Friday 18th May, 2018
Hi
There was a bit going on in the nursery yesterday and you could be forgiven for thinking that the car park had suddenly become a place for small trucks and machinery. The long and short of it is that we are putting in a couple of new water tanks that will give us a bit of extra water to come and go on over the summer months. During the summer months our water requirement is high and we need to irrigate every evening using our 22,000 litre tank which then takes the whole day to fill up again. If the tank for some reason doesn't fill then the irrigation system can't go..... and that will reduce the quality of our plants. Interestingly enough we don't need water for the remaining 8 to 9 months of the year as it rains so much here.
The flowers on plants are the most sensitive and a shortage of water will see them deteriorate real quick, the other symptom will be an internal yellowing of the leaves. With a couple of extra tanks we should be able to upgrade some of the existing irrigation system and also have some surplus water in case of any unforeseen problems.
Its been a project on our minds for a number of years, as water is the life blood for plants, and this week it is happening.
There are a couple or real clever guys that are making this happen and all because I wanted the tanks out of the way and not be noticeable as they aren't really the sexiest thing to look at. To that end the new tanks have been located over an easement drain and down the bank.
Don't worry about the
dwarf Agapanthus I said but please can we be careful of my
Nikaus that are doing really well down in that garden.
The tanks are massive and the position that they had to be
rolled and coerced into is minute. Something like that famous Dolly Parton expression ... I'll leave that up to your imagination! LOL, and did I mention they had to go down a
slope or two!
Check out the
facebook pics of how amazing they are at getting the tanks down the bank and around a corner and settled into a little position just
below the carpark. I want to say a big thank you to Jonathan Kent from
Earth and Drain Ltd and Trev Hart from
Trev's Contracting Ltd for making this whole process go so smoothly and with minimal damage to the surrounds.
The tanks are not the only project on the go at the nursery right now either. The repaint of
Pete's cottage has been on the agenda for a while. So it's getting a well deserved face lift. If you have been to the garden centre in the last week or so then the first thing you will probably have noticed is the huge empty space that has appeared in the middle of the nursery. It will shortly begin to fill with all the new seasons
roses. Then look up and you will then see the cottage shrouded in
scaffolding for the painters to reach the higher regions of the cottage.
We decided this time that we are going to paint the cottage in
Heritage colours which will match the villa. we have had the cottage booked in for its repaint for some time now and I'm now think that I should be booking in the office and the villa too.
Pink is the new Black !!! have a hedge that sets you apart !!!
Some hot looking Camellias
The new black is hot pink.... well !! don't we all love hot glowing pink. The Camellia hedges that surrounds
Petes cottage is one called
Gay Baby. Appropriate name perhaps but I just love the flowers which are a glowing hot pink and on some of our grey drizzly Waikato days it just looks amazing, well this hedge just pops when it's in flower.
Hiryu Shishi Gashira Chansonette Gay Baby Jennifer Susan
Hiryu could be seen long before I reached the
Camellias with its vibrant
hot bright semi double pink flowers. This one is a different species being a hiemalis, but will totally perform if you want to hedge. It has a very similar habit with smaller leaves like most
Sasanqua's which are traditionally hedged.
Camellia hiemalis is a species that I haven't written about before, apparently only known now in cultivation and perhaps originated from Sasanqua's hence the similarity. This species also flowers late autumn like Sasanquas and includes the cultivars of Shishi Gashira and Chansonette.
There are more and more of the newer
paradise series coming though of the Sasanqua species..... These are robust plants with very pretty flowers again coming into their own in the Autumn with their flowers. Paradise
Hilda has an
anenome style flower (being the little pincushion effect of petaloides in the centre with almost a ray of petals that surround) in a lovely shade of pink. These again are a huge grade and would make an almost instant
hedge.
Camellias that are a little more blush
Yoi Machi is a mostly white single with a blush pink edges that is quite pretty, another tough and hardy goodie that will do superbly as a hedge... stand out from the neighbours with something a tad different
Paradise blush is so pretty being a semi double and again with a pink tinges on the outside edge of the flowers.
