Plants that grow well at Crystal Brook

Ornamentals Grapes, which can also be used as ornamental plants, are elsewhere on this page. Virginia creeper   Virginia creeper Virginia creeper is a very hardy plant that will provide shade in summer, when it is sorely needed in the increasingly hot Crystal Brook climate, and let the sun in in winter. The botanical name is Parthenocissus quinquefolia and the plant originated from North America.   Home Top Index Ruby saltbush   Ruby saltbush Botanical name Enchilina tomentosa, this small Australian native shrub is very easy to grow from seed, keeps green all year round with little water, and has attractive tiny, edible (bush tucker) red and purple berries in season (not in the photo). It will reproduce from its own seed, but is easy to control by pulling out, or hoeing out, unwanted plants.   Home Top Index Bougainvillea   Bougainvillea This is a small variegated plant in a pot; there are many large bougainvillea (Bougainvillea species) plants growing in the ground around Crystal Brook. They are great for flowers, not so good if you don't like spines.   Home Top Index Heartleaf iceplant   Heartleaf iceplant Mile-a-minute is the local name, but is seems a more widely used common name for this easy-to-grow succulent ground-cover is hearleaf iceplant. Its botanical name is Aptenia cordifolia. It requires little water, will handle exposure to full sun, and is (at lease in a back-yard situation) easy to control. It provides a nice carpet of green right through the summer. It will not handle being walked on, and it goes dormant in winter when weeds can grow over the top of it (particularly soursob).   Home Top Index Chinese jade   Chinese jade This succulent grows very well in Crystal Brook, and will easily survive the hot, dry, summers with little watering, providing welcome green foliage in the garden. It needs very little attention, except to cut it back periodically. In a very hot period it will produce occasional flowers. Herbs   Chives, garlic chives, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme In addition to the herbs on the right mint and parsley grows well (the photo was taken in summer, the wrong time of the year for parsley).   Home Top Index Fruit As mentioned elsewhere on this page, citrus trees and stone fruit (other than cherries) do very well in Crystal Brook. Grapes   Grapes The table grape vines (Vitis vinifera) on the trellis in the illustration have taken about six years to reach their current stage of growth. There are seven varieties. Both table grapes and wine grapes do very well at Crystal Brook.   Home Top Index Native Australian plants Many Australian native plants, including several Acacia, Allocasuarina, Callistemon, Callitris, Casuarina, Dodonaea, Pittosporum and Senna species do very well at Crystal Brook. Eucalypts   Eucalypt Too many Eucalypts (Eucalyptus species) to name, including many decorative Western Australian species, will grow very well at Crystal Brook.   Home Top Index Yacca, alternatively spelled yakka or yacka   Yacca Yaccas (as they are known in South Australia, also grass trees or black-boys), Xanthorrhoea quadrangulata, are native to the region and grow well in Crystal Brook. They grow slowly anywhere, the specimen in the photo was about ten years old (when this photo was taken in 2010). While mature plants can be bought from nurseries, I've heard that they commonly die after a few months or up to a year. They can be propagated by seed, either into a tube with potting mix or direct into the soil where they are to grow. The seeds will germinate when they are ready; I have found it best to plant the seeds in tubes and then place the tubes somewhere in the open air and forget about them, the seeds may take a year to germinate.   Home Top Index Update, 2022/01/27 Since starting this page my wife Denece and I have seen many transplanted yaccas in the Mandurah area of Western Australia. Apparently they are removed from areas that have been developed for housing etcetera and transplanted in reserves in the centre of, or beside, roads. All the leaves are cut right back to the base at the time. A large percentage seem to survive for at least several years. Other references to, and photos of Xanthorrhoea, aka yaccas, on this site: Gleeson Wetlands at Clare; yacca seedlings and later, in October 2021; A group of yaccas in Alligator Gorge; A striking specimen in Alligator Gorge; Yacca at Elysium; on a page created in 2007; Yaccas at Hucks Lookout, in the Flinders Ranges, 2014; Heavily browsed yaccas at Hucks Lookout in the Flinders Ranges, 2020; Heirisson Island, Perth, WA Yaccas on Kangaroo Island in 2009; Yaccas in regenerating bush on Kangaroo Island in July 2021; Yaccas in Kings Park, WA, 2018; Yaccas in Singapore's Flower Dome, 2015; Yaccas in Spring Gully Conservation Park, 2021; Yacca in the Stirling Range, WA, 2018; The yacca-look-alike Kingia australis in the Stirling Range, 2018; Yaccas in an old page on wildflowers; And several references in Western Australia. Growth of a yacca seed spike

