b I- ', - #s-r-dn/ 8~ -As BY~ST*~I~ML~*"" i /=N&/P- 33/42 PROSTANTHERA & WESTRINGIA STUDY GROUP NEWSLETTER I I I I I ,l PROSTANTHERA & WESTRINGIA STUDY GROUP NEWSLETTER NO. 12 ISSN 0818 3341 December 1987 PATRON LEADER George Althofer Brian Timmis 60 Thornton Street 53 Northcote Avenue WELLINGTON, NSW CARINGBAH, NSW Ph. (02) 524 4743 EDITORS Barry Conn & Brian Timmis MEMBERSHIP: The Prostanthera and Westringia Study Group is for all those who are interested in the cultivation of Mint bushes and Westringias which have been collected from the wild. FEES: $4:00. Please make sure that you are a financia4 member. The Society for Growing Australian Plants TALK TO THE MID-NORTH COAST ******* S.G.A.P. MEMBERSHIP FEES FOR 1987 Due July 1987 Brian Timmis ***Sf** We have tried to upgrade On the 21st of August, I the style and quality of the gave a talk on Prostantheras Newsletter. From the wonderful to a well attended meeting of response that we have received, the above group at Port you have found the new Macquarie. A box of plants presentation more interesting. were given to an enthusiastic We have most certainly enjoyed young couple so that they doing it. BUT, like could start a mint bush everything else, it does costs section in their native plant money ! garden. Cultivation notes and Unfortunately, several a description of a number of members are unfinancial. We potted plants, followed by know that it is an oversight, about 60 slides covering but please send your $4:00 Prostsnthera habitats and subscription immediately. If close ups of many beautiful members are unfinancial at the species. end of December, then we have Study Group member, Mr no choice but to delete them Bob Hamilton, kindly offered from the membership list. hospitality at his home at REPIEMBER, our Newsletter Telegraph Point (hardly a keeps us informed of what other mintbush to be seen). The members are doing, helps in the following day, a small group garden and brings us up to-date met in the Kippara State with the latest botanical Forest with a Ranger member of research. Anyhow, it is a the S.G.A.P. Group, who led us pleasure to read over a cuppa to two Prostantheras in this on a quiet afternoon! area. The two species were P. scutellarioides and P. lanceolata. Our guide, Doug Binns, prior to locating these FRONTISPIECE plants believed that they were actually P. linearis and P. Since this is the ovalifolia. Prostanthera Christmas issue of the lanceolata (I also thought it Newsletter, it seemed was P. ovalifolia) is appropriate to use the described from this area in Victorian Christrlias Bush the 'Cradle of Incense' by ( PI-usCan thera lasianthos) to George Althofer. It has also illustrate the cover. been collected by Robert Miller in the Whian Whian State Forest and by Joyce Ward, Mt Glorious, Queensland, has sent material of what appears to be the same species. For those who can successfully grow this species will have a really good plant. For me, this plant became a "drop dead plant" after 12 months. After an interesting walk in the Kippara State Forest, Doug showed us the recently described Grevillea linsmi thii, a small population near a forestry road. This is an unusual plant with only a few insignificant flowers. FINANCIAL SUPPORT I WAS RIGHT! FOR STUDY GROUP Barry Conn A grant of $100:00 was Yes! You can get received from the N.S.W. Region something for nothing! Little of the S.G.A.P. to assist with did I know that there were so the formation of a photographic many dedicated people who are slide collection. Although prepared to volunteer their there are other aspects of our time to help curate herbarium work in the Study Group which collections. Since the last require financial assistance Newsletter, several people more urgently, we gratefully have helped mount specimens of acknowledge the support that Pros tan thera , ~Yicrocor~s, the N.S.W. Region has given us. Hemigeni a, Hemi andra and Westringia - all members of the family Labiatae. Recent collections have been sorted out so that they are now ready to be mounted, and many collections have been incorporated into the herbarium collections. I would like to thank June Gay, Patricia Lund, Ruth Overton, Les Taylor and David Wiggins for their generous support. They are all extremely busy people who, somehow, have found alittle more time to help. IN THE BACKYARD purple flowers makes a compact shrub up to 6 ft high (1.8 m). PROSTANTHERA The award plant differed only ROTUNDIFOLIA 'CHELSEA PINK' in colour of its flowers which were an attractive pink. Extract from 'The Garden', July 1987. An Award of Merit was collected by the Curator of the LOSS OF PROSTANTHERAS Chelsea Physic Garden for Prostanthera rotundifolia Norm Richmond 