I hope I'm not getting on your nerves by posting so many photos? But I can't help it, my garden is full of them, there are juveniles everywhere, and I just want to share them with you. There is one pink shrub at the moment (I would like to know the exact name of it), I call it the Baby shrub, because parents leave their young in there , go and collect food somewhere and come back to feed them. There were Silvereyes, New Hollands, Yellow-faced and a few others today, all of them left their babies in that shrub. (I took about 250 photos) I will only bother you with some
.
......and some Silvereyes in the same shrub
M-L
1st shot is great,M-L(as well as the others)
Great Pics, thanks for sharing. I like the Silvereyes.
I can`t see enough Pics from Birds ;-)
Heike
Hi Araminta. Delightful photos! I think your shrub is a Callistemon but I don't know which species.
Beautiful photos!
You can bother me with shots like these all you like.
I want your shrub
Neil
What pretty pics, I agree with Woko, looks like a pink callistemon. The little birds sure do like it. Lovely.
Yep, definitely a Callistemon, probably a variant of Callistemon viminalis (which may or may not actually all fall under the Melalauca family now
).
I love the pink tips on white stamens, it's lovely.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Thanks Tim,
The only problem this time was, it burst into flowers all at the same time, that made it look stunning, but because there weren't any more coming up, after a few days it was all over.But while it lasted there were countless birds feasting on them. No idea why this was the way it was, because all the other Callistemon in my garden will have some flowers open today and others tomorrow, over a longer period of time.
M-L
I think it might be Callistemon injune but I agree with Timmo it is a beautiful plant. Maybe you could grow some from cuttings, M-L, so you can always have at least one available.
Alison
~~~~~~
"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
Thanks Alison, for some reason I have not have any luck growing from cuttings. I'm not that good at growing anything, my herbs don't grow either
(nince to hear from you)
M-L
I just had a look at your link, the leaves on my shrub are different, you can see them in my photos, they are shorter and rounder than on your plant.
M-L
Ah yes, I remember now M-L, when I was looking to id your beautiful plant (and I spent a very long time) that the leaves were different - I did read on a description of the C. injune that there were thoughts that it may be a hybrid plant (maybe even a natural hybrid) that will show different characteristics on different plants due to which parent's genes are more dominant.
Did that convince you??? Maybe not, so I will have to continue my search as I would really like a plant like yours.
Alison
~~~~~~
"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
Hey, Timmo. Are you saying that there's a move to call Callistemons Melaleucas? If Callistemons are Melaleucas I'm wondering how Callistemons got to be called Callistemons rather than Melaleucas in the first place. And who oversaw this oversight? Perhaps to preserve a little biological tradition the combined species could be called Callisteleuca.
Yes, Woko, I believe that is the case, though I'm not sure if it's been broadly accepted yet.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
I love the fact , all of you like my shrub. At least I've got one
. It was here when we bought the property 15 years ago.One of very few native plants. The rest we had to remove bit by bit. I'm very upset though, some of my Callistemons have reached the end of their lives.Some have broken in halves and died. Should I have pruned them more???? That's what my husband says.
M-L
I cut the smaller ones back fairly hard after flowering , gives you a thicker shrub and more flowers next time . Hmm , note to self , some pruning to be done this weekend .
Neil
Mr Araminta will say: there you go, I told you so. I concede defeat, and cover myself in ash.
We will be pruning .
M-L
Araminta, you could prune but you could also collect seed capsules from well down on the branches, put them in a jar or paper bag in a dry place & wait for the tiny seeds to be shed. They'll be almost like dust. Then, around November, sprinkle the seeds on damp native seed mixture in a plastic tubes, old milk cartons or similar. Cover the seed with a mulch such as fine gravel, tamp the mulch down lightly, put the containers in the sun on a raised bench, tank stand or similar, keep the soil damp & then stand back. When the seedlings are about 2 or 3 cm high thin out the weakest of them (or transplant them into another tube/container) leaving 1 healthy seedling. Plant out the seedlings after the first good rain of autumn into ground that has been cleared of weeds. Unless the ground becomes dry due to a prolonged dry spell you should have no need to water the planted seedlings. They'll need to be protected from rabbits if you're unfortunate enough to have that feral pest on your property.
Thanks so much Woko, I think I can do that. You have described it so adequately, it makes it sound easy. A one step after the other instruction. We don't have rabbits, and the ground hardly ever gets dry, it has been covered by years of leaf litter, because we don't rake it. Might just have to rake a bit where I'm going to plant. The only problem I can see is that the weeds will grow faster than the seedlings. As for the watering, great, we have never watered anything in our garden. Haha, I tell my plants when I put them in the ground: sorry, don't expect me to look after you, just grow
, and that is no joke.Most do.
M-L
I like your approach, Araminta, particularly the Survive You Blighters, Survive part of it. If the Callistemon seedlings are healthy they should survive weeds. It might pay to scrape off any weeds that closely encroach on your Callistemon seedlings if you have the time. Some folk like to dig a water retention bowl around their seedlings. I avoid this, particularly if I'm planting local species, because water retention isn't what a local seedling would naturally get.