Tupelo Grove Nursery in Mylor, South Australia | Local business

Tupelo Grove Nursery

Locality: Mylor, South Australia

Phone: +61 8 8388 5456

Address: Bradbury Rd 5153 Mylor, SA, Australia

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25.01.2022 It's been a long time between postings but I've been off on a trip. Didn't go anywhere, just ruptured a disk in the back and was filled up with opium at the hospital. That type of trip. See opium photo. Anyway it was interesting meeting up with Lewis Carroll and Carlos Castaneda. But back in the real world I've been cutting back the herbaceous Iris species lately. At this time of year they are looking very messy. The one in the photo is I. Laevigata ' Alba' and is often used ...as an aquatic plant as it is very happy to have its crown submerged all of its life. This and I. ensata ( Japanese Water Iris) are closely related and both come from Eastern Asian countries and have summer wet, winter drier conditions. I find the species that have a full dormancy period easy to keep as there is really only one maintenance per year I.e. cut everything off and divide if necessary during dormancy. They also seem to be reliably very showy and these 2 sp plus I. Virginiana are good at repeat flowering. On our TGN f/b page the 15 cm flower is a cultivar of I. ensata. In the cut back photo you will see a fat frog on the pot rim, no amount of poking would get it to turn towards the camera. The other photos are of course the opium poppy which is supposedly not to be grown domestically in Australia but is one of the most common free seeding ornamental plants in our gardens. They take no irrigation water as they only exist in winter and spring and are not invasive in natural flora areas. My understanding is that when a few pop up as ornamentals, the plant police turn a blind eye but the giant Pharma companies seem to be worried by gardeners plant selection. Cheers......Ian See more

23.01.2022 While it may be an annoyingly dry winter for reservoir filling, it has brought on some spectacular displays of winter flowering plants around our garden. 1: Our Magnolia X soulangeana is flowering very early and has not been trashed by the weather. These are especially good for hills and eastern Adelaide Plains. 2: The kniphofia " Winter Cheer" has finally clumped up at 3 years old and these red/orange fls are very good winter food for Eastern Spinebills and New Holla...nd Honeyeaters that we need to keep insect populations down. 3: The Daphne odora has really excelled this year. Our best ones are under house eaves where the soil is much dryer. The photo one is next to a big thirsty Cashmere Cypress that even in winter keeps the soil on the dry side. Daphne's are prone to root rotting fungi so must have very good soil drainage, well fed but lower nitrogen, no animal manure. Although this is an admired and brilliantly perfumed garden plant, it is actually quite poisonous. Just use it for looking not for salads. 4: The Garrya elliptica " James Roof" has produced the longest dangliest catkins ever. It's finished now but back in June it was spectacular. In the photo the shed gutted is 10 cm deep for a size reference. The best of the tassels are 40 cm!! This is a seriously hardy plant from dry Coastal California. Hardy against heat, frost, dry, wind, not soil specific. It's the next best thing to plastic for being indestructible. All of this winter selection are available in the nursery and in the Magnolia section there are about 12 different species and cultivars of various sizes. Open every day EXCEPT in winter we are shut on Sundays.....cheers Ian. See more

22.01.2022 What an excellent time of the year for people lucky enough to have some Salvia leucantha or it's multitude of forms in their garden. This species comes from Mexico and other Central American areas. In our hemisphere in Australia this relates to the town of Katherine and further north as far as latitude is concerned. Not surprisingly most descriptions of this species say that it is not frost tolerant but growers in frosty areas don't report any problems. At Tupelo Grove this g...roup of plants is in full flower continuously from February to June and is extremely attractive to Eastern Spinebills and New Holland Honeyeaters. When flowering has finished, look down inside the plant and you will see a mass of new shoots coming from the base. At this stage cut the old stems out as short as you can as these have no further use. Unfortunately S. Leucantha has the common name of "Mexican Sage" which then confuses it with a completely different species called S. Mexicana. There are also another about 300 species of Salvia native to Mexico. In the photos the white flowering mound is S. Leucantha "White Velour". The white calyx with pink tube is "Pink Velour". The one with purple calyx and white corolla tube is the species as it occurs in the wild. Hence the name Leuc =White and anthos =flower. The other grey purple calyx and white corolla tube with honey eater is S. "Meigans Magic" and is not a pure leucantha but has some genetics in it and I had to include it here because I was so clever getting this photo with an ipad............cheers Ian See more

