Wildflowers
We tend the ephemeral.
The little ones.
The little ancient ones.
The ones we often walk on.
I hope they feel my love through the soles of my feet.
Our nursery specialises in diverse indigenous groundcover species: daisies, lilies, and grasses that grow on the plains. These plants grow en masse in native grasslands. Our pricing encourages the planting of plant communities, not individuals.
Stakhousia monogyna. Growing together, Mount Black, Greytown. Stinking pennywort, rytidosperma sp. sundews moss, sticks.
We live within a grassy woodland. This nursery is for the grassy, the lily-like, the small herbs and tubers. And for their acquaintances, the insects and the birds. Thank you for your care - the sweetness of your stems, flowers, seeds, and roots, the sweet carbon chains you feed into the soil, and for the fungi and bacteria you care for too.
The biodiversity of this region lays in the grassy ground layer. Yet, we have very few healthy remnants of this ecosystem type left and some of our farming practices continue to degrade these small remnants. The persistence of these communities is dependent on the health of the soil and reducing competition from introduced species. Attending to these parameters requires knowledge, much time, patience and careful observation. If you are interested in grassland conservation work in this area we are here to help you.
Swainsona procumbens. Growing in the seasonally inundated grey clays of Wahring.
Arthropodium strictum, confluence of Pranjip and Burnt Creeks, Wahring
Arthropodium minus, confluence of Pranjip and Burnt Creeks, Wahring
Early Nancy (Wurmbea doiecia). Can’t wait to spring out of the ground. So happy to see you every year! Burrawong, Wahring.
Burrawong, Wahring. Native bees resting in the midday sun on Austrostipa grass seed head from last season. Who are you? Please email me if you know this species.
Yellow on black. Xerochrysum viscoum - Sticky everlasting. Cool flames and burnt leaf litter. Gold dust Wattle - Acacia acinacea. Euroa Arboretum, Autumntime. // Native bees lick pollen from stigmas. When the petals close for the night, they sleep inside the flower. Mont Albert, Narrm.
Austrostipa scabra, wallaby grasses, Horay Sunrays, cool burns in spring. Wind and little quick flames. Insects landing on humans as they flitter upwards with rising heat. A wet edge with a watering can between the weedy bit and the native bit. And edges are the most interesting places in ecologies.