Australian Plants Society Yarra Yarra Inc in Eltham, Victoria, Australia | Community organisation

Australian Plants Society Yarra Yarra Inc

Locality: Eltham, Victoria, Australia

Phone: +61 409 600 644

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• Environmental conservation organisation
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25.01.2022 Hovea acutifolia ‘Purple bush pea’ : Jill Lulham Hovea acutfolia is a small to medium shrub from 1.5-4 metres tall, often of upright growth habit. The stems and branches are covered with dense, grey to rusty hairs. The dark green leaves are elliptical or lanceolate in shape and up to 70 mm long x 12 mm wide. The new growth has a rusty appearance.... The flowers have the typical "pea" shape consisting of 4 petals; the "standard", the "keel" and two "wings", as shown in the diagram. The flowers are blue to mauve/purple and occur in the leaf axils. Several Hovea species are reasonably well known in cultivation. H.acutifolia has been grown for many years by Australian native plant enthusiasts and has proven to be adaptable in temperate and sub-tropical areas where it prefers a well drained soil in a partly shaded position. (Source: anpsa.org.au) #australiannativeplants #australiannativegarden #australiannativeflora #gardening #gardeningaustralia #apsyarrayarra #purpleflowers

25.01.2022 Amazing creative skill of Lynne Stone in this segment on Gardening Australia last night

25.01.2022 Another Yarra Yarra Spring Plant Sale is on now! As well as our FJC Rogers Seminar Plant Sale (native Mint Bushes). Check out the lists on the 2 Order Forms on our website apsyarrayarra.org.au/ Sales end on 3rd December.

24.01.2022 Great story on Gardening Australia about nurseryman (& APS member) Rob OSullivan at Sandy Point and his involvement in protecting trees for koala habitat

23.01.2022 A nice distraction for us at the moment is checking the Trail Camera set up in the backyard. Lovely to see the Eastern Rosellas again.........dont see them up at the waterbowl near the house though. We also had a lovely visit by a Tawny Frogmouth, but it was a night picture so not so good. Lots of other birds, but also heaps of rabbits, and a fox or two which arent so welcome. Jill - Eltham.

23.01.2022 Some great Spring flowering plants here from Daniels garden in Eltham. A promise of good things to come as the weather warms up. Daniel has put the names on each photo.

23.01.2022 Calothamnus quadrifidus ‘One Sided Bottlebrush’ Location: Eltham, VIC Like its namesake and close relative, the bottlebrush (Callistemon species), One Sided Bottlebrush combines toughness with attractive flowers and foliage. It makes a great hedge or general garden shrub that will attract nectar-feeding birds such as honey eaters. All it needs is a light trim to keep it flowering well and in a compact shape (Source: gardeningwithangus.com.au)... #australiannativeplants #apsyy #australiannativegardening #gardening #gardeningaustralia

22.01.2022 Hi everyone, if you took the Aussie plants quiz, please see the original post for the answers. Thanks for playing!

22.01.2022 Delighted with the lovely arrangement my husband put together for me of flowers from our garden! Plants chosen were Thryptomene saxicola (Paynes hybrid) Templetonia retusa (Cockys Tongue) Acacia baileyana - prostrate form (Cootamundra Wattle) and Acacia heterochroa - growing in Eltham. #thryptomenesaxicola #templetoniaretusa #acaciabaileyana #acaciaheterochroa

22.01.2022 Grevillea ‘Ned Kelly’ (x Mason's Hybrid syn. 'Ned Kelly’) Grevillea ‘Ned Kelly’ is a popular and very distinctive Australian native, producing flower heads that attract many nectar-feeding birds. The typical, deeply divided, fresh evergreen foliage is very decorative adding to the overall visual appeal. Quick to grow and flower all year round, Grevilleas are the quintessential Aussie shrub that make excellent, low maintenance garden featrue plants. Ned Kelly has orange/red flowers. Plant in full sun. Heat/drought tolerant and frost hardy. Beautiful additon to any garden/landscape. A fast growing, spreading shrub with deeply divided, stiff dark green leaves, showy orange-red brush flowers through out the year. Grows to a height of 2m high and 2m wide. (Source: benaranurseries.com) (Location: Croydon, VIC)

21.01.2022 Congratulations Richard Thomson OAM for service to the conservation of Australian native orchids. Dick has generously provided some of the displays of native orchids from his and Marions collections for our Expos in previous years.

