Tropical flower production booming thanks to warm Top End dry season

A Northern Territory cut flower grower is struggling to keep up with demand and production is booming thanks to a warm Top End dry season.
         

Mike Braun, who runs a farm at Herbert in Darwin's rural area, thinks it is just a sign of things to come as the climate changes.

Mr Braun said he could not produce enough water lilies, and the Heliconias or lobster claws were also doing very well.

An investment in a second Heliconia plantation just over a year ago is paying off.

Mr Braun cuts flowers every Friday morning, selling around 250 stems to a wholesaler.

The flowers end up in markets and flower shops in Darwin and, in the warmer southern months, they are flown interstate.

Mr Braun said conditions were also good for Heliconia chartacea or "sexy pink", a valuable but temperamental variety that often succumbs to root rot.

"It's very hard to grow, a lot of growers can't grow it any more," he said.

The sexy pinks command a premium in the market place.

Near-blind shark is world’s longest-lived vertebrate

A large, almost-blind shark that lives in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans is officially the world’s longest-living vertebrate, scientists say.

The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) has a lifespan of at least 272 years, and might live as long as 500 years1. That is older than the 211-year lifespan of the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus), the previous record-holder in the scientific literature2. It also beats the popular — but unconfirmed — tale of a famous female Koi carp called Hanako, who supposedly lived to 226 years old.

Marine scientists already knew that the Greenland shark was long-lived, says Peter Bushnell, a marine physiologist at Indiana University South Bend and a co-author of the study, published in Science. The fish are enormous but grow slowly, suggesting a long lifespan. Adult Greenland sharks have been measured at more than 6 metres long — and researchers think that they could grow even longer. One 1963 study estimated that the species grows at less than 1 centimetre per year3.

The eyes have it

Instead, the team decided to measure levels of radioactive carbon-14 in fibres in the centre of the shark’s eye lens. Such measurements reflect levels of radiocarbon in the ocean when the lens was first formed. Measurements of 28 female Greenland sharks, made during surveys in 2010–13, suggested that the largest of them (at 5.02 metres long) must have been between 272 and 512 years old at the time.

Paperwhite narcissus

You could also buy the bulbs and do it yourself.  Paperwhite narcissus bulbs  can be found at garden centers or online. The most readily available, and most reliable variety are the "Ziva" paperwhites. They are easy to grow.  All they need is a container and some growing  medium, such as potting soil.  You can even plant them  in pebbles and water, and they will bloom for you.  Plant  the bulbs halfway in the growing medium.  Water, and wait.




Paperwhite narcissus are related to the yellow daffodils of spring. They are native to the western Mediterranean, from Greece to Portugal, Morocco and Algeria. They grow from bulbs, forming grassy foliage and wonderfully fragrant flowers.

If  you  want to try growing paperweight narcissus bulbs, you could get a starter kit-- instructions, bulbs, soil and pot included--everything you need. These are very popular at holiday time, and you can find them  at Walgreens.  They make great gifts, and a fun project for kids, too.

In a few days, you will see signs of growth.  You can move the container to a brighter  location, and watch the roots, leaves and flower stalks  forming.  All the energy to produce this plant is stored in the bulbs.   You are "forcing" them to bloom, by creating springlike conditions.

The flowers will last several weeks indoors.  Keep them in a cooler place if you want the flowers to last longer.  When the flowers are finished, most people toss the plants, as they are not easy to carry over once they have been forced into bloom.

Gardeners Encouraged To Plant More Flowers To Help Bees Survive

Gardeners don’t have to shift to a beekeeping career to help the world’s bee population. The trick: plant more flowers and establish a better plant-honeybee relationship.



Plants rich in pollen and nectar need bees’ buzzing action, too. Although bees tend to target a single flower species during a foraging session, they do promote cross-pollination by moving from one plant to another.

Master beekeeper Jim Tunnell said that while not all gardeners are cut out to be beekeepers, the long-term wellness of bees along with other pollinators are everyone’s concern. "I think it's always a good thing to keep the pollinators in mind when we plant our gardens," he urged.

Here is how it works: bees gather nectar, pollen and water for making honey and survival in general. Pollen feeds them, water is tasked to cool the hives and dilute the honey for bee feeding and the nectar is stocked for overwintering – a time when they are faced with dormant flowering plants.

Mace Vaughan, spokesperson for Oregon-based Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, considers this move critically important. Honeybee hives delivering greater pollen diversity, he said, are more vigorous and better cope with forces such as pests, disease and even pesticides.

Vaughan added that since bees are active all year, natural nectar or pollen supply can run low at certain times. To help honeybee hives better thrive, gardeners should work to have blooms consistently available during the entire growing season.

Plants that love summer

Things will start heating up in the garden over the next couple of months and it will be time to reassess plants that cope and recover, and those that don’t.

If you are looking to replace plants that will survive the hottest spots in your garden, you can’t go past those with silver/grey foliage.

Here’s a couple of newcomers that may fit the bill.



Teucrium Silver Box

This is one of my favourite hero plants because of the combination of silver foliage and blue flowers.

It's a tough little plant that responds well to pruning but has a compact upright habit with silver foliage all year round.

The sky blue flowers appear in autumn through to early summer.

Teucrium prefers a full-sun position with added compost and manure to improve the soil. It’s an ideal plant for smaller gardens because it only grows to 1m high and 60cm wide.

Olive Garden Harvest

This is a dwarf fruiting olive that only grows to 1-2m in height, making it ideal for pots or as an edible hedge.

Grey-green foliage is the backdrop to small white flowers followed by masses of fruit in spring and summer, equally as suitable for the table as it is for oil. You would need quite a few plants to get your oil.

Olives prefer free-draining soil and a slow-release fertiliser. If they get too much nitrogen you will get lots of growth but little fruit.

Which animals live on glaciers?

In total, glaciers and perennial snow patches are frequented by 19 bird species and 16 mammalian species—or 17, if humans are included.



It’s not surprising that other vertebrate groups, such as reptiles and amphibians, are absent from glaciers, since they’re cold-blooded and could not survive long exposure to such low temperatures.

The most common order of birds in these habitats is the passerines, or songbirds. However, other groups are represented. The golden eagle is a member of the falcon order, and the common raven, like crows, jays and their relatives, is a corvid. Several species of ptarmigan represent the gallinaceous birds, a group which includes chickens, turkeys, partridges, pheasants, quail and grouse.
One bird species, the white-winged diuca finch, constructs its nest on the surface of glaciers in the Andes; it has been systematically studied on Quelccaya Glacier in Peru.

The mammals are more diverse, both in terms of taxonomy and behavior. Most common are the ungulates such as bison, musk ox, elk, reindeer, mountain goat, ibex, chamois and bighorn sheep, who come for relief from the heat; as large animals covered with fur and hair, they have difficulty cooling off during hot periods, and either lie directly on the ice, or rest in the cold air that drains off glaciers.

Wolverines have also been seen caching their prey on glaciers; the author suggests that this behavior may provide lactating females with critical components of their diet during the period when they are nursing their cubs.

In the meantime, Rosvold’s website, Frozen Fauna, provides a variety of information about the mammals and birds which inhabit, or at least regularly visit, glaciers, as well as about thearchaeology of the hunters and herders who have also inhabited these zones for many centuries.