By Sherrill Leist and Lisa Marun.
At each monthly meeting, members bring in plants, cuttings, or flowers and put them in blue bottles on our display tables. What a great way to see which plants grow well in our area! EVERYONE is invited to participate. All plants are welcome. Write descriptions similar to the one below and place them with your plants.
We choose one of these plants to feature in our newsletter every month. Join the fun and bring something to the next meeting! We thank those people who have brought in plants to show to other members.
PLANT OF THE MONTH: Grevillea langeria 'Mt. Tamboritha', WOOLLY GRAVILLEA (Proteaceae), Australia
“I was going to bring something for the Plant Display but…,” said our usual plant contributors as they scanned the room full of succulents for sale, unique pots, and inviting tables of food.
With our signature blue bottles empty, we went looking for an interesting Plant of the Month and chose a drought tolerant Grevillea cultivar with furry dark green leaves and stems of tiny delicate pink flowers. Australian native ‘Mt. Tamboritha’, from seller Ausachica Nursery, is a fluffy, dense, low-growing shrub reaching between one and two feet high and spreading up to five feet wide. It blooms winter to spring in full to partial sun in most well-drained soils and the showy flower clusters attract nectar-loving birds. This popular Grevillea also seems to be resistant to the fungal disease Phytophthora palmivora that attacks other cultivars. – S.L.
Horticultural Society members enjoy seeing each other’s unusual and interesting plants. If you have such plants in your garden, blue bottles are waiting for you to show them off next month.