20.01.2022 And another quiz to test your eucalypt knowledge https://www.abc.net.au//eucalypt-quiz-iconic-aust/12026416

18.01.2022 APS Yarra Yarra Growers Online Plant Sale list is up on our website https://apsyarrayarra.org.au/australian-/autumn-plant-sale/ It will be open until Saturday 2nd May so get your orders in quickly. Miriam has consulted on the logistics during the stage 3 coronavirus restrictions with Danielle Green MP and Eltham Police and we have permission for people to pick up orders from three locations in Eltham, Research and Hurstbridge between 10am 4pm. PLEASE ABIDE BY THE COVID-19 TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS AND ONLY ORDER IF THE PERSON COLLECTING IS WITHIN REASONABLE DISTANCE FROM PICKUP SUBURBS, WHICH ARE IN ELTHAM, RESEARCH AND HURSTBRIDGE. More details on the website, and the order form.

18.01.2022 Out & about in Eltham, Warrandyte & Watsons Creek - April 2020 http://apsyarrayarra.org.au//out-about-in-eltham-warrandy/

17.01.2022 Trying to collect some colour on this freezing day. Whats in flower in your garden now?

17.01.2022 Chrysocephalum apiculatum ‘Everlasting Daisy’ This plant seems to flower almost all year round. Such a joy to have in the garden Our three year old particularly loves picking the flowers to add to his fairy garden or as an ingredient in his mud pies! (Location: Eltham, VIC) An evergreen groundcovering perennial plant, with beautiful silvery grey foliage and a profusion of golden yellow button flowers from spring to autumn. The papery flowers can be picked and hung upside to dry, and can then be used for dried arrangements. A hardy, waterwise, low maintenance plant. Good for massed plantings, rockeries and containers. This plant is a food source for butterflies. (Source: gardeningwithangus.com.au)

17.01.2022 A native flora mask, home-made of course. Have managed to make one each for all the family, now to make a 2nd one for all. Then to get to all the weeds. A by-product of all that lovely rain. #ozflora

16.01.2022 Assigned to the Polypodiaceae family, Platycerium is one of 11 genera of this family represented in Australia. Shown in the photos are both Platycerium superbum ‘Staghorn fern’ and Platycerium bifurcatum ‘Elkhorn fern’ (Locations: Croydon and Eltham, VIC). Perfect plants for those dappled shade locations in your garden. ... (More details in photos)

16.01.2022 A Rainbow Lorikeet enjoying the flowering Eucalyptus Caesia in Briar Hill today. Photo, Leanne Stute.

16.01.2022 And many other vulnerable plants and animals that are under threat in these areas

15.01.2022 Found these books from my Melbourne Uni days. Does anyone else remember these?! What books/guides have you found the most useful? (I have certainly found that the Trees of Victoria book is still a very handy reference guide)

15.01.2022 Angophora hispida Dwarf Apple Gum Credit: Bec Russell (APS YY Member) I absolutely love the structure and colour of the foliage of this plant. It’s grown so well in hard full sun, clay soil conditions. (Location: Eltham, VIC)... This Angophora is a small tree, growing to around 6 metres tall, with a mallee habit. It is summer flowering, bearing large clusters of attractive cream fluffy flowers which are a magnet to nectar feeding birds, insects and various colourful beetles. It has the gnarled and twisted growth of the larger Angophora costata, as well as beautiful bark and red new growth, with a smaller size. Tolerates a wide variety of soil types, and coastal exposure. Needs protection from frost when young, but more tolerant once established. (Source: gardeningwitha ngus.com.au) #australiannativeplants #australiannativegardening #gardening #gardeningaustralia #apsyarrayarra

