27th February 2015

Department: Woody

We pruned out the dead of some Olearia walkariensis on a bed in Battleston Hill near The Dell. It was mainly under the canopy of leaves and taking these out helped give more light to new growth shooting from lower down the trunks. We also eased the density of a Leptospermum myrtifolium 'Silver Sheen' that had fully encroached into the Olearia. We took out quite a lot but not so that it looked imbalanced or out of shape.

Photo 1: Leptospermum myrtifolium 'Silver Sheen' on the left, Olearia walkariensis, the bare branched shrub is Hibiscus syriacus 'Woodbridge'

We then transplanted a Cystisus battanderi which is actually a synonym of Agyrocystisus. It is originally from Morocco. It was too much in the shade, so we replanted it into a gap in the same area where we had been pruning. There wasn't much fibrous roots, just one long tap root and it had collapsed originally and grown lopsided. So we tried to rectify this a bit through the planting and the stake support we put in for it. It is naturally very untidy looking with quite awkward shaped stems. We trimmed back the stems and took down it's height, as it was very top heavy to give it a chance to regenerate its roots. 

I then in another bed cut out the dead underneath the canopy of a Trochodendron arailioides and weeded around the bulbs of that area.