Electronic Mailbox

Well...every newsletter should have a deliberate mistake just to find out if the readers are paying attention. So, would you believe that this was the deliberate mistake?....Oh.

Well, in my defence let me say that I have in front of me a map of the western United States and I'm looking at California. I've just extrapolated the northern and southern borders of that state in a westerly direction, found the mid point between those lines and drawn another line back east towards the pacific coast (yes I know I shouldn't deface a reference book, but reputations are at stake here!). Now, let me see....where's Santa Cruz. Oh, there it is.....south of the line!

Now I'm tempted to say "nyaa nyaa na nyaa nyaaa" but that would be childish.....Oh what the hell; nyaa nyaa na nyaa nyaaa!

All that this shows is that it's possible to prove anything provided you define your starting conditions creatively! It did take several goes before I came up with a way to divide California in a manner which suited my purpose and at one point I thought it might be necessary to deprive Oregon of a significant slice of territory........

Anyway...I accept that by any reasonable definition, Santa Cruz is closer to Oregon than Mexico. Santa Cruzians (is that a word?), please accept my apologies for this blunder.

The "Photo Gallery" also includes a basic distribution map for each species as well as a short description of the features of each plant.

Not everyone is going to be interested in every article we publish but I hope we can at least give all of our readers something of interest each time. Of course, we don't commission articles and we will eventually need to rely on readers to contribute if the newsletter is to have a long term viability.

Botany. Although it's undoubtedly a legume (and has the nitrogen fixing root nodules typical of Leguminosae) the tendency here is to place it in a separate family (Fabaceae) along with all of the other "pea flowers". There are three species, all Australian endemics.

Distribution. It is a widespread species occurring in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. It occurs in a variety of habitats from coast to mountains, usually in open forest/woodland and sometimes in heath.

Name. Hardenbergia...after Franziska Countess von Hardenberg; violacea...referring to the typical flower colour.

The typical form of Hardenbergia violacea is a climber which puts on a colourful display in eastern Australia in spring. Select the thumbnail image or plant name for a higher resolution image (34k).

Habit. Usually a light climbing species but shrubby forms without any climbing tendency are known.

Flower Colour. Usually violet but other colours such as pink and white are sometimes found.

Propagation. Easy from seed using "boiling water" as a pretreatment to soften the impervious seed coat. This is a common method with all pea flowers and simulates the effect of a bushfire in breaking down this physical dormancy. The seed retains viability for many years.

Propagation from cuttings is also fairly easy. The use of root promoting hormones is common but may not be necessary.

If you're an enthusiast, these problems represent a "challenge" but if you just want reliable Australian plants for the garden, the people selling plants and designing gardens need to be aware that all Australian plants are not hardy everywhere.

I hope this isn't painting too dark a picture! We'll do our best to provide accurate advice through the web site and this online journal.

Gary, if you can successfully grow and flower Sturt's Desert Pea, perhaps you could let us know your secrets and methods. A lot of reader's would be happy with a single flower!:-)

I can't give you any first hand advice about Acacia peuce....I've never grown it and, from what I can make out, there aren't too many people who have. Whatever you decide to do over winter, perhaps you could let us know how it turns out.

The only information I could find about the plant is a few paragraphs in "The Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants". There it's described as being both very slow growing and very hardy and able to grow successfully in hot dry climates. "Very little is known about its behaviour in cultivation and such factors as growth rate with supplementary irrigation and response to fertilisers remain unknown".

So where does this leave you? From what I can make out about the climate where the plant grows naturally, I would have thought that very cold winter nights would be something it would be used to although I'm not sure what degree of frost it might experience naturally. If it were mine I would leave it where it is but make provision to cover the plant with plastic if frost is forecast. I would remove the plastic during the daytime.

I guess the difference between the newsletter and the web site is that the newsletter material is a bit more temporary, although I hope to be able to retain back issues on line for some time. I also hope that a newsletter might provide scope for discussion and feedback between users. The material on the web page should reflect, more or less, the basic activities and interests of the Society. It might be amended but I would imagine that there would always be a Propagation Page, for example, even if it changes from the present one. When the newsletter discusses propagation, it will be along the lines of presenting research or tips from experienced growers, some of which might be incorporated into the main propagation page..

The thumbnail images were put on line for precisely that reason...we don't all have lightning fast access to the internet, a fact that seems to have escaped the developers of many recent web sites where there is an obsession with graphics.

I don't know a lot about the climate in your area but I think it is Mediterranean so you should be able to grow the plant with reasonable success. If your climate is similar to Santa Cruz you should do OK as the Arboretum at the University of California there grows many Australian plants very successfully.

The garden conditions you suggest shouldn't cause a problem although I'd prefer to see it growing in something with a bit more sand. I think good drainage will be the key rather than the nature of the soil. Once the plant is established it should be able to survive without summer water....it does in nature. You would probably need to water it in summer in its first season.

For those interested in Verticordia, the Society's print quarterly "Australian Plants" devoted a full issue to Verticordia in the December 1995 issue. For further information on subscribing to Australian Plants, see Subscribe.

I'd suggest A.boormanii, A.beckleri, A.cultriformis, A.floribunda, A.spectabilis, A.flexifolia and A.dealbata. These are all fairly common and seed would be available from most suppliers.