Euryops pectinatus or the Yellow daisy bush. A classic plant for adding colour to your garden in winter.

In winter the most showy plant I have in my garden in terms of masses of colourful plants is my Euryops pectinatus. Euryops are a classic perennial plant that can be found in many Australian gardens. It has some degree of frost tolerance and tolerates a certain amount of dryness. This perennial is native to South and Central Africa and the name Euryops comes from the Greek Eurys (large) and ops (eye). There are several different varieties of Euryops but I would say that most can grow to about 1.7 high and 1.7 metres wide. I cut mine back after flowering but I let it go for a couple of years and it has gone a bit leggy. I have read that they strike quite easily from cuttings so I will try and propagate some that way and start them off again. It has a silvery sheen to its foliage which some say combines well with Wormwood which has a similar leaf. Here in Australia this plant is probably considered boring by some because it is extremely common but I love it as its is fairly low maintenance and provides some vivid colour to my garden in the cooler months. Among the common names for Euryops pectinatus are Yellow daisy bush or Golden daisy bush.

The classic daisy (asteraceae) shaped flower of my Euryops growing in Macedon Victoria.

Look at all those flowers. You would be forgiven for thinking that it is Spring.

Classic common house plant Aspidistra aka cast iron plant

A very common and useful house plant is the Aspidistra or cast iron plant. I remember as a youngster people telling me that this plant will grow in a dark hallway of a house and indeed it does. I have owned a couple of Aspidistras over the years and even managed to keep some alive as a young man in my early twenties. That was possible because Aspidistras are very tough and could endure my lack of care. They seem to thrive on neglect and infrequent watering. The only thing they don't like is lots of sun so if you buy one don't put it in front of a window at home or it will bleach out and die. They are native to Japan and I'm fairly sure that the species that I have pictured here is Aspidistra elatior. It was previously thought that Aspidistras were pollinated by snails and slugs. We now know this isn't true and they are in fact pollinated by tiny crustaceans and amphipods. Some are also now saying that fungus gnats may be a pollinator but research is not conclusive at the present time. Another interesting fact is that the foliage of some Aspidistra plants was originally used in Japanese sushi boxes to separate the food but now imitation Aspiditra leaves are used. I would recommend this plant to anybody who wants an extremely low maintenance, tough and low light indoor house plant.

Grass plant Miscanthus transmorrisonensis aka evergreen feather grass

A quick post today on one of my favorite grass plants Miscanthus transmorrisonensis or Evergreen feather grass. This type of Miscanthus is one of the most popular as it holds flower heads from summer through to late winter. Miscanthus transmorrisonensus was introduced from Taiwan by Paul Meyer of the Morris Arboretum and C. Ferris Miller of Chollipo Arboretum. The seed was collected from wild plants found at nearly ten thousand feet in elevation on the slops of Mt. Daxue of Sichuan province in Southwest China.
Miscanthus plants are native to China and Japan. They go by the common names Chinese silvergrass, Suzuki grass, Porcupine grass and Maiden grass. They are a great plant to use for providing the often forgotten element of movement in your garden as the flower heads sway around in the breeze when the wind picks up. They are sometimes recommended as a plant for prarie style gardens. They also look stunning with the sun shining behind the flower heads. They can be propagated by division. They respond well after transplanting and you don't have to be overly careful after pulling them up. Digging the plant out of the ground is the hardest part. They have a dense fibrous root system that needs to be dug around and under to lift the plant.  I would describe their water usage as low / medium once established.

When I first started working in the Parkville garden where I currently am employed, we dug up a mature Miscanthus transmorrisonensis plant and divided it into about 8 clumps. What you see in the pictures below is 6 of those clumps approximately 1 year after planting them. They are about 1.2 metres tall.

Here it is in all its glory. Honestly it looks significantly better in real life when it is swaying around in the wind with the sun shining on it.

Closeup of the beautiful plumes of this plant. Only a really bright day the sun almost makes the plumes look like they are illuminating light.

