‘ of the Great South West’, book on plants of South West Victoria AUSTRALIAN PLANTS SOCIETY (SGAP) $20, available from Kevin Sparrow at Warrnambool & District Group Inc. Newsletter [email protected] APRIL 2017 No 425 Ph: 55626217 Correa reflexa ‘Grannys Grave’ www.facebook.com/warrnamboolsgap Like us on Facebook

Incorporation No: AOO1312OX ABN: 51672752196 Web: apswarrnambool.org.au EDITORIAL Hi members, Just this week we sadly learned of the passing of long time member, Pat Ryan. Pat and husband, Gordon (also deceased) were inspiring and hard working members of our group, in fact Gordon was our first Life Member. They were responsible for Joyce and I joining back in 1989 after introduc- ing us to the group on a trip to the Little Desert. In more recent years they had moved to Melbourne to be closer to their family. For those longer term members who remember Pat and Gordon, there will be a service at the Tower Hill Cemetery probably next Wednesday 19th. (To be confirmed)

Please note: there will not be a members night at the Mozart Hall this month. Instead we will be celebrating our 40th Anniversary at a dinner at the Flying Horse Bar and Brewery (upstairs Function Room) in Raglan Parade in east Warrnambool on Friday 21st (Next Friday) from 7.00pm. All members and friends are welcome to come al- though you need to RSVP me with numbers very soon so that our venue can cater for all our needs. Dorothy Mattner has baked and decorated a special cake to help us celebrate.

Attending our dinner will be APS(Vic) President, Chris Long who will launch our new history book compiled by John and Sue Sherwood. This book is titled “More Knowing, Growing, Showing” Volume 2: 1997 - 2006. (The second 20 years history) Bruce Clarke compiled our first edition and this was launched in 1997. Unlike our first edition, this one is in full color and you never know, you might be in it! A free copy will be available to all who attend our dinner and to all members.

I look forward to catching up with you at the Flying Horse Inn. Cheers, Kevin.

We wish to acknowledge the Maar people as the traditional owners of the land on which we live and pay our respects to their elders past and present.

Next Meeting: 40th Anniversary Dinner on Friday 21st April 7.00pm at Flying Horse Inn. Australian Plants Society - Warrnambool & District Group April 2017 Newsletter

40th Anniversary Dinner - Maybe??

Note: This is not the menu for our dinner on Friday 21st April.

This was a humorous menu compiled for our Tenth Anniversary in 1986.

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Group Diary Of Activities Group Trip To Melton and Brisbane Ranges 1st April - Our 40th Anniversary Dinner On the weekend of the 7th and 8th of October, our group will be joining in with the Hamilton SGAP group on a trip to the Melton Botanic Garden on Sat- 27th April - Committee Meeting - Artis’ at 8.00pm urday followed by a guided walk around the Brisbane Ranges on Sunday lead by Cathy Powers. This is a weekend not to be missed, the Melton Botanic Gar- 26th May - AGM & David and Barbara Pye speaking on the den are a new gardens in the west of Melbourne managed by the Friends of the Melton Botanic Garden. Melton Botanic Garden. The gardens have developed rapidly over the last few

23rd June - David Pitts speaking on the Orchids of SW Vic. years with the great support of local businesses and the local council. Joyce and I have been there a couple of times and we have never failed to be im- 28th July - No meeting planned pressed. The friends group operate their own native nursery so there will be plants for sale. Hamilton Group have been looking at inexpensive accom- 29th July - Day trip to Dunkeld and Grampians modation options where we can all stay together in cabins with ensuite etc or BYO caravan etc could also be an option. More information on this later, 25th August - Jenny Emeny speaking on the review of when we have a better idea of numbers. Warrnambool’s Coastal Vegetation Management Plan. So that we have a good idea of possible numbers, please let me know if 22nd September - Geoff Lay you are interested in coming along. You can change your mind later.

