ACN 002 680 408 TAMWORTH GROUP NEWSLETTER Winter 2017 Eucalyptus blakelyi PRESIDENT Martin O’Rourke 0409 036 668 ▪ President’s Notes [email protected] ▪ Winter Musings VICE PRESIDENT Matt Cosgrove - APS NSW Website 6765 2693 - Every Tree Counts - Brush n Bush [email protected] - Vivid Awakenings SECRETARY To be filled - Street Plantings - Barangaroo ASSISTANT SECRETARY To be filled - Margaret Preston TREASURER Lee Esdaile - Dangar Island 6760 8525 - Winter Propagation ▪ Book Review [email protected] ▪ Memories of Boongala PUBLICITY Doreen Goddard ▪ Grafting native plants 6760 6216 ▪ Plant Table MEMBERSHIP Lee Esdaile ▪ Upcoming activities REGISTRAR 6760 8525 [email protected] CATERING Prue Campese 6766 3423 ACTIVITIES OFFICER Matt Cosgrove 6765 2693 [email protected] LIBRARIAN Jan Freemantle 6761 7528 [email protected] Disclaimer The articles contained in this NEWSLETTER EDITOR Beth Stokes newsletter do not necessarily 0458 515 738 [email protected] reflect the views held by APS. Tamworth APS Winter 2017 Newsletter Page 1 of 16 PRESIDENT’S NOTES Winter Musings By Martin O’Rourke By Beth Stokes Since the last newsletter a number of events have happened. We have had our AGM which was held at Gwen’s in her terrific Australian native garden. Nearly all The new website and online membership positions were filled and congratulations database is now up-and-running – along and thank you to those who stood for a with this new logo. Thank you Lee for position. We are still looking for a undertaking the training session on our secretary. Kerrie after sterling service has decided to take a break. However Kerrie behalf in order to understand how the system works, and thank you Michelle for kindly agreed to record the minutes for the setting up the Tamworth District Group July meeting. If there is anyone willing to page. To access the website log into take on the position there are people http://austplants.com.au available to help them. Last month our guest speaker Tony Cook Every Tree Counts is a new initiative of gave us an interesting talk on ferns. Some the Armidale Tree Group addressing of them are rather small highlighting that large-scale landscape/environmental there are more ferns around than just issues across the New England region. Cyathea australis (rough tree fern) and This ambitious revegetation project aims Dicksonia antarctica (soft tree fern) which to raise funds, build partnerships and often spring to mind when ferns are manage projects. Projects include creation mentioned. Incidentally both varieties of a Saumarez Creek Wildlife Corridor, occur from south eastern Queensland combating dieback in the Gara down the east coast to the Victorian - River/Imbota area and planting an South Australia border and into Tasmania. Armidale Urban Forest. Your help is Cyathea australis occurs a little further needed! Find out more at north into Queensland. They will probably www.armidaletreegroup.org.au, or phone grow in Tamworth under a bit of shade 6771 1620. cover. If any members have some in their garden let me know. Brush n Bush As it is now August winter is 2/3rds of the way through. Though there is still plenty to do in the garden it is a good time to clean up and plant something new. The first A couple of our members have weekend in September will be the annual recommended this service. If you need get together again, but this time in Coffs help in the garden, check out Byron and Harbour. I will be going as president. Coffs Celine’s website is not that far and hopefully some www.brushandbush.com.au, or email members will take advantage of it being [email protected], or phone closer than Sydney or further south. 0432 251 477. The flyers that we have had printed look great and a new banner(s) will look good Vivid Awakenings. On a trip to Sydney in too. We need to get the word out about June, I was blown away by Vivid at our society and hopefully attract some Taronga Zoo. While I enjoyed the new members. The more the merrier. spectacular images projected on the Keep planting and I’ll see you at the next Opera House, the larger-than-life, meeting. Tamworth APS Winter 2017 Newsletter Page 2 of 16 illuminated 3D sculptures at the Zoo came with meaning and a message. Taronga is dedicating the next ten years to the conservation of ten critical species. Five are native to Australia and five are on the brink of extinction in Sumatra – a biodiversity hotspot. I learnt that there are as few as 50 Corroboree Frogs left in the wild (they are only found in Kosciusko National Park) as they are threatened by the deadly chytrid fungus. So it behoves all of us to ensure a safe environment in our gardens for our native fauna, as well as flora. Cupaniopsis anacardioides Darling Harbour streetscape Vivid Corroboree Frog at Taronga Zoo Barangaroo. Having first visited this Street Planting. At a recent meeting we newly established and vast new parkland discussed what native trees we could on Sydney Harbour foreshore in 2015, I recommend as suitable for street went back this winter to see how the new plantings. At Darling Harbour in Sydney plants were coping. The growth has been they have planted Tuckeroos, Cupaniopsis phenomenal! 