Newsletter Date

Plant profiles continued

Business Nam e

Meredith Farley 31 July 1966 - 17 June 2016 This is a copy of the reflection read at Meredith’s funeral service.

Secondary Story Headline

On picking up one of the Australian Plant Society Loddon-Murray Newsletters of which Meredith was the long term editor, I noticed an article by Meredith titled “Winter in the Garden” then the statement: - “I love winter in a native garden because unlike a lot of exotic gardens that look and are dormant- Native Gardens are full of life!” She then continues the article with glorious photos of the garden taken by herself. We ask; How did Meredith become so knowledgeable about Australian flora?

Whilst recuperating from an illness her interest grew by studying books and the natural habitat, she was en-couraged by her Uncle and Aunt and in time this interest became a true passion. It was because of this passion, in 2007 she instigated a community meeting, encouraging all people interest-ed in finding out about dry garden plants to attend. From this meeting the local APS group was formed. After formali-ties, Meredith was elected President and remained in this position for 5 years. During her term, Meredith opened the groups eyes to the colour, beauty and texture of our native flora. She gave freely of herself, sharing her knowledge of native plants not only to our group but many groups in the area. She always used the correct botanical names but never in a pretentious way. She encouraged her committee to organise events and apply for grants in which we were successful. She organised and hosted many speakers for our meetings and attended numerous Australian Plant Society meetings around the state. It was a delight to work with her in organising a state quarterly event titled “After the Floods” in which she showcased our area perfectly. It was a huge success. This was a massive task for her and Andrew to undertake (as their garden had been inundated by the 2011 flood waters.) Meredith did have one weakness! The inevitable purchasing of plants on many excursions. After promising not to buy any more plants, she and another avid gardener were caught by their husbands sneaking their purchases into the car boot. I can just imagine her excuses, “ Oh but “hun” this one is rare and I can propagate from it “ or “my on going plant re-placement supply needs replenishing” or “ how about we develop that tacky area over near the shed” There have been many tree planting days, street plantings, propagation days and walks around her and An-drew’s garden after meetings, always some baked goodies and always eagerness to help people with plant prob-lems. As one of our members recalls “ I rang this person about coming to the first meeting, an hour later I hung up the phone and thought- WOW I’ve met someone who’s as passionate about native plants as I am” Farewell our dear friend, we have been enriched by your Waffle, as you would have called it.

We will miss you dearly and thank you for being you.

“I love winter in a native garden because unlike a lot of exotic gardens that look and are dormant:

Native Gardens are full of life!”

Australian Plants Society Loddon-Murray Group

Native Plant Newsletter July-Sept 2016 Edition

A garden design exercise was held at the gardens of Kerry O’Brien at Lake Bael-Bael and Bill Ricketts in Kerang.

Kerry’s home was an impressive 85 yr old sand stone structure typical of that era where by the building had to regulate the temperature to com-

bat the Mallee elements.

Although the surrounding garden area was small, Kerry was utilizing the

existing vegetation to incorporate the natural habitat over the fence line.

To give him ideas the members filled out questionnaires that Kerry had supplied, for him to draw on their expertise and knowledge to landscape the garden beds close to his house.. There had been mixed success with the previous plantings and after much discussion was thought to have

been due to weather conditions, plant choice and positioning.

After this exercise we would hope that Kerry will have a lot more suc-

cess as he continues to plant out his garden.

Bill Rickett Garden Kerang The new garden on the road side of Bill’s home has grown well since he planted it after our last visit a couple of years ago.

He has fenced it to keep out the rabbits and installed a sprinkler system

to water it from his dam.

He hopes to plant the back side of the house next.

Plant profiles from AGM

“Paddy’s Pink”

By Lorraine Mathews

Paddy’s Pink is a hybrid between Chamelaucium and Verticordia and grows to around 2 metres x 1 metre.

It prefers neutral to acid soil and can be used as a hedge or in a pot.

Paddy’s Pink is ideal as a cut flower producing masses of terminal pink flowers on long stems in spring.

Frost tolerant to light frosts and very attractive to bees.

Members garden design exercise 30th April 2016

Hakea francisiana by Barry Teague.

