![]() JOSH BYRNE: Bill is a serious collector and clearly no ordinary gardener. JOSH BYRNE: Yeah, it's a game of patience isn't it?īILL DEWAR: Oh absolutely! You've gotta like it! JOSH BYRNE: Ok, so yeah, I think we'll call that slow growing.that classifies! JOSH BYRNE: So how long would this be, for example, from when you first planted it out?īILL DEWAR: That's probably 10 years old. JOSH BYRNE: And again, once a year.they flower yearly if they're in good nick? JOSH BYRNE: I don't know if I've ever seen them flowering so beautifully as that! Yeah Lithops(Living stones - Lithopscv.). So the stone plants are a bit of a collector's item too aren't they?īILL DEWAR: Sure are. These euphorbias.just take the pups off and I pop them onto dry pumice like that.īILL DEWAR: Probably a mist off one of those little pump bottles. and it's pretty debatable whether it'll be any good, but shove it in the pumice and see what happens. and it takes it up and then drain it off as quick as you can.Ī lot of these things are developed from cuttings, so this little - I broke off the other day and snapped the roots off it and you can see a little pin-prick of root coming there already.īILL DEWAR. Put your nutrient in the water as well.īILL DEWAR. JOSH BYRNE: So what do you do, just sort of put some water in the bottom of the tray and it.īILL DEWAR: That's right. JOSH BYRNE: What.sort of like.as in, in the tray so capillary watering?īILL DEWAR: That's right, yep. I mean, everything's 's almost like precision growing!īILL DEWAR: A lot of the watering's done from underneath. Most of these plants, I've never even seen before. This is a serious manshed! Spend a bit of time in here do we?īILL DEWAR: Oh yeah! I reckon 10 or 12 hours a day. JOSH BYRNE: Bill's collection goes on and on - over 3 hectares and then.whoa! There's dichotoma(Quiver Tree - Aloe dichotoma) and also ramosissima(Maiden's Quiver Tree - Aloe ramosissima) which is a much smaller growing one. JOSH BYRNE: Fantastic and how many species have you got?īILL DEWAR: Three. So really, perfect here in Perth.sandy soil, dry summer. JOSH BYRNE: Ok.and long-lived I take it?īILL DEWAR: Yep. This one's a good size, but they're long-lived and slow growing, so it can get much bigger.īILL DEWAR: Given time, it'll probably make a 3 or a 4 foot diameter stem and probably 40 foot tall. JOSH BYRNE: As always! And how old is it? JOSH BYRNE: This place is a smorgasbord of plants, but it's the tree aloes that have caught my eye.īILL DEWAR: This is Bainesii(Tree Aloe - Aloe barbaraesyn. JOSH BYRNE: So don't touch it, don't eat it? Yeah, there's a nerve toxin as well as the carcinogenic one. Highly toxic.the flesh around those seeds?īILL DEWAR: Absolutely. Cycads are an ancient group of plants found in Africa, Asia, the Americas and here in Australia. I'll show you.there's some pollen coming out of it. Now he's into plants - big time - as a collector.īill's interest in plants started with palms, then he moved onto succulents and cycads.īetter watch out for the spiky fronds on these ones!īILL DEWAR: This is Encephalartos hildebrandtii(Mombasa Cycad).īILL DEWAR: It's a male. JOSH BYRNE: Bill Dewar used to farm beef cattle. JOSH BYRNE: And this is just a taste of it I guess? JOSH BYRNE: And where did that sort of come from.that interest?īILL DEWAR: Oh it started off with collecting cycads and then I get over there, touring around the countryside and noticed all the succulents and aloes and euphorbias and the whole shooting match. What's the story there?īILL DEWAR: Oh I love the place and I tried to turn this into a little Africa. ![]() I mean, I'm sort of getting this sort of sense of Africa with the plant selection. JOSH BYRNE: What an amazing place you've got here. The landscape, an eclectic mix of African veldt, local bush and an assortment of palms.Ĭlearly, this is no ordinary property and I reckon there's promise of some most unusual plants. JOSH BYRNE: I'm on safari in country about an hour north of Perth. ![]()
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