2022 Autumn Flower Show

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Notes from Speakers Presentation March 2022 Meeting

Michael Harms from Barrowby Green in Woori Yallock gave a talk on indoor plants.

Main points:

• Under Victorian climatic conditions, the best potting mix for indoor plants is peat-based or based on coco-coir. The usual potting mix tends to dry out and become water-repellent.

• Many plants will tolerate quite stressful situations for short periods, but it’s best to try, if you can, to reproduce the natural growing conditions for your plant. Light, temperature and humidity are the most important determinants of success.

• Watering: best to wait until the plant really needs water and is even starting to look a bit stressed and unhappy. Many plants are lost from over-watering, which causes rotting and other fungal diseases.

• Humidity: most plants like humidity of about 40 – 50%. Reverse-cycle air-conditioning reduces the humidity well below this, but evaporative coolers provide much better conditions.

• Temperature: Ideally, not below 18°, certainly not below 15°. If the temperature is too low, the plant won’t grow.

• Fertilizer: can be applied during the growing period, i.e spring to autumn. Michael uses a variety of slow-release fertilizers and foliar sprays.

• Propagating: Temperature must be even and consistent. Don’t put the plant on a windowsill and expect success! Propagating method depends on the plant species: cuttings, division, leaf cuttings, bulbs. Best propagating mix? Opinions vary. Michael uses pure perlite, which is sterile.

• Pests and diseases: Under greenhouse conditions, sap-suckers are the commonest pests. All can be treated by the application of soaps or oils. If a plant is attacked, look first at its growing conditions. A stressed plant is more vulnerable to pest attack. Fungal diseases and bacterial spot can be treated by improving the light and air-flow around the plant. As an extra kick, there are proprietary products which will help.

• Wipe dust off leaves with a damp cloth.

Christmas Breakup 2021

The club held a breakup event to end a year of Covid interruptions. Strange to see everyone again as we have all aged by almost a year since faces were allowed to be seen without a mask.

The Alpine Hotel provided the meal and the club provided the fun and raffle prizes. No guest speaker but lots of stories were told. It was good to see some new members that have moved into the district – Welcome!

February 2020 Club Meeting

Our first formal Club Meeting for the year will be held at the Warburton Golf Club on next Monday February 17 starting at 7:30PM.

Our Speaker for the night is Craig Wilson from Gentiana Nursery and his subject will be Gardening Myths and Fallacies. He will have plants for sale on the night.

For all you food gourmets buttered buns are back on for supper thanks to Anne Herrod and Denise Cosier.

Welcome Stewards are Grace and Michael Keck and Supper Stewards are Trevor Lewellin & Barbara Pharoah.

Member’s Draw starts at $50, Raffle tickets are $1 each. Don’t forget the Trading Table and Popular Vote.

New members are welcome to join as full members tonight.

Spring Flower Show – October Meeting

789

765

987

June Meeting 2018

Lindsay Hadland from the Yarra Valley Bonsai Group gave a talk on bonsai.

Main points:

