Pimelea

Michael - I love it.  Don't see many Pimeleas on the seed lists - even the one from NZAGS.  Is this a very difficult plant and does it take a long time to flower from seed?  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

Michael, what a plant!

Frances,I will have to be honest and admit that no Pimelea seed ever germinated for me over the years,I guess it was dead before I received it, well that's my excuse anyway. The plant above was bought from Tim Lever of Aberconwy Nursery and pruned hard after the first flowering in spring, so that is the second flush of flowers.

What an unusual plant! Beautiful, Michael!

I don't know much about NZ pimeleas but I know a little about Australian pimeleas. The more spectacular ones mostly come from Western Australia, a couple from the east & Tasmania. In WA the soil is very sandy & the humidity low. Most Aust. plants especially many from WA have a low tolerance of phosphorus due to our ancient soils. As the indigenous people used fire to manage the landscape they need fire for regular germination. Smoke paper is good but smoke vermiculite is even better. There is a product here called Regen 2000, 'as cheap as chips'. The company is located in Melbourne. I simply sow my seed & cover with the vermiculite (which also has anti fungal properties). As a newish member I read the forum but feel a bit intimidated to post. There is so much knowledge in NARGS. Hope my info is of some assistance. Kerry

Moderator: added plant names in body of message, so that they become searchable :-)

Left: Xanthostemon chrysanthus
Middle: Acacia cultriformis
Right: Eremophila maculata

Hello Kerry, and welcome to NARGS Forum, thank you for posting.  I'm a real fan of Australian plants, even though very few will be growable in New England USA (Massachusetts, near the New Hampshire border) where I live.  I'm not sure about the ID on the three photos, but I think the middle one might be an Acacia species.  So far as Pimelia, it's an intriguing genus of plants, I googled and found this link showing many beautiful Australian species.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boobook48/galleries/72157625019689101/

Here is a pic of the same plant last summer. Pimelea ferruginea

Thanks for the welcome, I thought I had embedded the photos & that the names would come up when the mouse was scrolled over them. The first plant is Xanthostemon chrysanthus-common name Golden Penda, not a rock garden or alpine plant but one of our most beautiful trees. the 2nd is indeed an acacia-cultriformis, a species from southern NSW where it grows around our snowfields. It is quite architectural & looks great when coppiced. The 3rd is Eremophila maculata, 1 of the easier 'emu bushes'. Most eremophilas come from arid or desert areas so will take quite a degree of cold but I think not the cold of Massachusetts. 

A great link Mark. Pimeleas are beautiful plants. I have grown Pimelea physodes, one of the most spectacular, but it doesn't like my climate. Tasmania has quite a lot of beautiful plants classified as Alpines.

Here is a few I know: Cotula alpina (Alpine buttons) is nice, as is Craspedia alpina (Alpine Billybuttons). Dracocephalum minima, Gaultheria depressa, Gummera cordifolia, Isophysis tasmanica (a striking, distinctive member of the iris family), Leptospermum rupestre (a prostrate alpine shrub), Tasmannia lanceolata- alpine form, Veronica ciliolata, Wahlenbergia saxicola (Mountain bluebell).