Plant & Garden News

Open Gardens Australia to Close

One of the biggest news items on the gardening scene in Australia this year has been the announcement from Open Gardens Australia (previously called Australia's Open Garden Scheme) that it will be shutting down next year at the end of the 2014-2015 season.

More on this development and a catch-up on other news in the next issue

Editorial

Remember Cut Flowers? (Continued...)

Last time, the old-fashioned practice of picking flowers for the house from our own gardens was raised here. Continuing on that theme, let's talk about why and how the garden industry could get involved in promoting a revival of this simple pleasure.

The most obvious advantage is that it provides homeowners with an added motivation to grow plants and a greater perception of returned value from time and money spent on their gardens.

Sadly, modern lifestyles and urban environments result in many people having little contact with any plants at all. Floral decoration could give such people, including children, more opportunities for close-up interaction with plants and even lessons about pollination and where food comes from. (More houseplants could also help here, although most don't flower.)

Nurseries and their marketing partners could assist by suggesting ways their plants could be used for indoor decoration on tags and other promotional material. This could be an additional selling proposition for plants that aren't typically thought of as candidates for floristry.

Ideas for using unconventional material might include float bowls, one-night-only table decoration, or dried. It might be the foliage, stems or fruits that are useful rather than the flowers, depending on the species. Provide instructions on how to harvest and prepare for best results.

Consumers could also be reminded that outdoor plants in containers can be brought inside for short periods at the peak of flowering.

Those gardeners going down the "grow your own" and sustainability route could be directed to edible flowers or those species favoured by bees and other pollinators. Further down that track, some of those growers might in turn will be looking to convert veggie beds beds to less labour-intensive ornamentals which nevertheless give something back to both gardener and environment.

Making homegrown cut flowers fashionable again might even increase sales of commercial cut flowers, too, by reminding everyone how they bring life to a home and how lovely they are as a gift. Especially after every home is saturated with smartphones and tablets!

Here's hoping you enjoy part two of the article on using Grevillea as cut flowers, and wishing you all the best for 2015.

New plants or products

Are you a breeder or distibutor who has an interesting new plant release or other new gardening products/services they would like to have featured in this newsletter in addition to the "Product Showcase" on the the homepage of www.queenslandgardening.com, please get in touch. Item must be available at retail in Qld. More information here.

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Feature Article

Grevilleas as Cut Flowers - Part Two

Using grevilleas from your garden

Part One in Issue 16 took a look at the take-up of grevilleas by the cut flower trade. However, you might have some growing in your yard. Have you ever tried them in a vase?

Although Grevillea flowers are among the showiest of Australian-derived ornamentals, the genus overall perform rather poorly after cutting. Research and development is being done to improve their performance in commercial floristry. Following are some tips gleaned from the professionals which may help you enjoy your own home-grown grevilleas indoors as well as out.

Varieties

Research has shown some species and cultivars perform better than others, so if you are especially keen on cutting flowers from the garden, select varieties that are already known to known to perform relatively well and are used by the trade.

'Sylvia', 'Moonlight', 'Majestic' are cultivars that should be readily obtainable by the home gardener. G. pteridifolia, G. sessilis and G. whiteana are species that have also been reported as having relatively long vase lives [1].

A grevillea known as 'Spiderman' in Israel is commercially grown there for the European market [2]. This is a cultivar of, or possibly the straight species of, Grevillea whiteana [3] or the very similar Grevillea hodgei [4].

To date, most of the commercially popular cultivars are of tropical origin and so their cultivation will be limited to warm districts. If you can't grow the above in your climate, you may have to to experiment with other species.

When to pick

Harvesting at the correct stage is key to achieving good vase life. The blooms should be picked when fully developed but before the styles have fully emerged from the florets. 10% to 100% of the styles on the inflorescence should be in the looped stage, with remaining florets in the splitting stage [5,6].

Inflorescence on the left of the image is suitable for picking. All the styles are looped or soon to emerge. The other bloom, with 100% of styles emerged, is too old.

Other measures

In northern parts of Australia (i.e. tropical/subtropical), the flowers reportedly last longer when harvested in the autumn and winter compared to the spring and summer.

As discussed in Part One, Grevillea baileyana foliage has been used commercially for its interesting leaf shapes and colour as well as long vase life. So try experimenting with grevillea foliage, too, mixed with grevillea flowers or with other native or exotic blooms.

In Conclusion

Next time you're purchasing cut flowers, you might like to consider grevilleas for something a little different with an Australian flavour. Meanwhile, if you're growing grevilleas, why not try bringing some of their beauty indoors?

References and other sources