September 2024

WHAT’S ON IN 2024

11 September Wednesday 10am:Propagation
21 September SaturdayVisit to Fairfield Indigenous Flora Park
9 October Wednesday 10am:Propagation
26 October SaturdayBushwalk Lake Parramatta. Leader Jennifer Farrer
6 November Wednesday 10am:Propagation
23 November SaturdayMembers’ meeting and end-of-year celebration Gumnut Hall
4 December Wednesday 10am:Propagation

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Saturday 21 September

Visit to Fairfield Indigenous Flora Park Christie St Prairiewood

Jennifer Farrer

The Park is on the Cumberland Plain which is now a threatened vegetation community. It hosts more than 50 species of native plants including Acacia pubescens and 25 species of birds and other animals including the Cumberland Plain Snail. The Park is maintained by community volunteers and is supported by Fairfield Council. The volunteers meet on the third Saturday of each month from 10am. This is why our visit has been brought forward by a week from the usual fourth Saturday for our activities.

We will meet at the Park at 10am and have morning tea with the volunteers.

For those who wish to have lunch afterwards, we can go to Deerbush Park which is adjacent to the nearby Fairfield Showground.
Travel time from Castle Hill is approximately 35 minutes.


Growing Paper Daisies

Every year in spring the Australian native Paper Daisies light up the wildflower season with their dazzling colours. Follow our gardening tips to create your own wildflower garden at home.

The vibrantly coloured Paper Daisy beds at Lakeside and the Connections Garden are one of the most popular features at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan during spring. With some attention to soil preparation and fertilising, there is a good range of species and cultivars that are very responsive to cultivation and rewarding for the home gardener.

Natural habitat

The Paper Daisies that you see flowering at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan during our Wildflower Festival are native to Western Australia, where they carpet huge expanses of some parts of the countryside in spring.

History

William Dampier collected the first Australian daisy, a Brachyscome, in 1699 from Shark Bay in Western Australia. Many Australian daisies were introduced into cultivation in Europe before the middle of the 19th century and they were very popular in the colony from the 1860s until the turn of the century.

Research

Xerochrysum bracteatum is believed to be the first cultivated Australian Daisy and the first of our native plants to be hybridised. German horticulturists hybridised it and released it to European gardeners in the 1850s. Within a decade, many different forms were listed in colonial catalogues.

Planting conditions

Paper Daisies are best grown when you follow the natural growth cycle, which starts with direct sowing in autumn as the soil cools down. Plants will grow slowly through the winter months, developing a strong root system and flowering prolifically in spring. Direct seeding with paper daisies allows you to create informal drifts of Australian colour in your garden.

Soil mix

Achieve the best results with a good proportion of washed river sand and good quality potting or soil mix. The soil must be free of weeds, with adequate weed control preferably taking place during the month before planting.
With some attention to soil preparation and fertilising, there is a good range of species and cultivars that are very responsive to cultivation and rewarding for the home gardener.

Sowing the seeds

Paper Daisy seeds are very lightweight, so avoid sowing on windy days.
Mix each seed batch separately with half a bucket of normal sand/compost potting mix for each square metre of the garden bed. Work on a rate of 3 grams of seed per square metre. This rate can be reduced if pure seed is purchased. Brachyscomes are sown at a rate of 1 gram per square metre.
Broadcast the seed/soil mix evenly across the surface of the prepared bed. The soil mix will help keep the seed from drying out.
Seed can be directly sown into tubs for a colourful spring display if you have a small garden.

Irrigation

Keep the soil surface moist until germination commences (normally after one week) and apply snail bait or similar control.

Fertiliser

When plants reach a height of 10-15 cm apply a general-purpose liquid fertiliser at three-weekly intervals.

Flowering

The flower display is usually from September through to November depending on sowing time.

The best types of Paper Daisies to grow

To follow are some good types of Paper Daisies to grow in the home garden. You can also dry the flowers and use them in dried flower arrangements.

Rosy Everlastings
Rhodanthe chlorocephala subsp. rosea ‘Rosy Everlasting’

Photo: Australian Daisy Study Group

This daisy is native to southwestern Western Australia, usually growing inland from the coast on sandy soils. It is a very popular daisy for cultivation – both in gardens and as a cut flower crop – and reaches a height of around 50 cm. The flowers are small, star-like, deep pink fading to white, with a yellow or black centre.

Photo: Australian Daisy Study Group

Sunrays
Rhodanthe manglesii ‘Mangles Everlasting’ or ‘Silver Bells’

This is an attractive Western Australian species that occurs from Kalbarri to the Stirling Range and inland to Coolgardie in open woodland on loamy soils. It was introduced into cultivation in England in 1833 by Captain James Mangles. It is easy to grow and has attractive blue-green foliage. The silvery weeping buds produce beautiful pink or white nodding bell-like paper daisies that have a silky appearance. Sunrays reach a height of around 50 cm.

Other types of Paper Daisy

Showy Everlastings
Schoenia filifolia subsp. subulifolia ‘Showy Everlasting’

This spectacular, vivid yellow paper daisy from southwestern Western Australia is found in coastal and hinterland areas from Geraldton to the south of Perth. It is superb when planted in massed displays and makes an excellent cut flower with contrasting dark green narrow foliage.

Photo: Brian Walters
Photo: Murray Fagg, from http://www.anbg.gov.au/photo

Brachyscomes
Swan River Daisies (Brachyscome iberidifolia)

These low-growing plants have dark purple flowers that slowly fade to white – they give the garden a soft dappled look. This Daisy is native to Western Australia, where it grows along watercourses, in swampy areas or chalky hills around Perth. It will grow in both sandy and clay soils, and reach a height of around 20 cm.

It is easy to grow and ideal for borders and tubs. Flowers in massed plantings have a range of colours including white, pink, mauve and blue, which will continue from spring to early summer. Selected colour forms of the Swan River Daisy are also available, such as ‘Summer Skies’ and ‘Bravo Mixed’.

Xerochrysum bracteatum ‘Golden Everlasting’
An extremely variable and widespread plant usually with bright golden yellow flowers. Excellent long-lasting cut flowers. Perennial varieties such as ‘Cockatoo,’ ‘Diamond Head,’ ‘Dargan Hill Monarch’ and ‘Golden Bowerbird’ are also worth growing.


Plants in my garden

Ian Cox

Native Ginger, Alpinia caerulea, grows naturally from Gosford north along the coast to the tip of Cape York, as an understory plant in rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest.

The young root tips, shoots and berries are edible with a mild, tangy ginger flavour, and the leaves can be used as wraps in cooking.

It can be a feature plant in the garden, with a great splash of reddish colour on the underside of leaves. If it gets a bit of sun, the leaf undersides will go redder.

Very quick-growing, it soon gets to 2m high by 1m wide, maybe larger (3m high) in shaded areas.
Propagation is easy by division or seed.

Native Ginger, Alpinia caerulea
Grevillea ‘Deua Beauty’

Grevillea ‘Deua Beauty’ – This grevillea is unique and special – it came up as a seedling in the native garden at the Community Environment Centre, Annangrove. We gave it its name because it looks so beautiful!

I think its parents are Grevillea rhyolitica (Deua Flame) and Grevillea speciosa.

It looks a bit like Grevillea ‘Lady O’, which is a fantastic grevillea to brighten up the garden. But Deua Beauty grows larger (1.5m high x 4m wide), and has wider leaves and larger flowers.

Grevillea ‘Deua Beauty’

Grevillea ‘Deua Beauty’ flowers most of the year, and displays its red droopy flowers extremely well.

If you’d like some cuttings, please let me know. It would be nice to spread it around in members’ gardens.