Cleaning the slate for my Macedon garden

The heat of Summer is definitely over and Autumn is bringing the cold weather back to my garden in Macedon. Luckily I'm on top of the gardening at home for a change so hopefully this year I will have a nice Winter garden. I've cleared the annual flowers and I bought some mushroom compost and dug it through the garden beds. One major job I'm glad to have completed is the planting of last years garlic crop. In total I've got over 150 cloves planted in 2 beds so that should equate to roughly 120 - 130 bulbs when harvested taking into account a few failures (rotten bulbs). I've got the new annuals growing in pots and some are ready to plant out. The new annuals are cornflowers, larkspurs, poppys, stocks, asters, pansies and snapdragons. The annuals are all growing under perspex coldframes which are ex display cases that I rescued from the rubbish tip. Also I've got 20 Haworthia succulents and several Aeoniums growing in small pots protected from the frost. I know it's not much to look at now but I've essentially wiped the slate clean and in a couple of months the beds will be full with colour.

The empty beds waiting to be planted out



Several Nasturtium plants that my daughters and I started from seed.

This one snapdragon from last year is still going strong the others were finished so I removed them.

An out of focus Rudbeckia. This plant was given to me by Mick from the local Macedon nursery near the general store. I had to do an assignment for TAFE which involved questioning him and photographing plant tags in his nursery. The fact that he gave me a plant after taking up all his time and messing around with his plants says lots about his character. I recommend you visit his nursery if you are in town he is a great guy.

The colframes steaming away on a cold Macedon day.

Several of the Haworthias in their pots. Such great little plants, they remind me of octopuses.

One crimson broad bean plant that self seeded from last years crop. I love it when plants self seed, its such a nice surprise (unless they are weeds self seeding).

                          

How to propagate Aeoniums from cuttings

I liked Aeoniums the first time a saw them and still do. They seem to have universal appeal as even people who don't like succulent plants tend to have a soft spot for the Aeonium. I suppose they don't have the classic succulent look about them. What they do have are magnificent leaves and peculiar shaped inflorescences of flowers. There are about 35 different species of Aeoniums and most are from the Canary Islands. From the experience I've had with the Aeoniums at my place I would definitely describe them as a low maintenance plant. I only water them once in a blue moon and they seem to tolerate a mild amount of frost. 

The magnificent rosette of leaves of an Aeonium plant.

Another angle of the same type of Aeonium.

The wonderful inflorescence of flowers they produce. You will need to wait a couple of years before they are mature enough to flower.

PROPAGATION TECHNIQUE

Aeoniums are a really easy plant to propagate from cuttings as is the case with many succulent plants. As such they are suited to beginners. They require little skill, no greenhouse and as yet I've never had one that didn't strike roots (100% success rate).

SUPPLIES NEEDED

• A pair of secateurs
• A mature and healthy Aeonium plant to take cuttings from
• A cactus / succulent mix to plant the cuttings in
• Pots

TIMING

The most important thing to know when trying to propagate Aeoniums from cuttings is the timing. Aeoniums will only produce roots during their active growth period which is the cooler months of the year if you live in a place with really hot Summers. In somewhere like Melbourne Australia I would avoid trying to propagate them in the peak of Summer.

METHOD

Assuming you have the timing down you need to then cut off a rosette of leaves from the mother plant leaving enough stem to plant the cutting (say 5cm at the least). You then dry the cutting a little by leaving it on newspaper overnight or maybe 2 nights if you want. You then plant the cutting into a pre watered pot of cactus / succulent potting mix and that's all! I never use rooting hormone or any of that jazz as I you don't need it with Aeoniums. I keep the potting mix damp for about a month or until the plants grow a little. After that they don't need much attention.

Have fun propagating :)

Below are a couple of cuttings I have taken from the mother plant.

Some more cuttings in place in their pots

This is one I did about 1 year ago. Its a tought little plant I've let it go dry for weeks and it looks really healthy.



