The Garden Gurus 2006 Autumn Series Fact Sheet

The Garden Gurus 2006 Autumn Series Fact sheet

Segment Title: Native Radical Pruning

Episode: #8 20/05/2006 Presenter: Neville Passmore

It is a myth that Australian plants do not need pruning, feeding or watering. Like roses, if they are left unpruned for 2-3 years the result in a woody unproductive plant with little or no flowers.

The best thing to do for you favourite native plants like grevilleas, banksias and gum trees is to take a leaf from roses and trim your plants on a regular basis.

When to prune Australian natives:

Smelly Socks Grevillea (Grevillea leucopteris) is a moth pollinated plant that produces large creamy white flower clusters that literally glow at night when moths are on the hunt for nectar. The flower is the only part of the evolutionary survival mechanism of these plants. After the flower is pollinated it goes on to produce fruits and seed to keep the species going.

This draws enormous energy from the plant. By trimming off the growth and removing the spent flowers before they go to seed will encourage fresh growth which looks good in gardens but this also gives better flowering in the next season. So the general rule is to prune immediately once flowering has finished.

How hard to prune the plants:

The Mottlecah or Rose of the West (Eucapyptus macrocarpa) is a spectacular foliage and flowering shrub. As soon as these flowers have faded the plant begins to direct energy into producing big fat fruits which house the seed. If you cut back behind the fruits into stems that still have live foliage then you are most likely to be rewarded with fresh shoots. This is in contrast to pruning back into leafless woody stems which often fail to shoot into new growth.

What you use in the way of tools entirely depends on the type of growth you are cutting. For example if trimming the fine tip growth of the Eremea (Eremea beaufortioides) then a pair of Fiskars hedge shears would be ideal. Just take 10-15cm off an established shrub.

Alternatively taking off the dead heads of a Banksia ashbyii then The Garden Gurus power leaver lopper makes easy work for these thick stems.

Dead branches are bad news for a tree like the River Red Gum (Corymbia camaldulensis) and it does not look to good to us either. For a big job like this the Ryobi chain saw from the ‘Expand It’ range is ideal and will make a clean cut.

Pruning native Australian plants is not so mysterious after all and the results can be astounding.