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24.01.2022 Those Pesky Pixies been muckin' about in my potted collection again, making Diplolaena angustifolia flowers grow upside down !

23.01.2022 Have been needing to tidy up the medicine plant (Scaevola spinescens) collection for some time, but managed to get onto it this weekend. Quite a few potted up and the fresh mix plus Troforte M for Natives, compost and worm wee will get 'em cranking. This species is highly attractive to scale and then the ants move in too, but not too many issues on this front at the moment. I will probably hold off doing any more cuttings for the time being as there's enough material there for our use at present. The grafting experiments have been a ripping success too, but now I need to put the grafters somewhere to develop the next phase of the experiment.

23.01.2022 Something interesting - Callitris preissii pollen dispersal. Usually by wind, unless some numpty with a stick comes along :)

21.01.2022 A little bit of Banksia / Hakea work, combining seed grown specimens here at the Magic Emporium, or bought and then potted up. With all my Banksia / Hakea (and usually Grevillea), I like to use a Premium / Professional base media and then sand it back a touch and open it out with some propagating sand and perlite. Troforte M for Natives is the fert of choice too. Still lots to learn in this area and keeping Banksia / Hakea in pots for long periods of time (collecting species) is tricky. More details in the pix.

20.01.2022 A little bit of Grafting Sorcery. Still lots to try on this front and no shortage of ideas. For this post, a few new Eremophila, Prostanthera magnifica and yet another pimelea physodes. More details with the pix.

19.01.2022 Bush Medicine and Bush Tucker from the home native garden right there ! No point in trying to build a native vegetation system if you don't incorporate these aspects. Those Scaevola spinescens berries sure have a kick to them, but sweet enough and I just snack 'em down as a health booster. No shortage around here at the moment. The Quandongs are a bit early this year and a touch small, but the flesh is good, although there's so much I'm taking it to work for others to make jam and so forth.

19.01.2022 The moment of truth, epiphany, justification, worth all the effort to build a Native Biodiversity Ecosystem in the garden / verge. Happy day :) (apart from it being cloudy and the batteries for the flash being flat .....)

18.01.2022 Looks like the NBCV (Native Biodiversity Conservation Verge) will reach its peak for 2020 over the next 2 weeks. Worth all the hard work, but from here things will gradually begin to change in response to numerous factors. Another post for another time perhaps, discussing Biodiversity and Ecology 'cycles' in response to seasonal changes, plant morphology, the context of natives and more. For now, simply enjoying all the hard work to build something like this under the guidance of Mother Nature :) Pix for this post include a few showing the verge within the context of the neighbourhood, so that the correct, civilised societal standards for verges and gardens can be seen in the background.

18.01.2022 You don't see much in the way of variety on the Conostylis front out there, although the Kings Park sales and the Wildflower Society of WA Northern Suburbs branch Landsdale nursery are happy hunting grounds in this area. I've managed to get a nice little collection going and some of these are wee rippers. Conostylis seed for propagation tends to be heavily insect predated though and there can be issues with seed viability / maturity too. Fortunately, many Conostylis produce s...tolons / runners / segments which can be separated and grown into new plants. I'll try and get a post on this action up shortly. Excuse the lack of species naming in pix - I've got a bit of sorting out to do re' C.seorsiflora, C,prolifera and C.stylidioides. See more

18.01.2022 Here's a little something put together by one of my work colleagues (Michelle Donnelly) and on the APACE website at the link below. It's actually very, very good and kinda follows a lot of the practices we go by here at The Native Gardener. And make no mistake about it, right now is when you need to start preparing for that Native Verge ! https://apacewa.org.au/category/blog/

17.01.2022 Always found Diplolaena angustifolia to be a fussy princess and I know others have similar experience. Bar grafting, I've resorted to pot only for now, but thought I'd lost this one a months back in that heat spike. So up into a new tub, fresh mix, Seasol, Worm Wee and of course more Troforte M....here we go with another round of flowering. So want to get seed from in a few months.

