planthelper

i have replied to all your pm's!

I still enjoy the forum and my collection, so don't worry, but the thing is that, the admin here did send me quite a few aggressive pm's which made me very sad (I never done him wrong, but he wronged me!), and this scenario, definitely reduced my motivation to post as much as I have in the past.

EILEEN, ~8cm diameter, cut's made to order, 60cent per cm. PC, ~10cm diameter, cut's to order, 50cent per cm. ROSEII, ~ 13cm diameter (very phat!!), cut's to order, 1.50 aud per cm. BUTTONS, various sizes available from seedlings to grandfather. ARIOCARPUS, only a few young grafts available. VIRIDIS, healthy plants, size ranges from 30 to 70cm.

maybe your elder's energy giving leaf was, either Catha edulis or erythroxylum coca, both have been in cultivation in oz since, I guess 100 years ago. the british, tried to cultivate coca plants in Australia, in hope of making a big buck, but the plantations failed. Catha or beter said, qat or mira, have probably been introduced by Arabian people, into oz, the biggest trees are said to originate from the perth area...

I googled ephedra viridis and wiki, say's viridis is nevadensis, but I think it's wrong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephedra_viridis important to know is, that one chooses the right ephedra plant, for the right location, for example: Ephedra distachya, is the most frost hardy and can survive even -25 deg C. ephedra major, can withstand high temps, but gerardiana for example hates high temps and did die at my place, but I am sure it would as well survive even a place much colder than Canberra... sinica unfortunately suffers a bit as well from too much heat. on a site note, diego maradona suffered a while from ephedra addiction, so did probably john smith who founded the Mormon faith.

ok, let's try to make sense of all of this... aboriginals, never used kava (piper methysticum) in the distant past, but have and still use it now, since we Australians have good contact with the people of the Polynesian triangle. kava did never grow in oz! but, maori of nz, have used another piper (piper auritrum?) for medicinal properties... the leaves you mention, which give aboriginal hunters energy, is pituri (dubiosia hopwoodii), a plant native to oz. if aboriginals in the distant past, have used sida, I don't know, neither do I know if any of the sidas are native to oz.

add, brunfelsia pauciflora, solandra maxima, petunia, physalis, cestrum, solanum dulcamara, or change the family to, malvaceae (so you can collect sidas if they are around) or poaceae (were there is a serious chance to find 7 different ones, within a small walk!).

tarenna said in another post, when asked to id a mimosa: Which valley - Hastings, Macleay, Nambucca, Bellinger or Clarence? The location is far more important for assisting in identifying the species that whether it was growing by a dirt or tarred road or next to a wooden or metal fence. The distribution of Acacia species on the North Coast is best discussed in relation to catchments and landscapes - hence my question about which road it was growing by. peace so you have to tell us where you spotted the plant, location wise meaning geographically! and than, if it was at the beach, or the high hills or whatever. further it could confuse a person willing to try to id something for you, if the location of the member, doesn't match up with the location of the plant an id is asked for.

all is well, thx 4 your greetings! this is my birthday flower given to me, by my garden! edit: it really started flowering just at me birthday (last few hours).

yes, they self pollinate, no probs.

watched the arios flower.

nice photos, and a nice garden, I could almost smell the lilac!

a pic I took min ago, sorry for the low key setup.

the simple set up.

yep, still plant vertical, if using the accordion method. do you say in the opening post, that the "more successful" cuttings, originated as well, from larger leaves? anyway, like with pretty much all forms of cuttings, the rule is, "larger cuttings will produce, larger plants more rapidly. in other words, a whole viridis leaf, just trimmed at the bottom, will produce bigger plantlets, in the same given time, than the same size leaf cut in halve...

