Eremophilas To Rescue
Eremophila purpurascens is one of the plants we need to rescue from the bulldozer. It is on the edge of the planting but will probably be damaged. We won’t be able to move it so as much cutting material as possible has been taken. After such a dry winter this is sparse so we put the hose on it trickling for half an hour to increase the material in this next week or so.
Eremophila purpurascens
This is a pretty plant one and a half metres high and wide, flowering from August to October. Here it has some flowers at other times of the year too. It is a Western Australian species from an area of granite but it copes well with the high pH of the soil here. It is actually growing in fairly deep mallee sand which provides good drainage. It is also frost and drought hardy.
Eremophila maculata compact form (Emu Bush)
No Comments »22nd September, 2006; Category: Drought Tolerant Plants, Eremophila, Frost Hardy Plants, Hardy Australian Native PLants
Eremophila maculata compact form (Emu Bush)
This compact form of Eremophila maculata is a delight. It only grows about 60cm tall by about the same wide. The flowers are out of proportion to the size of the plant, being the same size as those on Eremophila maculata (Spotted Emu Bush).
All the desirable qualities apply to this plant. It is small, frost and drought hardy and lime tolerant. I think this plant flowers for a much longer period than the standard Eremophila maculata. Everyone admires the brilliantly coloured flowers. Like all Eremophilas, it benefits from light pruning or trimming from a young age.
The Mallee Ringnecks adore it and they can’t be wrong. It was an amusing sight, which we caught with the camera, to see one of the locals fly to the vicinity of the bush, waddle up to it and proceed to pick the flowers, get the nectar from the base of the tube and drop the flower to the ground before proceding to the next flower. The ground surrounding the bush was littered with chewed flowers. Destructive little beast! Incredibly this bush produces so many flowers that the chewed ones were not missed.
Eremophila maculata (Spotted Emu Bush)
3 Comments »19th September, 2006; Category: Drought Tolerant Plants, Eremophila, Hardy Australian Native PLants
This is another very hardy plant. Eremophila maculata (Spotted Emu Bush) occurs in a number of colours and habits, from a shrub to two and half metres by about the same wide, to a sprawling plant about half a metre tall by about 2 metres across.
Eremophila maculata (Spotted Emu Bush)
The plant in the photo is a dark pink form to 2 metres high and across here. It has large tubular flowers with spots inside the throat of the tube. The Honeyeaters absolutely love this shrub. They have been very busy nesting and arguing over territory and there seems to be a lot of different species around this year. The eremophilas are providing a wonderful food source at the moment.
This eremophila is one that grows best in heavier soil that is well drained. It is a very hardy plant. They don’t mind dappled shade for part of the day or the root competition from the nearby mallee trees. Soil with a very high pH like we have here is no bother either.
Eremophila maculata makes a great screening or hedge plant. It responds to very hard pruning by sending out many sprouts from the cut site.
Eremophila glabra prostrate, yellow form (Hardy Plant 2)
Eremophila glabra prostrate, yellow flowered form
This prostrate from of Eremophila glabra is particularly hardy. It seems to grow in most soil types, is very drought tolerant and also lime and frost tolerant. The nectar feeding birds appreciate the fact that it flowers for most of the year.
The occasional branch may reach to 30cm tall but it is mostly up to about 20cm tall by up to two metres wide. A spade makes a good pruning tool to stop it wandering where it is not wanted. Given reasonable drainage, it appears to last many years. In cooler, moister areas the glabra forms of Eremophila need to be planted in the open.
Any method of providing a raised bed improves the drainage for Australian native plants. To shift some soil from one spot to create a small water catchment near the root zone of a plant provides a mound with some extra height to improve drainage for another plant. I have read that as little as 10cm extra height in the soil in the planting spot will vastly improve conditions for plants that must have good drainage.
Eremophila complanata
2 Comments »4th September, 2006; Category: Drought Tolerant Plants, Eremophila, Using Australian Natives
Eremophila complanata is another of those tough lime and drought tolerant plants. It is in full flower at the moment making a lovely splash of colour.
Eremophila complanata
Before using Australian Natives as cut flowers became more widely practised, we knew that this one kept for two weeks in a vase. It is still not on any published lists of plants suitable for the cut flower trade.
When our local group of the Australian Plant Society used to organise a Spring Flower Show we got to know how many species behaved when cut for display.
Eremophila complanata is a shrub to about one and a half metres, by nearly a metre wide. It would be a bit smaller if I took cuts from the bush regularly. It becomes straggly if not trimmed after flowering.