Lovely Leuco's Part 3

Lovely Leuco's Part 3

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Red Gem are a fabulous Leucadendron.  The protea books all tell you that they are unsuitable as cut flowers, because their stems aren't long enough, but here in Tassie, they are spectacular and regularly grow to 80 and 90 cm stem lengths.  These beautiful red leuco's are so versatile for so many reasons.  They have large flower bracts, tulipy in shape.  Their colour ranges from deep red, early in the season, to bronzey red, and then in winter to bright yellow, before they open to reveal their pollen presenters.  

They are a great plant to grow too - they have a special type of root system called a lignotuber, which means they can shoot stems from old wood, and even from below the ground.  In the "old days" they were regularly pruned with a chainsaw!!! I certainly wouldn't do that to them, but they do love to be pruned, and produce many new flower stems afterwards.  

We don't regularly prune our plants, but use the picking process as an opportunity to prune.  It's such a lovely job, picking these Leuco's. Not only am I rewarded with masses of lovely flowers, but i can almost hear the plants' pleasure knowing that I am also setting them up for a great crop next year.  

Winter Activity

Winter Activity

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Apart from picking, the main winter activity on the protea farm for us is planting.  Proteas are characterised by a special root system.  They have deep roots that anchor them, like other plants, but they also have a "proteoid" root system that is shallow and renews itself every year.  Proteas are very cyclical plants.  Winter is their root growing season, and this makes winter a good time for planting.  

Last year, we planted around 200 plants.  I'm very excited about the varieties - White Ice - a beautiful white protea with icy white "fur".  Another variety we put in is White King.  It is a type of Protea Cynaroides, the largest flowering protea with a flower the size of a dinner plate!  The white variety we planted should be a stunning flower!  It will be 3 or 4 years before we see the results though - King Proteas are slow to mature.  But it will be worth the wait!

This morning I rang a supplier about ordering some more plants for planting this winter.  I hope I am able to get the variety I'm after!  This time next year, they'll be established, and growing, and I'll hopefully be blogging about them!  I love winter!

Welcome to Winter

Welcome to Winter

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Welcome to winter on the farm!  It's a little chilly, and quite wet, but its a beautiful season.  There are many proteas that flower right through the winter.  In fact, I think they are superior in some ways to the blooms produced in the warmer seasons.  They seem to be clearer and brighter, free from insect activity and the effects of strong sun.  They really glow!

Winter is also a great time for planting proteas.  We have planted in all seasons here at Swallows Nest Farm,  and by far the most successful season is winter.  The plants clearly love getting their roots into the soil when its cooler.  It gives them time to focus on their roots before they feel they have to produce leafy growth.  There is more rainfall here in winter too, so there is no need to irrigate.  Real rain always produces better results than irrigation.  Somehow, the plants can tell!

Our very first winter here, 3 1/2 years ago, we planted 50 new plants as an experiment.  We didn't really know what we were doing, but I had read up on all the varieties and then realised that I could only really buy what I could find available!  A local nursery had some of these, so in went 50 Leucadendron Safari Goldstrike.  They were so small!

We put them in the ground and never irrigated them once!  I remember that as I planted the last 3 plants,  it started to rain.  Three years later, they look like this!

This spring will be our first big harvest of these wonderful yellow Leucadendrons.  They have large teacup-like heads in bright yellow, on strong strait stems of amazing length.  Really spectacular.  I will be sure to post photos of them as they start to sparkle!

Drying Proteas

Drying Proteas

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Proteas are fabulous as dried flowers.  They have great sculptural qualities and they keep their structure well, not falling apart easily.  There are no real tricks to drying your proteas - you don't need to hang them upside down, although it doesn't hurt.  Just as long as they are dried without being too crowded, to make sure their shape remains intact, and to allow for airflow.  Some even keep their colour well.  

You can get fancy if you want to - the following are some ideas from Proteaflora, a major Protea nursery in Victoria.

Hanging

Pick the flowers in their prime, strip off the bottom leaves then tie about 5 of the flowers together in a tight bunch with a rubber band. Hang them, heads down in a dry, dark, airy spot for about two weeks.

