Tag: heath banksia

by Kangaeroo • May 18, 2023

Kangaeroo.com is back online after a few weeks of being grounded.

The miraculous kangaroo paw….poised to bloom

There were myriad reasons for why nothing got posted.

But an old friend from NewsonJapan played an important and much appreciated role in getting the site back on track.

Other everyday items making comebacks of sorts include my spare tire, career failure, glorious May weather and, beyond all hope, one of the kangaroo paw in Kangaeroo Corner! I’d given up on ever seeing the much-adored flower making a return, so it was a sheer delight to see it bud again.

Less pleasing from a gardening viewpoint was the general failure of the Aussie seed experiment.

I transferred the last remaining seedlings from the humidity pods to pots and moved them outside. I had a single heath banksia and 10 dwarf wattles.

Within three days, all had withered and died.

Nonetheless, there is still a pot containing some kangaroo paw that seem to be growing. If not, they are at least surviving. And some native wisteria have also managed to hang on.

Although I had dreams of giving exotic Aussie plants to all my mates, it won’t eventuate, which is sad.

But….kangaroo paw surviving is enough for me to regard the experiment as a success!

Daily Life

Minding My Peas, and Queues

by Kangaeroo • April 1, 2023

In my Aussie plant grow from seed experiment, desert peas moved outdoors today, with more budding plants queueing to join them.

Only three of 12 desert pea seeds germinated, but did so strongly.

Nonetheless, having struggled with clumsiness when repotting everlastings last month, I was better prepared this time.

By that, I mean Mrs. Kangaeroo stepped up to the plate.

She would handle the task of gently shifting the seedlings from humidity pod to pot.

As always (except in her choice of men), she was superb.

We used a potting mix containing soil for Australian native plants, starter soil from growing flowers, peat moss, sulphur, perlite and dead leaves.

Transplanting went smoothly, and we were aided by glorious sunny weather and warmth.

In addition to the desert peas, we also planted golden everlastings.

Some kangaroo paw in the humidity pods looked ready for repotting, but after Mrs. Kangaeroo cast her eye over them, we decided to give the kangaroo paws some more time in the sheltered environment to let them build up strength.

In the pods now are also native wisteria, honeysuckle banksia (maybe) and dwarf wattle.

Western Australian Christmas tree, waratah and heath banksia are yet to germinate.

I am worried, but they have yet to reach the longest estimated germination period, so we need to be patient.

Give them a few more weeks to grow is the situation now.

Otherwise, the garden, especially the lawn, looks great.

I got to weed the garden early this morning.

It looks positively resplendent, even though all the plants I really wanted to thrive have mostly failed.

Daily Life

Full Seed Ahead!

by Kangaeroo • February 27, 2023

Buoyed by the emergence of buds from everlasting daisies on Saturday and given the gift of desperation on late Sunday afternoon following a weekend of sloth, I planted the last of my seeds from Australia.

With “budding” success from the humidity pods I have been using, I got enough confidence to try some different things with the seeds that I had left.

Most of the seeds I brought back from Australia from my visit last year went into humidity pods last week, and the remainder went in by today: kangaroo paw, desert pea, golden everlastings, native wisteria and heath banksia.

As this was the second lot of kangaroo paw seeds I would be planting, I tried these seeds in trays and will place them outside in the hothouse rather than the humidity pods.

And me being me and unable to accomplish anything without some degree of destruction or failure, I managed to drop a humidity pod and spill the potting mix all over the floor of the living.

Just as I was lamenting my misfortune, I dropped a second pod.

Fortunately, Mrs. Kangaeroo wasn’t around at the time and I could perform a half-arsed cleanup, but it was clear this morning that I hadn’t done a good job of that, either.

Anyway, all the seeds are sown and now it’s a matter of care and waiting.