Producing native cut flowers in tough conditions | Australian native plants | Gardening Australia

Millie visits retired nursery owner Marilyn Sprague, whose love of gardening and a good idea means she has now embraced a new business - growing native cut flowers. Subscribe 🔔 ab.co/GA-subscribe
Marilyn demonstrates how to graft hard-to-grow plants onto more forgiving rootstock.
Marilyn’s garden is on low-nutrient clay shale with a low rainfall of 500mm a year, frost in winter and over-hot temperatures in summer, but she has found a stunning suite of plants that thrive in such harsh conditions.
Marilyn explains that she sold some colourful WA plants in her nursery and used to tell customers, ‘They come from deep sand so you’ll have to keep them in a pot’. When she retired, she thought she’d try growing some in the ground.
Because many WA species need near-perfect drainage, her first task was to build raised beds. “When I laid out the main garden area I got a bobcat and dug paths, which are primarily designed to catch and hold water, and the soil from them was mounded up in between the paths. I then added a lot of sand and stone as mulch - mainly because I think they’re beautiful and don’t burn, but also to hold the rain in the soil rather than it just running off.”
Even with the mounded beds, many super-sensitive plants wouldn’t cope with the moisture her clay soil retains, so these plants are grafted onto more resilient rootstock to cope with local conditions. “I started doing cutting grafts so I could grow verticordias and trickier wax flowers that I thought would make good cut flowers. I have been experimenting with various rootstocks so now I have a lovely range of verticordias, which I have fallen in love with. For a summer garden, they are absolutely the way to go.”
For beginners, some easy starter plants she’d recommend include: any of the everlasting daisies, kangaroo paws, Ixodia or Ozothamnus diosmifolius.
Growing Tips:
Most of her plants like full sun, but many cope with dappled shade, which is provided by the “backbone” of her garden - local indigenous plants, including overstorey of trees such as Acacia pycnantha.
She only waters plants if they are planted in spring, to keep them going over summer until they’re established. Most planting is down in autumn so they settle in over winter.
How to graft native plants:
Marilyn has cut two sprigs. For the rootstock, which will grow in the soil, she has chosen a local plant that thrives in her soil and climate, Correa glabra.
The scion, which will become the main flowering focus of the plant, is WA-local Geleznowia verrucosa.
The two plant pieces should be the same thickness.
By grafting the Geleznowia onto the Correa, it will cope with her soil conditions while still producing the attractive yellow flowers that last well in a vase.
Marilyn trims down the correa rootstock to just a small 2cm piece and carefully snips off all the leaves except one, which she also cuts in half. This reduces the amount of energy drawn from the stem to keep leaves alive, but still allows some photosynthesis to continue.
Marilyn then removes the bottom leaves from the scion, leaving leaves at the top to draw nutrients and water through the rootstock.
Using a sharp razor and viewing under a magnifying glass, Marilyn makes a vertical cut through the centre of the top of the rootstock, down about 5-10mm. She then cuts the bottom of the scion to form a V-shaped wedge, and inserts the wedge into the cut in the rootstock, lining up the cambium bark layer of the two so they are touching.
She wraps the join with grafting tape that will hold the two together and keep the join clean until it starts to graft together, then it will dissolve.
The newly grafted cutting is then dipped into rooting hormone powder or liquid and potted up in a mix of vermiculite and perlite, which is kept in a moist, warm place.
Featured Plants:
HYBRID WAXFLOWER - Chamelaucium x Verticordia ‘Paddy’s Pink’
KANGAROO PAW - Anigozanthos flavidus
MAGNIFICENT PROSTANTHERA - Prostanthera magnifica
TEA TREE - Leptospermum ‘Copper Glow’
ROCK CORREA - Correa glabra
YELLOW BELLS - Geleznowia verrucosa
Filmed on Dja Dja Wurrung Country | Bendigo, Vic
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[@nevaehdoesstuff1092]

A very knowledgable lady!!💚Has this lady got a you tube channel?

[@thestarspark2288]

Wow! She has a beautiful garden and is very knowledgeable, she could make her own RUclips channel.

[@williamreeder3660]

Beautiful

[@lorelletyler7806]

Beautiful colours

[@marcchandler7398]

Marilyn please write a book!

[@cathsully6603]

How fantastic!!💐

[@Britishbluecats]

She is amazing!!!❤️

[@FarmerGarden]

Good work👍😍❤

[@emmasunbeam208]

Amazing!!

[@ganeshhegde1979]

Can you please tell me which routing hormone is that?

[@TR.Pixels]

So this is where Rick and Morty were gonna go!