The Definition of a Scotsburn Plant

Please click on the image to view a quick video of next week's spec load.

How do we describe what we grow? How do we decide what to grow? When Mark says "That's not us", what does he mean?

1. Courtyard Plants.  We grow a broad range of plants, some ornamental, some culinary.  The one feature that they have in common is they are suitable for growing in small spaces.  That's not to say they couldn't be massed or field grown, just that our focus is on their use in a courtyard setting.
2. Plants we like. I have been know to say (on many occasions) "it doesn't matter what you like as long as it sells". I am now convinced that it does matter.  Of course it's subjective and often contrary, but we do a better job when we are doing what we love. 
3. The environment.  We are proud of our EcoHort accreditation. We believe that plants are generally environmentally positive but some are not and some practices used in producing plants commercially are equally inappropriate. We consider the environment when selecting varieties. Wherever possible we will choose a biological and environmental controls in preference to chemicals.
4. Garden Ready. While we want our plants to look fantastic when we dispatch them it's more important that they perform when they are taken home by a gardener.

• Focus on the roots.  Get the root system strong and balanced with the shoot growth and the plant will look after itself.
• Grow in the appropriate container.  Choose a container to suit the plant not a price. We prefer to grow fewer in the right container than wrestle a large plant into a small pot.
• No PGR's. Plant Growth Regulators (hormones) help to squeeze plants into small containers so the can be turned over faster. Beyond a vague uneasiness with controlling growth with hormones, we also believe the effect of the PGR is often residual in the plant so it won't grow to it's potential in the garden.
• Slow and steady. Don't over fertilize and grow in the appropriate environment. Plants must be acclimatized before dispatch.

5. Propagation.  Refer to point 2.  There is a special satisfaction in knowing we have raised a beautiful plant from seed or cuttings we have struck ourselves.

This is a first draft of a "Definition of a Scotsburn plant".  As a first draft I am looking for feedback and I have to concede that some of the items are aspirational rather than factual, but once we can describe what we do and hopefully why, then perhaps we can pull the contradictions into line.

Let me know what you think.

Live & Luscious, what's available this week

Click on the pic! Go on, just for fun.  

Did you enjoy that?  Mark's idea and put into practice with virtually no direction by Amanda.  Now we don't need to send a Spec Van to your door, because you can see just how good each item that we have available looks.... no not such a great idea, the reps will still call, but if we can't get to you or at least not as frequently as you would like this video is fresh, up to date and an accurate reflection of the quality of the stock.

Each Thursday Karen prepares a list of all the plants we have ready for sale. This is prettied up to create the availability list and we then fax and email all our customers and a few potential customers.  This process has been in operation for at least 15 years. I'm proud of our list, I think it's clear and logical and we put an enormous effort into it's preparation each week. A fax works perfectly because the recipient can take the page into their nursery and fill in their requirements immediately.  The emailed Newsletter has until now added a picture or two and some more detailed information but I have always struggled with how to get a picture of the actual plants that will be delivered to our customers.

When Mark asked why we don't provide a video of the weekly spec. load the whole puzzle fell into place.  On Friday Amanda takes the availability list produced each week and prepares samples of the best items for display to our customers, it took less than 10 minutes to prepare a video of those plants and upload it to YouTube.  Amanda is very proud of her spec. loads and rightly so, I think she has shown a sense of fun in preparing the video that I think we can develop.

So, once again, please have a look and don't hesitate to let us know what you think.

How far apart should I plant Pansies?

Last year we tried Pansy Tumbles.  Great name, limited colour range.  This year we are trying Pansy Freefall.  Name is nearly as good, colour range different but no broader. Growth habit? Hard to tell yet, the first 2 batches have grown through the worst weather imaginable for Pansies and performed admirably I might add.

These are Spreading Pansy offerings from two different breeders. I think it's fair to say that Spreading Pansies have been developed on the back of the success of Spreading Petunias and more recently the Spreading Vinca (Catharanthus).  Regular Pansies are clumping plants and we recommend spacing 15-20cm apart to achieve good coverage.  Spreading Violas and Pansies can spread 30-50cm which means fewer plants are needed to cover the same area and... they trail over the sides of baskets, containers, dry stone walls, etc.  In short they look stunning.

Of course breeding for a particular feature often means another feature is sacrificed.  In this case the flower size and colour range are limited. The early plants we have grown through the heat this summer and early autumn have produced masses of flowers barely bigger than violas.  They might get a little bigger now the temperatures have fallen but I expect not much.  It's still early days for this line of breeding so improvements to flower size and colour range will follow pretty quickly. Interestingly we can get a really good Yellow in the Freefall range we are growing this year but no White. The Tumbles range offers a White (with hints of blue/mauve) but they have not been able to offer Yellow as a single colour.  Next year we will probably pick the eyes out of both ranges, the growth habits appear to be close enough.

Our Spreading Pansies and Violas are offered in 140mm pots and 270mm baskets. Fresh batches are coming through soon.

Melbourne Flower Show Winners

No, we don't have our own display at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.  We are proud sponsors of the Great Victorian Hanging Basket Competition.  Over 300 home gardeners have gotten personally involved in the show this year through the competition. That's 10 times the number we had when the competition started! Congratulations to Don and Jennifer Rickerby and especially Kevin Moneghetti for the remarkable steel display structure, you really get a feel for the huge number of baskets on display just walking past the front.

We also have plants in the Tree & Shrub Growers of Victoria Gold Medal winning Haute Culture display. If you didn't catch Better Homes and Gardens last night I think the Gerbera Garvineas were used in cut away shots 10 times. Congratulations to Steve Day & Terry Meahan once again. I note that there is much more greenlife being used in nearly all the show gardens this year, Graeme Ross attributed this to trends in Europe. I reckon Steve & Terry can take a lot of credit for plants taking the central focus and being used much less as punctuation marks for hard landscaping. 

I'm also proud to say we had a small quantity of herbs and chillis in the "Best in Show" Cube2 by Scott Wynd TLC design. Very modern yet achievable and plants if not to the fore, certainly not taking a back seat.

Finally we have herbs in Rebecca Heath's Avenue of Achievable Gardens display. Rebecca did not win a prize to my knowledge but BH&G gave her design a rave review. Bravo.

How do I grow Angelonia?

Angelonia Angelic Purple Stripe
Almost exactly 12 months ago I wrote about Angelonia. It was an entirely new plant to me that we were just trialling.  The trials looked great but the retail response was tepid at best, still we were impressed by the plant's hardiness in the warm weather so we planned a small crop for this year.  Lisa and Amanda have found an improved response to Angelonia this year and want us to grow it again for Summer 2014... BUT, we have to work harder at ensuring people know about Angelonia and just what a great Summer flowerer it is.  So here's a start.

Based on last year's feed back we planned to have plants ready for Christmas sales. That was almost our undoing.  Angelonia is a cutting grown plant that we grow under license so we have to buy in young plants (NO taking our own cuttings). We ordered our plants for delivery over winter with a plan to grow them slowly and produce compact flowering plants for Christmas.  The poor things didn't know what had hit them! Stuck out in our shade house with virtually no protection they went backwards, then further backwards. Space is now tight in the nursery so the poor ugly, struggling Angelonia were just left shivering.  Keep in mind these plants were re-potted in the depths of winter so once they had been stressed something had to change to break the cycle.  Finally the weather warmed enough to encourage some root growth and they got the start they needed and have grown into very attractive flowering pots. So why tell the story?

Angelonia reminds me of a number of tropical/sub tropical perennials that we grow successfully in Melbourne (Bouvardia, Duranta, Gardenia, etc) gardeners understand that over winter they will look sad but a trim and a feed once they start to put on their first Spring growth and they will soon look fantastic.  Not only that but they thrive in our summer.  We have found them very happy in the full sun, a little shade won't hurt but they will start to stretch and produce fewer flowers. It is apparently happy both dry and wet but we have noticed it preforms best when it is allowed to dry out between irrigations, this helps prevent stretching.  Angelonia is a plant that responds well to a savage cut so if they get out of hand a trim is easy and highly recommended, they will need a solid cut as soon as they show signs of new growth in Spring.

Having learned a little more about growing Angelonia we'll have another go and hopefully we'll find a few more gardeners have tried them and fallen in love with them.  I still haven't given up on a pre-Christmas batch, we will just have to be a little more caring.

Scented Mini Cyclamen

Sometimes there is no better reason than to show off!
Metis Scented Mini Cyclamen. Sina was cleaning the dead heads out of these plants when I went to photograph one. She was so pleased with them she kept finding stunning examples and demanding I "pick this one". 15 & 20 flowers on each of the best plants already. The foliage is compact and they last for ages so we are settling in for a long Autumn & Winter.  It's hard to explain just how satisfying it is to see these plants looking great, remembering that we sowed the seed in the Winter last year.

We have added two novelties to the selection this year:

Flamed colours.  Rose (pictured), Salmon, Purple and Magenta each with a fine white trim to their flowers. and 

Victoria style.  White (pictured), Salmon and Rose each with a ruffled flower with a coloured trim. The ruffles are quite distinct early on but it looks like we will have to wait a little for cooler weather to develop the colouring in the ruffle for most of the flowers.  Hard to see in this pic but very pretty when admired at first hand.

How do I fertilize Bouvardia plants?

Recently,  I bought bouvardia plant from nursery.  The plant has full of flowers and an amazing perfume.  I just love it.  Just would like to know how to take care of the plant.

How often do I have to fertilize and in winter can I trim the plant. How to propagate?  etc

Thanks

Shahnaz

It's only now that I sit down to write this newsletter that I remember I wrote about Bouvardia only in late December, so most of these questions are answered in that post.  There are a couple of specifics however that I did not cover.  Fertilizer is the most important, and fertilizing follows the annual growth cycle.  Bouvardia is a subtropical plant, in Melbourne's climate it goes quite dormant. Not deciduous dormant specifically dropping all it's foliage but in the cold the plant just shuts down and most if not all of the foliage will drop.  In this state the plant is quite well protected from cold and frost. We keep them out doors under a very light shade cloth and effectively ignore them for 3-4 months June through September. In October, depending on how early a given season starts to warm it will only vary 2-3 weeks we start to see the buds swelling and shooting.

Now is the time for Minh the Master to take action.  The scrappy plants are cut back. Some will have overwintered in their final pots, these ones get a top dressing of controlled release fertilizer and will be the first plants we have ready to sell around Christmas. The rest are trimmed and potted on to their final pots, potting into fresh potting mix gives them a burst of fresh fertilizer. That's about it.  bearing in mind we are growing these plants in a production nursery so they get low strength liquid fertilizer on a regular basis the whole time they are here. Commercially available Premium potting mix will not have enough fertilizer available to sustain plants though the rest of the year so they will need a top dressing in say March while they are still growing strongly and before they start to shut down for winter. What's the take home message?  Keep trimming and shaping bearing in mind that it will take about 2 months for a new flush of flowers follow a trim.

Propagation? Bouvardia is relatively easy to strike from cuttings.  We find it best to take cuttings from shoots that are not too soft so stick them in December or January.

I have a second reason for revisiting Bouvardia this week.  Jane Edmanson will feature Bouvardia on her 3AW gardening show on Saturday 23 February.  I bet There will be gardeners asking for Bouvardia in Garden Centres on Sunday 24th Feb.