The Inland Bays Garden Early spring: There’s plenty blooming now

-

 The Inland Bays Garden

Early spring: There’s plenty blooming now


This pink pussy willow shows off the fuzzy male flowers of the species. 

 The days are definitely getting longer, and the sun (what there is of it — we’ve had so much rain!) feels stronger; you know warmer weather and prime gardening time are coming.

There are a lot of plants blooming now, or getting ready to — the red maples are covered with fat buds 2020.

What is a keystone species? A keystone in a stone arch’s crown secures the other stones in place. Keystone species play the same role in many ecological communities by maintaining the structure and integrity of the community.

A keystone species — which can be any organism, from animals and plants to bacteria and fungi — may not be the largest or most plentiful species in an ecological community, but if one is removed, it sets off a chain of events that turns the structure and biodiversity of its habitat into something very different. Although all of an ecosystem’s many components are intricately linked, these are the living things that play a pivotal role in how their ecosystem functions.

Willows are a keystone species here — many animals depend on them for food and shelter; they stabilize stream banks, reduce erosion and filter water; they shade streams and rivers, cooling them so fish have better habitat.

Willows are also beautiful, and one is blooming now: the pussy willow! There are a number of different willows that have the distinctive soft, furry flowers (yes, that’s a flower), and there is a native pussy willow, salix discolor. That soft covering you see is actually the flower’s fur coat, keeping it warm and protected in our changeable early spring weather.

Do you have a low, wet spot in your garden? A pussy willow would be a perfect choice! They love wet areas and can withstand flooding, but will grow in ordinary garden soil as well. They are very low-maintenance, other than not liking dry soil. There are some caterpillars that like to munch on them, but these are the caterpillars of some pretty butterflies, so we can let them munch away. The damage is minimal.

They can get big, to 15 feet tall and wide, but you can cut them back severely after they bloom, to keep them smaller. Note: they bloom on old wood — the growth they put on the previous season — so if you cut them back in fall or winter, you’re cutting off the flower buds. However, you can cut a few branches in winter to bring them inside to bloom.


Powered By::

@AnandDewangan

Location: Australian Inland Botanic Gardens, 1183 River Rd, Buronga NSW 2739, Australia

Popular posts from this blog

130-million-year-old flower bud found in China could solve Charles Darwin's 'abominable mystery'

-
Image
  130-million-year-old flower bud found in China could solve Charles Darwin's 'abominable mystery' The ancient plant, named Florigerminis jurassica, is described has having woody branches with nodes, an area on the stem where buds are located, physically connected fruit and a flower bud that ends on the branch.      English naturalist Charles Darwin and the world's oldest fossilised flower found in China.  English naturalist Charles Darwin--best known for his work on the evolution of science--had one 'abominable mystery' when it came to deciphering the evolution of flowering plants. A recent discovery of a 130-million-year-old fossilized flower bud found in China may, however, solve this mystery. The fossil includes a leafy branch, physically connected fruit and flower bud, which suggests angiosperms (plants that has flowers and produces seed) were present in the Jurassic period (201.3 million to 145 million years ago). This specimen, which i...
Read more

Engineer Quits Job to Grow Gerbera Flowers; Earns Rs 18 Lakh, Creates Jobs for Hundreds

-
Image
  Engineer Quits Job to Grow Gerbera Flowers; Earns Rs 18 Lakh, Creates Jobs for Hundreds A fter completing his B Tech, Abhinav Singh accepted a job offer from Microsoft and later moved to England to live a comfortable life. But after a while, he realised that despite having all the comforts a luxurious life has to offer he missed being close to his family and friends. “I used to travel across Europe and party on the weekends. It was quite like a dream but even though I felt happy I never felt accomplished,” he says. Realising that his heart was always back home, he moved back to India in 2015. While working at Microsoft’s office in Gurgaon for almost a year, Abhinav knew what he wanted to do next. So, along with visiting his family back in Varanasi, he did his research on taking up agriculture as a profession. “Our family has been into agriculture for generations, except for my father. We had a few acres of ancestral farmland at Chilbila, our native village in Azamgarh, Utta...
Read more

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) will hold its month-long annual flower show

-
Image
  The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) will hold its month-long annual flower show from March 3. The flower show has been part of the institution’s history for 35 years, and it is conducted to mark the birth anniversary of the founder, J N Tata. The plants on display are grown in-house and they are displayed from the door of the main building till the founder’s statue on the campus. This time, around 15 varieties of plants will be showcased, ranging from phlox, zinnia, coral zinnia, celosia, and hollyhocks to different types of marigold, candytuft, nasturtium, among others. B Sridhar, horticulturist and curator of the show, says the plants are chosen for their height and colour to befit the design of the floral tribute. “We add microbial culture to make the process organic. This makes the plants look brighter and express their real colour,” he explains. Sridhar and his team of 10 have been growing these plants since last October, staggering them as per their flowering cycle, w...
Read more