It’s nearly time to wrap up another year and this newsletter brings a wrap of lots of happenings for our APS Mornington Peninsula group. Many thanks to those members who have sent me words and photos to include, especially whilst Karen and I were either caravanning in Queensland to escape some of the winter weather, or travelling in Europe to catch up on a trip we planned pre-COVID. Much appreciated and makes sure there is a complete wrap of our eventful 2023. Happy reading and enjoy your gardens this summer.

June Meeting – Hakeas

Our June guest speaker was Chris Larkin, she has a large garden in Lysterfield, she is a member of Foothills APS group and has a couple of passions, landscape design and Hakeas.

Chris gave us a talk about the Hakeas growing at her property and there were lots of plant specimens to discuss and look at, mostly courtesy of Verena and Chris herself.

June Plant Table

Hakea multilineata

Hakea caveats

June Garden Visit – Chris Larkins’ Garden

Thanks to Robyn Tyson for the photos and report from the visit to Chris Larkins’ garden.

On Sunday 25th June the excursion to Chris’ garden was well attended, as was the meeting previously, by a lot of new faces. The garden is on the slope of the Churchill range off Wellington Rd. It is terraced with group plantings and several large water features, the upper story is remnant Eucalypts.  The middle story casuarina, of which there was a forest, cherry ballart, Hakeas, and under plantings of Thryptomene, Correas and Grevilleas, climbers and creepers along with many grasses. In spite of the cold day it was a real treat to be able to wander around.

July Meeting – Powerful Pollinators

Lea Hannah was our speaker for the July 18th meeting. She spoke about pollinators, not just European bees. Powerful Pollinators is a program designed to increase the prevalence, health and diversity of pollinators in the landscape. The Program encourages the strategic planting of ‘trees for bees’ and other pollinators so it was interesting to hear about the many plants that we have in our gardens that encourage a diversity of pollinators and aid their survival.

Pollinator photos

In keeping with the pollinator theme, member Charles Hrubos sent me a lovely collection of photos he has taken of native bees over time in his Frankston South garden. Thanks Charles.

The first is of a Blue banded Bee. The Common Blue-banded Bee builds a solitary nest, but often close to others. In my garden it builds its nest in the ground. It also prefers soft sandstone to burrow in, and also likes mud-brick houses, and often burrows into the mortar in old buildings. The blue markings do not show up strongly in this photo.

Neon Cuckoo Bee (Thyreus nitidulus) photographed February 2019. When a female neon cuckoo bee has eggs to lay, she won’t build a burrow nest of her own, but will instead seek out the burrow nests of female blue-banded bees and lay her eggs in the brood cell of the blue banded bee.

Probably the leaf cutter bee (Megachile) photographed October 2022. The Leafcutter Bee snips a neat circle or oval from a leaf. She will use these leaf pieces to weave tiny cradles for her eggs inside her nest burrow.

July Excursion – Paratea Reserve, Frankston South

Sue Gilbert was the guide for the July walk at Paratea Reserve. She reports – Nine keen walkers came along for a stroll through the lovely Paratea Reserve in Frankston South, braving showers and chilly wind. This small reserve is managed by the Frankston City Council and is home to a surprising range of indigenous plants found in grassy woodland. It is well worth walking around at different times of the year to see local plants in flower. Thanks Sue. Here’s a few photos too.

July Plant of the Month

Verena Reich was pleased to send some photos of her Lysiosepalum abollatum, a threatened species from Wongan Hills in Western Australia, which was flowering beautifully in July.  In the wild it grows in red clay, but is thriving in Rosebud sand so Verena is really happy about that!

August Meeting

This was our AGM. Following the short formal part of the meeting some of our members, Marg Rogers and Marian and Brian Stephan’s spoke about their gardens. It’s always good to see someone else’s garden.

August Plant Table

Here’s a photo of the lovely display of the plant table.

August Plant of the Month

Thanks to Verena Reich for this shot of her Xanthorrhoea minor subsp. lutea enjoying the winter sun in her garden.

August Excursion

Margaret Rogers hosted the group to her garden on Sunday 27th August. Secretary Jacqui commented – For me , the abundance of this garden was amazing. The bulbine lilies at the entrance were so large at just a year old , and other plants – looked like mine had missed out on steroids.  Lovely plantings.

Thanks also to Jeanette Morris for sending me some great photos.

Thanks also to Margaret and Colin for hosting the group.

Seaford Banksia Arboretum

A weeding, staking and mulching working bee was held on August 13th. Ross Shepherd had arranged for three truck loads of mulch. Plantings have now exceeded 1100 Banksias.

450 banksia seedlings have been grown on by Frankston City Council- the next generation being nurtured along by Ross and Robyn after Ross, Robyn Tyson, Karen and Mark Allison potted up the tubes into 6 inch pots.

September Excursion – Bunurong Reserve, Frankston

Due to school holidays there was no September meeting but a return to Bunurong Reserve was the venue for the excursion. Robyn reports – September excursion, we did a repeat visit to Bunurong reserve at the end of September to see the Wedding bush, Rinocarpus pinafores, in flower, but were pleasantly surprised to find several egg and bacon peas in flower, Dillwinya and Bossea. There has been thinning works done in the regeneration from the back burn from last year and the blue Commasperma was twining up any plant it could find. We found 4 orchids, 2 pterostylis and Diuris, (Donkey orchid,) and a huge colony of Bird orchids, Chiloglottis valida. There were several Leptospermum in flower, some with pink buds but an aberration a completely pink one.

