General Interest
16 Dec
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52
Title image above is copyright © Optimate Group Pty Ltd
First published 16th December 2025
This is very important to be on the alert for if you use Microsoft 365 and Outlook.
(By way of context: The vast majority of you won’t even know this, but we (Optimate) run our own server and hosting busines..
10 Dec
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63
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 10th December 2025
Did you know that there are carnivorous bromeliads? Not too many, only three or four in the entire Bromeliaceae (Bromeliad) family of roughly 80 genera and 3,700 species. (How I would love them to all be here ..
08 Dec
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210
Title image above is a still taken from a video by Andy Stapleton entitled “Academia’s 5 Most Disturbing Open Secrets Everyone Just Accepts”
First published 8th December 2025
The following video is presented as a public service announcement. These goings-on are truly a kick in the guts.
And as ..
05 Dec
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102
Title image above is copyright © Optimate Group Pty Ltd
(This article was originally published 2nd February 2021 here on our Jujube Tree Nursery site.)
First published here 5th December 2025.
Have you ever seen these very smooth round and oval shapes in leaves before, and not known what made them?..
03 Dec
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90
Title image above is copyright © Optimate Group Pty Ltd
First published 3rd December 2025
The postie and I were recently chatting venting to each other regarding our respective dealings with Australia Post.
He told me of a scam well worth drawing to your attention, and which couldn’t be more timel..
22 Nov
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140
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 22nd November 2025
Back on 28th August 2025 I received a magnificent silk floss tree cutting (Ceiba speciosa) from my wonderful pen pal Helen, and potted it right there and then into a used 4.1 L Air-Pot seed tray. If I didn’t a..
22 Nov
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162
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 22nd November 2025
Some time around winter 2025 (I stupidly didn’t take notes) I uprooted a self-seeded sandpaper fig (there are several species buit this one is most likely to be Ficus coronata), took a bunch of cuttings, and p..
22 Nov
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292
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 22nd November 2025
Some time before 2020 (exact date unknown) I potted up some tiger grass (Thysanolaena latifolia) in a 9 L Air-Pot. More for the aesthetic than for root development as I really like the look of Air-Pot containe..
21 Nov
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138
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 21st November 2025
I like to grow saffron in a 38 L Air-Pot. The 20 L Air-Pot works too but you can’t fit as many in :)
Mind you, when I first began with just three corms, I grew each one in its own 3 L Air-Pot as a hedge agains..
20 Nov
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271
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 20th November 2025
I still don’t know why, but several of my potted citrus all decided to die together. It was very gradual and I wondered if the compost I had top-dressed them with was compromised in some way. Yet that didn’t e..
20 Oct
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180
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 20th October 2025
The series on the The Wollongong Botanic Garden continues here, this time with a photo essay on its Azalea Collection.
From their website:
This collection features plants found in Asiatic regions including Chi..
03 Aug
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1063
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 3rd August 2025
The Araucaria genus comprises twenty species, now native only to the southern hemisphere, though they were once worldwide from 66 to 200 million years ago.
The Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii) and Hoop or Moreton..