Welcome to the December enewsletter 

Native Plants for NSW – December 2021

The monthly enewsletter of the Australian Plants Society NSW

Lysiana exocarpi (Harlequin mistletoe) by Ralph Cartwright

In our December issue

  • Welcome to the enewsletter

  • From our President

  • Activities – catch up on Zoom talks

  • Activities for 2022

  • Growing plants in containers

  • Orchid Q&As – name changes and more

  • Keeping up with name changes

  • Sharing favourite resources

  • How to find resources on our website

  • Study Group updates: Garden design, Grevillea and Wallum

  • Discount Neutrog products

  • Find APS NSW on social media. 

Welcome to the enewsletter

Dear {Contact_First_Name}

Our final enewsletter for the year has much to follow up and look forward to in 2022. After setting up the enewsletter and now 30 issues later, this is also my last as editor. I plan to continue in some role. A special thank you to everyone who has contributed – some names you see, and some are behind the scenes every issue (thanks Ian Cox and Bruce Simpson). The January–February issue will likely be out in late January 2022.

For our new members, some information is repeated in each newsletter. Each enewsletter is also saved as a pdf file here. Stories, photos and feedback are welcome. Please email the editor Rhonda Daniels at enewsletter@austplants.com.au 

From our President Heather Miles

I wish you all a wonderful break over the holiday period, and hope you are able to re-unite with family and friends. Enjoy the rain! Phil and I are excited as our son and future daughter in law are getting married at our Hunter Valley property in February. I'm not panicking. No, I'm systematically cleaning up the garden and house, pruning, chainsawing, replanting... at least that's the plan. But I need duck feet to get out in the garden as the rain is pouring down – it hasn't stopped for 2 days or is it 2 weeks? And I'm keeping an eye on flood warnings! The land of droughts and flooding rain. 

The board is working on how to integrate the recommendations from the UTS Student team into the strategy we agreed at our July workshop with District Groups. Once done, we will share with you both directly and through District Groups. As an on-the-ground organisation, it's wonderful to see how our strategy evolves through the passions and interests of our members. 

As this is Rhonda's last enewsletter as the official editor, I would like to extend the thanks of everyone who has read and enjoyed her wonderful newsletters for her incredible contribution, sharing information, stories, research and events so we can all feel more connected.

Photo below: Chrysocephalum apiculatum and Thryptomene denticulata by Heather Miles.

Activities – catch up on Zoom talks

Many groups have a break at the end of the year and are planning a fresh start in 2022. Check the APS NSW calendar here.

The end of the year is also a chance to catch up on some great talks at other groups through the year with videos on our YouTube channel. Our collection of talks is expanding (thanks Ralph Cartwright). Check these recent talks.

Dr Ben Henley on climate change, at Newcastle Group in October here.

Ben explained how the climate records of the past and the models of the future combine to show what is happening with the climate and to help understand what needs to be done for the future. Climate models help show what can be expected if various warming scenarios occur and why the 1.5 degree target is so important.

Jonathan Lidbetter on growing cut flowers, at North Shore Group here.

East Coast Wildflowers is the leading wholesaler of native flowers on the East Coast with two farms on the Central Coast growing over 120 species. Jonathan explained how they grow such a huge range of plants for both cut flowers and foliage and how they manage the various pests and diseases. East Coast Wildflowers also got a mention on native flowers for Christmas in The Sydney Morning Herald on 27 November here.

Peter Vaughan on mistletoes, at Sutherland Group in November here.

Peter introduced the many native mistletoes (who knew there were so many species?), corrected some myths (no, they don't kill trees) and explained how to collect and grow seed (it's tricky). Photo below: Dendrophthoe vitellina (long-flowered mistletoe) by Ralph Cartwright.

Other recent APS talks

  • Sophie Moore on street trees, at East Hills Group here.
  • Robert King on mangroves, at North Shore Group here.
  • Hugh Jones on plants at his Capertee Valley property, at North Shore Group here.

It's not too late to learn all about Zoom in our pdf here. Download Zoom software for free at zoom.us/download.

