Episode: #9 28/10/06
Presenter: Sue McDougall

One of the garden club members sent in a query regarding the hardy Mother in Laws tongues (Sansevieria hahnii).

Mother in laws tongue or Sansevierias as they are referred to today, are all readily available here in WA and one of the hardiest waterwise plants you can grow. Granted they are slow growing, but on the upside they do not need very much care at all, tolerate low light and will grow in the ground or pots.

Bantels Selection (Sansevieria trifasciata ?Bantel?s Selection?) has stiff quite hard leaves that grow to 60cm with quite striking variegated foliage, while Moonshine (Sansevieria trifasciata ?Moonshine?) has broad leaves that take on a real silvery sheen. This plant will get up to 1m high and really the only thing that will kill all of the varieties is too much water.

If they get too full for the pot they are in they can be readily split up. It is so easy as you can be really rough with them, just tip them out and start pulling apart. Each part will grow again but ideally they need some roots on the bottom.

The long leaf ones can be cut off and placed in a vase of water, creating an amazingly stunning vase display.

While the Sansevierias don?t require mulching, all the other parts of the garden do at this time of the year. We need to save water now and the application of quality mulch to at least 7-10cm thick goes along way to reducing water consumption. It is going to save you lots of work on those hot summer days where you would rather be somewhere cooler, like in the pool or hammock!

Be careful with the type of mulch you apply, because you don?t want to be creating more work for yourself, quality mulch will stop those summer weeds germinating.

Many of our garden club members are mad keen vegetable gardeners and all of us at the Gurus love growing our own food as well.

If you have some spare space in the vegetable garden why not plants a green manure crop. Clover fixes nitrogen and puts it back into the soil, increasing the fertility of the soil. Then at some the stage the crop is dug over and a leafy green crop is planted on top of it.

A simply outstanding vegetable to grow is the Artichokes they are really easy to grow and fresh ones taste so good. The part you eat is the flower and the trick to getting the best flavour is to pick them before the flowers develop. The plants are available at your local garden centre now.

If you would like more great waterwise ideas with inspiring potted plants why not join our online garden club, you will love it.