Phone: 55626217 or Email: [email protected] These group visits 7/8th October - Trip with Hamilton Group to Melton Botanic Garden and Brisbane Ranges tend to be loads of fun for everyone so please consider coming along.

Please submit your articles for the newsletter by the end of the second week of the month President: Kevin Sparrow Phone: 55626217 Vice President: Bob Artis, Brown St, Allansford. Phone: 0417 321225 Secretary: John Sherwood. 26 McConnell St, Warrnambool Phone: 55628064 Email: [email protected] Treasurer: Mike Halls, 127 Rooneys Rd, Warrnambool 3280 Phone: 55626519 Email: [email protected] Newsletter Editor: Kevin Sparrow, 35 Swan Street, Warrnambool. Phone: 55626217 Email: [email protected] Publicity Officer and Librarian: Vacant Public Officer: John Sherwood. APS Reps: vacant, History Book Coordinator: Joyce Sparrow. Other Committee Members: Kerry Artis, Laura Prentice, Michael Mattner. The APS Warrnambool & District holds meetings on the 4th Friday of each month at the Mozart Hall Warrnambool at 8pm.

APS Warrnambool & District is a District Group of the Australian Plants Society (Vic) All members are required to also be a member of APS Vic. 3 Australian Plants Society - Warrnambool & District Group April 2017 Newsletter

February Display Table By Kerry Artis Joan Krygger started our showing with her first exhibits, grandiflora Coastal , (photo - right) which Joan loves. An upright shrub with woolly leaves and large, red flowers that can be grown from seed or cutting. It can grow to 2 m high. Baeckea linifolia is a beautiful, pen- dulous shrub that bears small white flowers for most of the year but especially in summer and can be grown from cutting. It grows to 2 to 2.5m and is excellent for the surrounds of a water feature.

Marilyn Berry brought along Correa ‘John Amor’ that is three years old and looking beautiful, Acacia pycnantha, the Mount Arapiles form, was in for many years before it grew but has grown well the last 5 years. It is the floral emblem of and grows to 10m with bright green leaves and golden ball-shaped flowers in spring. A very showy plant and its seeds are used in cooking. Correa ‘Lubra’s Child’ is a pale Correa but very floriferous. The seedling came up af- ter fires and is growing very well.

Mike Hall’s Grevillea ‘Robyn Gordon’ never stops flowering and is looking spectacular! It is thirty years old and has really taken off. Birds just love it and to prune it after flowering is very hard as there are always flowers on it. Melaleuca fulgens is an open shrub that is reasonably hardy and comes in red, apricot and purple. nivea is a silvery grey leaved plant with mauve flowers which is about 6 foot high and grows very well out the front of Mike’s house where it doesn’t get watered. It likes a dry, sunny position and can be grown from cutting or grafted onto Myoporum rootstock. Mike also showed Correa alba ‘Western Pink Star’ and Thryptomene saxicola.

Kevin Sparrow displayed Eremophila calorhadodos, struck from one of Marie Goods cuttings, in the grey form with bright lipstick pink flowers, also Eremophila georgii (bottom right), another of Marie’s cuttings, was struck from a grafted plant. Correa reflexa ‘Canberra Bells’ has a very pretty flower, Correa reflexa ‘Federation Belle’ has bright pink flowers with cream tips, Correa reflexa, the Mt Richmond form, has its first flower and lots of buds are forming, Chorizema varium is coming into flower and will be a mass of colour and Lotus australis is a rare pea flower along the coastline the other side of Portland. Kevin also showed Correa reflexa ‘John Amor’, C ‘Ivory Bells’, C ‘Katy Bec’, C reflexa, C alba var pannusa ‘Western Pink Star’, C ‘Marian’s Mar- vel’, Goodenia viscida and Goodenia varia.

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Last Month - Grafting Demo, By Kevin Sparrow Last month I did a demonstration of how to grow and graft eremophilas, something I am at best only a learner at. I had been given some rootstock and scion (grafting material) by a friend of mine so that I could have a try.