In a Glycerin Solution

The glycerin keeps the plant material supple and helps it last longer. After cutting and stripping the foliage, place the stems in a glycerin solution as soon as you can. Use a mix of one third glycerin (available at your chemist) to two thirds water. The solution should be seven to fourteen cm deep. Don't put stems in water first, and if the stems have been cut for more than one hour, re-cut them before placing them in the glycerin solution. When tiny beads of glycerin appear on the leaves, take them out and hang them as described above.

The pink flowers pictured are Protea Pink Ice.  There are some others mixed in including Brunia Albiflora, (press the link to check out more of these) and some Leucadendron Argenteum.  I am also lucky enough to have a huge Banksia Grandis tree and the seed pods often come on long stems which make a great display.

So next time you have a bunch of proteas, think about drying them for longer lasting loveliness!!

Oh my Gucci!

Oh my Gucci!

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Sweet sangat, bila post sebegitu emo, ramai yang hantar message cakap "good luck! jangan stress". Sayang sangat dengan anda semua. To be honest, hidup dalam keadaan sangat tertekan sekarang, banyak perkara yang mesti diselesaikan dalam masa yang sangat singkat. Bila dicampak dengan kerja lepas kerja tanpa masa yang cukup, kita jadi semakin hilang fokus. Dengan tidur dua jam satu hari, bila hujung minggu yang dipenuhi test dan work completion, haruslah redha, sambil tangan didada.

Macamana pun so many things happened in this world disebalik kekusutan aku, contohnya:

• H&M di Malaysia I have never been so excited in this life, bila hari-hari kebosanan buka video-video di youtube, segerombolan manusia berkhemah depan H&M sempena koleksi Versace x H&M, dan Lanvin x H&M terus rasa nak camping depan Tesco untuk koleksi Tesco dan Melinda Looi. I can't wait days dimana semua anak muda akan bertawaf dekat H&M dan lapan juta manusia memakai baju yang sama di Pavilion. Oh yeah.
• Zara di Sunway Pyramid I love the concept of the shop, sekarang diasingkan lelaki dan perempuan serta golongan diantara. sangat sleek dan clean, tidak pedihkan mata bila memilih pakaian. Walaubagaimanapun pekerja di sana masih lagi agak sombong, haruslah feeling-feeling kerja Gucci, tak dapat jadi salesperson Gucci, dekat Zara pun jadilah feeling-feeling golongan ahli sunnah.
• Zalora Malaysia v ASOS tahniah dengan pengenalan konsep one stop center for fashion items. Cuma masalahnya Malaysia punya store pakaian agak limited, dengan pakaian yang tak ada taste of fashion, not even close to trend, haruslah pangkah sahaja bila buka pages dia. Tidak terkejut lagi beberapa minggu, akan tambah koleksi dari jenama pakaian Hari-hari dan juga Al-Ikhsan. 
• Kejatuhan zaman filem-filem wayang Bila sekarang pergi dekat wayang rasa seperti mati pucuk tanpa nafsu serakah, rasanya seperti industri filem dunia telah mencapai tahap tiada idea untuk filem, olehitu mulalah wujudnya filem-filem kelas ketiga seperti MIB3 dan sebagainya. Kerana konsep filem-filem masa kini yang ringkas dan independent haruslah hanya print sinopsis atas  pamphlet untuk tontonan umum. 

Oklah itu sahaja untuk kali ini.

Lovely Leuco's Part 2

Lovely Leuco's Part 2

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Sylvan Red is a variety of Leucadendron that we grow at Swallows Nest.  They are a well known variety and a popular cut flower.  They are similar to the Safari Sunset I first featured with a few exceptions.  They are a brighter red, as you can see, and they are finer, with almost a more pointy end to the leaves and flower bracts.  They are finer in the stem too, but they can still grow an incredible length - up to 1 mt. They really glow in the sunlight on the farm, but the smell is something I can't capture with a camera.  There is a faint sweetness to their perfume which makes picking them a real joy.  They are at their peak at the moment, but left unpicked will change colour in early winter and become multicoloured red and yellow, opening to reveal the pollen presenters inside.