Activities for 2022 

Face-to-face activities are already planned for 2022.

Quarterly gatherings in 2022

  • Saturday 12 March – Quarterly gathering hosted by Menai Group at Illawong with Chris Gambian from the Nature Conservation Council on how we can influence the conservation of native plants. Details here.
  • Saturday 21 May – Quarterly gathering and AGM hosted by Parramatta and Hills Group at Cherrybrook, with Peter Olde on Grevilleas for pots and small gardens.

1–4 April 2022 – Central West trip: Regeneration, restoration, revegetation and resilience

The new date is confirmed. Our trip to the central west in April 2022 will visit six properties, including those of APS NSW members. The owners are enthusiastic to show and discuss what they have achieved in regeneration. Details here. If you are interested in joining the trip, please register here for more information. 

10–17 September 2022 – ANPSA Biennial Conference, Kiama

Our planning for the ANPSA Biennial Conference in September is going well. We will open registrations to everyone in early February. While there is still uncertainty, we think it's worth the effort to prepare for a fabulous event. Just two of our speakers are Dr Tim Morrow, a member of APS Victoria and a researcher at the Bureau of Meteorology, who will share the weather forecast of Kiama 40,000 years ago, how it has changed, and what it'll be like in the future; and Associate Professor Scott Mooney from UNSW on firestick farming and what the charcoal records tell us. And that's just the start.

Information on the conference and tours is on the website here. We suggest you book accommodation now.

15–16 October 2022, 14th FJC Rogers’ Seminar 2022 on Fabulous Peas

The APS Victoria seminar in 2022 on the “Fabulous Peas” will be hosted by APS Maroondah. It will focus on plants from the Sub-family Faboideae, recognised by their typical pea-shaped flowers. There are about 1200 species in Australia and about 190 species in Victoria. Details here.

Volunteering in 2022 – can you help?

With a fresh start in 2022, consider opportunities to volunteer to support native plants, either for APS NSW or organisations with similar objectives.

APS NSW

Our website here lists many different ways to volunteer to support native plants. We are also seeking a new editor for this very enewsletter. To find out more, contact Rhonda at enewsletter@austplants.com.au or Heather at president@austplants.com.au 

Australian Flora Foundation

The Australian Flora Foundation is seeking a Grants Officer to administer its research grants program. This voluntary position would suit someone with a research or academic background. Alternatively, if the foundation could find a new Treasurer, the present Treasurer would take over the Grants Officer role.

If you could help on either position, Grants Officer or Treasurer, please contact secretary Ian Cox itcox@bigpond.com for more information.

Read more about the Australian Flora Foundation's 40th anniversary of funding research here and their recent newsletters here.

Growing native plants in containers

Ben Walcott, co-leader with wife Ros of the Australian Plants in Containers Study Group and former leader of the Garden Design Study Group, gave a beautifully illustrated presentation on plants in pots for our quarterly gathering by Zoom. Viewers were amazed at the range of plants grown in pots – healthy flowering waratahs and boronias! Ben also promoted the study group. It is free to join, with a newsletter emailed twice a year with lots of photos. Details here.

Watch Ben's talk here.

Photo below: Anigozanthos 'Bush Pearl' by Ben Walcott from the September newsletter.

Orchid Q&As – name changes and more

Glenda Browne has compiled recent queries and answers from our experts group about orchids, including a detailed explanation on orchid name changes.

  • Propagating Sarcochilus falcatus – orange blossom orchid
  • Purchasing native orchids
  • Retiring to raise orchids
  • Orchid naming – Dendrobium and Thelychiton, based on an email discussion by members of the APS Newcastle group after reading an article by Jeff Howes noting new names of some orchids
  • Peter Vaughan provides some history and more information on the changes, writing this comes down to politics, insufficient research and personal opinion.

Read more here.

Photo below: Sarcochilus falcatus by Cynthia Rouse.

