Banksia Oblongifolia
Banksia Oblongifolia, native to Queensland and New South Wales, is another Banksia that isn’t often seen in cultivation and home gardens. I first came across it about 10 years ago and planted it in my mother’s garden where it grew into a narrow spindly shrub about 1.5 m tall that probably only ever had about 6 flowers on it in all its life.
A few months ago I was at was at my parent’s house and noticed they’d dug it out. My mother told me it had never really been much of a plant and only had a few branches on it. So I suppose I could understand her reasoning but I was a bit disappointed as Banksia Oblongifolia was one of the few Banksia that had a lignotuber. You see I really like plants with lignotubers as they are so easy to regenerate when they get old and spindly. All you have to do is prune them back to the lignotuber and then let them grow back again and in many cases they do look better the second time around. Therefore as I said, I was disappointed that this Banksia had been dug out.
Lucky for me though, my mother quickly advised me that she’d transplanted it into a small plastic pot and here it is……….
March 11
Doesn’t really look much does it? You can see from the photo it had about 10 original branches which were all vertical and now obviously cut off. It had one remaining juvenile branch but the lignotuber and remaining branches were all covered in buds.
Being dug up after nearly 10 years in the ground and placed in a pot hadn’t really affected it at all much. Plus, from memory, it was dug up in January or February, during summer, while it was growing. So this was a tough little Banksia indeed.
Banksia Oblongifolia Lignotuber. You may be able to see the new buds forming.
Therefore for the last few months it’s been growing quite happily in this pot.
By April 26 it had quite a nice canopy.
By May 15 it had thickened up even more.
So now I’m just waiting for it flower. Winter is it’s normal season but I don’t think there will be any flowers this winter so I’ll just have to wait till next year. So as you can see, you don’t have to dig out old Australian natives and throw them away. You can either prune them back according to how they grow or you can simply transplant them, as with this Banksia.
At the end of the day I think Banksia Oblongifolia looks ok just growing in a pot. I could either prune it back to expose the lignotuber more (like a bonsai) to make it a feature or I could just let it grow and wait for it to flower.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Banksia Seminuda Flowers
- Transplanting Plants
- Banksia Ericifolia
- Banksia Seminuda
- How NOT to Transplant your Plants
Banksia Seminuda Flowers
Banksia Seminuda is a tree that can grow up to 25 m in it’s natural habitat growing alongside streams in Western Australia. Unfortunately though, it is rarely seen in cultivation as it does have some very desirable features such as it’s adaptability to different soil types, it’s reasonably fast growth rate and of course it’s orangey yellow flowers (also yellow varieties as well).
I’ve personally got two Banksia Seminudas growing in my garden, one about 4 years old and the other about 3 years old. Neither has flowered at this stage but this is not unusual as most seed grown Banksias can take a between 3 to 10 years before they flower.
In the case of Banksia Seminuda it is normally about 7 years and this was the case for Steve Bromley in Tasmania who’s 7 year old Banksia Seminuda has just come into flower for the first time. Steve kindly sent me some photos which I thought were well worth publishing especially since this fantastic Banksia is so rarely seem in peoples gardens.
Banksias are great for attracting birds into your garden
Banksia Seminuda Flower. There is also an all yellow flower variety as well.
Banksia Burdetti also growing in Steve's Garden
If you would like to find out some more about growing Banksia Seminuda then please follow the link. Click Here.
Thanks for the Photos Steve
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Pruning your Alyogyne Huegelii
How to Prune Alyogyne Huegelii and other Australian Native Plants.
From time to time I get emails about pruning Australian Native Plants and the feeling I quite often get is that there are many gardeners that have a misconception that Australian Natives don’t like to be pruned.
And this really couldn’t be further from the truth. Banksias, Grevilleas, Eremophilas and even Alyogynes all respond really well to a regular prune but I suppose for some gardeners it can be a daunting task as some are reluctant to go ahead and take the secateurs to a plant, just in case it doesn’t grow back.
Well I suppose the first thing to consider is that some plants should only be pruned lightly and not below the previous years growth. While others can be pruned back to bare wood if need be and they will regrow again. So knowing which of these groups a particular plant fits into can be very important if you want get the most out of pruning your plants……….. and probably the best way to find out is this………..
Eremophila "Winter Gold" is one Australian Native Plant that responds really well to harsh pruning.
Alyogyne Huegelii 2 months after a light prune. It is regrowing well down on the branches that are over 2 years old.
Alyogyne Huegelii in late December after it's finished flowering and ready to be pruned.
Alyogyne Huegelii after a light prune. If I wanted to I could have taken much more off but in this case I was happy with this amount.
Alyogyne Huegelii in late Feburary growing back into a nice compact, dense shrub that will continue to regrow into autumn and then start to form flowers in late winter.
Just as your plant is coming into it’s normal growing season (spring in most cases) cut back part of the plant (maybe at the rear) right back to some bare wood and then just wait and see if it starts to sprout some new growth. If it regrows you know you can then prune it back really hard if need be and if it doesn’t you know you need to be a bit more conservative with your pruning.
Alyogyne Huegelii is one plant that will respond really well to harsh pruning and will regrow from older bare branches. Pruning this plant back really hard is a great way to rejuvenate an older shrub that has rarely been pruned in the past. It will also transform it into a more compact, denser shrub that will flower much more prolifically the following spring.
If you prune regularly though, then you may just want to prune it back somewhere between a 1/3 to 2/3 depending on your preference. I prune my Alyogyne Huegelii each year after it finishes flowering which is normally in about early summer.
Because of this I normally only have to prune off about 1/3 but if I wanted to I could have taken off quite a bit more.
So if you’re not sure how much you can prune your particular plant back then experiment. All plants are different when it comes to how hard you can prune them but once you work out what’s best for a particular plant then you can go about it more confidently and as a result you’ll end up with a much more compact plant that will look more attractive, will most likely be more wind resistant, may even live longer and best of all will flower so much more prolifically the following year.
And finally remember this, when you do prune your plants they can look a little bare for a little while afterwards (something like when you get a bad hair cut maybe?). But most Australian Natives will grow back fairly quickly so when it comes to the decision of whether to prune or not to prune, I can only say this…………
I always prefer a plant that will look a little strange for a month or two and then look fantastic for the rest of the year as opposed to one that’s not pruned at all and just looks average (at best) for the whole of the year.
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