Summer Colours

Summer Colours

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Summer is within reach!  The days are longer and warmer and the first early summer flowering Leucaspermums are starting to bloom.  Leucaspermums are a species of plants within the Protea family.  They are native to South Africa, although here in Australia they are often called "natives".  They do resemble a lot of our Australian Proteaceae - they seem like a cross between a waratah and a grevillea, with a great variety of colours.  Leucaspermums usually flower in late spring and early summer.  Here at Swallows Nest Farm, we have 5 different varieties.  The one pictured is a hybrid called Mardi Gras with bright yellow stamens and red inner petals that give an overall colour of golden yellow.  

In bud form, they are silvery and hairy.  Then the bud starts to swell and out pop the stamens exposing both the yellow and the red.  It's an explosion of colour!

Mardi Gras are one of the earlier flowering Leucaspermums that we grow here.  The other is called Scarlet Ribbons.  These two are available from mid November up until Christmas, give or take a week depending on the seasonal weather.  These plants produce a large crop of flowers in a short space of time.  

Leucaspermums are long lasting flowers like most proteas, if they are handled correctly.  They must be packed carefully though, because they have a tendency to loose their heads!  The flower can easily pop off the stem if they are handled roughly.

Leucaspermums love to be pruned and will produce many more flowers next year, if this years flowers are picked.  They are ready to pick when the first yellow stamens start to emerge.  They will continue to open once they are in a vase.

I love this early flowering variety that has the colours of summer!

What's in the Basket?

What's in the Basket?

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We've been at Swallows Nest Farm for 4 years, and not long after we arrived, I found a basket at a local op shop which said "BUY ME"!  It has become my constant companion on the farm.  I use it for everything from planting to pruning to picking and even delivering bunches.  When we are picking large wholesale quantities collecting into a trailer attached to a small tractor, I always have my trusty basket to take the flowers to the tractor.  

Boronia Heterophylla, Leucadendron Lemon Spice, Grampians Thryptomene, Berzelia Button Bush

Every now and again, I look down at the basket and admire its contents.  Then, I'll whip out the iphone and snap off a photo. 

Isopogon Formosa Pink Cone Flower, Red Gem Leucadendron, Berzelia Button Bush

I have quite a collection of these basket photos now, and have decided to start a regular (or irregular!) post on the blog called "What's in the Basket?"  This will be the first of many so you get a kind of overview - a Year in a Basket!

Leucadendrons Maui Sunset, Safari Sunset, Inca Gold, Tall Red, Safari Gold Strike and Protea Neriifolia 

The basket is quite large but sometimes it gets overloaded - the flowers in the photo above make it look so small!

Grampians Thryptomene, Richea Dracophylla, Berzelia Button Bush, Telopea Speciosissima Waratah

Retail bunches ready for delivery to a local shop.

I'm looking forward to sharing what's in my basket. I hope you enjoy taking a peek!

Giving Flowers

Giving Flowers

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In the last two weeks I have picked flowers for so many occasions.  It has caused my mind to wander about the gift of flowers.  I can think of no other gift that is appropriate for congratulations, and commiserations, to celebrate and to encourage.  We use them in weddings and funerals.  They are given to celebrate birth and to sympathise in death.  Flowers say "I love you", "I'm sorry" and "Thankyou".  They say "Welcome Home" and "Goodbye".  I find it quite amazing!

A friend recently passed on a book called "The Language of Flowers"  by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  It was a great read!  It is based on the Victorian idea of expressing thoughts and feelings through the gift of flowers.  The Victorians had a very sophisticated flower language.  I want to do some more exploring in this area now - I've been inspired!  At the back of the book was a paraphrased list of flowers and the meanings assigned to them through this floral language.  Of course, I was keen to look up Protea, and was really surprised by its meaning.

Proteas mean courage.

I rather like their meaning!

Tasmanian Waratahs

Tasmanian Waratahs

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This week, I picked my first Tasmanian Waratahs for the season.  I have one bush that flowers in late October - just a bit earlier than the rest.  Almost over night, it seemed to be covered in bright red blooms.

Most people associate the Waratah with New South Wales, probably because its is that states floral emblem, but Victoria and Tasmania are also home to some wonderful species of waratah.  At Swallows Nest Farm, we are lucky to be growing the waratah endemic to Tasmania called Telopea Truncata. It is a smaller flowered plant to its mainland cousins, but size isn't everything!  The Tassie waratah is about the size of a carnation and looks a bit like a cross between a "normal" waratah and a grevillea.  It has lovely bent styles the give it a charming sculptural quality.

