Banksia

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.

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Posted in Banksia, Transplanting Plants | Tagged Banksia, Banksia Oblongifolia, Banksias, lignotuber, Transplanting Plants | 5 Comments

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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Posted in Banksia | Tagged Banksia, Banksia Burdetti, Banksia Seminuda | 6 Comments

Banksia Ericifolia

There are several varieties and subspecies of Banksia Ericifolia that are available in nurseries today. Some are more garden worthy than others. In my last garden I grew two different varieties. The first was a variety called “Little Eric”. This was a great little Banksia that only grows to about 1.5 m in height with a spreading habit.

Banksia Little Eric

The best thing about this Banksia is that I grew it is a shady area under a large tree that was growing in the house next door. The roots from this tree ensured that the ground was always bone dry and despite this it always puts on a flowering display every winter and never shows any signs of stress. So if you’re after a plant to put in a dry shady area this might be a very good choice.

The other type of Banksia Ericifolia I grew was the more common subsp Ericifolia which was quite a nice looking plant but the flowers were well hidden inside the foliage and as a consequence they were hard to see. I do believe that there is a variety though where the flowers are longer, more terminal and protrude above the top of the foliage more so they are more visable. So a word of warning, choose wisely at the nursery if you want a plant that will put on a show when in flower.

There are also a few hybrids as well that are worth a mention. Banksia “Giant Candles” is the most well known. A hybrid with B Spinulosa this Banksia gets its name from the long flowers it produces, up to 40 cm long. The shrub itself grows up to 5 or 6m and could nearly be classified as a small tree. I grew this in my last garden. It tends to grow reasonably fast and is covered in long orange flowers over winter.

Banksia Giant Candles

Another Hybrid is called Banksia “Yellow Wing” a hybrid between Giant Candles and B Spinulosa (Canarvon) “Birdwise”. I’m currently growing this one in my garden at the moment but the growth has been slow. I’m not sure if this is due to the phosphorus in my soil or just the dry conditions. I might try giving it some more water and we’ll see if it grows any faster. The other thing is that apart from the slow growth it hasn’t shown any signs of phosphorus toxicity whatsoever so it appears to be resistant to the effects of the phosphorus.

Banksia Yellow Wing, surviving the Phosphorus

Banksia Ericifolia grows naturally on the east coast of Australia and typically has long orange, burgundy or yellow candle like flowers that occur over winter and into spring. It normally grows to 3m but this is variable in the different varieties. Despite coming from an area that gets up to 1000mm of rain per year it is still very drought tolerant, adaptable and easy grow in the home garden.

Banksia Ericifolia “Little Eric” and Banksia “Giant Candles” are the ones that I’ve had the most success with and would recommend them as starters but I’d be very interested to get some feedback on what other people have tried.

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