Bushland Conservation Committee

Who We Are
The Bushland Conservation Committee (BCC) is a S355 Council advisory committee that seeks to protect, connect and improve the integrity and diversity of the natural environment in the Shire through advice to Council.

The BCC supports the promotion of environmental protection wherever achievable by gaining an understanding of plans, activities, natural areas and community views.

What We Do
•Reflect the views of the local community and environmental groups
•Identify and advise Council on challenges and opportunities in respect of bushland management
•Promote bushland regeneration works and associated public education.

We do this by acting as a conduit between the many community voices and the council, offering advice based on best practices for the management of urban bushland as a community asset.

How Can You Become Involved?
Are you a bushcarer within The Hills Shire? Tell us about what you are doing and the challenges you face.
Are you a rural landowner? Do you have access to the help you need to protect biodiversity on your property?
Are you a lover of nature and the local Hills bushland? How can we better protect this precious resource? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Members of the community are also welcome to nominate for this Committee, which generally meets monthly. Committee members are passionate volunteers who have wide-ranging experience in all aspects of bushland management.


Lovely Lichens

On the following page are photos of lichens taken during a wander around my garden recently.

A lichen is a symbiosis of algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species, along with a yeast embedded in the cortex or “skin”, in a mutualistic relationship.

Lichens have properties different from those of their component organisms. They come in many colours, sizes, and forms and are sometimes plant-like, but are not plants. They may have tiny, leafless branches (fruticose); flat leaf-like structures (foliose); grow crust-like, adhering tightly to a surface (substrate) like a thick coat of paint (crustose); have a powder-like appearance (leprose); or other growth forms. There are about 20,000 species of lichen
– from Wikipedia


Magical Creatures: The Under-appreciated Role of Insects in Our Gardens

Story by Gabiann Marin

Jewel Beetles are like works of art in the garden. (Photo: Creative Commons)

There is an army of hard-working environmental warriors all around us: in the soil, on plants, in the air and in the water. Insects are our hidden allies. They protect, develop and maintain our natural environments, and yet their contribution is so often misunderstood, ignored or actively maligned.

You can have a thriving, beautiful garden, without pesticides, by simply restoring your garden’s natural balance.

Springwood resident Dr Kate Umbers, Senior Lecturer in Zoology at Western Sydney University, is someone who does see the magic and beauty in our invertebrates, dedicating her life to studying and helping to conserve them.

“I am very lucky to live in the Blue Mountains,” Kate says, “because it’s an absolute refugium in a wasteland of urban sprawl to the east, and agricultural intensification to the west. A little green sanctuary; little relative to the size of Australia, but it’s a relatively large patch overall. Probably there are species of insect here that are nowhere else. But you know, nobody knows, because we just haven’t spent enough time looking at insects in general. But I think the Blue Mountains are like a representative of what diversity would have existed across all of Sydney if we had kept it more in its natural state.”

Although Kate has a doctorate in Zoology, she quickly began specialising in invertebrates, particularly insects, because, as she states, “That’s where all the real discoveries can be found.”

Indeed, despite making up the vast majority of animal life on earth, insects are poorly researched and remain somewhat misunderstood more generally, particularly in the public sphere.

“In Australia, there are probably about 300,000 different species of insect but only about 100,000 of those even have a formal description. So we don’t even know what is out there.” Dr Umbers sighs as she explains that her research has had to shift from looking at the macro populations to focusing on those insects that are in most need of protection. “I’ve started just focusing on species conservation and wondering which ones are in the most trouble. And how we can motivate people to care about them.”

Take Action:
Eradicate the use of insecticides, particularly one-spray-kills-all broad-spectrum pesticides. If you want to have a thriving beautiful garden, this can be achieved without pesticides, simply by allowing the natural balance to come back. If you must use any, limit the use to small amounts carefully directed in specific areas.


Use natural barriers rather than insecticides. Food crops and flowers can be protected through nettings or natural barriers, such as egg shells or coffee grounds at the stems of plants to stop snails, caterpillars and other insects from eating your plants.


Plant a diversity of flowers. All insects benefit from an array of flowers. Native is the best option but any flowering plant will provide food for a variety of pollinators and beneficial insects. Having flowers that bloom across different seasons will help sustain hoverflies and other insects that are active in the colder months.


Create natural garden areas. Lawns are insect deserts and also soak up a huge amount of water, so keeping them to a minimum will save you money and help support native insects and other animals. Keeping parts of your garden as natural as possible will provide food and shelter for insects and help them flourish.


Allow leaf litter and fallen branches to remain on the ground to provide habitat.


Sir David Attenborough’s thoughts . . .

Sir David Attenborough, at the conclusion of his popular television documentary series Life on Earth, pointed out that “there was no scientific evidence whatever to support the views that Man represents the ultimate triumph of evolution, and that all these millions of years of development have had no purpose other than to put him on earth“.

Other quotes from Sir David:-

Although there was no reason to suppose that our stay here will be any more permanent than that of the dinosaurs, the fact is that no species has ever had such a wholesale control over everything on earth as we now have. That lays upon us, whether we like it or not, an awesome responsibility, for in our hands now lies not only our own future, but that of all the other living creatures with whom we share the earth.

It’s surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth.

The UN has said that the majority of the human race is now urbanised, so a majority of the human race doesn’t see a true wild animal. We also know that we depend upon the natural world for every breath of air we take and every mouth of food we eat. If we damage the natural world, we damage ourselves. If the natural world is in peril we are in peril.

The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.

It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.

We must change our diet. The planet can’t support billions of meat-eaters.


APS NSW Annual Weekend Get-together Armidale 1-3 November 2024

Hosted by the Armidale Group

Join us on the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, for a very exciting weekend of nature, gardening, and art.
Registration fee:
$100, which includes morning tea, a boxed lunch and a two-course dinner at the New
England Regional Art Museum on Saturday.
$35 for the bus for all Saturday daytime venues. Only 57 places are available so book early
to ensure a seat. The bus cost will be kept separate as some people may wish to ‘tag
along’ in their car. A reserve list will be kept and a second bus may be organised.
Full Registration (with bus) is $135.

RSVP your interest: Maria Hitchcock OAM, maria.hitchcock@gmail.com
You will be sent payment details and other information about accommodation options, etc.
Costs will be itemised before payment to allow for your selection.

Program:
Friday, 1st November
Presidents’ dinner at the Mun Hing Restaurant. APS NSW will pay for District Group presidents or their representatives. Other attendees are to pay for their own meals. All welcome.

Saturday, 2 November
All day, bus tour will take you to all daytime venues – remember there is a limited capacity of 57, so book early to ensure a seat.

9:30 am: Bus boards at Armidale Visitor Information Centre, 82 Marsh St., Armidale.
9:45 am: Arrive at Keith and Colleen Finlayson’s garden. Keith has successfully grafted many native plants over the years and has over 80 of these planted in his garden.
Morning tea in the garden.
12 noon: Boxed lunch at Kent House. Kent House is opposite the historic Central Park and is worth a stroll across to visit it with your lunch.
1 pm: Arrive at the Armidale Bicentennial Arboretum, Kentucky St., Armidale, for a tour.
2:15 pm: Arrive at Wollomombi Falls for a tour and a wander.
The Falls are within the extensive Oxley Wild Rivers National Park.
4:15 pm: Return to Armidale Visitor Information Centre to freshen up for the evening event.
6:30 pm: New England Regional Art Museum, 106-114 Kentucky Street, Armidale, for drinks, a two-course dinner and a speaker. We will be seated in the east gallery which displays the outstanding Hinton Collection of early Australian Art. Museum Curator, Rachel Parsons, will speak about Howard Hinton and his collection. Dinner will be catered by the Six Counties Restaurant which offers four options of mains and three options of dessert.
9.15 pm: Arrive back at the Information Centre.

