Critically Endangered

Some of the satisfaction you get from growing plants, with these listed as 'Critically Endangered' in their natural habitat, with just two clumps of plants currently surviving. These are Hibiscus insularis, from Phillip Island in the Norfolk Island group of the Pacific Ocean.

I have a few more to strike making my current total 14 plants, with 3 seedlings emerging recently, so I'm more than happy to grow these.

Cuttings In Willow Water

Here's one of three lots of cuttings I have sitting in Willow Water, this one since Monday. The recommendation is to soak overnight, then propagate as you would normally, but I'm trialing a week - just to be different. The cuttings don't look stressed, so we'll see what happens.

Seed Grown Hibiscus

I had some seeds left for the Phillip Island Hibiscus (Hibiscus insularis) so I planted them, with the first one germinating this week. I've had better success with cuttings of this plant, with about a dozen striking at the present time.

A seedling ...

Communal Progagation

I've been playing around with communal propagation (multiple cuttings in one pot) and have had some good results so far. Here are some Scaevola 'Mauve Clusters' taken as cuttings on 15/03 and checking today 10/04 found a fairly good strike rate amongst them. (Maybe I should try that again)

Willow Water

Chopped up stems from a Willow (Salix) seeped in boiling water overnight which will hopefully make a natural plant hormone for striking cuttings. The sticks are removed and just the water used to stand cuttings in overnight before placing in propagation media. An old traditional way of helping plants strike roots, so we're giving it a trial run here.

We've made a bigger batch since and left it to seep for 36 hours and it is a lot stronger, darker too.