15.01.2022 Some of the Australian native plants flowering in our garden.

15.01.2022 Garden at Warranwood

15.01.2022 A stunning group of double-flowered Wahlenbergia species in a Montmorency garden. It suckers and self seeds, so double the value too. Moist, well-drained soil in sun or part shade. I've always thought the double flowered form was Wahlenbergia gloriosa (the Royal Bluebell), but now I think it looks more like Wahlenbergia stricta here. I will have to have a closer look at the foliage underneath I think. Max in our group used to propagate this one. Not often seen in nurseries. Jill

15.01.2022 A native garden in flower. From Ray in Eltham.

15.01.2022 Vale Shirley Carn. Many of our members will remember our visits to her wonderful gardens over many years. Just a few pictures from her last garden. Thanks Nicky for letting us know: "Yesterday one of our marvellous plantswomen and gardeners passed away after a short spell of home palliative care. Shirley Carn. Active member of APS Foothills, Karwarra Gardens and Ferny Creek Hort Society, opened the gardens she developed in Monbulk on so many occasions including through the Open Garden scheme. Our sympathies go to her wonderful family. She inspired us, shared with us and taught us so much. We were lucky to have her in our midst."

14.01.2022 Hi Folks, hope you enjoyed the quiz...and a week has passed, so life is that little bit closer to returning to normal. Hope you learned a lot and got all the answers - they have been added after each of the questions below. All the best! 1. A Scottish botanist and a French botanist met in Encounter Bay (South Australia) in 1802, when English and French ships anchored there. They must have got on well as the Scot, Robert Brown, named this genus after the Frenchman. Unfortunate...Continue reading

12.01.2022 And join via your District Group if theres one near you. Join APS Yarra Yarra and APS Victoria via our Sign Up button above, or via our website https://apsyarrayarra.org.au/membership/join/

12.01.2022 Pimelea rosea ‘Deep Dream’ Rice Flower Location: Eltham, VIC. Growing in a sunny north facing location, clay soil. A beautiful small shrub with small light green leaves and masses of purple-pink tubular flowers in spring. A great feature plant for rockeries, borders or pots, and does best in a well drained soil and a sunny spot. Attracts butterflies. Feed with a good native fertilizer in early spring, watering in afterwards to avoid leaf or root burning. Trim off flowers a...fter they die back, which also helps to encourage a dense habit. If left untrimmed, Deep Dream has a naturally tidy habit. (Source: gardeningwithangus.com.au) #australiannativeplants #australiannativegardening #apsyarrayarra #gardening #gardeningaustralia

11.01.2022 Prostanthera magnifica 'Mint Bush' (Photo credit: Carmen Cooper) "An upright shrub from Western Australia that has a beautiful massed display of mauve to pink flowers which have attractive contrasting purple to scarlet bracts. It naturally grows in drier areas, but can be successfully grown in more humid areas in a large container, or as a grafted plant, or as a short lived spectacular specimen. Likes a sunny to part shaded spot and well drained soil. Feed with a good low phosphorus native fertiliser. Flowers for many months, from spring to summer. Frost sensitive." (Source: gardeningwithangus.com.au)

09.01.2022 A lovely article with beautiful drawings! Worth a read. https://www.brainpickings.org//harriet-helena-scott-butt/

09.01.2022 Melaleuca armillaris ‘Mauve’ - Mauve Bracelet Honey Myrtle Location: Eltham, VIC. Part to full sun location, clay soil. Absolutely loving the soft and subtle colour in the garden at the moment. Vigorous fast growing and graceful shrub which grows to 5m high. Has dark green fine foliage and masses of mauve flowers fading to white in Spring and Autumn. Frost resistant. (Source: allnatives.com.au).

