Saturday 19th October, 2024
Hi
It's full-on colour right now at the nursery and all looking particularly bright and colourful and well worth a wander, just to take in how beautiful spring is. The garden centre is brim full of trees, flowers and fillers for the garden oh!!!..... did I mention
Roses. If you are out here taking in all of the flowers then take the time to have a wander around the display garden... it's looking really good right now and totally worth a walk.
Colour your garden pink
I have to write about
Roses because they are just looking so gorgeous and about to pop into colour... This morning on my wander through the nursery there were some definite highlights with some of the cultivars showing quite a bit of bud and blooms starting to open. First up on my cruise around the roses was
NZ Gardener and the pink show is impressive because there are quite a few bushes to create a mass effect. Then I got the idea that I would colour co-ordinate and look out all the pink ones that are looking impressive today.
NZ Gardener was bred by Bob Matthews from Matthews nursery and named as such to celebrate the NZ gardener magazine which has been around now for 70 years. Technically a floribunda rose, but with distinctive old fashioned form, and looking amazing in soft apricot pink.
I could literally stand in the middle of the garden centre and spot the next pink rose which happens to be
Wise Woman. This one was also bred by Bob Matthews and named to recognize the 100th anniversary of Midwifery NZ.
Wise Woman is a classic hybrid tea with nicely formed buds in a very good shade of pink.
Then there is
Pink Ribbon, again bred by the Matthews, and again also in support of a cause and this time breast cancer.
Pink Ribbon is a floribunda of soft pink and cupped flowers and continuously in bloom.
Aotearoa is a real beauty and the fragrance is delicious, a perfect hybrid tea in form, pink in the bud opening to salmon pink and very desirable for picking.
Warm creams, soft yellows
Imogen, pictured here, is a reasonably new David Austin and this one is just a delight in the garden centre right now. In my opinion, a typical David Austin shrub rose with his classic old-world style flower in a very pretty shade of lemon yellow, shading out to the creams.
Tranquility is another such beauty and again, has a beautiful old-style form that is so much the trade mark of the English roses. The buds show light yellow, the flowers open to pure white, with a light apple fragrance. It has excellent vigour and health. It has a typical light-green Musk Rose foliage and is almost thornless.
Pure and Simple is another rose that is heralding the rose-bloom time at Wairere and this one is a Floribunda. Simply gorgeous, free-flowering softly cupped, blush pink white blooms with hints of warm apricot. Foliage is glossy on a bushy healthy plant. Light fragrance. Bred in the UK by Gareth Fryer and brought to us in NZ by Matthews nursery. A very pretty rose !!
Sir Edmund Hillary and no prizes for guessing that this one will be a climber and in a heavy cream with a white centre. An old-fashioned style flower that has an amazing fragrance with strong and healthy growth... Could be said that this one is a must have.
Mme Alfred Carriere is a rose that has been around as long as I have been in hoticulture. Quite a vigorous climber with very fragrant blooms, cupped and old-style in form, white blushed pink... very pretty to have against a fence or wall.
Hot it up with apricot and orange
Attention seeker is a relatively new rose to me but with stand-out and striking colour. Bred by Rob Somerfield, this one is a vigorous medium growing upright plant with nice glossy foliage. These striking golden-apricot blooms are eye-catching in the garden. Produced in clusters, the blooms have a pleasing light scent.
Ginger Kisses Another rose that just seems to glow amongst the mass of roses that we have here. A multi award-winning rose, including one for fragrance, so you 'nose' it is going to smell divine! The floribunda flowers are a beautiful soft burnt-orange blend that age to pink and appear in regular clusters. The foliage shows excellent disease resistance.
Doris Tysterman has been around for years and again is a great hot colour. A free-flowering hybrid tea rose that has medium-sized blooms blending from bright tangerine to orange with bronze on the edges. Gorgeous old world fragrance and good repeat flowering. All this on a hardy, upright bush that has very few thorns. Just a delight.
Super trouper Hybrid Tea. Long stemmed spiral buds open to reveal large, exquisite blooms of vibrant glowing orange set against dark green foliage. The blooms are fragrant and unaffected by weather so always put on a great show. Vigorous growth habit and good disease resistance.
A discordant note
Just to throw in something off-beat and different from all the above.
Scentimental has, as its name suggests, a very delicious fragrance and a cupped flower that is uniquely and randomly bi-coloured in burgundy and white. A beauty in the garden, also looks stunning as a bunch of blooms in a vase.
Cooking Gardeners or Gardeners that cook
Some things you sometimes just can't buy and so need to grow your own. Spring is often the best time of year to get things started as it's nice and warm and you are planting straight into a growing season. I try to grow as much as I can so that I always have ultra-fresh leaves to spice up my cooking, or fruit that is not always easy to purchase. I must say that my cooking does seem to be quite seasonal, but then variety is the spice of life...
Curry leaf tree is actually a
Murraya and native to India and Ceylon. The fragrant leaves smell of curry and are great in Indian and Asian cooking. I have a tree myself that started out life as a pot plant but now is in the garden. I found out this year that it loses its leaves in the frost but it is happily leafing out now that the temps are warmer. If yours are in a more sheltered spot than mine then they should hold their leaves over the winter.
Lemon Grass grows as a large clump of grass with that delicious lemon fragrance that so suits Asian cooking. This one is also frost tender, but I have managed to keep a clump growing by having it in a warm spot against a north-facing wall.
Tamarillos. These are really popular for all to grow. Again, these need a warm microclimate as, like all solanums, they don't like the cold. Try against a hot sunny north-facing wall where perhaps you could add more protection in the winter, such as frost cloth. Here in the Waikato it could be all about position and your microclimate.
Cape gooseberries are something that you would plant now so as to have a long growing season. Another one that likes the heat to produce those yummy little lanterns that are such a taste sensation.
Passionfruit are now in stock and it's also time to get these started so that you can pick your own passionfruit. These do like a warm spot that is well drained and also need something to climb up and over. Best time of year to get them started is now.
Didn't know that Ang had got these in stock and spotted them on my walk around the nursery
Lily of the valley but the pink form, known as
Convallaria Majalis Rosea. I know, sorry, but we were unable to get the classic white one this year. Still, we thought that maybe someone might be interested in this pink form. They are only just coming up, but the few flowers we have so far are frankly adorable.
Juncus Crazy hair (or
Juncus Effusus Spiralis) is a rush plant and suits being in a pot or garden but will like some water or wetness. This ornamental is grown for its curly or corkscrew-like foliage.
Lithodora Grace Ward and
Magic Carpet are great ground covers for the sunny garden, but with blue flowers which are very cool.
Grace ward has dark foliage and deep blue flowers.
Magic Carpet is a tad different with finer needle-like leaves and tiny blue flowers with a whitish centre.
My my, hasn't the weather of late been pretty nice; sunny days that are lovely and warm and just perfect with that spring growth. The flowers are definitely coming on big time. If you live in the country you will also notice the full moon that is happening right now... some nights it's just so light because of the moon, almost like a gentle sun, lighting up the country side.
We are almost two thirds of the way through October now and I can't believe how fast 2024 is now disappearing. Another week done and dusted and all that remains is to wish you all a fabulous weekend.
Cheers from Lloyd, Tony and the Wairere team.