The literal Japanese meaning of ‘bonsai’ is ‘tree in a pot’, but the accepted definition of the term is ‘a miniaturized but realistic representation of a tree found in nature.’ The craft dates back to ancient India, when travelling apothecaries carried living herbs in pots. The Chinese copied this custom from the Indians and developed it into an art form, practised by learned men over 1000 years ago. From there it was soon taken up and further developed by the Japanese. It has been depicted in paintings from at least 706 AD.
Parts of a bonsai:
- Trunk line – the most important feature
- Nebari – where the base of the trunk meets the soil – the second most important feature
- Branches
- Twigs and canopy
- Taper – important to stop the plant just looking like a stick in a pot
- Pot – must blend with and complement the tree
In nature, tree shapes vary from the mountains to the plains, due to differing environmental conditions: soil, wind, water, light. Bonsai aims to emulate this. The various styles of the individual trees are
- Informal upright
- Formal upright
- Slanting (as if leaning toward the light)
- Semi-cascade
- Cascade
The form of the bonsai in the pot can also vary:
- Forest (groups of the same species)
- Clump (single tree with multiple trunks coming from the base)
- Multi-trunk (similar to clump, but with the trunks coming from further up the main trunk)
- Raft – emulating the situation in nature where a tree has blown over but still has its roots in the ground and sends up multiple trunks
- Windswept
- Literati: simply a work of art rather than emulating natural growth
- Root-over-rock: as when a seed in nature sprouts on top of a rock, sending its roots over the rock and into the soil below
- Broom – the whole clump forms a broom-like structure.
Rules of bonsai – which can be broken at times!
- Branch placement going up the trunk: leftrightback
- First branch should be ⅓ of the height of the tree above the pot
- Branches should be progressively closer together going up the trunk
- Apex should be domed
- Height of tree should be 6 x diameter of trunk at nebari
- Width of the pot should be ⅔ the height of the tree
Suitable trees for bonsai: In theory, any tree can be used but some are much easier than others. Look for the following attributes –
- Small leaves
- Tree able to back-bud on old wood
- Able to tolerate extensive root work
- Vigorous
- Small flowers or fruit. If these are not small, the tree can still make a convincing bonsai, provided it is not allowed to form flowers or fruit.
- Deciduous trees are easier to work with than evergreens, especially Chinese elm, trident maple, beech, hawthorn, ash, larch
- Easiest evergreens are pine, cedar, fir, spruce
- Australian natives are becoming popular: banksia, melaleuca, leptospermum, ficus, callistemon, casuarina. Eucalyptus are difficult.
- Flowering and fruiting plants: crabapple, cotoneaster, pomegranate, wisteria, pyracantha, azalea.
Bonsai tools: for beginners, just secateurs and ordinary workshop tools will suffice. Specialized tools for the more expert include scissors, branch cutters, knob cutters, wire cutters, jinning pliers, tweezers, chopsticks, root rakes, fine saws.
Bonsai potting mix: there is no such thing as one ideal bonsai soil. It depends on what is locally available: pine bark, scoria, diatomite, zeolite. The mix must be free-draining with uniform particle size (sieve it!). Avoid mixes with fine particles, including the commercially-available mixes. (Although the commercial mixes can be sieved to remove the fines, this wastes about 40% of the product). One recommended mix is 50-50 diatomite and orchiata pinebark from NZ, both with particle sizes 2 – 7 mm.
Bonsai sizes: tree heights range from 3-8 cm up to >1m. In Australia the classification is generally limited to 3 sizes: 5 – 15 cm, 13 – 20 cm, >20 cm. Based on weight, the 3 categories are: able to be lifted with one hand, able to be lifted with two hands, and requiring a forklift.
Creating a bonsaGrow the tree seedling in the open ground or in a growing potKeep it alive! Keep it moist but not too much – allow it to partially dry out between waterings.Fertilize quite heavily, aiming for rapid growth (but be aware of growing conditions in the tree’s natural environment). Opinions vary as to the frequency of fertilization. Lindsay uses Charlie Carp every Saturday during the growing period.
- - Let the treeling grow, clipping it back as required.
  - When the trunk is about ⅔ of the desired size, chop off the branches, leaving a small stub. This will form a new leader below the stub.
  - Repeat the process with successive leaders.
  - As each leader grows longer, it will thicken, as will the trunk below it.
  - When the desired trunk thickness is achieved, cut off the branch.
  - New branches can be wired to grow in the desired direction.
  - Lift every 1 or 2 years to prune the roots. The ideal is to have fine roots close to the trunk.
  - Place the tree into suitable bonsai pot when it has reached the desired size.
- Learning more about bonsai:
  - Join a club (e.g the Yarra Valley Bonsai Group)
  - Take a training course – available at YVBG, some nurseries etc
  - Attend workshops with a Bonsai Master, either local or international
  - Bonsai apprenticeships are available in Japan – a very demanding 5-year course.
  - Books
  - Internet sites and blogs
  - You-tube videos (be sceptical)
  - Trial and error
- Yarra Valley Bonsai Group
  - A young club, only 10 years old
  - Based in Mt Evelyn.
  - Meets 2^ndTuesday of every month from 7.30 – 9.30 pm
  - Workshops last Saturday in the month, from 1 – 4.30pm
  - See website for more details.
Lindsay brought a number of bonsai trees to illustrate his talk: a trident maple forest, a cedar, Chinese elm, leptospermum, banksia serrata.
- - Let the treeling grow, clipping it back as required.
  - When the trunk is about ⅔ of the desired size, chop off the branches, leaving a small stub. This will form a new leader below the stub.
  - Repeat the process with successive leaders.
  - As each leader grows longer, it will thicken, as will the trunk below it.
  - When the desired trunk thickness is achieved, cut off the branch.
  - New branches can be wired to grow in the desired direction.
  - Lift every 1 or 2 years to prune the roots. The ideal is to have fine roots close to the trunk.
  - Place the tree into suitable bonsai pot when it has reached the desired size.
- Learning more about bonsai:
  - Join a club (e.g the Yarra Valley Bonsai Group)
  - Take a training course – available at YVBG, some nurseries etc
  - Attend workshops with a Bonsai Master, either local or international
  - Bonsai apprenticeships are available in Japan – a very demanding 5-year course.
  - Books
  - Internet sites and blogs
  - You-tube videos (be sceptical)
  - Trial and error
- Yarra Valley Bonsai Group
  - A young club, only 10 years old
  - Based in Mt Evelyn.
  - Meets 2^ndTuesday of every month from 7.30 – 9.30 pm
  - Workshops last Saturday in the month, from 1 – 4.30pm
  - See website for more details.
Lindsay brought a number of bonsai trees to illustrate his talk: a trident maple forest, a cedar, Chinese elm, leptospermum, banksia serrata.