14.01.2022 Various propagationary shenanigans. - Layering of sorts with Thryptomene ground cover. - unknown Eremophila grafter up, up and away. - Eremophila latrobei grafter on the move - Germinating Nuytsia floribunda alongside already established potential 'Starter Host' (Theory 203.4 subsection 2a)... - Dianella brevicaulis 2 month old divisions absoloutely pumpin' and throwing up flower stalks like crazy. Such a big fan of this one over revoluta anyday. See more

13.01.2022 Pimelea rosea is a firm favourite and so much better than over-rated ferruginea and associated cultivars. Still, rosea is hard to find in nursery-land and interestingly too, I know a few local reserves where it occurs naturally even though it isn't listed for this LGA on Florabase. In terms of cultivation, I think I'll go for grafting it. Yep, you guessed it, there is a use for ferruginea after all :)

11.01.2022 The things you see while seed collecting ! Makes one think about feral species and the possibly positive impact they might have (food source) as well as the negatives ? Check out that spider with the face on its back - never seen that before.

11.01.2022 Well I had to give it a crack, right ? I have a few Marsdenia australis kicking about here, otherwise known as Bush Banana or Karlkurla. Now, while the fruits are a renowned delicacy, the roots are apparently edible also. This particular plant wasn't doing so well on its custom climbing frame, so out it came and, well, you can guess the rest. Taste ?... Fibrous and woody nothing but with a distinct aniseed something after-taste that only went away after a cup of tea and some chocolate ! Hmmmm. Will wait and see if the others can give me any fruit now. See more

10.01.2022 Time to get the little batch of Banksia prionotes 'Dwarf Kalbarri Candles' under way that I want for next year's season and while I'm at it, let's do some Banksia sessilis. I've been hooking into the Baileys Native Premium mix lately and I like it for seeds as it's nice and fine, sandy and bark free. I have just sanded it out a wee bit though and added a sprinkle of perlite too. Seed is entirely from the home native garden and I should see dicots from both of these in anything from 3 to 6 weeks.

09.01.2022 Crappy phone pic, but this beaut moth was waiting for me today, sitting on one of the Rebecca Anne's (chamelaucium X Verticordia) on the verge. ID please Doug McDougie :) Sally Page

09.01.2022 A few pix with detailed descriptions re' cuttings, tip removal, root development etc

07.01.2022 Crackalackin ! The NBCV (Native Biodiversity Conservation Verge) is fairly cranking now ....

06.01.2022 Crazy little Karlkurla (Marsdenia australis). I popped this one into a 5 litre pot on Sunday and 'introduced' it to my native vine climbing frame. The Sunday photo is the one with just a single finger, where I've simply laid the growing tip through the mesh. The second photo (with all my fingers) was taken late this afternoon, just 2 days later. Talk about keen !

06.01.2022 Growing new plants from cuttings can become VERY complicated if you let it. There's a few fundamentals though, although for most players, just following the basics works most of the time. And although we can devise all sorts of methods to replicate the most perfect of industry set ups , most of us don't have the time, $$$ or infrastructure to go silly at home. Still, here's a few pix of some basic procedures that are efficient and proven. More details in the pix.

05.01.2022 A showery damp night with inevitable consequences :)

04.01.2022 Marianthus paralius. Threatened Flora (Declared Rare Flora Extant). It used to be on the Perth metro coast, but thankfully I've got plenty here in the emporium. Cuttings of woody little sections with fresh growth work OK, although there are losses to leaf drop. This is my original parent plant coming into flower now and it's promising to be a ripper session over coming weeks.... Back in 2018 I managed to collect enough seed from it for about 20 plants - game on again I hope. See more

02.01.2022 Potted collection pretty things in bloom right now. A few stunners here for sure.

01.01.2022 This morning's bountiful offering. Will expect the same tomm' morning with predicted weather tonight.

01.01.2022 Dasymalla terminalis (ex Pitroydia) is a Lamiaceae beauty and one that is more often than not grafted. But two things occurred with my one and only stocker. Firstly it has been lignotubering like crazy for several months and secondly it needed a new pot. So you can guess the rest ! Managed to get 3 newbies from it without being greedy and like all such exploits, I treat them as cuttings, so bottle over the top and tuck away until we see evidence of advancement.... Hopefully the Westringia I have coming through will be good to try some grafting in a month or so when the weather warms up. See more