22.01.2022 For gardeners on the verge of buying new citrus trees, it's really best if you consider the plants needs first. Almost all of the cultivated citrus are subtropical in origin and love our warm soils in summer but are not overly impressed with our cold soils and cold air in winter, especially in the Adelaide Hills. If you intend to plant or tub grow citrus get started now while the soil is still warm so that the roots will grow into the new soil. Despite the current dryness, pl...ant citrus now not in winter as you would with most other trees. Many cultivars of oranges similar to our modern ones have been in cultivation for a good few thousand years in Asia and are heavily laced with genetics of Citrus maxima ( Pomelo) and Citrus reticulata (Mandarin). Citrus cultivars other than oranges have many other species as their parents but all with the same subtropical origins. These plants are from fertile volcanic or geologically active areas so for best results feed them frequently. In normal gardening we feed in spring and or autumn if the soil needs it but with citrus it's every 2 months, not mid winter. In south australia soils are mostly alkaline pH above 7 (we picked up a lot of Calcium Carbonate from being under the sea for a few million years) and this can cause chlorosis due to Iron being unavailable. Use cheated Iron with the letters EDDHA as this works in our soil type. The EDTA iron chelate is a waste of time and money for most S.A. Gardeners. The EDDHA iron stays available in soil if the pH is between 4 and 10. If you are outside this range it would be best to sell up and buy a better patch. The bottom line as usual is that we just happen to have lots of young citrus trees of about 18 different cultivars, dark green and hardened off and ready to go to a new home. In 30 cm tubs standing head high $45 and 4litre grow bags shoulder high $35. Many are already carrying fruit that will be ready to pick in winter. Cheers ........Ian See more

21.01.2022 Apart from putting a few notes and photos on f/b I have no idea how it works and have just been shown a place where people have been asking questions. No idea how to reply so il'l put it here. Firstly how can you find our web site? That's easy, there isn't one. How does our pricing go? That's more complicated. We don't have many of the enormous costs that most nurseries have so our retail prices are hopefully placed so that you can have enjoyable gardening without having to r...ob a bank. We are completely freehold so no rent. We are plant propagators and buy very few plants. Transport for plants is about 20 percent of product price but we don't do this. We harvest and recycle every litre of water we can and so do not buy water. Electricity for pumping is a big factor but are currently 50 percent self sufficient and with a new power station going in in the next few months will be going off grid. We not only propagate to avoid cost add ons, it allows us to have a range of plants that are not usually available elsewhere and plants that we consider are hardy for our area. The struck cuttings are often potted into 10 cm pots to grow on and our customers are welcome to buy in this size for $6. They fairly quickly fill these pots and are moved on into 15 cm this is the old 6 inch and these are retailed for $11. The more woody shrub and tree type of plants end up in 20 cm for $18 and are quite a respectable size by this time. No silly 95 or 99 cent business just whole dollars take it or leave it ! On the rare occasion that we buy pregrown plants you will find an orange price tag that overrides the above prices and will be more expensive as this gives us the same price processes as everyone else. Contract growing for large projects, long rural hedges or whatever is done P.O.A. And if 100s of plants are needed then a propagation and growing time of at least 6 months is needed. In the photo you can see typical 10 ,15 and 20 cm pots for $6, $11 and $18. Cheers .......Ian. See more