August 2017 Meeting

Luke Whiteside – Grafting Fruit Trees

Luke has had an interesting career as a school chaplain and pastor, and latterly as president of the Yarra Valley Bee Group and cultivator of heritage fruit trees. Main points of his talk:

Horticulturalists may increase plants either by sexual reproduction (pollination and seed formation) or asexual reproduction (grafting, cutting, layering, division, bedding and tissue culture). The advantages of sexual reproduction are that it is quick, economical and easy, but produces offspring that are genetically diverse, i.e. not necessarily true to the parent. Asexual methods produce clones of the parent plant but are generally more labour-intensive.

Grafting is the joining together of the cambium (growing) layers of the scion (top of the plant) and the rootstock. This gives the possibility of combining the best attributes of two different, but genetically related, plants to produce a superior new plant. It is particularly suitable for fruit trees and has been the means of retaining certain heritage varieties which might otherwise be lost because they are of no commercial value. It has also been useful for the home gardener in enabling the one tree to produce a variety of fruits that ripen at different times, thus extending the harvest season and reducing the need for cold storage and/or transport.

There are a number of different grafting methods using different complementary shapes for joining together the the scion and the rootstock when the two are of comparable size: wedge, splice, whip-and-tongue, and approach grafting; less common and used when the scion is significantly smaller than the rootstock are cleft, side, notch and bark inlay grafting. Budding is a similar technique except that a bud is used instead of the scion.

Tools needed: grafting knife, grafting tape, wax, Clonex rooting hormone (used in very dilute solution to stimulate cell growth).

Important:

Plants must be related to each other (same genus or same family);
Tools must be disinfected to avoid transferring any diseases such as apple mosaic virus;
Plant samples are usually best collected during dormancy;
Drying out of plant parts can be prevented by using ziplock bags for collecting them;
Graftable plants include maples and fruit trees such as apples, quinces, plums etc.
There will be a grafting workshop at ECOSS next July, run by Neil Barraclough.
Reference: Dave Wilson in Nursery Educational Video series.

Ancient Greek proverb –

A society grows great when old men plant trees, whose shade they will never sit in.

July Meeting 2017

Guest Speaker – Mike Donsen

Mike Donsen from Grow Better Garden Products gave a talk on his company and its products.

The company was established as a family business in 1991, originally making a pelletized organic fertilizer from its pig farm waste at Ballarat. Subsequently the range was expanded to include other organic fertilizers, composts, soil improvers, mulches, specialized potting media and water-saving products, many of which are certified as conforming to the relevant Australian standards. Grow Better is now a market leader, selling through independent garden centres rather than chain stores or supermarkets. Local suppliers include the Plants Plus and Growmaster retail nurseries at Wandin and Healesville.

Mike provided each member with samples of Grow Better Organic Fertilizer, with the excess samples being bundled into threes and included in the raffle.

Member’s Draw

Winner was Anne Herrod, who unfortunately was not present, so the prize at the August meeting jackpots to $150.

June Meeting 2017

Guest Speaker – Russell Brown

Club Member Russell Brown gave a detailed insight into Deer population in South Eastern Australia. Mainly Samba and Fallow Deer living in fringe country, they can live up to 12-14 years. The Samba like heavy cover such as the wooded areas around Woods Point while the Fallow can be found on open ranges, such as at Valda’s front gate! A big thank you Russell.

Spring Bus Trip

A bus trip to Peppermint Ridge Farm in Tynong and then to Cranbourne Botanic Gardens for lunch and the afternoon is scheduled for Wednesday September 20^th. Deposits are now being accepted.