This is similar to a stick I posted on the plant exchange, but a little shorter (70 cm or 28 inches): The stick came with instructions: I have not grown Dahlia imperialis before. I assume a cutting like this is the quickest way to a blooming-size plant. I picked up three today (presumably it's quite alive...) at the UC-Berkeley Botanical Garden. For those unfamiliar with the plant, this is the tree Dahlia which grows to 20 feet (typically 8-12 feet). It's a late Fall/Winter bloomer, so it can be tricky in places that get much frost. Info on Dahlia imperialis: http://www.anniesannuals.com/signs/d - g/dahlia_imperials_BTD.htm http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=493 Or I see you can buy a small one for $35 on Ebay... I am looking for rare and unusual (sub)tropicals, either for inside (probably fairly low light) or outside in a frost-free (but coastal/Bay Area California) spot. I already have access to a lot of people and places with interesting plants, so I'm pretty spoiled as far as my choices go. I posted a second cutting on the plant exchange. I have a third that I will keep and I'll start a post on the tropical section discussion to follow it's progress. I find this an intriguing way to start a new plant fast. I say that partly because it does not seem like a green, alive, flexible cutting, but more like a stiff brown stick. I do have other things I can root at this point: Deppea splendens, Agapetes serpens, Fuchsia boliviana Alba, Brugmansia sanguinea (blooming), Rhodochiton atrosanguineum, Dicentra scandens, Chlorophytum amaniense 'Fireflash', Philodendron 'Prince of Orange', Monstera deliciosa albo variegata, Homalocladium platycladum, Petunia exserta (seeds), Abutilon megapotamicum, Darmera peltata, Centaurea gymnocarpa, Isopogon formosus, Correa baeuerlenii, Iris confusa, Roldana (Senecio) petasitis, Correa baeuerlenii, Salvia wagneriana, etc...

Frank, (and other members - but please note that I am particularly delighted to have found another forum member from Toowoomba) There are Bat's Wing Coral trees on the downhill side of Prince Henry Drive, which I assume to be naturally occurring. They are scrawny specimens compared with the glorious things we saw in the Aramac-Muttaburra area recently, which were a mass of red flowers and shrieking lorikeets, on a good big rounded canopy, in the most miserable country! I don't know whether the locals I've seen are just young, or whether that's how they grow round here. Atalaya hemiglauca goes well out there, too. With the predicted big global-warming fuelled dry-out of our climate, those of us who plant trees like this may be feeling very self-satisfied with our future planning, in twenty or so years time! On the same grounds, I think Brachychiton rupestris and populneus might be better than the others where a green tree is wanted. Their fire-resistance could have a much-needed firebreak effect when bushfires roar up the range as they were doing in Oct 2004. I have a suspicion that Ficus obliqua might be better than platypoda, but am never quite sure which tree it is I'm looking at when I see a fig in a sunny spot some hopelessly dry paddock around here. Do you know? Despite having written the book, I still have so many things to learn! The trick to identifying them is to catch them in fruit... To my great delight, some celerywood (Polyscias elegans) have come up spontaneously ("volunteered" as the Americans say) in my garden - and this in mid 2005 - Toowoomba's driest winter for more than a century. The area where they apeared is not one that I ever water. I suppose this is my reward for re-establishing a bit of a canopy. Tree cover of some sort is probably the "natural" environment as opposed to the dairy farms that would have been here for a century until supplanted by suburban sprawl. Someone else's comment in this forum about Angophora floribunda being a sign of a clean aquifer is interesting, isn't it? I wouldn't have thought of it as a rainforest tree - not even "arid rainforest" (love that expression)- but this is probably my unreasonable tendency to exclude Eucalypts from the "softwood scrub" category. It's hard to know where to draw the lines, isn't it, between "softwood scrubs" "dry vine scrubs", "dry rainforest" "marginal rainforest", and "rainforest". Especially when some of the same species seem to appear in the full range. Geijera parviflora definitely fits in the dry, sun-hardy end. It has a reputation of being very hard to germinate and establish, but I think there are local nurseries which have it. Love the plant, and it must be as tough as old boots once established. Are you growing it? I believe Petalostigma pubescens would be hardier than triloculare. In practice, I find that different people look at the same trees in my yard (I bought some labelled triloculare, I think) and are about evenly divided as to...

I did a few dozen cuttings a couple of weeks ago (a couple of weeks early) and so far they are mostly doing well. I used a mixture of peat and perlite. I placed the small pots in a large open-top plastic container and covered them with a plastic covered frame. I did a lot of cuttings last year with low sucess rate but the ones that survived are ready to plant now but I'll wait till the weather gets cooler. Thanks for the tips everyone. Marshall

You should be able to have some success with accacia seeds. Keep your eyes out for some that are just about drying now. Even in the botanic gardens, which may be another place for you to source seeds and plants in their shop and regular garden stall. Local council and roadside gardens have seeds around. Native clematis ,'old man's beard' is ready too if you are travelling into the dandenongs. I have viola hederacea, native violet, ready. Westringea fruiticosa, coastal rosemary, is hardy. My cuttings are not ready to shift yet. Buy one plant and do some cuttings yourself. scaevola, will grow extra plants with layering. as will dampiera. Mine are not ready to send to you as my garden is fairly new.