Hi. I think what might have happened is that your mother (like all mothers) felt that watering a plant is what to do to keep it happy (after all, how do you water a plant accidentally :-), and had some MG in the water for her other plants. The point is that she probably gave it a very good drink, and it's now complaining about that, rather than the MG, which shouldn't have hurt it. All you can do now is wait for it to go through its little snit of being too wet, and wait a few weeks (maybe watering once in a couple from now) and see if it comes back. Give it lots of light all day and lots of humidity (that's very important) and hopefully it'll come back with new growth. Cutting anything won't make a difference though.

g'day marion, yes gypsum and oodles of it, you can't realy overdose with it, if not mulched as well gypsum needs reapplication every year, and get good quality gypsum the more like talcum powder it is the better the quality. you do have a sub surface lack of water problems, sounds pretty typical scrub type country badly degraded and only sub-soil on site, you need to get soil structure working eg.,. worms and other bacteria. not sure how big your block is but maybe a planned attack say pick one section that you can gypsum and heavily mulch and get working then move to another planting you trees as you go. it takes the big trees in the bush to put water into your aquafa, so without them you need to do something else consider doing rip lines along the contours to let water into the sub-soil the soil structure need moisture to work. also do all your planting along contours forming rows of mulch between the trees as well as around them this traps water from flowing down the slope ans with the rips (that will eventually dissapear as you no longer need them) will put the water underground. the rips act like swales if you are familiar with permaculture, they did wonders on our block we are still carrying good green pasture grass when everyone else around is bone dry and brown. just when all the big trees get big enough they will do the job of the rips. saw a doco' once this gardener up darwin way improved soil like yours by using a chook run that he moved around and gardeneig either side of it the chooks with their poo attracted the worms then the gardens outside the run gave the worms somewhere to spread to, and with gypsum and mulch good results. you need to plan a manged attack and in time i reckon you'll be able to grow what you want callistemons and all. but you need to get real big time on the mulching maybe buy it you the truck load if you can? for watering when you plant a tree put a length of that black 4" flexible ag' drain type pipe down either side or on 3 or 4 sides if you like try to get as deep as you can (a meter is good), this gets you water down in the root zone area and cuts evaporation loss, maybe hire a post hole digger with a hole drilling auger on it when you do you plantings? find somewhere for bulk manure eg.,. a dairy farm where maybe you can go collect it from the yards top stuff that. feel free to continue by e/mail if you wish. lots to say but takes space. len mail len lens garden page

Dryandras are bl**dy temperamental. I have had every single one (all six) pack up and die. Very unhappy with them. I have heard the line "Can't grow a banksia, grow a hakea instead". And that's what I have done. Although I have recently popped in quite a few banksias and so far, so good (although one hookeriana just decided to pack up and die too). But I am particularly happy with my banksia littoralis which has some lovely new growth on it. I have a banksia ericafolia and it seems to be ok - not yellow but no flowers as of yet.

Hello, This is more in answer to Wattleblossom that pos02. From my limited experience, I think good drainage is the key, but humidity is also a factor. I personally would not try growing them in Brisbane, although grafted ones might work there. They grow well on the Range around Toowoomba in well drained basalt soil. We get good breezes generally so that would help too. A friend had a hedge of species plants 3 or 4 metres high, growing on a steep exposed well drained site right on the escarpment edge. Last time I was there, he said he was bored with them and was going to remove them. They were quite old and were not flowering much anymore apparently. I don't understand why they don't survive in the Blue Mountains. All three of mine are not grafted, but the oldest two, which are cultivars (Purple Pride and a white type) are three or four years old now, and flower consistently each year. The youngest is a species plant and has now finished flowering. It would only be one year old. I did have one growing about 9 years ago at another place (also Toowoomba area, but to the west in heavier soil. It was the "University" cultivar. It flowered beautifully in its second year and then died, probably of root rot. It had deep purple flowers. I would love to get another one, I really liked the flowers, but haven't seen them around since. The only other different treatment that my current ones have received is that I have used "Agri-Fos" on them maybe once a year. It is based on salts of phosphonic acid, derived from phosphorus. This apparently gives plants resistance to the root rot fungus. (I have also used it on Hakea victoriaea, the Royal Hakea. It is OK for proteaceae species. My Royal Hakea is currently thriving at above 3m high.) Cheers, Frank