Grass Tree No.1

Seeds and baby plants

This is the long seed stalk on the plant our No.1 plant, it is twice the length of the No.2 plant which we bought at Big W. Definitely different varieties I reckon!

Seeds

These seeds are in a plastic strawberry punnet, so you can see that they are fairly small, approx 9 0r 10 mm long and 4mm across at the widest point. These seeds are inside little pods when on the plant...there was generally only one seed in each of the little pods. I gathered most when the pods were just opening and let them dry and open...

Next time i will leave them a bit longer I think...

5 little plants

These are the results of my first go at propagating the seeds... there were three others, two were very pale and died ...I think they were missing their chlorophyll gene! the other one just died.. however I was really pleased when I managed to have 5 survive my amateurish efforts... the dates on the pots are 30/Oct/07 and 12/Nov/07. (photo taken 25/Feb/08)

Latest photo of Grass tree No.1

The spear goes brown and dries off, then the top crumbled away and the whole thing fell off. The plant looks great, really lush and healthy, and as we have had a rainy summer I expect that was the main reason why!

More next time...

Grass Trees in Pots

No.5 and No.6

I bought these two little plants at a garage sale in our neighbourhood. They were in very small pots, I gingerly transplanted them to these pots. Grass trees loath to have their roots disturbed, so I was really careful not to disturb the earth, I cut the pot up to get them out. After about a month or they hadn't turned up their toes... so I figured they had survived the move to their new homes. I'm going to leave them in these pots for ages...and see what happens!

Grass Tree No.5

(bigger pot)

Grass Tree No.6

(in smaller pot)

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Landscape photo of Grass Tree 3 and 4

The other plants in this photo are Lomandra, the trunk of an Alexander Palm, rock daisys,wax plant, a ground cover cyprus, in the back left a ponytail plant, um...dead bark chips.

Next will be ...

Grass Tree No.4

(a little cutie this one!)

This little plant was planted in September 2007 after we removed a huge Cycad which grew over the path in our front garden, Cycad's are very spikey! This is the smallest little plant we bought which had a woody trunk and seemed to suffer no setback at all when planted into the garden.

This photo was taken 26th Feb.08.

This little guy hasn't grown all that much since last September, Grass Trees grow about 1 inch a year...the trunk that is! When they are healthy they grow lots of lovely green slender leaves from the center of the plant. The colour of the new growth is a fresh green colour which darkens as the leaves spread out and then curve downwards in a graceful arch.

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Another Photo of Grass Tree No.3

Taken 26th Feb 2008. You can see the lovely green mass of leaves in the center of the plant, this plant has really picked up over this summer, we have had lots of rain this summer and hot had excessively hot day...great weather, usually 27-32Centigrade.

These two plants are in the same garden area, only about 5 foot distance between them.

Cheers Carol

Grass Tree No. 3

Planted in 2006, Bought in Big W, if I recall correctly the plant was $39.95

This plant had a spear on it when purchased, and struggled

for a year or so with the new growth having brown tips to the end of

each leaf. (doesn't seem quite right to call the spiky leaves ... leaves...

as they more resemble the spines on a pine tree ... only really long.)

This year the plant really looks healthy.

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2007 -8 Grass Tree No.2

Flower stem

This flower stem was laden with tiny little flowers and attracted a swag of bees, both small native and larger european types. The green shrub in the background is s Mock Orange (Pittosporaceae.Pittosporum) and has been removed since this photo was taken.

As you can see the spear is really tall and it shoots up to full height over the course of approx two weeks, then the green flower spear develops grows longer and the flowers are in full bloom in about a month. I took digital photo's nearly every day which has been helpful with dates!)

No.2 in Full Bloom

Below is the same stem after the flowers have dried off and produced seed pods , the right side is denuded of seed pods, because I gently prised the little pod out as they opened and the little seed was about to drop to the ground. It took approximately 4 months from full flower to this photo with the brown colouring.

In the next post I will show Grass Tree N0.4

Grass Tree No.1

This is Grass Tree No.1, you may notice it has a tall spear which had flowered, seeded

and now is drying off, this photo was taken September 2007

I collected the seeds from this plant and managed to grow 5 seedlings.

I hope to have better results next time I collect the seeds.

I believe that I may have taken the seeds too early... when the little seeds

were not mature enough.

I read on the Net some pages of Info about Grass Tree seed collecting and after actually collecting and nurturing the seeds, I now think that I had many non-viable seeds.

I planted approx 35 seeds and raised 7 baby plants...still have 5 but 3 died, they looked as if they were missing a gene or something and they were very pale in colour, nearly white.

I planted the seeds into clean used yogurt pots and used Yates Seed Raising pot mix.

Hi this is my first post which will probably be a real doozey...

However I shall carry on and hope for the best!

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Xanthorrhoea Johnsonii
Grass Tree
An Australian Native
An unusual and remarkably long lived, slow growing
evergreen tree, with a short, rough trunk and a tuft
of stiff narrow arching green leaves 60-90 cm long.
During spring, plants may develop a tall central spike
(2 metres) with small white flowers.
Forms a new grass head after the spear dries off.
An ideal feature plant for native gardens, shrubberies
or in containers. Thrives in well drained soil in full sun.
Tolerates dryness and frost. Avoid excess fertilizer.

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In my garden I have four Grasstrees, various sizes, I'm not really sure if they are the Johnsonii version, the two plants which have produced flower topped spears and seeds have looked slightly different from each other...so I assume they are cousins, rather than brother and sister.



Grass Tree No.1 was in the yard when we bought the house and is probably about 12-15? years old (maybe - not sure)

I had hoped to put a photo here ...but it keeps on uploading to the top of the blog ...so I'll have to read up on this...


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Grass Tree No.2 is approx ? (maybe 2-3 years) in the pot, but 3 years planted in the garden.

Thats her at the top of the page...um haven't figured how to put the photo's in here yet.

You can see that No.2 is producing a little spear, which will later grow lots taller,

and have abundant flowers and seeds.

I will post more pictures as figure out how to put them where I need them ...yikes


Cheers Carol