'Chelsea Pink' as a flowering "Poorinda", Bairnsdale, Vic. plant for the cool greenhouse. The Prostantheras are natives Around the end of April a of Australia and Tasmania [Oh, mysterious happening hit the Dear! Will they ever learn! - Prostantheras. For some Barry Connl where they are unknown reason, starting with known as mint bushes from the P, rotundifolia and over a pungent aroma given off by some period of three weeks other species when bruised. With the plants were affected. Leaf exception of P. cuneata drop occurred up to 100% on described in Award Plants 1985, some plants and down to 75% on part 2 (The Garden, Oct. 19861, others. This occurred on all they are not winter hardy in types including hybrids, the British Isles though some excepting P. aspalathoides, P. species have been known to rhombea and types with linear survive out of doors in mild leaves, Both aged and young winters, mainly in the south- plants were affected. In an west. They do however make effort to save the plants, I excellent pot or tube plants pruned very heavily with the for the conservatory when their result that I now have a very small but profusely borne two- large number of dwarf lipped flowers provide a Prostantheras! At the present welcome splash of spring time, it appears that some colour . Pros tilnthera will fully recover, others are rotundifolia, with its small recovering on one side only round leaves and heliotrope- and will be very lopsided for a while. Several plants are completely dead. The leaf drop THE HYBRID PROSTANTHERA was strange in that the leaves "POORINDA BALLERINA" fell and left the branches completely bare, but the leaves Brian Timmis r-were in perfect condition. Caringbah There was no change of colour, texture, drying or shrivelling. This plant is now seen in On the 3-4 foot high plants a many gardens. It makes a whole shower of leaves would spectacular display of pale fall off by shaking the lilac flowers with a dark . branches. Only plants in the calyx. The leaves are dark garden on the north side of the green, linear and not very house were affected. Potted conspicuous during flowering. plants on the south side of the Pros tanthera "Poorinda house were not touched. Ballerina" is one of several I The days in March and hybrids that were manipulated early April were very cool, at "Poorinda", Bairnsdale, overcast, with very little sun Victoria by Mr Leo Hodge. and the year to date has been "Ballerina" was a seedling extremely dry. The two days from "Poorinda Snow Queen" before the trouble were very which was claimed to be a hot with strong drying winds. cross between P. phylicifolia New plantings and young plants and P. lasianthos. The were watered about once per current owner of the fourteen days with hose using "Poorinda" property, Mr Norm dam water. Old plants 7-15 Richmond, recently visited years old have not received any Sydney and attended a talk 3 water except rain and the given by Robert Miller at the ground is so hard that most of Sutherland S.G.A.P. the water runs off. No other genera of plants were affected, only Prostantheras. I have not been able to CULTIVATION OF PROSTANTHERAS obtain any positive information IN CONTAINERS on the problem, but have just n read an article on Robert Miller 'Accumulation of Nitrates and Picnic Point Nitrites in plants'. This can a . occur under special conditions There are a number of inherent of soil or weather mainly under problems when growing a drought conditions, very diverse collection of similar to the above weather I Prostantheras in containers. have described. I do not know It is impractical to try and if Prostantheras are capable of recreate the natural soil I r this accumulation and if they conditions for all species and are what would be the effect on forms. The following article It the plant. Can anyone answer outlines the merits or faults 1 this question? of the various growing media which are available Growing Medium for Prostanthera cheaper to maintain. PACKING AND SENDING CUTTING MATERIAL Sand - The Myth One often reads th.at coarse Brian Timmis Nepean sand should be used for good drainage. Nepean. sand is a composite of granules which Over the past few years, greatly vary in size - I have received lots of relatively large (smal1 blue cutting material and specimens metal chips) to extremely small for identification by post. - (clay colloids). These sands Most of this material has often result in a suprisingly arrived in good condition, poor drainage medium. It is however, a significant amount not the size of the sand grains has not. The main reason for that produce good drainage and material not surviving postage I aeration, but the uniformity of is incorrect packing.