SGAP(Qld) Article - Grevellea hybrids

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WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Owen Brown

I think that all grevillea lovers have often tried to work out just how some hybrid grevilleas got the names that are theirs for life. Certainly I have had a great amount of time delving into their names and just why they are so-called. Lots are named after some person, perhaps known to the breeder, and some have no realistic reason for their being so named.

All of this brings me to the reason for writing this article. I have bred a grevillea which has a name that possibly nobody would guess the origin. I refer to what I bred which goes under the name of 'Golden Yul-lo'. Certainly this magnificent tropical grevillea is golden in colour, but where does the 'Yul-lo' part come in?

It was bred in 1989 from a 'Sandra Gordon' seed. I shifted address sometime in that period and lost the record of the other parent. I think that it was a 'Caloundra Gem', but I am not certain. Certainly the leaf structure would tend to indicate that that is the case.

I first introduced the 'Golden Yul-lo' to Edward Bunker of Redlands Greenhouses and James McGeoch of Birkdale Nursery, both members of the WON's Group. In June 1992 they came to see me in Caloundra and took with them a large number of cuttings. The strike rate was remarkable, even though June is usually not a good month for striking Grevilleas. From memory I think that Edward Bunker's Nursery struck 115 cuttings in less than six weeks.

They decided to market the grevillea, which I called 'Suncoast' for obvious reasons. The planned year for the marketing was 1994. That year just happened to be "The Year of the Indigenous People". With the help of a noted local historian named Stan Tutt, who resides in Landsborough, we found out who was the spokesman for the local aboriginal tribe that lived in this area long before white settlement. The tribe was the Gubbi Gubbi, also known as the Kabi Kabi. We contacted this spokesman in Brisbane querying if his tribe had any word for grevillea. His suggestion was for us to research the John Oxley Library. This was done and success was ours. The name for grevillea within that tribe was "Yul-lo"; so a name was born.

Before I bred 'Golden Yul-lo', the two WON's Group members were interested in a very dark red grevillea, which I named 'Grange Hermitage'. Penfolds knocked back our desire to use such a name. I wonder why? So, it was tagged as 'Crimson Yul-lo'. It was a G. banksii red x 'Misty Pink' cross. Like so many 'Misty Pink' hybrids, it has been difficult to strike. In fact, it can take up to five months to produce a root system. Tissue culture methods have been tried, but still the problem remains.

John and Ruth Sparrow of Australia Park Tube Nursery of Belli Park via Eumundi are currently in the throes of releasing another one of my hybridising efforts. It goes under the name of 'Gossamer', but when I look up my dictionary as to the true meaning I cannot see any relationship. It is, however, a very pretty bloom. I suppose that you could say that it has a delicate look about it, hence the 'Gossamer' name-tag. When the bloom first forms it is apricot in colour and as the bloom ages it turns into a light pink shade. Very pretty indeed.

It really takes some years before a plant-breeder sees the results of his hybridising. Space is the key word. As I do not have a lot of space, I teamed up with a land developing company and utilised the garden space that they have for planting natives.

So many grevilleas that I hybridise are so similar to one of their parents that it is pointless trying to market them successfully. I have, however, had some success getting a number to present completely different colours to anything else on the market. Birkdale Nursery is a wholesale nursery and it will very shortly be releasing to many retail nurseries three grevilleas of my breeding.

I had allotted each of them three different names, but that is beside the point. I believe that they are going to hit the market in August/September.

'Coastal Dawn' is a beautiful mixture of red and pink dripping with nectar and blooming for most of the year. It is a contrived cross between G. banksii red and G. 'Misty Pink'.

'Coastal Morn' is one that I bred as far back as 1991. It blooms form late May through to November and needs a good pruning after that. It has a red centre with golden styles. I originally named it 'Uluru' because it reminded so much of the "Red Centre" and the sunlight there. It would be very difficult to give a grevillea such a name. It was a contrived cross of 'Misty Pink' and 'Honey Gem'. It is truly magic, the colouring mixture. It is probably the top grevillea for the cut flower trade, as it has very long stalks and is a tightly knit grevillea also.

The third one to be marketed is the result of my trying a cross with my 'Golden Yul-lo'. The cross was G. banksii x 'Golden Yul-lo'. The colour variant is truly remarkable. It has turned out to be tangerine and is a very big bloomed tropical grevillea. It is to be named 'Coastal Sunset'. It first bloomed in July 1996.

I have another grevillea which is undergoing trialing. I have called it 'Terra Cotta'. Why? Because that is its colour.

WHAT'S IN A NAME? Does it really matter, so long as you get enjoyment out of growing grevilleas. I started my hobby of breeding new grevilleas in 1982. I bought a book written by Don Burke. It was simply named, "Growing Grevilleas". It gave me all the information I wanted at the time and it is certainly a pity that it is out of publication.

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