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Tuesday 19th June, 2018
Hi
Pints... Planters... Plastic... Polythene... PB's
I've got big bags and I cannot lie...
The bags just got bigger! Our potting season is now in full swing and the bush roses have been a good warm up and not that we have finished all the roses quite yet as a few more thousands arrived yesterday. Bush roses are potted into a polythene bag, size being what we call in the industry a PB8. Originally these bags were measured in pints so PB stood for pint bag but these days they are called planter bags, plastic bags or polythene bags.
There is a distinctive knack to the art of potting especially if you want to get the job done quickly. These PB bags come folded in bags of 100. You kinda slide them off the top of the pile and flick your right hand into it to open it then, scoop in hand, put just the right amount of potting mix into the now open bag to fill all the corners out. Grab your prepared bare root rose and hold it at the right depth and central in the bag, then moving the scoop at lightening speed, fill around the rose with potting mix. All the time you are shuffling the rose so that it ends up in the centre of the bag and with the rose bud union sitting if possible just at soil level or slightly above. Sometime the stocks are a tad long and so the rose sits out a bit high. Then bang the almost completed rose bag on the bench to firm the potting mix. Its desirable to be firm, not too firm or too soft, but just right. The last trick of the trade is always to water your plants in.
Standard roses should be all but done and these go into a bigger bag size being a PB12 and in a way they are much easier to pot as you can hang onto a stem rather than a prickly bush.
Our fruit trees have started trickling in now as well and some of these are earlier than I anticipated but that's all good. I am guessing that the main range will still be a couple of weeks away. We did start however on some plums and peaches yesterday and these go into PB18 or PB28 depending on the grade of the tree. Many of the peaches were damn fine, huge, chunky specimens but the technique of potting is still the same except one grabs a much larger scoop and you are trying to get the tree potted to the same position and soil depth that it was growing in.
This brings me to make the point that when you buy a new season fruit tree/rose etc., that has been bagged, then know that the plant has been root pruned to fit the container and so when you go to plant it the potting mix will fall away. Often you will see new white baby roots growing as this happens quite quickly in the new warm and fertile potting mix. When transplanting your tree to the ground try not to break those new feeder roots. I also suggest that, in winter, don't add heaps of compost to the soil, or any at all if its likely to be wet. Compost holds moisture and the new feeder roots can rot, so plant in good top soil and mulch on top of the soil if needed and remember to keep the compost/mulch away from the trunk to avoid any collar rot. It is in the interest of a new seasons tree to be staked at planting time as it hasn't had time to develop a root ball and staking will help the tree get away more quickly. An unstaked tree will buffet in the wind and the new feeder roots will break and may cause the tree not to come away or be unthrifty. Jute tie and stakes available. We have put this information in our How To section of the website for quick reference and we have printed leaflets on new season trees and roses which are available in the shop.
Spider flowers or Toothbrush plant
Grevilleas are native to Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia and various Indonesian islands. They were named after Charles Francis Greville and belong to the Protea family although they are also classified into another subfamily called Grevilleoideae. Common names include Grevillea, spider flower and toothbrush plant for obvious reasons and lastly silky oak though I imagine that these common names will suit different cultivars.
Grevillea need perfect drainage so avoid any wet spots in the garden and, like the members of the protea family, are sensitive to phosphorus. If you need to feed them use Yates native Acticote or Seasol. I would have said that Grevilleas are all day sun plants, the hotter and sunnier the better but on doing some reading I note that some Grevilleas will tolerate some shade as they are part of the understory though will still flower better in full sun. Grevilleas have a huge range of forms ranging from ground covers to shrubs and even large trees.
The ground cover Grevilleas fascinate me and there are quite a few of them and with some pretty interesting leaf shapes. Ground cover Grevilleas are perfect for covering large areas or banks providing of course that its sunny and the drainage is sharp.
Mt Tamboritha and Drummer Boy both have fine foliage and not unlike prostrate rosemary to look at but of course the leaf colour is more of a grey green. These forms are from the species of lanigera (commonly known as wooly Grevillea) hence the distinctive leaf form and has typical spidery flowers of cream and a pinkish red.
Royal Mantle and Gaudi Chaudii both seem to have some of the species laurifolia in their make up and that may account for the cool leaf shape of these ground covers. Grown as a ground cover these have quite the textural look and again awesome for mass planting in those sunny hot spots.
Gaudi Chaudi has oak shaped leaves that emerge red and age to a greenish red colour and bright red flowers that look like a toohbrush.
