Parkville garden spring update

As the saying goes 'spring has finally sprung' in Melbourne and the garden I work in at Parkville is showing signs of new growth everywhere. It is so nice to be working outside with the sun shining on my back. We have had some fairly serious spring weather of late including winds that ripped through the garden at over 100km per hour! There has also been a few days where we experienced really heavy rainfall. Despite the weather the garden is still looking chirpy with new growth popping up everywhere and in another month or so it should start to look its best with most of the warm weather plants in bloom or just starting to pop open. My current favorite garden bed (the annual bed) is finally showing all of the flowers on the plants I planted there in winter. I have sown seeds including giant Hollyhocks and Zinnias in tubes ready to restock the annual bed for later in the year. I will post another update on the Parkville garden in a month or two when everything is firing at its peak.

The annual bed as it was a couple of months ago

 The annual bed as it is now. This time I planted Kale, Pansies, Violas, Cinerarias and Stocks

These Cinerarias look so much more blue in real life than in these photos. They were at their best about a week ago and are now starting to show some signs of old age.

These next two pictures are of the beds at the entrance. The Echium simplex flowers are almost all open. Also visible in the first picture is are some tree Euphorbias (Euphorbia lambii). In the second shot you can see the Hellebore flowers are still hanging on for dear life in the warm weather and behind them is a Salvia leucantha bush we pruned in the winter.

 

Below is a plant called a Sonchus (not sure of the species). Before this plant flowered I thought it was quite boring but now it has opened it sure is a head turner. It reminds me of a giant dandelion and is nudging 2 metres in height.

We have lots of bluebells in various locations in the gardens and they are all open at the moment.

 

One of the classic Melbourne plants, an Azalea.

This spring the Clivias are putting on a much better show than last year. They must have just the right conditions.

I really like this last plant. It is an Alyogyne which believe it or not is a plant indigenous to Australia. I occasionally  come across plants such as this that seem to look anything but Australian and it surprises me. I love the huge purple flowers. 

Clivia seed collection and propagation technique

Clivia plants are a popular choice for filling out a shady spot in the garden. They thrive in shade and suffer in too much sunshine and are often found planted under the canopy of large trees or on the Southern side of an Australian house. They don't need much attention are generally used in mass plantings however buying enough plants to fill out a large area can be expensive. Propagating your own plants from seed is a more economical option.

Clivia miniata flowers in all their glory.

 

 

COLLECTING SEED

 

The first step is to collect some seed. You may notice that Clivia plants have either green or red seed pods. The pods start green then mature to red. You only collect the seed from the red pods because chances are that the green pods seed will not germinate.

 

Green pods need to be left until red

This is what you are looking for. Mature red pods ready to go.

 

 

EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES

 

To propagate Clivias I used

•  several plastic pots
•  a good potting mix
•  red Clivia seed pods
•  a potting bench (which is actually the top of my BBQ).

I chose to use regular potting mix over seed raising mix or a perlite / vermiculute and peat mix because I plan to keep these plants for a while so starting them in regular potting mix means I wont have to transplant them from the seed raising mix to a potting mix later on. If you do want to start them in seed raising or a perlite / peat mix then you can transplant them after they have sprouted their first leaf.

 

** It is important to plant the seeds within days of picking the pods or the seed may go rotten. Clivia seeds cannot be dried in paper bags and kept for later planting. You need to get them in the potting mix or ground quickly. **

 

 

 

 

PROPAGATION TECHNIQUE (THE EASY WAY)

 

 

1. Peel the pod casing from the seed.

 

2. Remove the white slippery membrane from the seed.

 

3. Plant the seed in potting mix at twice the depth of the diameter of the seed.

 

4. Water in and place in a warm location ideally 23°C to 25°C

 

 

 

A seed pod on the left, a seed with no membrane in the middle and a seed with some membrane intact on the right

 

 

All done and ready to water in. Looks like I picked too many seed pods.

 

 

THE WAITING GAME

 

The seeds can take between 2 weeks and 6 months to sprout! Be patient and water regularly enough to keep the potting mix moist. Clivias are incredibly slow growing. You can expect to wait a year for the plants to reach 15cm high. This can be seen as a good or a bad thing. Bad if you want them to fill out an area quickly. Good if you want to sell them as they can be kept for a long time before they get to big for the boots and need to be planted out.