Pincushion Hakea
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I am looking at getting some plants for our verge and am wondering about a Pincushion Hakea. I've always liked the look of these, and on my home the other day I noticed a garden that has three in a row and they are all currently flowering and look great!
I've just read that they can grow to 6m though. I know that isn't massive, but it would possibly affect the warm winter light we receive in the mornings.
Can anyone tell me how long it would take to get that tall and if they can be constrained through pruning to stay at a height of 2 - 3 meters? Would it be worth getting some tube stock now to grow until we are ready to put it in the ground?
I also just read about a dwarf variety on a burkes backyard link.
http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/factsheets/Flowering-Plants-and-Shrubs/Dwarf-Pincushion-Hakea/2488
The pictures appear in a scrollable window. Scroll down to the last one to see one in a pot. I think it looks pretty nice.
Thanks,
Chris
I'm sure that pruning after flowering would keep it in check if you don't want it to get too big. It's a beautiful shrub, doesn't mind clay soil and doesn't need coddling, and it's lovely to have a mass of flowers in the garden in winter.
Oh and the Pin Cushion Hakea comes from a wonderful place
http://florabase.calm.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/2171
And if more West Aussies grew them, then as a mate of mine says, "If everyone in SW west WA planted a Hakea of some sort, then a food source for the Baudins and Carnabys Black Cockies would be fairly secure for the future"
The big cruisers of the SW skies
Right now I have several hundred over the road in the national park sounding amazing
Buy a Hakea folks
Any Hakea is great for doing this with
well most are anyway
Ones like Hakea undulata are a bit small but will make an excellent waist high hedge
Getting what is said to be the most attractive foliage plant in Australia (It is arguable) Hakea victoria is much easier in the east than here in the west. The east coast nurseries have better luck propagating them. One of the best photos Mrs Manchu has ever taken was of one of those. A rainbow of foliage colour. Really wonderful plant.
Thanks for such great responses.
"If everyone in SW west WA planted a Hakea of some sort, then a food source for the Baudins and Carnabys Black Cockies would be fairly secure for the future"
We live within cooee of the Fiona Stanley site and have since seen a huge increase in Carnabys heading over our place. It is great to see them, but horrible to think that my grandkids may not! For this reason alone, I'd be keen to get a Hakea or two. It is also the name of the street where I grew up.
Hakeas are sensitive to man made fertilisers because like other plants in the family Proteaceae they have special roots that are amazingly efficient at getting Phosphorus from soils very low in Phosphorus.
Does this include chook poo in compost. I was reading the Handyman magazine from Bunnings this month and they mention keeping chook poo out of compost (for natives) due to the high phosphorus. It also mentions keeping citrus out of compost. I have been putting all our citrus peel in the compost. Actually, even whole oranges that have fallen from our tree and now have fruit fly.
They do take ages to grow
I was going to ask where to buy these. I just went down to Bunnings, but they have no Hakeas at all. If they are very slow growing, is it possible to get these as mature trees? Also, does anyone know if Apace in North Freo stock these?
Thanks,
Chris
They do take ages to grow
I was going to ask where to buy these. I just went down to Bunnings, but they have no Hakeas at all. If they are very slow growing, is it possible to get these as mature trees? Also, does anyone know if Apace in North Freo stock these?
Ours weren't slow-growing. Both took off and grew pretty fast.
Here in Perth we need to be a little careful in using chook poo and chook based products. It is very alkaline. They are also high in nitrogen and acacias are sensitive to nitrogen. Proteaceae family are sensitive to Phosphorus. So outside those two types of plants, it matters little in regard to nutrients.
Do what you like with compost, as long as you have a sweet smelling mix at the end, you should be just fine, but I would be using the compost for the vegies anyway
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I was going to ask where to buy these. I just went down to Bunnings, but they have no Hakeas at all. If they are very slow growing, is it possible to get these as mature trees? Also, does anyone know if Apace in North Freo stock these?
Zanthorrea has recently been awarded as Australia's best medium sized nursery, they specialise in WA plants for retail. Bunnings Mindarie and Waldecks Kingsley would be the pick of retail nurseries North of the river at the moment.
Apace are a fantastic organisation, mainly reveg work.
http://www.apacewa.org.au/
I'm glad to hear about the advice about the compost bins. I've been thinking that I'd recked the last 3 months of compost by adding a shovel full of chook poo.
I'll take a look at the suggested nurseries and let you know how we get on.
Thanks,
Chris
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Right now I have several hundred over the road in the national park sounding amazing Sad to think though that most of them are pensioners around 40 or 50 years old and when they die, there is very few breeding youngsters They could be nearly gone in 10 or 15 years Clearing in the WA wheatbelt of nesting trees has decimated them and urban clearing is wiping out reliable food sources for them. One of the most recent controversial urban developments was the new part of Burns Beach in Perth's Northern Coridor Ancient Banksia woodland cleared for housing. That was a rare pocket of it too.
Buy a Hakea folks
Right now I have several hundred over the road in the national park sounding amazing
Buy a Hakea folks
Just came across a petition to help save the black cockatoos habitat. It's worth signing I think;
http://cockatoosneedyou.org.au/
Just doing some research for my garden and came across this post. I went to the wildflower nursery in Oakford (King Rd) last weekend and saw the Pincushion Hakea, about 4 foot tall in the pot. Great feedback here, thanks; it's cemented my decision about what to put in the middle of my garden as a feature tree
I had the garden design sorted then got my paving done. Has changed the look completely so now I'm redesigning pretty much the whole thing. Just have to work out where to move some of the plants....
have their uses) and were all around 20-30 cms max in size. Some are now close on 1 m high, some around 50-60 cms. The taller ones have a few branches. On the other side of the block in clay soil down from a leach drain so the soil is always wet and has lots of nutrients. I planted 2 from larger 20 cm pots. These had been sitting in pots for at least 9 months before they were planted around last September. These are now quite bushy and around 120 high muti branched and well established.
This is a pic of some of the smaller ones when they were first planted. Super stoney ground.
The photo below taken from as close as possible to the same position just now. Not quite 11 months later.
The bigger hakeas planted near the leach drains. There are 2 in this picture.One right in the foreground and the one in the background next to a post. Post is around 120cm high. These were around 60 c-70 cms high when planted and quite pot bound. I added soil improver, zeolite and some perlite to the holes to help them.
I have my Hakea now, but it is still in a pot. I will probably chuck in in over the long weekend.
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