Sunday, 3 November.
The annual Armidale Garden Festival, 12 Barney St., Armidale.
The Festival brings together nurseries, gardeners, garden suppliers, eco displays, garden
ornaments along with a great range of retail therapy with a vast array of stall holders.
There will be inspiring gardens open on both days. Entry to the Garden Festival entry is to be
booked individually at a later date. We will advise you when bookings for the Festival open.


Telopea Public School garden

Jennifer Farrer

In July our Group received an email from Antonia Andonenas, a teacher at Telopea Public School requesting some assistance to develop the school garden.

Antonia teaches Gardening and Science to all classes at the school. The garden has been at the school for quite a while and has a number of native plants growing in it. In recent times it has become a bit run down and has also suffered from the abundance of rain as it is on the side of a hill below the school buildings. She requested assistance from someone who knew more than she does to introduce more bush tucker plants into the garden and to share knowledge with the students.

Joan Hayes and I went to visit the garden and discovered a very spacious area already planted with quite a few native plants including bush tucker plants. Antonia is very enthusiastic and has purchased plants already with school funds and her own money. We gave her a bit of advice on the spot and also some suggestions about Aboriginal elders to approach for more information about bush tucker. We have also sent her the latest Calgaroo which included the article about the bush tucker garden at The Illawarra Grevillea Park.

This week I went to the school and gave her some plants from our Propagation Group – Epacris purpurascens, Prostanthera scutellarioides, Leinonema lamprophyllum, Grevillea “Deua Beauty”, Adenanthos sericea and a variegated Westringia.

I have also volunteered to go and talk to the students at some future date. This is a marvellous opportunity to engage with the next generation and kindle some interest amongst them for our native plants.

Please let me know if you would like to come on the next visit to the school.


Visit to Crommelin Native Arboretum Pearl Beach 24th August 2024

Jennifer Farrer

We had a perfect day for our visit to the Central Coast. Eight members and two visitors attended.

The Crommelin Arboretum is 5.5 hectares of beautiful bushland that was created in 1976 on land owned by Gosford Council which has been degraded by logging, grazing and bushfires. The last devastating fire was in 1990. The Arboretum is named after Minard Crommelin who was the postmistress at Pearl Beach from 1942 to 1972. She was an avid conservationist who campaigned for the establishment of the Brisbane Waters National Park.

We were fortunate to have Victoria Crawford, one of the Arboretum volunteers, as our guide through the reserve. She also recommended the delightful spot where we had our picnic lunch before the visit. The Arboretum, as its name implies is a collection of plants, many of them rare and threatened, as well as the native woodland. Paths take the visitor through different vegetation types including a palm valley, Burrawang Scrubby Woodland, a creek valley and wetland.

Those members who missed out on the visit should find time to visit this peaceful and beautiful spot.

Gmelina leichhardtii (White Beech)
Livistona australis (Cabbage Tree Palm)

Interesting Links . . .

Why should you mulch your garden, when, and what type should you use? – from The ABC.

Now we can monitor the ‘heartbeat’ of soil– from The Conversation.

Humans can work with nature to solve big environmental problems – from The Conversation.


Share your stories . . .

Your contributions to Calgaroo are always welcome.

If you have interesting observations of plants in the garden or the bush, photos, or any other news, please send them to me at itcox@bigpond.com for the next edition.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of our Country, the people of the Dharug Nation, whose cultures and customs have nurtured, and continue to nurture, this land since time immemorial. We honour and celebrate the spiritual, cultural and customary connections of Traditional Owners to Country and the biodiversity that forms part of that Country.

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Parramatta and Hills District Group

SECRETARY: Jennifer Farrer apsparrahills@gmail.com 0407 456 577

EDITOR: Ian Cox itcox@bigpond.com

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