It is one Hakea of approx 160 species and sub species. Hakea’s common name is Emu bush, it grows between 4-6 metres in the 300-400 Ml range, but also into the arid zone both in WA and SA. It has red bottle brush like flow-

ers up to 120mm long. There is a form with cream flowers with pink centres.

The flowers are well displayed. It has grayish foliage 100 to 250mm long. x 4-

10 mm wide. Francisiana is great for attracting nectar feeding birds.

It likes a well drained site, growing in gravelly soil, sandy loam and clay.

Hakea francisiana is a magnificent plant to grow, one of the best Hakea’s.

It is drought and frost tolerant.

Barry’s plant

A prostrate grevillea found growing in the South East of W.A. from Albany to

Cape Arid, spreading inland to Ravensthorpe and Mt Barker.

It grows in both coastal and inland regions. Grevillea nudiflora will tolerate soils from sand to clay, its prostrate habit growing only to 30 cms high and

spreading to over 2 metres makes it a great weed suppressant.

Grevillea nudiflora has red flowers tipped with yellow on the end of tendrils produced along the ground, a great attraction for the honeyeaters in winter-

spring time.

Grevillea nudiflora is frost tolerant to – 6 c and prefers a sunny position, it has been grown as a standard, grafted on Grevillea robusts or as a cascade

over a wall.

Although not endangered all our native plants need to be cultivated to ensure

their preservation.

It is with a heavy heart that I wrote this after the sad passing of our dear friend and colleague “Meredith”. Her initiation of the Loddon-Murray APS 9 yrs ago along with her driving force as president and Newsletter Editor brought to-gether our group of like minded people spread over many kilometers of the

Mallee.

Elva Teague has kindly stepped into the editors shoes so with contributions and support from all of us we will keep both the group and the Newsletter

going.

Our sympathy goes out to Andrew, Ben, Anne and their families at this difficult

time.

There are 91 species of Mistletoe which grow as a parasite on

other plants.

Ours is growing on Acacia baileyana. They take water and minerals from the host plant and produce their own chlorophyll and sugars which means the host plant can remain in good health. It has very attractive bunches of redbrush type flowers in summer followed

by pinky white berries in winter.

We saw a Mistletoe bird feeding on ours (a black and white bird with red markings). This bird along with some other birds, butter-flies and moths are completely reliant on this food source to sur-

vive.

It is frost hardy and can grow on any tree in sun or shade. Growth is dense and it can be propagated from the sticky seeds inside the

berries by placing them on other trees.

Caption describing picture or graphic.

Grevillea nudiflora by Lorraine Mathews

Amyema preissii wire leaved mistletoe By Ann Bienvenu

COMMITTEE President Andrew Farley 54572394 Vice-President Brenda Matthews 54572379 Treasurer Anne Hall 54522125 gemah2@bigpond.com Secretary & Library Linda Coote 0447134913 coringapark@gmail.com Members Lorraine Mathews 50302788 Ann & Keith Bienvenu 50324391 Barry Teague 50331020 Jenny Hewitt 54531902 Newletter Elva Teague 0427309433 edt9@bigpond.com

Australian plants for gardens in the sun by Rodger Elliot (Jan

19)

Australian plants for year-round colour by Angus Stewart

(Jan 19)

Successfully growing Australian native plants / [Geoff

Rigby] ; Colour your garden with Australian natives by

Geoff Rigby (Jan 19)

From the ground up : a complete garden guide for Victori-

an gardeners by Jane Edmanson (Jan 19)

Australia's Eremophilas: Changing Gardens for a Changing

Climate by Norma Boschen (Nov 9, 2014)

Name That Flower: The Identification of Flowering Plants by

Ian Clarke (Nov 9, 2014)

Plant Propagation Made Easy by Alan Toogood (Nov 9, 2014)

WILDFLOWERS OF THE WESTERN STATE by ROLSH (Nov 9,

2014)

Growing Australian native plants by F. J. C Rogers (Nov 9, 2014)

Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants Suitable for Cultivation :

Introductory Volume by W. Rodger Elliot and David L.

