Hi,
Back again.
I have planted around sixty Olearia, and
they are coming along fairly well. I have planted some in a line on
stony soil, using compost to fill the hole. These are a bitt sluggish
growth wise and the foliage isn't dense at all. They are still under a
metre, whereas the others planted in deeper soil are a good few cm
higher.

I am hoping that the roots will find their way into the earth
eventually. The plants are dead on the edge of a compacted roadway
made of limestone chippings with a base of larger rocks on sandy soil.

Anyway I will try a breaker for my next planting session.


The fields bordered by the road are home to cattle and horses. I
assume chainlink fencing will be the best means of stopping the hedge
from becoming cow pats and horse manure?

I could get an electric fence, but the property is vacant for months
at a time, so the chances are high that it might malfunction or get
shorted by weed growth.

Once again, could I ask anyone with an interest to comment or suggest
a more effective approach.

Incidentally after my last post regarding cuttings, my success rate
with germination shot up, it seemed that every Oleria cutting rooted
and grew. I have brought them back to the UK for their first winter.

Sadly for no logical reason that I know of, those planted slightly
later [weeks], have a less than 1% success rate. Most are brown and
shrivelled, I still have around twenty that are green, but there is no
new growth and no evidence of roots so far. I used the same technique
for all cuttings.

Is agar likely to be a useful growth medium? If I could see the root
growth, maybe it would assist in developing a more consistent
"production line".

AB