Winter savory, Satureja montana

 Satureja montana (Group) Lamiaceae

'Winter Savory' , 'Sarriette',  'Ajedrea'

The great American botanist and garden writer, Helen Morgenthau Fox (1884-1974), details her 'discovery' of this herb in her 1952 essay 'Notes on a Few Savories'.......(botany meets herbes et aromates de Cuisine) While Mediterranean herb plants were difficult to procure in the first decades of the 20th century she was lucky enough to be sent seed of different Satureja species from a Swiss Nurseryman, Henri Correvon, though the resulting plants were to have their species status stripped from them and instead were later just grouped under S. montana. 

This prostrate form which is sometimes given the name 'Nana' is similar to S. spicigera though the latter has longer leaves. It is a terrific herb for slow cooked winter dishes, say, 'le cassoulet' with plenty of beans. Just a pinch though as the flavour is strong.

What I really like about this plant however is its venerable shape similar to an old arching tree. Of course this makes it the perfect candidate for a bonsai pot.

Camellia japonica 'Katie'

Camellia japonica 'Katie'

(photo supplied)

Every flower tells a story...I had a request for this camellia from a lady, Shelley, in Perth Western Australia who lost her plant of it during a particularly hot dry spell in summer.(sounds familiar) She had been growing it for about fifteen years and it was a nice reminder of her daughter Katie as its flowering in July coincided with her birthday.

Camellia 'Katie' was bred by a retired cray-fisherman who named it after his grand daughter. However because he did not register the name as one of his it seems to have 'disappeared' from cultivation. Hopefully someone reading this may be able to let me know more about it so I can let Shelley know where she may be able to find one for her garden.

Agave desmettiana 'Joe Hoak'

 Agave desmettiana 'Joe Hoak'

I was given this plant about eighteen months ago by a nursery colleague who did not have a name for it. I initially thought it was a Yucca but have since found out it is the white variegated form of Agave desmettiana and brother to the popular 'El Miradores Gold'. 'El Miradore' is quick growing and flowers readily with hundreds of 'bulbils' or new plants produced on the flowering stem, so many in fact it is hard to know what to do with them. My 'Joe Hoak' is still in a pot and increasing in size slowly though it is now producing some nice offsets which can be carefully removed once big enough.

 The name 'Joe Hoak' refers to Hoak's Greenhouse and Nursery Inc of Homestead ,Florida.

Agave lophantha 'Tricolor'

Agave lophantha 'Tricolor'

This Agave often gets named or confused with the variety 'Quadricolor' which has the addition of white and pink to the leaf markings. It is quite a striking Agave none the less and over the past few years I have been slowly building up stock of it by removing the off-sets from my original specimen which is now some 45cm across. These 'pups' occur as side shoots on a short branch instead of the more typical underground form where new plants travel from the parent and emerge some distance away. Though the leaf margins are toothed and a small spine is present on the leaf tip, this is a very user friendly Agave which is ideal for a pot or garden bed.
2017 update: I have a number of different sizes available.

'Pendent Glorybower', Clerodendrum wallichi

 Clerodendrum wallichi syn C nutans (Verbenaceae)

A shrub 'designed' for a tropical downpour somewhere in India or Pakistan. Rain flowing down the channel of the linear-lanceolate leaves and out over the curved 'drip tip' while the enchanting flowers are floating free in a loose panicle protected individually by a sturdy calyx which changes colour from lime to coral as it ages. It's the 'Foot-long Sub' of flowering plants and these creamy white five petaled butterfly 'fans' have whiskery stamens which make them even more alluring. Phew!

 And now for the bad news. This is not a particularly hardy shrub outside the tropics. I have never grown it in the ground as from my past experience of growing it as a pot plant, it forgets to awake from a winter hibernation and remains leafless till early summer. During this dormancy it is vulnerable to root rot especially if it gets cold and wet, or if a wind chill factor brings the temperature very low. It requires a warm sheltered garden spot with moderately moist fertile soil which has been enriched with compost and kept free of weeds with thick mulch or leaf litter.

Sweet Cicely, Myrrhis odorata

 Sweet Cicely 
 Myrrhis odorata (Umbelliferae)

I have Buckley's chance of being able to grow this herb well but it is worth a shot. I bought this at the recent Collectors' Plant Fair and a lady next to me who was buying one also told me she was from Bathurst so she has a much better crack at growing it successfully.
 Sweet Cicely is a European shade loving perennial which is stimulated to grow well by a certain amount of snow cover over winter. Move to Scotland I hear you say? Snow has the effect of scarifying any fallen seed thus aiding germination and when the snow melts the trigger for growth is manifest. It is said to be the last herb to die down before winter with the foliage first reacting to the cold by turning purple. As a flavouring herb Cicely has a mild sweet flavour of aniseed or liquorice. All parts are edible including the roots which can be cooked as a vegetable. I have a 'food memory' of it from over thirty years ago. When visiting Madge Hooper at Stoke Lacey Herb Farm in Bromyard, Herefordshire, I was given the green seeds to chew on. They were sweet and very pleasant tasting. It has been a long wait to finally get my hands on a plant for however long I am able to keep it alive.

Springboarding

 Teaching the sport of springboarding

 In Germaine Greer's book 'White Beech - The Rainforest Years' (Bloomsbury 2014) we are given a remarkable historical account of the timber getting industry in South East Queensland as recalled by Bernard O'Reilly of 'Green Mountain' fame and the dangers associated with the use of the springboard which came to be used because trees were unable to be cut down from the ground owing to their flanged or buttressed trunks, a characteristic of many rainforest trees. The springboard is made of light wood, four foot long and a foot wide and it has at one end a steel tip which is inserted into a horizontal slot cut into the tree and "on this narrow rocking perch the settler swings his razor-edged axe, sometimes twenty or even thirty feet from the ground, then as the tree begins to go, he must descend swiftly, bringing not only his axe but his springboard."(O'Reilly) Many lost their lives or were seriously injured in the process. As Greer explains, "the O'Reilly boys all at one time or another sustained terrible injuries from their own axes. Ped and Herb both severed leg tendons; Pat buried his axe in his abdomen; Norb stitched a cut on his leg with needle and cotton.' By way of variation on the self-injury theme, Mick fell from his springboard and was impaled on a spike."

The wood chopping events held at Agricultural Shows across Australia are a reminder of these timber industry pioneers.

 White Beech timber from the rainforest tree Gmelina leichhardtii (Lamiaceae) It is 'highly resistant to decay in ground contact or in persistently damp or ill-ventilated situations' and in the early 1900's it was used for building frames, as well as flooring, lining, mouldings, joinery and cladding.'

'There is now no White Beech timber to be had anywhere' (Greer)

By Ashley Sewell

Department of Natural Resources Queensland, 1997