Visit to the historical Cameron Lodge Botanical Gardens in Mount Macedon

Last weekend I visited the Cameron Lodge gardens in Mount Macedon near my home and they didn't fail to impress. Originally built in 1886 it was names 'Rahiri'. In 1916 It was purchased by William Cameron who has the director of British American Tobacco who renamed it Cameron Lodge. William Cameron was the one who commissioned the landscaping work on the property and is thereby credited with creating the gardens. Cameron Lodge is one of the luck properties that survived the Ash Wednesday bushfires in the 1980s so there are lots of large established trees such as a Giant Sequoia, Pin Oaks, Oriental Spruce, Japanese Maples, English Elm and Copper Beech. In my opinion the highlight of the gardens is a structure build in 1932 called the 'Temple of the Winds' which is a pillared structure surrounded in the middle of a large pond. You need to step over small stepping stones to get to it. The garden also contains a potager (picking / vegetable garden) with beds bordered by box hedge and the whole potager surrounded by a large holly hedge. Cameron Lodge is a massive garden of several hectares and as such it has 2 full time gardeners and 1 full time hedger. Topiary and hedges play a massive part in the design of the garden to the point where a service driveway hundreds of metres long is completely hidden by huge hedges which run its entire length. Cameron Lodge is a really beautiful and huge garden and I highly recommend visiting on one of its open days. It is part of the open gardens scheme in Victoria. 

The sound of this fountain is audible from the entrance and its head peeks over the top of a hedge.

This is the pittosporum hedge which forms the front border of the property.

Box hedge creating the border for this garden bed. A theme repeated throughout the garden.

A view of the front fountain in its entirety.

The main residence of Cameron Lodge. Although a large house I liked the fact that it was a bit less monstrous in terms of height compared to some of the Mount Macedon properties. 

View from the main residence looking toward the back of the property.

View of garden beds on the side of the main residence.

Some topiary near the smaller cottage in the middle of the gardens.

One thing I gained from the visit was an appreciation of Holly like this nice variegated specimen.

There were lots of trees in the garden and lots of nice shadows cast across the paths.

View of the 'Temple of the winds'

One of several elephants in the pond surrounding the temple.

The stepping stones which are the only way to get to the temple.

View from the temple looking across the pond which surrounds it.

The maples were just starting to colour up for Autumn.

These 'Roman Baths' are one of the features that were recently restored.

This pergola was enveloped by Wisteria.

This is part of the long driveway which is hidden by hedges. You can see why they need a full time hedger.

One of the herbaceous beds.

Vegetable beds in the potager. They were a bit lacking in produce but that may be indicative of the season.

These Dahlias were also in the potager probably grown for picking and display in the house.

More Autumn colour showing in the trees

Some stone steps near the middle of the gardens. The property is quite steep in parts, the gardeners must be fit from all the uphill walking they need to do.

Nephrolepis cordifolia or Fishbone fern an Australian native plant

Botanical name: Nephrolepis cordifolia
Common names: Fishbone fern, herringbone fern, narrow sword fern, tuber ladder fern and erect sword fern
Native to: Australia and some parts of Asia


In my family Nephrolepis cordifolia is a divisive plant. This is because my father planted them in almost every family house garden he owned over the years. It was almost like that was the only plant he could be bothered with. I think because I've seen so many of them over the years they look boring to me but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I know lots of people like these plants.

Nephrolepis cordifolia has been introduced to several countries including the USA, New Zealand, French Polynesia and Bermuda. In New Zealand and Florida USA it has been declared a noxious weed due to its invasive tendencies in those areas. I suppose you are always going to run that risk if you introduce tuberous plants to areas where they do not originate from.

Fishbone ferns are native to Australia, particularly Northern Australia. That being the case you wouldn't think they would grow down South in Melbourne but they do. They are often used to line driveways, encircle trees or to line the base of a house. They are very tough drought tolerant plants. I would describe them as a low maintenance plant because of their low water needs and the fact they don't really need any pruning. The only pruning you might do on a Fishbone fern is to cut out any old dead fronds or to completely cut them down to start them off again. They can be frost tender but in places like Melbourne they are fine. They can grow to 1 metre high and spread 1 metre. They like well drained soil and full sun but will tolerate some shade. I would recommend this plant to anyone in Australia who needs a fairly low growing plant which basically needs no watering and no maintenance.