Friday 9th February, 2018
....To Julie ...
Hi
There are events in life that make you stop and think and reflect about whats important.
It must be somewhere around 25 years ago that Harry and I were introduced to an amazing family, through a gardening friend, to potentially provide some gardening advice. I'm never really sure at the end of the day how much advice we gave at that time as we were pretty new in our business but we certainly became the best of friends.
Our friend Julie had the most amazing sense of colour, design and proportion and the interior of their original villa was very tastefully decorated. Julie loved pretty so roses and flowers was the look that she was after. There was a large Cycad, that must have been knocking on the door of 100 years old, at one end of the garden which was never a favourite plant, though in my horticultural eyes was pretty amazing. The driveway garden was edged with Buxus hedging and standard roses lined the path to the house which were inter-planted with pretties like daisies, lavenders, foxglove and the like, and often, as we would turn up to visit, the smell of roast pork would waft from the kitchen.
The old villa must have been the original farm house for the area as they have a large section that boasts the most amazing, and massive, walnut tree that I have ever seen. The stately walnut tree stands like a ginormous umbrella over the back lawn where many events have been held over the years.
Monday just past we all said our personal goodbyes to Julie standing under that huge walnut tree that sheltered us from the rain at the time looking out across the garden to their home.
For me its certainly been a time of reflection about whats important in life, friends, partners, gardening and being true to ones self. One can get a little lost along the way as we negotiate this modern world and deal with issues that weren't around 25 years ago. Like the stresses from social media such as Facebook. The difficulties that it can cause through people that hide behind computers or phones writing opinions without enough knowledge. Those that want to undermine you and your efforts to have the best nursery in NZ. The challenges, difficulties and stresses of small business and keeping up with all of todays compliance issues.
Fireball French Lace Golden Future Hayley Westenra Henry Hudson
It's passion that makes us good at things in life but it's the little things that we do for each other that often give us such pleasure in the giving. I got an email from my aunt this week saying "A lot of love arrived on my doorstep today" when the 9 jars I sent her, filled with passionfruit pulp, arrived unbroken having made it through their custom processes and mail delivery contractors. She was thrilled to bits and that gave me a boost just when I needed it.
Passionfruit We have 4 varieties of passionfruit at present, a red one, a yellow one and a black one and then there's T-REX, it has to be the biggest one you've ever seen!
Hibiscus in
standard form, this is a rare opportunity and
Heidi and
Snowdrift are looking amazing, so many buds about to open and these will look stunning in your garden with a bit of size on them. They like full sun, good drainage and are all looking amazing around the Waikato at the moment. Good buying at $59.99 but if you buy 2 you will get them for $49.99 each!!!
Cornus Greenvale Discovered in Greenvale, hence it's name, this showy Cornus has large cream flower bracts that appear in summer. The green foliage has good autumn tones. A vigorous, hardy and highly ornamental tree. This has capitata in it's heritage making this cornus semi evergreen.
Myrtus Ugni is also known as Chilean guava or some call it Cranberry although it isn't really a cranberry at all but they do have a nice flavour and are good to eat. We have these as both bush or standard. They have attractive bronze green foliage, pretty small white flowers in spring and the berries look great on the bush through summer.
Buxus Tide hill is an American version of the Korean Box plant. It's dwarf properties make this an easy, low maintenance option for a compact low hedge or edging. The leaves are very dainty and a deep glossy green turning to a deep copper shade in winter and it is blight resistant.
Watch this space because over the next few weeks there will be some lines that we want to offer a bit of a deal on to move them along. Perfect timing too I reckon as we seem to keep having such good rain in this last month of our official summer and therefore ideal for planting now.
To kick off we have newly on special this week ...
Roses which are now 30% off and that is across our whole range including weepers, standards, pillars, climbers, rugoses, moss, moderns, hybrid teas, floribundas and so much more.
Clipinense Grace Seabrook Mt Everest Silver Edge Winsome
All Rhododendrons 30% off remaining stock. There are quite a few varieties left of these dappled light plants that do so well in the passing shade of trees so check them out on the web site. There must be something here for every one from some samller growing cultivars to a range of the largers ones.
All Azaleas 30% off remaining stock. Predominately deciduous varieties left in vivaceous reds, oranges and yellows, the colours of the sun.
These are large plants that need to be planted as we can no longer carry them in a container but if you want to mass plant an area or plant them as a hydrangea border then these would be perfect at such a good price.
Hydrangea's of the lace cap kind are very pretty with the central part of the flower looking pin cushion like with an outer edge of whirling butterflies in either white, blue or pink depending on the lacecap.
There are also many other Hydrangeas to check out that were
$14.99 but now just
$9.99 each.
Callistemon McaArthur is one of the larger but semi dawrf reaching approx 1.5 m with bright red flowers Take a gander at
Green John which is a smaller growing variety attaining a more demure 100 cm again with the classic red flowers. These are fab bushy plants normally a
$19.99 grade but we can do these at just
$16.99...
Green John Dark Knight McArthur Trilobum
Viburnum trilobum or the
cranberry viburnum is the one that i just love as after the classic viburnum like flowers come the bright red berries which is a bit of an extra for a viburnum. The plants are a really good grade being large and bushy and are a really good price at
$49.99 now down to
$29.99
Roses for your Valentine?
My Love Loving Touch Valentine Heart My Angel My Precious
The dark origins of Valentines day herald from Roman times and appears to have little to do with todays red rose and chocolate romancing. Noone has exactly pinpointed the origins of this famous day but going back to ancient Rome between the 13th and 15th of Feb Roman men would hit their woman with slain animals. They were drunk and naked and the woman lined up to be hit believing that it would help them be more fertile. The ancient romans may also be responsible for the naming of the day when Emperor Claudius excuted a couple of men, named Valentine, on Feb 14 in differents years in the 3rd century AD. Their Martydom was honoured by the Catholic church with St Valentines day.... I think I'll stick to the tradition of red roses, chocolate, some quality bubbles and no beating of your partner with dead animals. If you have a hankering to buy a rose for a loved one then we do have some standard
Valentine Hearts which is an attractive pink floribunda.
Sigh .... Think we will be mowing our lawns again this weekend, hopefully yours are under control and you get to enjoy other things. Gardening!
Have a great weekend.
Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team
Make it a Wairere weekend where even GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag.