Time and date Total height (cm) Head length (mm) Stem (without head, cm) January 25th, 0745 123 62 117 January 26th, 0734 132 71 125 January 27th, 0730 138 78 130 January 28th, 0812 146 86 137 January 29th, 0752 152 93 143 January 30th, 0757 157 103 147 January 31st, 0726 164 116 152 February 1st, 0724 168 132 155 February 2nd, 0758 172 139 158 February 3rd, 0932 173 148 158 February 4th, 0749 174 161 158 February 5th, 1013 176 177 158 The two photos above were taken on 2022/01/25, not long after Denece and I noticed that the yacca plant at the side of our house had sent up a new seed spike. At the same time I decided that it would be interesting to keep track of its rate of growth. The measurements I took then and over the next few days are recorded in the table on the right. There could easily be one or two centimetres error in any of the measurements of the total height. The plant is the same one as photographed above and below. In the first three days of recorded growth the seed spike averaged 8mm/day for the head, 6.7cm/day for the stem. In the three days from 2nd February growth averaged about 13mm/day for the head, and the stem didn't grow at all. So the rate of growth of the head is increasing while the rate of growth of the stem has slowed and seems to have stopped all together. I suppose this is as one would expect because the length of the head of a mature yacca stem is anything from a quarter to a half of the total length of the seed spike. Significantly there had been 40mm of rain from 22nd to 24th of January and the previous November had had record rains. There was no significant rain after the 24th of January.

The photo on the left was taken on 2022/01/30, that on the right was taken on the following day. On the 30th the stem had a slight bend to the right, the next day the stem had a slight bend to the left. A day or two later the stem was straight again. On the right is a view of the whole yacca plant, the new seed spike, and the adjacent three old seed spikes. Below is another yacca on the roadside in front of our house that we had just noticed was producing a seed spike. Both were photographed on 2022/02/04. Vegetables Chilli   Chilli Capsicum Chillies and capsicums grow very well at Crystal Brook. Both will live for several years, producing during the summer. Chillies seem to handle the heat better than capsicums, which need light shade in the hottest afternoons; the leaves survive, but the fruit burns.   Home Top Index Egg-plant   Egg-plant Convolvulus species. They handle the heat well (better than capsicums do). Grubs get into the fruit unless the plant is sprayed with something like Success (a preparation based on bacteria or bacterial toxins that are specific to grubs and catapillars). They need a moderate amount of water. Egg-plants are Solanum species, possibly Solanum melongena.   Home Top Index Potato and sweet corn Potatoes and sweet corn grow well, but require too much water to be a practicality. Rhubarb   Rhubarb Grows well in Crystal Brook, but does best under light shade, at least in the hottest weather, and requires a fair bit of water.   Home Top Index We have had mixed success with rhubarb. Sweet potato   Sweet potato I first planted some cuttings in mid-summer 2007; it would have been much better to have planted them in spring (after the risk of frosts has finished), but a neighbour gave me some in summer. I am very impressed at how easy they are to grow; exceptionally easy to plant from cuttings and easy to keep growing. They seem to need little water in summer and do not suffer much from insects. There was some damage from slugs or snails, but the plants grew so quickly that they seemed to out-grow the predators. Unlike in cooler, wetter, areas, such as Clare, sweet potato tubers survive the winter in the ground quite well in Crystal Brook. While the above-ground part of the plant will die back in the winter, the tuber will shoot in the spring. They seem to survive winter best against a north-facing wall. As climate change makes frosts rarer and winters milder in Crystal Brook sweet potatoes will quite probably retain some leaves over winter. Home Top Index Wikipedia's article on sweet potato, under 'Cultivation', states that annual rainfalls of 750-1000mm, with a minimum of 500mm in the growing season, are best suited for sweet potatoes. Crystal Brook has an average annual rainfall of around 400mm with no reliable rainfall in the sweet potato growing season. I have found that they grow well using a moderate amount of irrigation by dripper.