Firstly why do we graft native plants? If you purchase a lemon tree or some other fruit trees, you find they are mostly grafted onto a more reliable root- stock. This means that you can grow lemon trees almost anywhere in Austra- lia, Australia of course has a wide variety of soils according to where you live. Some have very sandy soils like in Perth and some very clayey ones like in parts of Melbourne and elsewhere the soil is somewhere in between. The same applies for native plants, many come from outback Australia, growing in deep sand. By grafting them onto a closely related rootstock, they can be grown in our heavier soils and conditions. The well recognised rootstock to use for eremophilas is or Boobialla, this is found growing very commonly along our coastline and can be struck very easily by cutting. It is also possible to do a cutting-graft, that is grafting onto a piece of Myoporum and striking it as a cut- ting. Use this method if you don’t have any available rootstock. I demonstrated both ways of grafting eremophilas. Some members also had a go it and I look forward to hearing of their suc- cesses and failures. Don’t give up after failure! Simply learn from it and have another go.

Of the 17 grafts I did earlier last month, I look like having around 10 of them being successful. These are E. foliosissima, E. cuneifolia and E. latrobei. All of the E. glandulifera hybrids have failed. The two E. foliosissima’s are already producing buds, 3 E. latrobei’s are going well and 5 cuneifolia also doing OK. I also did 2 E. latrobei cutting-grafts and so far they are looking OK. Obviously the cutting-grafts will take longer to grow as they need to produce roots first.

The following 4 pages on how to do grafts was taken from the ANPS web site at: http://anpsa.org.au/grafting.html

Why don’t you have a go or contact me and I will give you some material and talk you through it.

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Plant Propagation Of Eremophilas - Taken From http://anpsa.org.au/erem2.html Most Eremophilas or emu bushes and their relatives are propagated by cuttings or other vegetative means (such as grafting). Experience with propagation of Calamphoreus, and Glycocystis species is limited but it can probably be assumed that similar requirements to those used for Eremophila and Myoporum could be applied.

Seeds of Eremophila are often difficult to germinate reliably and it is reported that germination is sometimes more reliable from fresh seed. However, even then germination is usually slow and can take anything from a few weeks to well over a year. Obviously, seed trays should not be discarded in haste! How- ever, because of these problems, propagation by cuttings or grafting is preferred. Myoporum seeds usually germinate more reliably than Eremophila but again, cuttings strike readily for most species and is the preferred method. Because of the horticultural potential of Eremophila, there has been considerable effort put into improving germination reliability of members of this . Several of these methods have been somewhat successful and are outlined below.

Extraction of Eremophila seeds from fruit Although it is possible to achieve germination of Eremophila seeds by sowing the fruits whole, this gives very inconsistent results. Extraction of the seeds from the fruits prior to sowing is far more effective but this is time consuming, requires considerable practice to avoid damage to the seed and, even then, reliable germination may depend on other factors such as the age of the seed, the possible presence of inhibitors and temperature. The following method of extracting seeds has been reported as being effective: Thoroughly dry the fruit. Place the dried fruits in a small engineer's vice (one with the metal jaws) such that either end of the nut is pressed against the jaws (use forceps to align the fruit, if necessary). Tighten the vice until the nut cracks - usually the seed(s) will drop out intact. Extracted seed usually germinates well by conventional sowing methods in a standard seed raising mix. In some cases it has been found that removal of the testa from the seed (the thin, skin-like coating surrounding the seed) improves germination. There appears to be conflicting evidence on the influence of the age of the seed on germination.

Cuttings Most members of the Myoporum family strike readily from cuttings of hardened, current season's growth. Cuttings about 75-100 mm in length with the leaves carefully removed from the lower two-thirds seem to be satisfactory. "Wounding" the lower stem by removing a sliver of bark and treating with a "root promoting" hormone both seem to improve the success rate.