most cuttings (leaf cuttings like in this case, but tip and stem cuttings as well) will benefit from "squashing the tissue a bit", and this process is called wounding. wounding a cutting can be done by bruising, the tissue, by embedding a blade into the lower part of the stem cutting, or by cutting away a sliver of the cambium layer at the bottom of the cutting. for me it's difficult to fold and squash a viridis leaf, or to wound a stem cutting, as everything inside me, doesn't want to hurt the plant, but I do it, because I know it helps the plant, to form roots. I mean it's hard for me as well, to drench acacia seeds with boiling hot water, although this will facilitate germination. some people fold the viridis leaf, like an accordion,... it looks bad, but it does the trick! separating those plantlets, is hard work, most people never bother, because viridis leaves are often available in abundance, and it's faster and much, much easier to, plant more leaf cuttings than to separate plantlets.

they lose there viability after a while, so you are best of, to germinate them when they are ultra fresh! most people remove the red seed coat and than just, place the seed 3 or 4 times deeper into the potting mix, as the seeds diameter. they need it pretty warm to germinate fast, the colder the longer it will take till they poke there embryonic leaves out. old seed, and too cold are the main factors, if germination fails. the optimal time to remove the seeds is, when there colour turned deep red, AND when you need them. I mean the seeds will stay on the plant fresh for months, but once you remove them, the clock starts ticking, in short only pick them once you will lay them down or trade them. use a dome, for viridis to keep the moisture high, once they "are up", remove the dome. bright aspect but only save morning sun. they grow quite true to type from seed. a good method is as well to germinate them, in a coinbag (or plastic container) filled with moist (not soggy wet!!) sphagnum moss. once you see they germed, open the coin bag and plant them into soil. the same method enables you as well to send out seeds which have been picked already a while ago, because you started germination right away after picking (means the clock will not start ticking), hehehe, comprende?

emmm, blush , is the head life size ? if so, i might drop you a pm. parcels and letters generaly don't get missing often with aus post, I had only one parcel missing over 12 years! even this parcel, eventualy turned up, once aus post noticed the thieve amongst them. on a serious note, stickers can come undone from a parcel and even stick themselves to another parcel this is correct, i have worked in this field, so i know. the stickers provided by aust post, as well don't stick very well to card board which has a light coating of wax, as many card boards do. anyway, one has to make 100%sure the sticker can't come off, one has to, wrap the sticker with heaps of, see through sticky tape. as well, never use water soluble ink, to write the address...

ilex is at times a tricky cutting, but it can be re produced by cuttings, just rejuvenate the plant a lot, and than take the cuttings from, young flushes. fresh seed is the easiest method of probagation. mate, is just so cheap to buy, so growing your own has less appeal?

i would extend this search including other aussie plants, like the snow gum, or eucalyptus generaly. some of those are protected in Australia, but you will find many of them already in Europe, mainly in the uk and in irland. sourcing seeds from trees in, those countries, might be easier for you than trying to source them from Australia. last time i was in a climat similar like you describe, i noticed a new tree fashion, some keen gardeners started planting monkey puzzle trees!!! they look so exotic, in cold climat countries, specialy in winter.

there is only one small issue, if as you say, you want to graft onto "m long stock". long stock, produces very strong growth, so this is very good, but very often, those long sections of stock, will throw more pups than shorter ones... expect to have to cut off 3 or 4 pups every year, to keep the graft in tip top condition. a small button, on top of a 100cm stock looks akward, anyway my stock size never exceeds 30cm this day's...

once people started growing qat from seed, the whole iding thing got a bit more complicated, as it produced many small variations... the term pink, often means it's a seedling, obtained from various parents. back to topic, once qat has reached human size, pruning is adviceable, because the young re growth, is the prize, it as well make the plants easy to reach and care for.

me thinks it's not a red x nl cross, as that one is still very rare, here some pics, featuring a red nl! red broad leaved compared to red narrow leaved. I grew hundreds of seedlings, and selected only two plants, this is one of them, a red nl. as people said the color changes depending on the season and the amount of rain the plant received. this means that even the normal, and quite common narrow leaved Catha can get a some nuances of "reddish". this happens if they experience stress and drought. paradoxicly, the veins and whole (young!!) leaves, do get more reddish if, extremely happy (when the plant experiences ideal conditions). the stress related "reddish", is easy to distinguish from the ideal condition "reddish" as it's a vibrant colour and glossy, and the plant looks lush. the stress related "reddish", has no gloss, and the whole plant looks a bit wilted...