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 | | Welcome to the Gardening Australia Newsletter: 21/08/2015 | Coming Up This Week | | | Great Ideas - Passionfruit 101 - Golden Daisy Bush - Bromeliad Bonanza - FAQs - Tough Love - Cloud Pruning - Back to My Roots
Read more ABC TV: Saturday 22 August 2015, 6:30pm and Sunday 23 August 2015, 1:00pm | Watch a Story | | | Great Ideas
22/08/2015
Preview a Story from the Upcoming Show
Watch video | Find a Fact Sheet | | Passionfruit 101
Presenter: Josh Byrne, 22/08/2015
Josh shows how to plant passionfruit to get them off to a flying start
Read more | Browse the Video Archive | | | There are three ways you can access Gardening Australia video: Streaming: Watch short clips of various segments online. Download: Manually download the complete episodes to your computer. Vodcast: Subscribe and have the complete episodes automatically downloaded to your computer. | Catch Up on iView | | GARDENING AUSTRALIA ON IVIEW Never miss a gardening moment!
Gardening Australia on iView | Weekly Gardening Action Plan | | We've had a lot of interest in soil chemistry this week, which seems appropriate since it is National Science Week! So here are some of your questions - answered. These apply to every climate zone.
Tropical Zone
Organic matter is the 'magic bullet' when it comes to improving soil, and a quick way of adding masses of organic matter and building a garden at the same time is this: Building a No-Dig Garden Fact Sheet Subtropical Zone
Macronutrients are the major elements your plants need - you'd be familiar with fertilisers listing their N:P:K ratios. What is N, P and K and how do they help your plants?: Plant Nutrition Fact Sheet Temperate Zone
Incorporating animal manure to your soil is almost always beneficial but their properties, like pH, are extremely variable. We recommend composting manures first and also testing the pH before adding to your garden: pH Testing Fact Sheet Arid Zone
Micronutrients are just as vital - but what do they do and where can you get them organically?: Rock Minerals Fact Sheet Cool Zone
The decomposition of manure can actually help to warm up a cool soil - but which one should you choose?: Marvellous Manures Fact Sheet
And if you want some ideas of what to plant in the vegie patch, don't forget to visit The Vegie Guide or Download the App | Plant Pick | | Recognised by most as the crimson coloured floral emblem of New South Wales, 'waratah' is an Aboriginal word meaning beautiful......
The botanical name, Telopea, is derived from the Greek 'telopos' meaning 'seen from a distance,' a reference to the fact that the flowers stand out like a beacon in the bush.
The genus was named Telopea by Robert Brown in 1810 from plants he collected in the Blue Mountains.
- The ideal way to grow these plants is under shade cloth as it mimics the natural environment in which they grow - dappled light rather than full sun. The hot sun tends to burn the bracts.
- The conventional wisdom with growing waratahs is to plant them and treat with neglect. They'll survive under such conditions, but if you really want them to reach their full potential, the secret is to provide them with plenty of water and low phosphorus native plant food during their growing period through spring and summer. Using drip irrigation is ideal.
- Waratahs grow from a modified stem called a 'lignotuber,' which allows the plant to produce masses of shoots after bush fires. These are capped by the instantly recognisable crimson flower heads, which are made up of many tiny florets which open from the bottom of the flower head to the top. They are protected by beautiful bracts which are actually modified leaves. These protect the flower while it's in bud and open out to give it its full glory.
- The woody seed pod of the waratah is produced in autumn and contains numerous winged seeds which are dispersed in the wind.
- Waratahs can be readily propagated from seed, but there is a problem - genetic variability.
- These days waratahs have now been developed to the point where there are some magnificent varieties available. These include a new variety called 'Brimstone Starfire'. There is only one way to propagate these and that's by stem cuttings.
- Other varieties that need vegetative propagation include the new interspecific hybrids. This includes a yellow form of the Tasmanian Waratah crossed with a New South Wales type, and a beautiful ivory white which has been bred from the Gippsland type, crossed with the New South Wales waratah. The advantage of these plants is that they have hybrid vigour, which makes them much more adaptable to the average garden situation.
- Waratahs can be prone to root rot, often caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi. There are also other fungal diseases that can attack waratahs, so they need perfect drainage and this can be achieved by growing them in raised beds.
- Prune them at about waist level just above a healthy bud. That way you get a beautiful display of flowers at eye level the following year.
- When it comes to pests, without doubt, the worst problem is the macadamia nut borer. The caterpillars get into the flower buds when they're forming in the autumn, so watch out for that one.
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