09.01.2022 I havent seen this one before. Asteridea asteroides - endemic to WA. Looks an outstanding daisy.

08.01.2022 Oh dear. The trouble DNA sequencing causes. Hope the Grevillea - Hakea problem is sorted out amicably. Hakeas are apparently a sub-family of Grevilleas and "hakeas are simply grevilleas that have developed thicker follicles"

08.01.2022 Will be a lovely native garden to see on Gardening Australia tonight. Dont miss it!

08.01.2022 I thought we all need to know about this wonderful book

08.01.2022 Ricinocarpos tuberculatus ‘Wedding Bush’ Growing here (post an early relocation) in a part sun north facing location in clay soil (Location: Eltham, VIC) Thick, dark green, beautiful foliage and is covered in masses of white flowers in spring and early summer. It tolerates a good pruning and shapes up to be a good hedge. For really serious gardeners train it into an arbour. If left to its own devices, this plant will grow to about 3 metres, with a spread of about the same. It prefers free draining, slightly acidic soil and doesn't really need any fertiliser at all. (Source: www.abc.net.au/gardeni/factsheets/favourite-natives/9426550)

08.01.2022 Winter is not all grey for natives. What is in flower in your garden now?

07.01.2022 Clematis hybrid ‘Southern Stars’ Photo credit: Sonia Gatti "A beautiful Australian native Clematis with starry white flowers that can be used either as a climber or as a superb ground cover. It is a relatively quick growing plant that has a mounding growth habit. It makes a great little feature plant and is especially suited to growing in a container. Growth: 0.3-0.5m (H) x 1-2m (W), Soil: Loamy, Sandy loam, Clay loam, Potting mix" (Source: gardeningwithangus.com.au)... #australiannativeplants #australiannativegardening #australiannativeflora #gardening #gardeningaustralia #apsyarrayarra

07.01.2022 Celebrate Botanic Gardens Day by checking out the live webcasts today https://www.facebook.com/bganzinc/ Theres one starting soon here: http://botanicgardens.livewebcast.com.au/

07.01.2022 Acacia leprosa ‘Scarlet Blaze’ Cinnamon Wattle Location: Eltham, VIC. Growing in a part sun/shade location, clay soil. A red flower in the genus Acacia is a real novelty. The weeping habit of this medium shrub is also a very attractive feature. The ball-shaped flowers appear in spring, and attract attention wherever it is planted.... A good drought tolerant plant once it is established, it likes a well drained soil and will not do well in waterlogged areas. It also dislikes summer humidity, which can lead to a shorter life span for this stunning plant. Likes full sun to dappled shade. It is a useful sized large shrub to small tree, growing to around 5 metres tall. The common name of cinnamon wattle comes from the scented leaves. (Source: gardeningwithangus.com.au) See more

06.01.2022 Heres a quiz for bird enthusiasts! Ten numbered photos, ten questions (answers in caption of 11th image)! 1. The ground-dwelling bird shown on this stamp is a most remarkable vocal mimick! It is named after a musical instrument not because of its deceitful calls! What bird is this and how many cents did a shilling (1/-) buy when Australia converted to decimal currency in 1966? 2. Australians rarely see this tintinnabular bird despite its frequent, distinctive calls! What ...is the common and scientific name of this chiming bird? (For an up-close encounter visit Long Island in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne) 3. Everyone knows this bird! Heck, it even inspired a movie, a metaphor and a theory! Its generic name is Cygnus and its chicks are similarly named. Who coined this birds scientific name and in what year? 4. This adorable little parrot is the third most popular house pet in the world, after dogs and cats. Inspiring nick-names for mens underwear, prime minister Bob Hawke and performer Kylie Minogue, what is the full common name and scientific name for this lovable bird? 5. The central Australian Pitjantjatjara people call this bird kakalyalya but it is most commonly associated with Englishmen, one a surveyor, explorer and long-time Surveyor General of New South Wales, the other from a family of plumbum pummelers. What are the common and scientific names of the bird and who were they named for? 6. This elusive, nocturnal ground parrot is Australias rarest bird. It was thought to be extinct until it was found by wildlife photographer John Young in 2013 - but that was a hoax! It has since been found! What is this bird? 7. This honeyeater is Victorias state bird. It is the critically endangered helmeted honeyeater or Lichenostomus melanops cassidix. Numbers were down to just 50 in 1989 but a recovery plan has seen the population grow. So, anyway, what characteristic of the bird does melanops allude to? 8. Cassowaries, like this one from tropical northern Queensland, are part of the ratite group, as are ostriches, rheas, the emu and the kiwi. What is the defining feature of a ratite bird? 9. The specific epithet of this lovely little wren is so covid appropriate! What are its common and scientific names and is it like other wrens in being sexually promiscuous? 10. This is Australias smallest owl and it is named after its distinctive two-tone call. What is its name and how old was the oldest recorded bird?

