Hello readers,

Welcome to our Autumn Newsletter. After another successful Plant Sale with lots of choices you have probably been in your garden planting some special purchases. Sadly the usual Autumn rains haven’t arrived so hopefully they will and our new plantings will get that boost they need to settle in over the Winter. In the meantime you have time to sit and read all the goings on so far this year.

January Plant of the Month

Even though our Melaleuca bracteata “Revolution Green’ had very small flowers it attracted the bees well in January. It is in heavy clay soil . Much of the day it is in shade but it handles the hot westerly sun at the end of the day. This year it has had a growth spurt and was covered in small white flowers.

Insects

Our first meeting of the year on Tuesday 18th February at Benton Square Community Centre was well attended as guest speaker Roger Standen led us into the fascinating world of Insects and other mini beasts. During his presentation he spoke about moths, wasps, beetles, lacewings, cicadas, dragonflies and damselflies, flies, flatworms and even spiders. We were well informed with his talk and enjoyed seeing his fantastic photos.

February Plant Table

Lots of variety could be seen on the February Plant Table.

Here are a few up closer.

February Plant of the Month

We look forward to the end of summer when our well established Banksia serrata is at its best. The creamy yellow flower spikes are spectacular in all phases.

Devil Bend Reservoir Excursion

Sadly this was cancelled due to bad weather conditions.

Red Hill Show

Our group was invited to have a tent at the Red Hill Show on Saturday 8th March. Thanks to the volunteers who helped spread the word about our group and more importantly about our Annual Plant Sale and the upcoming FJC Rogers Seminar in August.

The WAMA Garden

Our March 20th speaker was Jill Burness who spoke about her involvement with the Wildlife Art Museum of Australia and the closely related Gariwerd Endemic Botanic Garden in the Grampians. She focused on the work done by volunteers to help create and maintain the garden which was started in 2019. APS Victoria and Cranbourne RBGV have also helped with seed and plant donations after bushfires wiped out their plant supply in Pomonal. Stage 1 of the gardens had 540 plants of 56 species. The Art Museum was completed last year and will be officially opened soon. Worth visiting if you’re are in the area.

March Plant Table

We had a bountiful variety on the March Plant Table.

Not just flowers.

We even had a Wollemi Pine grown from seed in a pot to admire.

March Plant of the Month

Even though it flowers for long periods during the year our Grevillea ‘Molly’ was spectacular during March as it spread down over the retaining wall on the south westerly side of our garden. Both the birds and the bees love it too.

April Garden Visit

On Sunday 6th April Charles Hrubos welcomed our large group to his Frankston South garden.

It’s situated on a large axe handle block

and is a mix of native, exotic and vegetable/fruit. As you can see in the above photo the hard dry axe handle driveway bed is hard work.

Much work has been done in the time Charles and his wife have lived there and he was proud to show it off.

The afternoon concluded with afternoon tea just as a sprinkling of rain threatened. Thanks for having us.

Koala Conservation

Our presenter for the April 15th meeting was Dirk Jansen who spoke about Koala Conservation.

Here’s a summary from leader, Robyn Tyson.

Dirk gave an overview of the formation of the group Mornington Peninsula Koala Coalition, its objectives of creating corridors of native indigenous vegetation on private land. This then joins up to crown land and council reserves. This is done by organising planting days with public volunteers, after negotiating with potential land owners.
The other really interesting thing they do is track koala movements, amazingly they travel quite long distances, looking for mates and food.
He also dispelled the myth they only live in or eat one type of Eucalypt.
He spoke of the problems of a very small gene pool leading to disease outbreaks. The group also keeps count of puggles and deaths, so they know the strength of numbers of koalas on the Peninsula.

April Plant Table

Here are a couple of beauties from the April Plant Table. Thanks to member, Howard Sachs, for the photos.