Royal mantle has a similar but narrower toothed or lobed leaves with new growth emerging coppery and again classic red toothbrush like flowers with distinctive yellow pollen on the stamens...
Bronze Rambler as its name suggest has bronzy new foliage and quite divided leaves that are distinctive again in their own right and again those classic bright red flowers in the typical toothbrush form.
I have just touched on a few of the ground covers but Ange has sourced a great range of the shrubby varieties that will provide some good winter colour and I am pretty sure that there are are even some trees.
More Winter roses and some new ones!
There must be some dedicated sex workers out there because I have never seen so many different and exciting clones of the Winter rose and some of them are just gorgeous.. another four brand new cultivars have just arrived in and you want to see the flowers on Madame Lemmonier.. they are just huge and spectacular and Princess Rosemary is just gorgeous and both with outward facing flowers. A new to us white variety is Marion, click the links to view these.
Don't be shy now, The Waikato Rose Society are keen to offer guidance about rose care and maintenance with question and answer sessions to be held here at the nursery on a selection of morning and afternoon sessions. They will be here for a couple of hours on several days throughout June and July. Whether you want to grow roses for show, just have an amazing display in the garden or want to ask about rose choices, then these are the guys that you want to catch up with.
Dates: Sat 23 June 11am to 1pm
These dates are in facebook events, you can register you interest by emailing receiving@wairere.co.nz or show your interest on the event date you are coming to. Don't be shy, register your interest today.
We should get all the bush roses potted next week so by the following week we should have all in and ready for purchase. Just the standards to finish off the roses then. If your roses are on backorder then you will be sent an email letting you move forward with the purchase as soon as they are in stock.
Get these now... seriously, now is the time!
Starwberries Camarosa. We need a fine weekend so that you can actually get into the garden and I think that its forecast for not too bad weather this weekend.
If you are hankering to get strawberries into the ground then this is the window for you right now. Don't leave it too long to get your plants... the sooner you get fresh bare root plants the better.
Elephant and Printanor garlic. The longest night is getting quite close and so if you are one of the ones that like to plant their garlic on the shortest day then get your garlic soon, we only have it in stock for a limited time.
I'd say Fieldays have been going strong this week if the traffic is anything to go by. If you are visiting and have done the gumboot trek round the event and feel like you need something else... then come on over and check out our gorgeous gardens and extensive plant collection and whatever you do here's hoping the weather smiles on you.
Have a great week.
Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team
Make it a Wairere weekend where even GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag.
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2018 Newsletters...
Feb already (3rd February, 2018)
Gardening friends (9th February, 2018)
fabulous feb (16th February, 2018)
Grapes and Art deco in Napier (2nd March, 2018)
About Ferns (10th March, 2018)
out with willow and in with Camellias (27th March, 2018)
Paddock Trees (25th March, 2018)
Trees for Big Spaces (27th March, 2018)
Sasanquas take 2 (30th March, 2018)
Brrr Autumn is here (14th April, 2018)
Garlic and Winter Roses (21st April, 2018)
Friday Again (5th May, 2018)
Espaliered (12th May, 2018)
always a project (18th May, 2018)
Power Outages and Proteas (31st May, 2018)
Rose time again (8th June, 2018)
..... Aussie Natives
Roses Abounding! (23rd June, 2018)
Ornamentals (7th July, 2018)
High, Low or Cascading (13th July, 2018)
Daphne time (20th July, 2018)
Spring in four days (27th July, 2018)
Let the blossoms begin (3rd August, 2018)
Tamarillos (10th August, 2018)
Magnolias3 (17th August, 2018)
Bloom time not gloom time (28th August, 2018)
Is it September Already? (31st August, 2018)
Nuts abounding (7th September, 2018)
Its all in the name... seriously (14th September, 2018)
Blossom bloom again (21st September, 2018)
Fabulous Friday 28 (28th September, 2018)
Fluffies and Pretties (5th October, 2018)
October rain with 22mm (12th October, 2018)
Blue October (19th October, 2018)
Its all about roses this week (26th October, 2018)
what about this (2nd November, 2018)
Rose show 2018 this weekend (9th November, 2018)
The running of the balls sequel 1 (16th November, 2018)
Orange Kumara 1 (23rd November, 2018)
scones (30th November, 2018)
Hydrangeas (8th December, 2018)
French Tarragon Hmmm (14th December, 2018)
Happy Holidays (21st December, 2018)
Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1, Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: