Greenlink NEWS Newsletter of Greenlink Box Hill Inc. Reg No. A0018547D February 2016 Propagations In this issue Greenlink 2015 came to a happy finale with a Christmas party for volunteers, members and Propagations ......................................................... 1 staff from ParksWide. At morning tea, I was lucky to hold the winning raffle ticket and was Committee Meeting ............................................... 2 presented with a hamper skilfully put together by President’s Report ................................................. 2 Emi. Our volunteer members all received NOG ...................................................................... 3 Bunnings vouchers as a small show of Plant of the month ................................................. 4 appreciation. Some folk also enjoyed the Whitehorse annual celebration for volunteers. It Seed Collecting ..................................................... 4 was back to business in the first week of Wild Yam Set for Gourmet Fame ........................... 5 January, tending plants, propagating, weeding, Calendar 2016 ....................................................... 5 helping customers, and assembling orders. Logo ...................................................................... 5 According to the BOM, December in Victoria MIFGS 2016 .......................................................... 5 was warmer and drier than normal over most of the State. Victorian mean temperatures for Indigenous Gardens’ Awards ................................. 6 December were their warmest in 106 years of Indigenous Gardening Guides ............................... 7 observations with above average night-time Out and About ....................................................... 7 temperatures. January was warm too, with o What’s On .............................................................. 8 1.64 C above average. December rainfall was generally below average, however in January, rainfall was above average in some parts. February has been cooler. It has indeed felt very humid in the last few weeks. The watering system is working well – in time for a hot December. Watering is more targeted and efficient. The wetland in the park, previously supplied by our runoff, is now requiring occasional supplemental hand watering. Nicky Greenlink News 1 Committee Meeting appropriate and came up with a final result that we were all happy with. That successful th A committee meeting was held on February 11 . collaboration was lubricated with tea, coffee, For a copy of the minutes, contact the secretary. biscuits and laughter. In attendance were Robert, Trevor, Helen, Heather, Suzette, and Nicky. Discussions at our We have a sparkling new logo with thanks to monthly meeting were wide-ranging. The Lincoln Flynn, a graphic designer who is nursery is doing well and we have made some presently studying landscape design. From our advances on the wish list including our new perspective, those two professions merge logo. The Christmas party was thoroughly together beautifully and you can see the enjoyable and we already have some ideas for outstanding result. Nicky and I have enjoyed next time. Our benches are filling and we are sifting through the ideas and tweaking the final planning our next open Saturday. We are design to come up with our habitat community reviewing our membership renewals procedures tree. Many thanks to Nicky for liaising with to make things simpler and more efficient for all Lincoln and driving this project. The logo will be concerned. We also talked about our values, risk included on our new sign and all brochures and and opportunity management. We are planning documentation. a hard rubbish collection too, to keep the nursery orderly, tidy and safe. Thanks to Trevor for his persistence in following up with Yarra Valley Water regarding our water bill. We have been charged large amounts for President’s Report sewerage when the toilet is in use only two mornings a week and the rest of the water use is On behalf of everyone at Greenlink I’d like to on the plants. With the addition of a separate extend our thanks to Mark Nolan and David Wu meter to read the toilet water use, we may from Bendigo Bank for their recent visit to receive a refund based on the results. Greenlink and their commitment to pay for a new sign for our gate. They have also indicated that And more thanks to Trevor for doing the horrid further contributions may be forthcoming if we and rather risky job of cleaning out the have a suitable project. Many thanks to Trevor cardboard boxes lurking in the corner. Yes, for setting up the meeting and following up with there were many Redback spiders lurking there Mark and David. This sign will replace three as well. The spiders are no more, and we have a hand-written signs and one printed sign on the neat stack of boxes with much more room. We gate. I think we all agree that it presently looks do appreciate when people bring us boxes to rather tatty and will look about 