Transtasman is another awesome Camellia with simple little drop like flowers that are a soft pink fading out to almost white... This one has a small leave and so will look quite different clipped from the classic Sasanqua hedge looking more dense than normal.
Paradise Glow has quite a large single single flower in a very attractive glowing shade of pink as its name suggests.
Yoi Machi Paradise Glow Paradise Blush Paradise Hilda Transtasman
Breath of Heaven...Coleonema or diosma
Breath of heaven is the common name for these feathery like, low maintenance and very tidy shrubs that herald from South African. Both of these are excellent bushy plants and with flower ... normally $19.99 these just $14.99. If you have a few gaps to fill that wont need much work then these are for you.
Coleonema Pulchellum has typical feathery ferny like foliage and covers itself with masses of light pink starry shaped flowers. These prefer a sunny disposition that is well drained or has sandy light soil. trim after flowering to keep compact and busy but otherwise is a very well behave shrub that is going to get too big
Diosma ericoides is a very similar shrub to the coleonema but with masses of star like white flowers through late Autumn, early winter.. again suits a sunny well drained position.
Medlars .. I'm guessing most don't know these cool trees but I just love its presence in the garden at this time of the year.. Autumn is about
fruit and these are no exception and I like looking at the fruit on the tree in the garden. These are edible and you eat them when bletted, which apparently is a euphemism for nearly rotten, but I have never been keen to try... I have had clients come and get the fruit to experiment with though but I just enjoy them as something different in the garden. These trees are 50% discounted..
While we are on the fruits of Autumn .... check these crab apple deals at 30% discounted
Arrow gold with glowing yellow crabs (apples that is!)
Mt Earnslaw herald from Queenstown , white flowers in the spring followed by soft red fruits flushed yellow
Mt Aurum another NZ clone with clusters of golden yellow crabs
Barbara Ann 1m claim to fame is double wine red blossoms followed by purple red fruits
Arrow Gold Strathmore Mt Earnslaw Mt Aurum Barbara Ann
Dont forget these from last week
Horse chestnuts or
Aesculus, don't forget about these amazing buys at half price....such handsome speciman trees with their awesome candelabra shaped flowers in the spring choose from white, pink and bright pink
Prunus Thundercloud,
Blireana and
Pissardi Nigra, all 50% of and have great burgundy foliage and pink blossoms in the spring.. technically a flowering plum but just like a flowering cherry and not super huge growing so really a handsome medium tree choice.
Prunus
Pink Cloud and
Accolade, both grafted at1.2m... great flowering cherries and a bargain at 30% off the marked price. Pink cloud is a campanulata hybrid from the acclaimed Jury stables, meaning that its a good hybrid... probably a good choice to attract the Tuis as well and there are enough plants to plant a row of these as well like down a driveway or on a fence line.
Thundercloud Briotti Pink Cloud Blireana Hippocastanum
The shortest day is looming so get that garlic into the ground
The garlic that we have is the classic kind called
Printanor. This is available in three sizes 100g, 200g and 1kg bags for the serious garlic fiends.
Elephant Garlic... its not called elephant garlic for nothing get this into the ground now... Two bag sizes available here also.
All of a sudden there is a
huge selection of these and of named and cloned ones too boot.. so how does one choose or do you just get some of each?
I have to mention that there are a few
doubles that have just arrived this week as well ...
Here is a selection of cloned white winter roses for those that think that white is the new black!!!
and for those that like the reds and pinks
Want balls for your garden? then we have them for you.. get that structured look with a clipped holly that looks just like
Buxus. This is a small leaved non prickly holly, being
Ilex hillerii and these have already been shaped into awesome plants, clipped and ready to just pop into a pot or the garden $89.99 down to $69.99
Remember that if you are out in the garden centre over the next few days and wonder why the middle is totally empty its because our roses will be arriving next week... It will be all go as over the next four weeks we have 14000 to get into bags and ready for orders..
Hope that your weekend is all planned whether it be chores or just a fun weekend above all take care and have a good one!!!
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.