Seed Collection - Volunteer opportunity for one or more people:

Looking for someone who would be happy to spend a bit of time collecting seed heads in late summer/ autumn from the Botanic Garden, and a few more leisurely hours extracting the seeds and putting them into labelled packets for sale in the Visitor Centre. The current volunteer is reluctantly handing over after enjoying this task for some years!

It could be an individual, or a team of 2 or more folk to share out the various small tasks involved.  

If you are interested, either individually or with friends, please get in touch with Susan Meek, who would be happy to give further details about what’s involved, at srmeek@blueyonder.co.uk

Plant of the month for June
Telopea truncata (Tasmanian Waratah)
Family: Proteaceae
Origin: Tasmania
Accession: 1976
Location: Australia and New Zealand area

The genus Telopea contains five species all confined to the Australian east coast from northern New South Wales to Tasmania. T. truncata is an upright shrub to about 3 metres with deep green narrow oblanceolate leaves up to 10cm long. The blooms occur in a loose cluster of 10-20 individual flowers at the ends of the erect stems and are most commonly red. Telopea is from the Greek telopos, meaning "seen from afar", a reference to the conspicuous flowers.

The Tasmanian Waratah prefers moist acidic soils with good drainage. It has been grown successfully in cooler parts of France, Spain, western Canada and the United Kingdom.