The Tasmanian Waratah grows as a large shrub to 3 m, but can that can get to over 8 metres tall.  In the wild, it grows in wet forest areas and flowers in November and December.  It is often picked in the wild for the flower trade. The flowers are striking red making the bush really stand out when its in bloom.  Very rarely, the flowers are actually yellow.  The yellow form has been used to make hybrid waratahs which are available to purchase as garden plants called "Shady Lady Yellow".  It is the only waratah to have a yellow variation.  

I love it that these cheery Tasmanians are ready to pick in the lead-up to Christmas.  As a flower grower, its the plants that help to mark the seasons and this one is such a lovely Christmassy flower.  It brightens up a bouquet and compliments the other flowers that are available in the Christmas season. 

The Tasmanian Waratah is best propagated by seed.  After the plant has flowered it produces some fantanstic seed pods.  I'm a bit of a collector of seed pods and waratah seed pods are definitely worth collecting!


Look out for Tasmanian Waratahs in your florist or in the wild during November and December.  They are a real treat and a great reminder that Christmas is fast approaching!

If you'd like to have a go at growing your own Tasmanian Waratah, you can buy fresh seed collected from Swallows Nest Farm here.

The Waratah's Are Out

The Waratah's Are Out

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Today, I picked my first Waratah of the season.  What a stunning flower, the Waratah is.  It is an Australian Native, and the floral emblem of New South Wales.  We grow a number of different Waratah or Telopea hybrids at Swallows Nest.  They are characterised by their long (up to 1 metre) strait stems, and large red showy flowers that are long lasting.  

The Waratah is from the Proteaceae family and grows from a lignotuber, a swelling in the root crown that acts as a protection from fire.  The plant stores nutrients and buds in the lignotuber, and can sprout from below ground level.  Because of this, cutting the flowers of a Waratah encourage more stems to sprout until you get a very bushy plant with many many stems.  Some cut flower growers have very prolific plants producing up to 400 stems each, in a season.  Ours are not quite up to that yet, but we are working on it!  

Over summer the plant focuses on producing stems.  Each stem forms a single bud.  Then over late winter the bud begins to swell.  

Over a period of weeks, they begin to open and reveal the flower.  Waratahs seems to slowly unpack themselves in stages.  The outer "petals" are actually modified leaves called bracts.  Inside the bracts are many small flowers arranged in a dome shape to form what we think of as the Waratah flower.  These individual little flowers seem to unfold and arrange themselves in the recognisable domed shape before they start to actually open.  

You can see in the picture above how the little flowerets begin to open at the outside and work their way to the middle of the dome.  

A tip for buying or picking Waratahs is to select ones that have just begun to open their little flowerets.  This will usually start on the sunny side of the plant.  Once a few of styles are open, they are ready to pick.  This will give them a much longer vase-life.  When buying Waratahs, look for ones that are not completely open.  This will give you longer to enjoy them.

At Swallows Nest Farm, we have a number of different varieties of hybrid Waratahs.  The first flowers usually appear in early September, and later flowering varieties keep appearing until mid to late December. We have some beautiful white ones too, which I'll feature when they start to flower in a few weeks.  

These popular flowers are a wonderful bold statement that spring is here!

Tall Red

Tall Red

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August is the month that heralds the beginning of spring colour among the Leucadendrons here at Swallows Nest Farm.  This lovely leuco is called Tall Red - an uninspired name for such a wonderful plant, I always think.  It is a selected type of Leucadendron Eucalyptifolium, which is characterised by its profuse, pointy leaves and vigorous growth habit.  It is wonderful as a foliage plant throughout the year, with a lovely red colour and long stems making it very useful.  Sometime in August, depending upon the weather conditions, it starts to sparkle and make itself much more noticeable.  The foliage changes from a rusty red to a pinky, bright red with yellow parts in the areas that get less sun.  Gorgeous lime green cones emerge.  Branches are covered in these flowers making them a beautiful textural cut flower.

In the picture above, you can see the colour variation caused by the level of sun the leaves are getting. The bracts around these cones are creamy with a pink tinge.  The more sun they receive the deeper the red colouring.  Sometimes, the colour will change along a single stem.  There are so many flower cones on each stem that the variation adds to the charm of this plant.

The cones act as pollen presenters and over a period of weeks become yellow as they "present" their pollen.  They look lovely at this stage, like little yellow pom-poms.

This picture shows the lime green of the cones as the stems of Tall Red wait to be put in bunches in the packing shed.  

Tall Red looks fabulous in mixed bunches at this time of the year - imagine how it would be missed in this bunch.  Even though it has lovely long stems, it can also be cut down and the flowers used in box arrangements or posies.  Its multi-flowered stems add texture and colour with a long vase life.  A truly Lovely Leuco!