AusBonsai

I had no intention of entering (and actually forgot) this competition was starting/running when I grabbed a bunch of big bushy banksia flowers from a local tree that looked (probably just the light) a little bluer and a little smaller-leaved than the rest. Certainly nothing out of the relatively-ordinary but I've been considering messing about with some seeds for a while now and thought - why not.

I bought them home, baked them (1 hr at 130 deg. C) and pulled the ashed-paper like seeds from the opened pods; I guess I ended up with 30 to 40 seeds.

I'd like the disclaimer that this was completely impromptu and I have little to no idea what I'm doing.

I then (probably incorrectly, didn't think to soak them) threw them all in a cut down flower pot - probably about 100mm deep; filled with perlite and vermiculate, soaked them, and placed them in my unfortunately lavender-scented green house with the lower c1/3 sub-merged in water.

That was all late yesterday afternoon; and this morning I recalled this competition which I thought I'd enter, if only for the fun of it/progress tracking aspect.

Hopefully I'm able to sprout something at least - I have no idea if I should have taken extra steps pre-planting, but I guess only time will tell.

Apologies for the poor-quality photos; I didn't plan on them being seen by anyone other than myself.

Why not! Welcome aboard.

Just an update, which i’ll preface with the disclaimer that i have very little idea what in the hell I am doing.

12 of these were successful (thus far anyway). I moved the 12 from the singular pot in to their own little pots (in one instance i wired two together which made room for the 3 integrifolia mentioned below). I just used a mix of deco cactus/succulent mix with a very small portion of perlite and zeolite.

I also potted up three integrifolia which were growing in the colourbond fence, and a drain on this property which added to the serrata above, makes up the 14 pots; obviously they aren’t part of the submission.