Grafting: Many eremophilas are difficult to cultivate in humid areas but, because of their ornamental potential, many people continue to make the effort. One method which is reasonably successful is the grafting of desirable species onto hardier root stocks. Experimentation into suitable stock/scion combinations is still being carried out but the best root stocks appear to be Myoporum species. M. parvifolium, M. montanum, M. insulare and M. acuminatum have been used successfully with a large number of Eremophila scions and the procedure has certainly improved the hardiness of many of those species.

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Plant Propagation By Grafting - Taken From http://anpsa.org.au/grafting.html

Grafting is not usually thought of as a method for the home gardener. However, the basic techniques involved are not difficult and are well within the scope of anyone who has mastered propagation by cuttings. Grafting is normally used when propagating plants which are not hardy on their own roots or which do not reliably form roots with other propagating methods. It is a particularly useful method for extending the range of successful cultivation of difficult-to-grow species. A graft consists of a top portion (the scion), which is the desired plant, growing on the roots of another plant (the stock). Grafting is a well developed practice in commercial horticulture and is used for propagation of most fruit trees and as well as being used with camellia and hibiscus in certain areas. Grafting Basics: There are many different kinds of graft (not all of which are related to horticulture!) but only the most common ones will be mentioned here. These are the Top Wedge Graft and the Approach Graft. The basic principle in grafting is to ensure contact between the cambium of the scion and that of the stock. The cambium is the thin layer of actively dividing cells located between the bark and the sapwood. The closer the relationship between the stock and the scion, the greater will be the chance of success. Plants of the same species will normally graft easily; different species of the same genus, a little less reliably; and different genera within the same family, a lesser chance again. Trying to graft plants from two different botanical families is unlikely to achieve much apart from improving your technique!

The materials needed are fairly simple...secateurs: a clean, sharp blade or knife; strips of teflon "plumber's" tape for wrapping the graft union; and waterproof mas- tic or petroleum jelly to protect the union until the graft has taken. A "cold frame" to protect the newly grafted plants is also desirable but not absolutely essential. Selection of Material: By far the greatest amount of success with the grafting of Australian plants has been with the genera Grevil- lea, Hakea, Prostanthera (mint bushes) and Macada- mia. In the latter case, selected forms of Macadamia tetraphylla and M. integrifolia are grafted onto seed- lings of the same species. This enables robust plants to be produced which will fruit much more reliably than seedlings and at an earlier age. Many grevilleas have been successfully grafted onto the common 'Silky Oak' (Grevillea robusta) but another good stock is the robust hybrid G. "Poorinda Royal Mantle".

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Plant Propagation By Grafting - Taken From http://anpsa.org.au/grafting.html Basically, any Grevillea which is hardy and robust in a particular district would be worth a try as a stock plant for the difficult to grow grevilleas. Hakeas graft quite well onto the commonly grown species H. salicifolia and spectacular species such as H.francisiana and H.bucculenta are very reliable on this rootstock. For those starting out in grafting a good confidence boosting graft to try is a mint bush, such as Prostanthera nivea, grafted onto the related Coast Rosemary (Westringia fruticosa) or the hybrid Westringia "Wynyabbie Gem". Mint bushes are often short lived on their own roots but are very reliable as grafted species. Other grafts that could be attempted include some of the Western Australian Banksias onto hardy eastern Australian species such as Banksia integrifolia or B.spinulosa. Banksias, however, are more difficult to graft successfully although some success has be demonstrated by experienced propagators. Top Wedge Graft: This is probably the simplest and most convenient method for the beginner. For best results the stock and scion should be of the same stem diameter (this facilitates the matching up of cambium layers). The stock would need to be propagated by seed or cutting some months prior to the graft being made (unless a cutting graft is used, as described below). The stock is cut off about 50 -100 mm above the soil level leaving a few leaves on the stock until the graft has been successfully established. A simple slit about 5-15 mm long is then made in the centre of the stem. The scion is cut to a suitable length (say 75mm) and the lower end cut in the shape of a wedge of the same length as the slit in the stock. A very sharp blade will be needed to ensure that the cuts are clean. Leaves need to be removed from both the stock and the scion in the area to be joined so that the binding tape can be applied more easily. Handling of the freshly cut surfaces should be avoided as oil from the fingers may coat the freshly cut surfaces and hinder the successful union.

After the scion is inserted into the slit in the stock, the join needs to be tied firmly with the teflon tape, wrapping from the bottom up (this gives an overlap which sheds water). A coating of grafting mastic or petroleum jelly is applied over the tape to prevent water seeping into the grafted area. If the tape gives good coverage, the mastic need only be applied at the top and bottom of the taped area to give a good seal in those areas.

The grafted plant should be placed in a propagating "cold" frame until the scion shows new growth. At this stage the tape can be removed very carefully and the graft union inspected. If the join has cal- lused well and the join looks to have taken well on both sides of the wedge, the tape can be left off but a coating of mastic or petroleum jelly over the join would be useful. The grafted plant should not be exposed to drying conditions for several more weeks. If it can be obtained, pharmaceutical tape is preferable to the teflon tape as the former stretches as the graft union develops and eventually splits. This means that it is unnecessary to risk damaging a fragile union by untying the tape. Sometimes it is not practical to arrange that stock and scion be the same diameter. If the scion is thinner, it needs to be set into the slit in the stock so that the cambium layers match on one side.

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Plant Propagation By Grafting - Taken From http://anpsa.org.au/grafting.html Top Wedge Cutting Graft: This is carried out in exactly the same way as the top wedge graft except that in this case the stock has no roots and the graft is treated as a cutting. In this way both grafting and propagation of the stock are carried out at the same time. This method is useful in cases where the stock is known to strike reliably from cuttings. In other cases it is quite possible to have a situation where the graft is successful but the stock refuses to form roots. This is enough to drive most propagators to the bottle! Approach Graft: The advantage of the approach graft is that it doesn't require a cold frame for protection while the graft is developing. A shady position in the garden is usually sufficient. With this method both the stock and scion grow on their own roots until the graft has taken. The stems of the two plants are brought next to each other. Slices 25-30mm long (or more, depending on the sizes of the stems) and about 1/3 the thickness of each stem in depth are removed from each stem at a convenient height above soil level and at the same height above soil level on each stem. The two stems are then joined so that their cambium layers are touching on at least one side of the stems. The join is then tied with tape (as shown in the diagram) and covered with mastic or petroleum jelly at the join.

When the graft has taken, the top growth of the stock plant is cut back (Cut 1). Two to three weeks later or when the scion shows vigorous growth, the scion is severed from its roots to leave the scion growing solely on the rootstock (Cut 2). This final cut can cause a shock to the plant and it is advis- able to cover the scion with a clear plastic bag for a few days to maintain humidity. If the scion shows sign of wilting after the bag has been removed, it should be replaced for a further period. Once the plant has acclimatised, the tape can be removed from the join. How Long Will It Take: The time for a graft to "take" is variable but would rarely be less than six to eight weeks in warm weather. Often success will be indicated by a flush of new growth from the scion and a general thick- ening of the graft union. When checking the progress of a graft it's necessary to untie the tape around the join very carefully - the union will be fragile even if successful. With all successfully grafted plants, any shoots that occur from the stock below the join must be re- moved or the stock may grow away very vigorously and overwhelm the scion. Further Information: Dawson, Ian (1996); Grafting Australian Native Plants. (http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/research/ hort.research/grafting.html) Proceedings of the IV National Workshop for Australian Native Flowers, 28-30 September 1996, University of , Perth (includes comprehensive list of scion/ stock combinations).

9 Australian Plants Society - Warrnambool & District Group April 2017 Newsletter