Fringed Lilies

This week, this photo of a Fringed Lily (Thysanotus tuberosus) came 5th in the Lily Section in the photographic competition on the gardening website, All Things Plants, USA (https://allthingsplants.com/).

The lily is one of my favourite living things. The colour is appealing and the arrangement of the tassels coming out of the petals is so unusual for a bloom.

The blooms are tiny, however, about 23mm (1") across, and in groups up to five. The flower only lasts for a day. The scapes rise to about 40cm (16"). The thin leaves are usually dead by the time it flowers in spring and summer but they can grow to 45cm (1.5').

Fringe Lilies are easy to propagate by seed and grow well in containers. The small black seeds are inside the fruit, a capsule about 7mm (0.3") long . Here I have them growing in an old wheelbarrow.

 

In Native Plants of the Bay Islands (Volume 1), they say the roots and the base of the leaves are edible. The tubers are said to be crisp and juicy. They are encased in hard shells but split open when cooked in hot ashes.

 

As for me, I prefer them as eye candy.

Glowing Groundcovers

 

 

Glowing yellow, stunningly good on the eye, and beloved of bees, this sedum is one I had tried to use before as a groundcover. It was a big fail. The cuttings usually did not take. One day I accidentally discovered the secret of the mother pot.

This is my Biting Stonecrop Sedum acre as a groundcover. It has succulent leaves and is not for walking on. I also have had to keep a sharp eye on other plants trying to take it over and weed them out, but it has been worth the effort. In this one place, it covers an area of about 10'X3' and expanding.
 

How did I do such an extensive area in sedum? The secret is the hanging pot you can see in the above photo (bottom left). It has been placed there to set the extension of the sedum into that area.

This is the mother pot close up.

 

I place the pot where I want the sedum to grow. While the pot sits there, the sedum grows down the side of the pot and sets roots when it reaches the garden soil, stones, or mulch. When it is set, I then cut around the bottom of the lip of the pot and lift it up, leaving behind the sedum outside the pot. I cover exposed stems with soil, mulch, or leaf litter.
 

It looks scrappy to begin with, but that will cover over quite quickly because these cuttings are set and rooted.

 

 

I have had to weed the sedum because other, more aggressive groundcovers, such as native lobelia, violets, and herbs, will take it over. Sedum breaks easily when weeded, but it will soon recover. You can always try to set the broken bits. Even so, it is easy to control just by pulling it out and composting.

When weeding, I have to wear my glasses because things are so small and intricately intertwined. I just use fingers and tweezers for pulling and a small paintbrush for applying weed killer, mostly against White Root and the miracle herb, Gatu Kola.

This is White Root (Lobelia purpurascens) intertwined (the darker green plant), an aggressive native ground cover that can smother everything, given half a chance.

 

This is Gatu Kola (Centella asiatica), which has large green leaves, that will even overwhelm the White Root. I do not know how it got into the garden but I assume it was planted by the previous owners of the property.

 

It helps me with this area being raised above ground along my driveway and I can sit and work on the wall in a relaxed way. No one is more surprised than I that the sedum has worked out so well, and I only discovered how to spread it successfully because I slothfully left a hanging pot on the ground there.
 

 

This is my second year working with it. All in all, it has been a rewarding endeavour with an arresting aesthetic result. From a distance, the sedum areas appear to glow and flow.
 

 

When it begins to flower, the stems elongate and masses of tiny buds form. When these open, there is a profusion of golden blooms over which the bees just purr.

 

 

 

Article originally published at:

https://allthingsplants.com/ideas/view/Gleni/2068/Sedum-acre-and-the-Mother-Pot-the-Making-of-Glowing-Groundcovers/

 

A bandicoot for your thoughts

See me if you can.

What wet food the ragdolls will not touch, I leave for the Bush Stone-curlews. My ragdolls are incredibly choosy and expensive house cats and that means a lot of food gets a prissy reaction. Happily, curlews are less choosy and polish off most rejected food in a flash.

Bush Stone-curlew (male) checking for evening manna.

 

But not always. Sometimes they do not rush in but pause and pose. They just stand there, motionless, with their heads tilted, as if looking askance at substandard fare.

Last night, I thought I would watch to see if they actually did go and leave the food after they baulked like that. I went upstairs and sneaked to a window above them and looked down by partly lifting the blind.

My viewing conditions were challenging.

I waited. The curlews posed. Then something startling happened. Out of my garden something plopped, dropping from two feet (60cm) to the driveway. It then flopped and hopped amongst the curlews sending them off in all directions at once.

The curlews subsequently reacted indignantly and reapproached the menace with riotous screaming, which is their way.

At first I thought, "Rats!" but the hopping meant marsupial not placental. Relief.

The bandicoot and the curlew.

Needless to say, the Northern Brown Bandicoot (that is what it is) was not the least concerned by the curlews and, loping now and again, made short shrift of the food.

It was difficult photographing this smallish marsupial. I had to use the telephoto and flash from 6 metres (20 feet) away and contort by cryptically leaning out from a screen door. It was all helped by the glow of the garage light - but not much.

When the platter was clean, the bandicoot went off into the night.

This is a good garden.

Leaden Flycatcher and Other Creatures

Leaden Flycatcher (male)

Today, a friend, Greg Roberts, and I trudged the mangroves of Macleay Island looking for Shining Flycatchers and Mangrove Honeyeaters.

Leaden Flycatchers were common and calling. The males are dark and appealing.

We found no Shining Flycatchers, however. The records of this species for the Southern Moreton Bay Islands are few and far between. Kathy Haydon has recorded them from Coochiemudlo Island only once in ten years.

Shining Flycatcher (male). Photo Greg Roberts.

There were many Brown Honeyeaters but no Mangrove Honeyeaters. It is surprising that we could not find Mangrove Honeyeaters but they can be quite spotty in their distribution despite the presence of extensive mangrove stands and good flowering.

We recorded both Mangrove and White-throated Gerygones. White-collared Kingfishers chirruped away and zoomed past like blue exocets.

White-collared Kingfisher

Varied Trillers checked us out. They are occasionally called Frog Birds because their call sounds like that of the Ruddy Treefrog Litoria rubella.

Varied Triller