75,000 native trees and anacardioides which appear to be thriving shrubs have been planted, involving 84 – along with troughs of native grasses. different species that were native to the Sydney region at the time of European settlement. Only five of the 84 species were not native to Sydney Harbour. Four of those were chosen because they are iconic plants of the Sydney basin: Spotted gum, Gymea Lily, Sydney Blue Gum and Water Gum. The other late addition was a bottle brush, Callistemon citrinus, “Anzac” - an appropriate gesture given Barangaroo Reserve opened during the centenary of Gallipoli. Tamworth APS Winter 2017 Newsletter Page 3 of 16 Fruit of the appropriately name Dagger Hakea, Hakea teretifolia – at Barangaroo Barangaroo in August 2015 Dangar Island. Visiting friends on Dangar Island in the Hawkesbury River, I enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the island: only 72 acres in area, with a population of around 300 and no private cars. Some remnant bushland remains but most of the island was cleared for grazing before subdivision. Efforts are now being made to encourage residents to plant indigenous plants. ….and this year at Barangaroo Banksia robur Swamp Banksia – at Barangaroo Xanthorrhoea arborea on Dangar Island Margaret Preston. I particularly enjoyed Margaret Preston’s native still lifes in the current Art Gallery of NSW exhibition O’Keeffe, Preston, Cossington Smith: Making Modernism. Tamworth APS Winter 2017 Newsletter Page 4 of 16 Winter propagation success! My old fish tank has had many lives, from being a marine aquarium stocked with sea urchins, anemones, crabs and whatever the children found while snorkelling that was suitable – to a terrarium and more recently as home to my grandson’s lizard collection. Now it is serving me well as a plant propagation tank. I purchased a heat mat that was just the right size, for the grand sum of $15.70 – online from Australian Coral Flowers, Margaret Preston 1928 China, postage included. This was put on top of a bit of foam – the lid of a broccoli box being thrown out at the supermarket – to prevent heat loss. Then a tray of wet sand with a rack of tubes. It works like a treat! NSW and West Australian Banksia, Margaret Preston 1929 Book Review By Greg Carr Australia's Eremophilas changing gardens for a changing climate By Norma Boschen, Maree Goods and Australian Gum Blossom, Margaret Preston 1928 Russell Wait ISBN 978 1 876473 675 5 Blooming Books, Melbourne 2008 A very well illustrated book by members of APS that is just right when you want to browse the range of Eremophilas or choose some. Helpfully you can go through the full range of these adaptable plants set out in groups of small, medium Australian Rock Lily, Margaret Preston 1933 Tamworth APS Winter 2017 Newsletter Page 5 of 16 shrubs to small and large trees. Cultivars Memories of Boongala and hybrids get their pictures taken also. By Warren Sheather Matt’s article about the Boongala Gardens, in the last newsletter, brought back happy memories of our visits to Sid Cadwell’s Boongala Nursery at Annangrove many years ago. When we lived in the Blue Mountains we made many visits to Sid’s nursery. You parked at the front of his block and to reach the nursery you walked through his extensive garden. Walking through the garden whet our horticultural appetites as there were so many interesting plants in cultivation. Sid In this photo the taller Eremophila with was a generous nurseryman and would white flowers and the blue flowered one offer you plants that were either too small are both hybrids (E. bignoniiflora and E. or too large to sell. We frequently left with divaricata x polyclada) both helpfully more plants than we paid for. He described on pages 242-245. All the introduced us to many new native plants Eremophilas known at the time are including Grevillea evansiana, G. triloba described with photos and cultivation and and Melaleuca violacea. growing hints. We were attracted to G. evansiana So why not try a ramble through the because of its flowers: beauties of our Eremophilas that this book of 270 pages offers. You can also indulge in the history of our endeavours with this species which the book provides. It is certainly encouraging to see how the work of our fellow APS members has come together. We have looked at cultivation and the difficulties the Eremophilas have thrown up such as growing from seed.