Keeping up with name changes

It's hard for even the professionals to keep up with plant name changes. Dan Clarke, our conservation officer and botanist, explains the how and why of name changes. Early botanists like Robert Brown, George Bentham and even Linnaeus and Co, despite being excellent botanists, only had limited tools at their disposal to study plants. They often made a best guess on what family or genus plants best belonged in, based on the features studied and evidence available. 

Modern-day DNA and genetic techniques give us a clearer picture of how closely species are related, and their actual journeys through evolutionary time. This means families and names are in a state of constant shift and we all have to grapple with it. Dan works in NSW, so he follows the NSW Herbarium names on PlantNET.

Read more here, and about Dan here.

Photo below: Callistemon rugulosus, from our plant profile here, still called a Callistemon in NSW.

Sharing favourite resources

Thanks to responses for the call to share your favourite resources.

Emma Rooksby from the Illawarra shared a couple of her favourite plant resources. One is A.C. Floyd’s Rainforest Trees of Mainland Southeastern Australia, which she refers to all the time. She says "It has a wealth of information on each species including the fauna that use each tree and propagation tips."

The second resource is the Growing Illawarra Natives website at www.growingillawarranatives.org. Emma helped develop the website – it is very local and entirely volunteer led and run. And if Emma had not mentioned it, we would have anyway, because we reported the launch pre-COVID in March 2020 here.

Recommendations

  • Ian Cox recommends this excellent talk by Zoom on early botanical explorer George Caley here.
  • Margaret Gaul encourages you to share the Fighting Plagues and Predators report and support the science. The report was developed by CSIRO and the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions and provides a consolidated look at the state of Australia's invasive species problem and a path towards a pest and weed-free future. Read the report here or on our website here.
  • John Aitken recommends the following story from Science X: The impact of flowering plants on the evolution of life on Earth here.
  • Ralph Cartwright found this Australian Geographic article on Australia as the real home of mistletoes here.
  • Oil, wood, bark, exploitation: a new exhibition explores human relations with the Eucalyptus by Prudence Gibson at UNSW. Eucalyptusdom at Sydney's Powerhouse museum until May 2022 is a testament to the utilitarian and cultural life of a remarkable tree.

Books

Books we have featured in the enewsletter include:

  • Banksias, second edition available to buy here
  • Mistletoes of Southern Australia, here
  • Flora of the Hunter Region here and Native Terrestrial Orchids of the Hunter here
  • Dictionary of Botanical Names here
  • Native Fauna of Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area here.

Buying native plants and seeds

See our list here on where to buy native plants and seeds. It includes retail nurseries, community nurseries, online sales and one-off events. Many offer discounts for APS members.

How to find resources on the APS NSW website

We now have over 250 stories or articles on our website, with a wealth of information and experience from members. But how to find something specific or when you can't remember what enewsletter it was in? We have grouped stories here under various headings such as:

  • gardening with natives
  • buying plants
  • conserving plants
  • identifying plants
  • seeing natives in gardens and reserves
  • animals and habitats (screenshot below).

Or use the search box at the bottom of the page here. Here are some examples:

  • a search on "orchids" shows 8 stories including how to grow Australian orchids for a great display by Jeff Howes here
  • a search on "life member" shows over 15 stories.

Study Group updates

Explore our wide range of national Study Groups and their newsletter archives and see how to join a group for free here. Nic Maher has highlights from recent issues.

Garden Design Study Group – Newsletter 117, November 2021 

Like to explore a garden? Check the series of ‘virtual tours’ on the garden design section of the ANPSA website here. The tours are detailed explorations of gardens that many people would be unable to visit in person, and they can help in developing ideas for your own garden. A range of garden types are covered, from small to large, suburban to country and formal to naturalistic.

Key components which contribute to the visual attributes of a garden include: first impressions, composition (the arrangement of all the diverse elements), function, diversity, imagination, attraction (integrating contrasting features that attract the eye), focal points, rooms (dividing the garden into several distinct areas), views, and sense of place.

Photo below: The Australian Botanic Garden at Mount Annan by Heather Miles.