300% better with use for plants, but please only bring us smaller a professionally printed sign. Thanks to all of the sizes. Most customers buy small numbers of volunteers who chipped in with ideas as to what plants, so boxes the size of tissue boxes are the to put on this sign. We sat around at morning tea most practical. and threw in suggestions of what we thought Contact Us All Correspondence Nursery Address Greenlink Box Hill Inc 41 Wimmera St P.O Box 448 Box Hill North 3129 Blackburn 3130 Phone: 0479 121 653 Email: [email protected] www.greenlinkboxhill.org.au President: Suzette Hosken www.facebook.com/GreenlinkNursery Secretary: Nicky Mayer Credits: Background illustrations adapted from the Endeavour Botanical Collection courtesy the Trustees of the Natural History Museum. Photo on front page is of Microseris sp.3, taken by Suzette Hosken. Greenlink News 2 Robert continues to write up our activity lists for happy, inclusive team at Greenlink! volunteers to choose from each week, and Karin is writing up the pricking out required. Volunteers certainly appreciate the choices available. Robert is doing a wonderful job in being the go-to person for volunteers and the general day-to-day running of the nursery. I’m sure we are all very grateful for this; thank you Robert. Thanks to our industrious volunteers, the nursery benches are now restocked and full of healthy plants ready for autumn planting. Feel free to buy them sooner if you like, but you’ll The Greenlink Christmas Hamper need to water them regularly as the ground is still very dry. Seed collection is mostly done, with just seed NOG cleaning, packaging and writing up with seed lot The overall appearance of the nursery has been numbers to be done. Heather has done a greatly enhanced with the clean look of the new wonderful job as usual. watering system. We have had a few weeks of learning about watering frequency and duration We encourage members to enter the indigenous combinations. The system has served well with gardens award, assuming you have some of our only a few plants being lost to the early plants in your gardens! See the information on scorching conditions. these awards elsewhere in the newsletter. We have cut back the long and reclining grasses Millie Wells from Council has dropped off a so that the water can penetrate through to the number of the new Indigenous Gardening in potting mix. So that our customers can see the Whitehorse booklets. Members and volunteers mature version of some smaller shrubs, we have are welcome to pick up a copy from us. It is a also cut back and weeded our nursery display wonderful, easy-to-read book and we generally pots to stimulate fresh new growth. have most of the featured plants in stock. Congratulations to Millie for pulling together this terrific resource. Please know that we always welcome new volunteers. If you’ve been thinking about it and are not sure whether to volunteer or not, just come and see us! You might like to come once a month, once a week, only on school holidays, or even twice a week if you’re keen. We provide training for each task, so you don’t need any prior knowledge. We are a Plant Sales and Volunteering The nursery is open for sales and volunteering from 9.00-12.00 Tuesday and Wednesday. We also open on some Saturdays – see the calendar below. We are closed on fire ban days and when the temperature reaches 35°C. Tubes are $2.00 & $2.50. We also supply to schools and other organisations. Please call or email to discuss your planting requirements. You can find our plant lists and lots of other helpful information on our website. If you would like to try volunteering with us, telephone, email or visit. Greenlink News 3 The fiddly weeding of Glycine clandestina has collection is done in the middle of summer every tested our manual dexterity. Our persistence has year. However, unfortunately the humid weather been proven with the seeking out of the well- has had considerable effect on the fruit and camouflaged flickweed and oxalis in the flowers of some species. The Olearia lirata Scutellaria humilis. Our skill, speed and flowered and went to seed, but rather than teamwork has been confirmed with volunteers looking “fluffy” and blowing everywhere, the tubing up trays and trays of Poa ensiformis for a seeds just hung on the bush looking somewhat large order. Then we collectively scratch our sad. heads over the odd tray of cuttings that simply don’t take – such as a recent batch of Goodenia Dianella laevis was another plant that suffered ovata. In summary, volunteers have been hard from the heat and humidity. As the plants were at work, and our stocks are rebuilding ready for about to flower, the humidity seemed to cause autumn, our busy time with customers and the the flower heads to “clump”. These clumps can peak planting season. still be seen on Dianella around our parks. Robert Seed Collecting This season we have had our challenges. The season started early with the unseasonably hot and humid weather in October and November.