AUSTRALIAN NATIVE PLANTS SOCIETY CANBERRA REGION (INC) Journal Vol. 19 No. 03 September 2017 ISN 1447-1507 Print Post Approved PP100000849 Contents ANPS Council — members needed 3 ANPS Council Species in the City Janet Russell 4 Would you like the opportunity to be on Council? Three Banksias for your Garden Ben and Ros Walcott 6 ANPSA 2018 Conference — Hobart 9 Members are needed for our 2017/2018 major job that also needs to be filled Large Shrubs Masumi Robertson 10 Council. is that of Membership Secretary. The Winter Getaway in the Tropics, Lakefield Nat Park Roger Farrow 14 person doing this job does not have to Every year at the November AGM, we Terra Australis Garden at the National Arboretum Ben Walcott 26 be on Council but should manage our vote in a new Council when all Council Flowering in the snow in the Brindabella Mtns Lucinda Royston 30 membership database and mailing lists. positions are declared vacant. Our Open Gardens Canberra 31 Constitution allows for 12 members to A minimum of six council members Illawarra Grevillea Park Jeanette Jeffrey 32 make up our Council with 11 of these is required to make a quorum and a Visit to Oakey Creek Bob Nader 35 being elected and one is ex-officio. The minimum of six Council meetings are Snapshots from the Atherton Tableland Gail Ritchie Knight 39 past President is automatically a member required each year for the Society to Study Group Notes Brigitta Wimmer 40 of Council as an ex-officio member. operate legally. The day and place of Council meetings is up to the Council to For Sale — Snowy Mountains Cottage 42 The Executive comprises five positions: ANPS Canberra contacts and membership details inside back cover decide. • President Cover: Acacia rubida, Red-stemmed Wattle a large dense shrub or tree None of the Council roles are onerous — • Vice-President Photo: Andy Russell, taken at Southern Tablelands Ecosystems Park and the other members of Council and • Secretary ANPS are there to support and assist. It • Treasurer can be very rewarding to be involved Journal articles The deadline dates for submissions are 1 February (for • Assistant Secretary/Treasurer. in the running of the Society and March edition), 1 May (June), 1 August (September) The Journal is a forum for the exchange of members' There are also six positions of Councillor. ensuring its continued success. ANPS and others' views and experiences of gardening with, and 1 November (December). has existed for more than 50 years and propagating and conserving Australian plants. Send articles or photos to: Council is responsible for the control and has a deserved reputation for providing management of the society — without it All contributions, however short, are welcome and Journal Editor quality information about native plants ANPS cannot legally exist or operate. may be accompanied by photographs or drawings. Gail Ritchie Knight as well as the plants themselves. The editor reserves the right without exception to edit 1612 Sutton Road This year a number of Council members Please seriously consider nominating all articles and include or omit images as appropriate. Sutton NSW 2620 will not be standing for re-election someone or being nominated for a Submit photographs as either electronic files, such e-mail: [email protected] and we will have vacancies including position on our next Council. We will as JPEGs, or prints. Set your digital camera to take tel: 0416 097 500 President, Vice-President, Secretary elect our next year’s Council members at high resolution photos. Please send JPEGs separately Paid advertising is available in this Journal. Contact and several Councillor positions. So it the Members/Annual General Meeting and not embedded in a document. If photos are too the Editor for details. is crucial that members come forward on 9 November 2017. large to email, copy onto a CD or USB drive and send and nominate for a position on our next Society website: http://nativeplants-canberra.asn.au You can talk to any Councillor for more it by post. Please enclose a stamped, self-addressed Council. Printed by Elect Printing, Fyshwick, ACT information. envelope if you would like your prints returned. If you http://www.electprinting.com.au/ All the Council members and other Nominations can be made before the have any queries please contact the editor. members who take on roles, tasks and AGM by contacting: responsibilities in ANPS are volunteers. Original text may be reprinted, unless otherwise indicated, provided an acknowledgement for the source is given. Permission to reprint non-original material and all drawings must be obtained from the copyright holder. The views and opinions expressed ANPS could not function or exist the President, Lucinda Royston in articles are those of the authors and are not necessarily the views and opinions of the Society. without our members volunteering. One Ph 0429 133 449. Journal, Australian