Grevillea Study Group – Newsletter 120, October 2021 

Introduce fertiliser nutrients to potted plants by dunking the pots in a bucket of water with fertiliser dissolved in it. Member Brian Weir does this with his Grevillea robusta pots every month from August to December, which induces rapid healthy growth which he can use to successfully graft his standards in January–February. Dr Laurie McGowan, retired principal of Richmond TAFE, agrees dunking is a very good method because fertilisers are designed for the dissolved minerals to very rapidly cling to organic matter. If the product is introduced to the top of the pot, nutrients rapidly cling to the roots in the upper part, while dunking allows the nutrients to adhere to all roots, especially those at the bottom. However Peter Olde cautions against using solid Thrive for this, as the Phosphorous rating (5%) would normally be too high for Proteaceae. The liquid Thrive for indoor plants has half the concentration, which may make it less of a threat.

Louisa Lawrence (nee Senior) was born in 1803 in London, and achieved social fame for her orchid and plant collections, and her ornamental gardens. She was involved in the introduction in 1839 of the eponymous Manglesia lawrenceana Hort. Angl. to cultivation. It was described formally as Grevillea vestita var. angustata. The orchid Brassia lawrenceana was also described in her honour. Mrs Lawrence regularly exhibited at events run by the Royal Horticultural Society London, and won over 53 medals. Her garden at Ealing Park became famous, and was visited by royalty. Her husband did not seem to share the same interest in plants as just three weeks after her death in 1855, there were notices of two auctions to sell every plant she owned.

Wallum and Coastal Heathland Study Group – Newsletter 51, November 2021 

Banksia aemula (Wallum Banksia) is the feature plant. It is a small tree to 8 m with a heavy appearance due to the large size of the gnarled orange-brown trunk in proportion to the height of the tree. The bark is verrucose (covered in warty lumps). The large fruiting cones, with up to 25 massive seed follicles, may have given rise to the ‘Big Bad Banksia Men’ of the Snugglepot and Cuddlepie stories written by May Gibbs in 1918 (or it may have been the similar-looking cones of Banksia serrata). B. aemula is widespread in coastal areas from Bundaberg, Qld to Sydney NSW, occurring on sand dunes, sandy flats and wallum heathland.

Photo below: Banksia aemula by Alan Fairley from our plant profile here.

Discount Neutrog offer for members

Members have made their first order through the new arrangement we have with Neutrog for substantial discounts on products bought on the Neutrog online store.

Members need to register first through their group, as deliveries are made to one address per group four times a year. Members will then receive details from Neutrog on how to access the special member discounts on the Neutrog online store. Read here how the discount offer works through your group. Check if your group is participating.

Find APS NSW on social media

Whatever your preferred social media, you can find APS NSW and Australian native plants there.

APS NSW website

Our website here has our calendar of activities, stories, resources including our plant profile database, Group details, membership benefits including our discount Neutrog offer, and more.

YouTube

View our YouTube channel here. You don’t need an account to view our videos and it is free. If you have a Google account, like Gmail, you can subscribe which improves our exposure and rankings.

Facebook – Members only Forum

Join our new virtual place for members to connect. The Australian Plants Society NSW Members Forum is different from our Facebook page, which many members already follow. It is a Facebook group, free for all members to join, as a place to share your passion for growing and conserving native plants. As a private group, you have to request to join. Click here to sign up.

Instagram

Enjoy pretty plant pics posted twice a day here.

Find Australian plants on social media

Rae Bassett thanks everyone who joined our introductory social media seminar on 16 November. View a recording of the session on YouTube here. You are also welcome to share the presentation with other members who may have questions about APS NSW on social media.

Rae has compiled a list of links to the Pages and Groups mentioned in the presentation here, together with links to some other community run Facebook Groups. Feel free to share this link with others. To add useful groups to this list, please email Rae at raejada@gmail.com

Photo finish

Dendrophthoe vitellina (long-flowered mistletoe) by Joan Collins
This enewsletter is emailed to members of the Australian Plants Society NSW

www.austplants.com.au, PO Box 263, Cremorne Junction 2090, enewsletter@austplants.com.au

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