06.01.2022 This looks like an interesting online seminar on conservation, with Bruce Pascoe (Dark Emu) as one of the guest speakers. 7.30pm on 17th June.

05.01.2022 Persoonia chamaepitys 'Mountain Geebung' (Photo credit: Carmen Cooper) "A slow growing ground covering prostrate shrub with pine-like needle leaves and bunches of yellow to orange flowers in summer and autumn. It is difficult to propagate, but worth planting if you can find it, as it is a great hardy little plant as long as it gets a well drained soil. Good in sun or part shade, and under trees, but doesn’t like excess humidity. A very waterwise plant, and very attractive...." (Source: gardeningwithangus.com.au). #

05.01.2022 Who would have thought.....a purple wattle? Some interesting information here about Acacia purpureapetala from North Queensland. A bit difficult to propagate, so might be a while before we see it in nurseries. https://www.australiangeographic.com.au//australias-purpl/ Check out some more interesting and varied Wattles via The Australian Acacia Project Facebook page.

05.01.2022 What a great idea..... and at least many of them have some wattle sprigs decorating the scarecrows......a great pandemic alternative for Hurstbridge Wattle Festival.

04.01.2022 Just to let you know, one of our members has a great little nursery in Montmorency, Victoria with a new Facebook page: Mikes Native Nursery

04.01.2022 Have a relaxed holiday everyone.

03.01.2022 Update to FJC Rogers Seminar Garden Visits on 28-29th November: You must email a registration form to be part of these. Form is on the website. The online Plant Sale Order Form is also up on the website now. Please note that if particular species or a hanging basket is sold out, you will have an opportunity to select alternatives on collection of your order. If all your selections are sold out, you will be contacted about this. apsvic.org.au/fjc-rogers-seminar-2020/

03.01.2022 Callistemon viminalis ‘Captain Cook’ Love the small burst of yellow on the anthers of the flower spikes. One of the best smaller growing red flowering bottlebrushes. It forms an erect but compact shrub, growing to around a metre and a half high and wide. The small, narrow leaves make this a great hedge plant also, and it responds well to pruning. It can be cut back hard if it gets untidy, which is best done after flowering. Frost and drought tolerant, suits most soils, best in well drained. Bird attracting. (Source: gardeningwithangus.com.au) (Location: Eltham, VIC)

02.01.2022 Its a glorious blue sky lockdown day in Melbourne and our native plants are the harbingers of Spring, and better things to come. The many wattles are lighting up the landscape everywhere, with bees gathering their pollen busily. Acacia verniciflua is one of my favourites. I see all the masked walkers go past down to the river and hope they smell the heady perfume of the Tree Violet (Melicytus dentatus) and admire the Pomaderris about to bloom. Most photos from my Eltham garden are named, but if not, feel free to help out with names.

02.01.2022 Take just 20mins a day to record the birds coming in to visit your garden for the Birds in Backyards Winter Survey. https://www.birdsinbackyards.net//article/Its-Winter-Surve

01.01.2022 The latest news on the FJC Rogers Seminar 2020 - on native Mint Bushes & Allied Genera - is out, with the Covid-19 edition of the Registration and Newsletter here https://apsvic.org.au/fjc-rogers-seminar-2020

01.01.2022 About time. These fabrics will be popular with native plant enthusiasts.

01.01.2022 Finally, a shuttle linking RBG Cranbourne with Cranbourne railway station.