Staggeringly healthy again!

Just over a year ago, when I moved from Paddington - on the south of the harbour - to Castlecrag _ on the north of the harbour - I had to detach this staghorn from the brickwall of the previous garage, creating havoc with its fronds, and with its structure. It was not in a good space for some months. However, it is a tough, resilient old biddy, and is now back to its roaring days.

According to Gardening Australia, "elkhorns have many plants growing together in communities and they have smaller, slender fronds. Whereas staghorns tend to grow as larger individuals". So, this is one of the numerous varieties of Staghorn Platycerium grande, which are endemic to the temperate forests of Eastern Australia, They are epiphyts which means that they although they grow on another plant, they don't get food, minerals or water from that host plant. In Paddo, I used to toss in banana peels and all my veggie waste. The staghorn loved it. Here I use all that in my compost. I will try to save a couple of banana peels a week, as well as the tea-dregs from Kirsten's pot. We go through up to about 20 bananas each week. I have spent time this evening surfing for quality elkhorns and staghorns. I have found that the place in Victoria from which I sourced my Hydrangeas, also stocks Stags and Elks. Hopefully, I will get a few more little plants for the back wall of the old garage over the off-season.