20.01.2022 It looks like our long cool period is well over. During the next 3 months good deep watering is important especially when gardening in the presence of large trees and shrubs. We would all be doing ourselves and trees a favour by taking the advice given out on last Saturday's ABC gardening programme ( 7-2-15) where Jon Lamb was pushing the logic of deeper watering but not as often. Domestic water controllers are often set to turn water on multiple times per week for short peri...ods whether plants need it or not making plants surface rooted and susceptible to hot dry conditions. Not to mention the waste of water and money. At Tupelo Grove we rarely water plants in the garden unless they ask for it or if extreme weather is forecast, then we water deeply depending on how much water the soil will hold. I have always run our mini wobbler heads for 12 hours straight to get a deep soak and have just rechecked the amount of water as this seems a bit excessive. The wet circle in the photo is 55 squ metres and by upending the sprinkler into a bucket I have found it to be running at 3.75 litres per minute or 225 l/ hour. As 1 litre spread over 1 squ metre is 1 mm deep then I am putting out 225 divided by 55 = 4.1 mm of rain per hour. The apparently excessive watering time of 12 hours is giving 49 mm of rain which is very nice for our soil in summer and not excessive. Parts of our garden watered like this now should only need 1 or 2 more waterings for this summer. 12 hours at this rate is 2700 litres and bought through the mains at about $3.50/ kl is only $9.45 . Most of us have dripper systems somewhere in the garden and these commonly put out 4 l/h so 5hours puts out 20 litres and should give good penetration. Due to these watering techniques the garden beds in our car park are currently having their third watering for this summer and will be asking for more in March. This doesn't seem like much but soil depth is good there and we have used dry tolerant species.Cheers.....Ian. See more

19.01.2022 Hopefully that's the end of summer now and time to enjoy the garden in these calm and warm days. We will be open for all of Easter and simultaneously over at Sophie's place at Mt Barker Springs for their Open Garden on the Easter Saturday, Sunday and Monday. With the heat out of the way and the soil still warm, planting conditions are about as good as it gets. There are several hundred of our plants of over 120 different species of climatically suitable plants at the Hamlyn C...ottage open days and we are only one of many growers there. Most of the plants in the photo are on their way to Hamlyn Cottage. There will be plants of Geranium Rozanne there which is only sporadically available for sale and is well worth having for woodland and sheltered situations. For us the 5cm (2inch) violet / blue flowers occur continuously from late October until it's too cold in May/June. Cut back in late winter and away they go again in spring. In the photos you will notice the G. Rozanne has 5 equal petals arranged symmetrically . This is common to all Geranium species. The Pelargonium Fairy Pink for comparison is typical of Pelargoniums in that the petals are not all equal and they are arranged assymetrically. It's the easiest way to separate these 2 often confused genera. Don't forget Sophie Thomson's Open Garden, Easter Saturday, Sunday, Monday, 10am to 4.30pm every day.....cheers Ian See more

18.01.2022 At this time of year the aquatic plants are up and growing and will be looking good for several months to come. For successful algae free water gardening it is really important to cover at least 40 percent of the water surface area with foliage or shade of some sort. The right types of plants will grow across the surface to create shade without the need for large numbers of plants. A bit of discreet pruning to limit the spread is all that is required. Algae are just another a...quatic plant but they do require high light and high nutrient levels to flourish. If you antagonise both of these factors you can have crystal clear water with no pumps, no filters and no added chemistry. I use plants like Bacopa moniera and Ludwigia palustris to cover water but I place them 10 to 15 cm below the surface. This makes them stretch up through the water to form their surface mat thus leaving a mass of submerged stems that then becomes home for a mass of aquatic insects. Many of the water insects feed heavily on the single celled algae that produce the dreaded ' Pea Soup' water. Some people refer to this type of plant as ' habitat plants' . They can be the difference between a pond or tub either working or not. There are many species that will do this job. In amongst the habitat plants, place a few Japanese Water Iris, ornamental Zebra Rush, Water Ranunculus, etc, top it off with a few floating Water Lettuce and there you have an attractive pond or tub. In the photos, in the blue tub, the low Bacopa is doing the shading, the cotton grass and white rush give interest and vertical change. The little tub is quite transient, I often change the centre piece and just pop a few water lettuce around it to fill it in, at the moment it's Iris laevigata. The big brown tub is a mono culture of Iris laevigata, no room for anything else. In the pond I did have a nice stand of Rotala rotunda until the ducklings used it for a sun baking area. This is yet another one of the so called habitat plants. There are about 30 different types of water plants in the nursery now. Cheers......Ian See more