Jones (Nov 9, 20

ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF AUSTRALIAN PLANTS SUITABLE FOR CULTI-

VATION. VOLUME 5 [U1] by W. & D. Jones Elliot (Nov 9, 2014)

Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants Suitable for Cultivation: v.3 (Vol

3) by W.Rodger Elliot (Nov 9, 2014)

Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants Suitable For Cultivation Volume

4 by W. Rodger Elliot (Nov 9, 2014)

Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants: Suitable for Cultivation: Volume

7 by W.Rodger Elliot (Nov 9, 2014)

ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF AUSTRALIAN PLANTS SUITABLE

FOR CULTIVATION Volume Two (2) by W. Rodger and

Jones Elliot, David L. (Nov 9, 2014)

The Concise Australian Flora by Leonard Cronin (Nov 9, 2014)

Australian Native Plants: Cultivation, Use in Landscap-

ing and Propagation by Murray Fage (Nov 9, 2014)

Practical Gardening & Landscaping with Australian Na-

tive Plants by Alec Blombery (Nov 9, 2014

The following publications are available for loan; contact Linda Coote

2016 PROGRAM

July Sun 31st Outing Tom’s wetland mystery tour.10am at Lowe’s 54579312. August Wed 24th Meeting with Linda speaking on the plant identification day at Barham Federation Botanic

Reserve.

Sept Sun 4th Combined excursion with Field Nats to Wandown to update plant list for the reserve. Mem-bers are welcome to camp the night before as Field

Nats are conducting a bird survey on the Sat.

Oct Wed 26th Loddon-Murray APS Meeting 7.30pm at

Lions clubrooms.

Dec Sat 3rd Xmas Break Up Details TBA

APS DIARY DATES

(refer to APS Growing Aust. Newsletter for details or APS website) htt://www.apsvic.org.au/

Sept 17th & 18th Spring in East Gipplsand Quarterly gathering hosted by APNSEG Bairnsdale.

Oct 2nd Wartook Gardens Open day and Pomonal Wild flower Show

October Sat/Sun 8th & 9th : FJC Rogers Seminar, hosted by SGAP Warrnambool and SGAP Hamilton.

Theme Native Orchids

October 29th & 30th: Mallee to the Mountains, Wimmera Growers of Australian Plants 40th Anniversary, 4th Quarterly Meeting of Management Weekend Gathering hosted by Wimmera Growers

of Australian Plants.

Dear fellow APS members July 2016

Jeanne and I hope that members are getting some idea of the plants that we grow at Wartook Gardens via the regular articles in “Growing Australian.”

Please find enclosed a flyer for Wartook Gardens Open Day for the Hospital on October 2nd 2016.

It is a wonderful; opportunity to see a large mature garden with many plants that you may not have seen before.

See how we have turned an open paddock 40 years ago, into one of Victoria’s best native gardens with over 1000 species from all over Australia, and a large resident bird population.

We have also included some small photos to give you an idea of what there is to see.

On the day there will be plants for sale with all proceeds going to the Hospital.

There will be food provided by Laharum Hall Committee members which includes morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea..

The garden covers 2 hectares and is suitable for wheelchairs with over 1km of paths and lots of seats.

We hope that you will bring this event to the attention of your members and we would be delighted if some of your members were able to visit the garden on that day.

For your Group’s future reference, Jeanne and I are prepared to travel to any group to talk on any of the following topics, or one of your choice :

Gardening in the Southern Wimmera

Hakeas

Kimberley Adventure

Lesser Known Plants for the Garden

Pea Plants

Small Myrtaceae

Some Plants of the Grampians

Some Small Plants for Your Garden

Plants of Northern NSW

Wartook Gardens

WA Wildflowers

We are self contained with own screen, projector and laptop.

Jeanne & Royce Raleigh

Wartook Gardens

2866 Northern Grampians Rd

WARTOOK VIC 3401

Ph/Fax: +61 3 5383 6200

royce@wartookgardens.com.au

A motion was passed at the last general meeting to use the

“Billy Button “Craspedia globosa motif.

It is to be used in promotions, stationary and newsletters.

As you will notice it is on the front page of this issue.

Sender

APS Loddon– Murray

C/- P.O. Box 1620

Swan Hill 3585