Native Plants Society, Canberra Region Inc — September 2017 3 Species in the City Words and photos by Janet Russell When we moved to our apartment in Constitution Avenue we were living in a different environment from the one we moved from. Our garden in Aranda had eucalyptus trees and an understorey of native shrubs, grasses and forbs. Azolla filiculoides Convolvulus angustissimus We are now not far from Mt Ainslie but St John’s Church is our neighbour and On the opposite side of the Avenue I our immediate environment is almost we can observe the comings and goings found some more Australian Bindweed totally made up of exotic trees, many of people marking the celebrations growing out of cracks in the pavement, of them Oak trees. We do overlook Lythrum salicaria of the various stages of life from our and further along the road in Campbell three Southern Blue Gums, Eucalyptus balcony. At times the sound of ringing on one of the new C5 buildingsites, globulus bicostata to the north of the bells or the solemnity of bagpipes also there was a particularly splendid apartments. They are not a local tree but permeate our consciousness. There was floriferous specimen being supported have been extensively planted around once a grassland on the property that by a fleabane weed over a metre tall. has since degraded. Earlier this year I Canberra including Anzac Avenue. Since then, the St John’s grassland and found various remnant species on the the grassy bank has been weeded and We started to explore Commonwealth edge of the grassland that spilled over tidied up and the building site has been and Kings Parks, first around Nerang to the grassy, weedy bank to the road. Pool. I can’t help myself, I spent time excavated and building begun. The looking to see what native plants, birds Amongst other species, I found the tidying up is part of beautifying the and wildlife there were in what I saw Yellowish Bluebell, Wahlenbergia luteola, Avenue and side streets. Landscaping was an alien environment. Scambled Eggs, Goodenia pinnatifida has been progressively done along Dysphania pumilio and Australian Bindweed, Convolvulus Constitution Ave and is yet to be I did find some native plants. There were angustissimus. finished. numbers of Epilobium hirtigerum, Purple that is not shared by others. Cumbungi, Loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria, Dysphania Typha sp also grows on Nerang Pool and If any of the readers would like to take pumilio, and Portulaca oleracea. I do not other watercourses in the Parks. a stroll down Constitution Avenue from like to suggest that some native plants London Circuit past Anzac Parade and A rather attractive native Water Fern, are worthier than others but the latter the C5 development in spring, they can Azolla filiculoides was growing further two would be difficult to market as check out the landscaping of native east in the more protected waters of a horticultural specimens. graminoids, forbs and shrubs that have channel in Kings Park. Once the cooler been planted by the ACT Government. I The water plant, Purple Loosestrife is weather came this plant disappeared. enjoy this walk and am looking forward the pin-up although I am rather fond of On a different scale, the River She-Oak to the spring flowering. There are also a the Epilobium species because of their Casuarina cunninghamiana subsp. couple of cafes in Campbell where you attractive silvery seed pods which are cunninghamiana, such an elegant tree, can pause awhile and if you are lucky often more conspicuous than the flowers. has been planted along part of the Lake you will catch the antics of the twenty or This may be an idiosyncratic affection Burley Griffin shore. Azolla filiculoides so King Parrots in the trees opposite. 4 Journal, Australian Native Plants Society, Canberra Region Inc — September 2017 Journal, Australian Native Plants Society, Canberra Region Inc — September 2017 5 In our garden, we underplanted the young Banksias with Eremophila ‘Kalbarri Carpet’ which thrives in the partial shade and climbs up into the lower branches. There is an attractive contrast between the grey leaves of the Eremophilas and the green of the Banksia. Moderately fast growing and hardy in frosty climates like ours, the plants are growing in heavy clay soil along one edge of our natural pond in full sun. The plants have many flowers which seem to last for months on the bush. The flower spikes are large, almost as big as B. ‘Giant Candles’ but the plants are much more vigorous. In our garden Three Banksias for your Garden B. ‘Giant Candles’ does not thrive and Banksia 'Bulli Baby' (above and below) becomes very chloritic which no amount of Iron Chelate or other Banksia 'Yellow Wing' supplements seems to cure. By Ben and Ros Walcott Each summer, we remove all the Photos: Ben Walcott old flower heads but otherwise There are many attractive Banksias leave the plants alone.