17.01.2022 Free oak trees for larger blocks and farms. One of the most majestic oaks for larger gardens and farms is one of my favourites the Durmast Oak, Quercus petraea. Of course there is a catch to anything free, we are currently having our best acorn season and there are countless thousands of them needing a good home. Come and get as many as you need, they are not for sale, just freebie, after all they do just grow on trees! The Durmast Oak is somewhat similar to the common Englis...h Oak but about double the size. It is fully hardy for Adelaide Hills, non invasive, very wind resistant and fire retardant. The abundant large acorns are used for stock feed and the annual leaf drop we smash with the mower and it makes beautiful peaty mulch. For all the hype about England and it's oaks, they have 2 species, this one and the smaller common English Oak, Quercus Robur where as Mexico has at least 400 species. To start off your oak trees dig something like a post hole, backfill it with good soil and plant several acorns on this. At 1 year old and half metre tall, thin out to 1 plant per site. This technique gives excellent root development for large trees. As acorns have a green embryo and no dormancy, they must be sown NOW, they will all be eaten by Black Duck or be dead by late march. We planted the one in the photo in May 1986 and it's now 18 metres tall, 21 metres across and 3.7 metres around the trunk at chest height. It grew more than 1 metre per year when young. Do it now! Cheers.....Ian See more

12.01.2022 Agastache 'Pink/Salmon'

05.01.2022 It's almost a bit late in the season but these Hellebores are so nice they have to go on our f/b anyway. Over the last 30 or more years that we have had them in the garden we have been constantly selecting out seedlings that are distinct and planting them in groups to then open pollinate within the group. This has resulted in having mother plants of known form ie tall pink, white, spotty, plain, slaty, plum, doubles, singles, anemone centre, yellow, as well as various species... other than H. orientalis. Most of the more common but fancy forms and colours are probably more correctly known as H. X hybridus which is a mish mash of species and geographic forms and this makes our seeding mother plants be polymorphic. This means while there is a tendency to throw seedlings the same as the mother plant, there is also a fair chance they could be quite different. The very expensive and desirable PBR plants such as ". Anna's Red" and "Penny's Pink" are of course true clones and will always be true forms. As with many ornamental garden plants, these are strictly for looking at and not for putting in salads as the whole family (Ranunculaceae) is somewhat toxic. You will find interesting things on Wikipedia on traditional uses, military use, summonsing of demons etc. in the photos the flowers are all from our seedlings except the two largest of the singles. Plants from this gene pool are always available in the nursery but we can't guarantee colour and form unless they are actually in flower or have flowered and been tagged........cheers Ian See more

05.01.2022 There is a small amount of very large pickling olives available at the nursery for the next few days. Our olive orchard in the Flinders Ranges has started producing the best pickling olives I have ever seen. There is only about 12 kg but this is enough for 2 people to do a good size batch each. The best of them is just on 5.cm long and in the photo there is 66 on the scales weighing 1 kg. I have no idea what cultivar they are. They are picked by hand and in very good firm condition but picked olives do not last well so please be quick if you want to have a go at pickling. Our family has been pickling for well in excess of 60 years, the recipe is no secret, best to pick it up with the olives, it's a bit long for here

01.01.2022 Despite it being quite a dry autumn it is a very opportune time for establishing new plants and during the last few weeks, rural and domestic hedges seem to be being planted abundantly. When selecting your hedge species, apart from your own personal approval of the foliage and flower type, the plants need to be very well suited to your district as hedges are often suffering the full impact of wind, heat, frost, dry, sun. Also while most plants are happy to be tip pruned, hed...ge plants can occasionally be cut right back onto old wood to reinvigorate or bring the size back so they must be good at resprouting from old wood. For shady situations a rough guide to shade tolerance is the bigger the leaf the more shade it can take ie various forms of Viburnum odoratissimum. At the other extreme, he small grey leaf of Teucrium fruiticans makes this ideal for extreme heat and full sun with no ill effects. Edible hedges are also worth considering. In the photos the tall nursery hedge is Escallonia Apple Blossom. Next to the galv shed is eleagnus X ebbingei. With the red fruit is Myrtus ugni the Chilean Guava. The larger maroon fruit is Strawberry Guava, beautiful to eat in March and April, the poor thing has had an awful lot of names over the years and we are currently going with Psidium littorale var longipes. Don't forget if you are a mad Salvia collector or an ordinary gardener the autumn Salvia sales are on this Sunday 24 th from 0830 to 1200 at Fullarton Park Centre Grounds 411 Fullarton Road. Corner of Fullarton rd and Fisher st See more