Verticordia Nitens - Cultivation

Cultivation

The plant was regarded as highly desirable by gardeners in England. The spectacular display, "strikingly beautiful", was expected to be marketable, yet it has presented difficulties in its propagation. It was introduced to English gardens in 1840, but was not known to have flowered until 1861. The introduction to the eastern states of Australia has met with some success, due to the refining of the technique of propagation and the application of early pruning. Heavy pruning was first suggested by James Drummond, an early collector and promoter of the regions flora.

The species was mentioned in the early survey, A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony (Edwards's Botanical Register, 1837), which was referred to an 1861 notice in Curtis's Botanical Magazine by W J Hooker, quoting Lindley,

"'the magnificent Chrysorrhoë nitens, whose yellow flowers, of metallic lustre, form masses of golden stars some feet in diameter.' Ever since, it has been the desire of nurserymen and others engaged in horticulture, to import this lovely plant; …"

In these, they note the failure of early attempts to propagate the species in England, the seeds sent from the Swan River Colony mostly failed to germinate, or the plant did not reach maturity. The Veitch Nurseries successfully raised a plant, providing the flowering specimen in August for the illustration by Walter Fitch, but a note in Hortus Veitchii (1906) records the disappointing results and as "apparently lost to British gardens". Whether this species was amongst those grown from seeds supplied to Europe in the nineteenth century is lacking evidence and detail.

Later cultivation techniques made use of cuttings from lower parts of the plant, propagated from soft to semi-hardened wood, to produce longer living specimens. Cuttings taken between autumn to spring strike readily. Seedlings produced in cultivated gardens are rare, due to the absence of its pollinator. The need for study and development of cultivation techniques was identified by Alf Gray in 1966, and suggested this was not beyond regular commercial interests. Early attempts showed poor development in root structure, and susceptibility to fungal diseases present barriers to development as a crop or garden plant. The species has been less successful as an introduction to the eastern states, suffering fungal conditions after rains and remains vulnerable to root rotting—attributed to Phytophthora—in dryer conditions that spare other plants. All members of V. sect. Chrysorhoe are noted for the vulnerability to infection of the rapid growth of soft wood, but this is especially destructive to V. nitens in cultivation. Controls include pruning below sites of infestation, which often appear near the growing tip, results in bushier and more resilient plants for gardens, and study groups have trialled the removal of flowers after downpours. White oil controls used on other verticordia are damaging to V. nitens. Techniques for cultivation for the cut flower industry, replacing the natural harvest, require further development for commercial viability.