest flower of any Eucalypt. We hope it will continue to thrive as it does not like the humidity experienced on the East coast. Another unusual plant in this garden is the Banksia repens which is unique in that the nower spikes appear away from the main plant by up to 300mm! We are also pleased to have an example of Boronia megastigma which is another plant which does not ideally enjoy the Eastern seaboard humidity.

Caleyi Garden

Completed in December 1998, this garden includes an endangered plant, the Grevillea caley;, which is in­digenous to the Northern Sydney region of Terrey Hills. This bed also features some Eremophilas which, al­though they are predominantly arid area plants, E Maculata seems to be reasonably hardy under our local conditions.

Waratah Garden

Although still under construction, this new garden will have as its feature plant, a Waratah "Corrohoree" which is a hybrid species between Te/opea mongaen­sis (Braidwood Waratah) and Te/opea speciosis­sima (Sydney Waratah). We hope this garden will also contain examples of Sydney sandstone ftora, for example Styphelia triflora and Grevillea buxifolia, as we have found that these plants are very difficult if not impossible to obtain.

Mauve Garden

Named for the warm pink. lilac and purple colours of the featured .flowers, this garden is also currently under construction. To date it contains Kangaroo Paw "Bush Pearl", Patersonia occidentalis (Native Iris) and Brachyscome multifida. The Patersonia proved impossible to obtain in Coffs Harbour and had to be ordered in from Sydney. To boost the number of plants in this garden, in excess of 100 young plants are under cultivation in the shade house, but will not be ready for planting for some time yet.

Future Plantings

There wi'" be further plantings along the front boundary of the block as this area has proved to be wetter than expected and subsequently, our choice of plants has resulted in fairly substantial losses. The grey foliaged Westringea fruticosa will most likely be used to offset the deep burgundy flowers of Grevillea splendour surviving there. Although Malaleuca Revolution Gold was favoured due to its colouring, it too has proved impossible to obtain in Sydney, Brisbane and Coffs Harbour, so some attempt at propagation will have to be made in order to secure specimens.

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Exotics

Although the garden is predominantly of Australian na­tives, some exotics have been used by reason of their foliage colour, perfume, fonn or that they were gifts from friends. These exotics mainly occur around the pool area, and bring a fragrant, bright tropical feel to this "extension" of the home.

Statistics

To date, we have planted over 1600 plants, used 100 tonnes of fill to raise the beds and 130 cubic metres of mulch. Weed eradication is done with Bi-Active Roundup which safeguards our precious frog popula­tion a true asset to our garden.

Happy Gardening

Elaine and Graeme (Reid)

Even though not in frost belt, a cameo of some one elses garden... thanks Isobel for sending it.

I & H HOEGH-GULDBERG POBOX 240 OBERON 2787

Swap, SeU and Interesting at next meeting, March 31 st, so bring along things like plants, cuttings, seedS, mother-in-law, to give away, identify, sell, or even poke a stick at ....

Local Native Nurseries Blue Wren Bush Farm Wattle Flat Geoffery Windsor Ph: 02 6337 7155 (includes local seed sales)

Glenbrook Native Plant Reserve Great Western Highway Glenbrook Open 12 to 4pm, Sat,Sun,Wed. Discount to members.