September Excursion 2 – Devilbend

Robyn reports – On Tuesday, 17 of us met at Devilbend natural features reserve to hear Hansi Wagner from the Crew at Daageen talk about his work with the Southern toadlet and Turtle nest counting.

We then walked along the canal looking at what had regenerated since the mowing stopped and the regeneration and habitats creation he and his band of volunteers are doing. Hansi assists both Vicparks and Melbourne water with activities. He facilitates research for students from several Universities.

I’ve assisted with the toadlet and turtle nest counting and the regular kangaroo counts he conducts.

September Plant of the Month

I’m very pleased to share a photo of one of our first flowerings of our Eucalyptus pressiana. It’s in a sheltered spot at the front of our garden in well drained soil in between a couple of more established shrubs, as it was a replacement for a Grevillea which clearly did not like this position. Karen and I love how big the flowers are.

October Meeting

Our leader Robyn Tyson was the guest speaker for the October meeting on the 17th. She spoke about plants indigenous to the Peninsula with reference to those that enjoy the shade. She emphasised the EVC’s (ecological vegetation classes )that the Peninsula is divided up into (e.g Coastal Banksia bushland, Swamp scrub) and for members to be aware of them so if they want to plant something indigenous to their suburban area pick appropriate plants. Lots of information can be found on the MP council website and maps can be downloaded. Here are a few photos Robyn sent me.

October Committee of Management Meeting – Pomonal

A small group of members attended this meeting and a weekend of activities including orchid and bird spotting, walks, and garden visits in the Grampians.

The big news for our members is that congratulations are in order to Chris Long, who was recently awarded Honorary Life Membership of APSVic at the Committee of Management Meeting at Pomonal, Grampians. Very few of these have ever been awarded. It is richly deserved by Chris after years of contribution and mentoring across multiple positions. It was a nice touch that the award was presented by Robyn, acting for president Miriam Ford who sent flowers in her absence.

Verena Reich took this lovely photo. Thanks . 

October Plant of the Month

Recently joined member Ruth Rayner (She joined at the plant sale earlier in the year.) sent some photos of her success with a Spear Lily that began to flower back in January but the photos didn’t make it to us at that time so here’s a flashback for you to admire. It’s taken 11 years to bloom and attracts lots of passers by stopping for a look. Thanks Ruth.

Here’s a shot taken in October.

Turner Garden

For health reasons Ray and Eva haven’t been able to come to meetings or excursions but they can still wander around their garden and take fabulous photos, so here’s an October selection for everyone to admire.

Thanks for sharing.

November excursion – Kawarra Gardens, Kalorama

A small contingent made the drive up to Kalorama for a walk around Kawarra Gardens on Sunday 12th November. Lots of different plants in flower to our previous visit. This time the eight members in the group saw lots of lantern bush plants – Thomasia, Guichenaultia and Lasiopetalum plus some Xanthorrhoea. Some of the group had a hard time leaving the nursery without leaving some of their hard earned money too!

Sunvalley Nursery

A visit to Sunvalley Nursery on November 21st was an extra excursion for the group. About twenty members attended and were treated to a quick tour of Rod’s nursery set up.

Following that Rod did a grafting demonstration and invited a couple of members to have a go too.

Members were able to get a cuppa and look around their garden with quite a focus on Grevilleas of course.

To wrap things up members had the chance to purchase plants and Rod’s wife Kaye was happy to take their money.

November Meeting – Karlamilyi National Park

Member Verena Reich was our guest speaker for the November 21st meeting. Some of the plants she saw and photographed almost seem unworldly.

Verena even provided a quick synopsis of her talk for our newsletter plus some of her fabulous photos. Thanks Verena. We are very envious but not sure whether we are as adventurous.

At about 12,000 square kilometres, Karlamilyi National Park is the largest national park in West Australia.  It is in a very remote part of the East Pilbara, at a conjunction of the Little Sandy Desert and Great Sandy Desert.  You only go there if you are prepared to bring everything – 4 WD vehicle, food, water, fuel, spare parts, knowledge of how-to-fix-it, and stay healthy!  It took our little group of 4 vehicles (2  from Coates Wildlife Tours, 2  tag-alongs)  from Perth to the park just under 3 days in late July, early August.  We spent 4 days in the Park itself.  Just enough time to get a feel for the wonderful scenery, plants, birds and other animals.   

November Plant Table

Lots of lovely samples were to be seen on the plant table. Thanks to those who provided them.

Note the immature seed pods on this Acacia glaucoptera.

Our guest speaker even brought these lovely mulla mullas (Ptilotus) from her garden.

Honorary Life Member APS Victoria – Chris Long

Chris Long, who was recently awarded Honorary Life Membership of APSVic at the Committee of Management Meeting in October was recognised by our group for his dedicated service as our Treasurer with a presentation at the end of the meeting on November 21st. Here’s a photo.

November of the Month

Very happy to share this photo of a Banksia ashbyi that is putting on a show in our garden. Our soil isn’t really that great for Banksias but even so with a mix of love and neglect it will give us five spectacular cones this year.

End of Year Lunch

Our end of year lunch will be on Saturday 2nd December at Verena Reich’s house so we will be able to combine a fun time with seeing her richly planted garden on that day.