Planting Tips

When Your Plants Arrive

All our plants are supplied in square tubes 40mm wide and 80mm deep and have been hardened to outside conditions before dispatch. They are suitable for either planting out or potting on, and the following advice may be helpful.

Planting out

If done correctly, a survival rate in excess of 90% can be achieved if the plants are given adequate protection. We recommend that you use mulch mats to conserve soil moisture and reduce weed completion, and clear plastic tree guards with bamboo or hardwood stakes to provide a beneficial microclimate and to keep out animals. It always helps to water after planting, and then once or twice per week until the plants are through their first summer.  Don’t plant just before summer unless you have no other option.

Our plants have slow release fertilizer in their potting media, and will find food as they grow in your soil, but you can help them along with a 12 month slow release tablet in the planting hole. If you decide to feed, always use a fertilizer suitable for native plants, and never add more than the recommended dose. Remember a slow plant is always better than a dead plant!

Potting on

If you are not ready to plant immediately, or prefer to plant a more advanced plant, you can pot the tubestock into a 140mm or larger container. This is also sometimes helpful when growing difficult to keep alive plants which survive better in the controlled conditions and perfect drainage that you can achieve in a pot.

Always use a quality potting mix, not garden soil, and add a low phosphorus slow release fertilizer at a low rate. It is preferable to buy a potting mix without fertilizer and then add your own to avoid the possibility that an incorporated fertilizer has dumped excess nutrient into the mix. As a general rule it is best to use caution when feeding native plants. 3 or 4 grams of 9 to 12 month slow release native plant fertilizer per litre of potting mix  is usually adequate for satisfactory growth. If the middle to tip of the older leaves appear to be sunburnt, you probably have too much  fertilizer in the mix.   

One thought on “When Your Plants Arrive

  1. Karyn Young says:

    Thankyiu, love this new website. I have purchased Eremophilas in large numbers and varied kinds. My first batch were planted in July 2020 as tubestock and have done fabulously. I have just had my second batch arrive and once again they’re wonderful. I am about to order my third batch from you.
    Your plants are great quality and grow very well where we live in the Lockyer Valley Queensland where we have very hot summers and cold winters. I have been very impressed. JUST LOVE YOUR PLANTS & SERVICE Thankyou

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