April Plant of the Month

Our Hakea ‘Burrendong Beauty’ always lives up to its name each year. We love it and so do the bees. It has now more than matched the suggested 1.5m high, 3m wide guide on the tag (and the garden bed we have it growing in) and we have to prune it so we can make our way down our path.

Annual Plant Sale

Our Annual Plant Sale at the Briars was held on April 26th this year. Here’s a thank you message from our leader, Robyn Tyson.

Dear ALL volunteers,

A big thank you from myself and the committee on another successful Plant Sale, in spite of the fact that the heavens opened a bit earlier than we would have liked. ( I recorded 30ml.) There was a steady flow of visitors who all seemed to take home boxes and/or bags of plants.

We spread the word of native plants by offering the plant sale, having a display of plants grown by our members and had some new members join. There was also book sales, lots of kids making creatures from gumnuts and Allocasuarina seeds, plus talks to educate.

Thank you once again for your contribution, including the baking to keep us all going through out the day.

Briars Walk

On Sunday 4th May a small group of six led by our leader Robyn Tyson took a leisurely walk through the bird hides

and woodland area of the Briars.

We didn’t actually see much flora in bloom. However we did spot these large fungi

and saw many wallabies

and birds, including a tawny frogmouth way up above us

and a couple of emus

as well as checking out the tortoises in the information centre.

Don’t Pea Afraid

Our May 20th meeting was held via Zoom so we could have Shirley McLaren present to us from interstate about native pea flowers. About 20 screens of our members appreciated her presentation as she showed us wonderful photos of Pultenaea, Daviesia, Gastrolbium, Jacksonia, Eutaxia, Bossiaea, Swainsona, Chorizema and Indigofera presenting lots of information about their differences, how ecologically important they are and most importantly how we can identify them when we see them in gardens and out in the bush.

For more information, here is the slide with the Reference List that Shirley acknowledged.

May Virtual Plant Table Slideshow

To see the colourful presentation of what is growing in our members’ gardens in May click on the arrow. Many thanks to Verena Reich for creating the slideshow.

May Plant of the Month

Our leader Robyn Tyson is either running out of room or knows it’s better to try growing certain plants in pots. She has sent me these photos of her Eucalyptus kruseana which can be found in her micro climate pot area. It has been in 2 years, is a small mallee from W.A., and is getting a nice trunk happening and the first flowers. A lovely choice for May Plant of the Month.

Don’t forget if you have a ‘beauty’ in your garden you’d like everyone to see send me an email with photo attached (Attention – Newsletter, morningtonpeninsula@aps.org.vic) and a brief blurb so that it can be included in our plant of the Month section.

Seaford Banksia Arboretum

Ross Shepherd reported to me on some recent grass slashings by paid tradespeople and a kind volunteer. (Unlike with the previous contractor there were no losses this time!) Ross has also been able to procure replacement banksias at our Plant Sale and other group Plant Sales as well as Wildtech Nursery over in Heyfield. Some autumn planting has now happened even though Ross had been waiting for rain (like the rest of us ) before planting. Most previous plantings are doing well. Currently over 1900 planted with about 50 losses. Ross has also been spreading the word as a guest speaker, most recently at Stawell APS where he was lucky enough to be hosted by Neil and Wendy Marriott and saw their extensive collection. They allowed him to collect several rare cones with the idea of getting their seeds for ourselves and they also donated a rare form of Banksia integrifolia that grows on Kurnel beach NSW on the edge of Botany Bay where Banks discovered his first banksia. Here’s a few photos.

The unusual and stunning Banksia lanata in bloom.

FJC Rogers Seminar 2025 – Epacrids

Don’t forget our APS group is hosting the FJC Rogers Seminar this August 2nd and 3rd, so put aside the dates now.

You can register via the QR code below.

Faunascapes

Our next meeting is a special one. It’s this Saturday 31st May at Bentons Square Community Centre, with a 1:45pm for 2pm start. Speaker is Ron Litjen and he will be presenting Faunascapes. Hope you can be there.

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