Australian Trees

[Jonathan]

I still wouldn't rule out rainfall as being a major issue. I see that Perth gets about 20 - 30% as much rain as Hobart per summer month, which is a major difference. The amount of rain that falls in winter is less important. In the Pacific Northwest we've got a few native plants (and lots of plants in gardens from Oregon, California etc. where there is an even more pronounced summer dry season) that are sensitive to excessive summer water as well. On the very rare occasion that we have a heavy soaking rain in summer, they all start to get fungal leaf spots and look bad until the following year (or die outright in some cases). Most years we are pretty much dry all summer.

The UCSC Arboretum in California has an impressive collection of Banksias including many WA species. Their climate is just about right to accommodate them, wet winters with little frost, and totally dry summers. Historically it is really not even possible for a heavy rain to fall there anytime during their summer. I don't know if they have done anything special to encourage the right mycorrhizal associations, I kind of doubt it though.

I do have a lot of eastern Aus. Banksias as well and I water them much more liberally all summer. I've had problems with a couple species but for the most part they have been very easy to grow.

Someday I will be trying WA Banksias in the ground in a greenhouse along with a bunch of South African Proteas. We'll see how that goes I guess!

Good lord man....you're hard to convince!

I may have mentioned earlier that I live next door (literally) to a Protea farm! 30 acres or more of Proteas, Leucadendrons, etc. being grown for cut flowers. Our South African neighbour across the road says she has never seen such big, healthy specimens.....so despite obviously having suitable conditions to grow Proteaceae, sometimes they just won't!

There are a number of very healthy WA banksias around our town, and in other parts of Tasmania too, so theres something deeper than the climate at work here. Google the climates for Denmark and Esperance on the WA South Coast, you'll find a much closer climate match to Hobart than Perth is, and that area is a banksia diversity hotspot.

As a few other people in this thread have pointed out, they are just plain hard to grow.

My big speciosa isn't complaining about the rain though - which is good!

I forgot...just out of interest check out this link Limestone underlay technique it gives you an idea of the crazy requirements of these plants.

Cheers,

Jonathan

[plamfrong]

Convince of what?

Thanks for the link.

[Jonathan]

Convince of what?

Thanks for the link.

......um...er.....that they are a hard grow.....?....!

And you're welcome!

Cheers,

Jonathan

[plamfrong]

Convince of what?

Thanks for the link.

......um...er.....that they are a hard grow.....?....!

And you're welcome!

Cheers,

Jonathan

I'll have to try harder to kill them I guess.

[philinsydney]

I went to a talk on growing W.A. species in Sydney last night for the Aust Plant Society.

The speaker said that Bankia blechnifolia was an easy one to grow. He also has a large B. speciosa but it is grafted onto B. integrifolia rootstock. B. baxteri was one of the ones that died for him.

W.A. species don't like Sydney's humid summers because their stomatas are designed to hang onto moisture and lock it away, which doesn't work when the air is humid. Also, although their tap roots reach the water table, they don't like having their fine roots wet.

One other interesting trivia: the Alloxylon species from Queensland is easy to grow, but the one from Dorrigo National Park in NSW is very difficult for some reason. Nobody in Sydney seems to be able to make it survive.

[Jonathan]

I went to a talk on growing W.A. species in Sydney last night for the Aust Plant Society.

The speaker said that Bankia blechnifolia was an easy one to grow. He also has a large B. speciosa but it is grafted onto B. integrifolia rootstock. B. baxteri was one of the ones that died for him.

W.A. species don't like Sydney's humid summers because their stomatas are designed to hang onto moisture and lock it away, which doesn't work when the air is humid. Also, although their tap roots reach the water table, they don't like having their fine roots wet.

One other interesting trivia: the Alloxylon species from Queensland is easy to grow, but the one from Dorrigo National Park in NSW is very difficult for some reason. Nobody in Sydney seems to be able to make it survive.

Blechnifolia is a good grower here as well.....at least my little one is going great guns!

I'm also very happy to report that after a very wet winter & spring my sole surviving B. brownii is finally (after 3 years in the ground) growing new leaves!

Hooray - break out the Champus!