Saturday 29th March, 2025
Hi
It fascinates me that no matter what, the season just rolls on and all the Autumn things continue to happen despite the fact that we haven't had much rain. The
Maples here are all on the turn of leaf colour and the
Sasanqua Camellias are all starting to flower with their more simple blooms that boast that musky sasanqua fragrance. I have even seen the bulbs starting to push through. I looked out to the paddocks and there is a distinctive green hue starting to show which must be due to the more heavy morning dews and the shorter and not quite so hot days. It is really the best time to be gardening.
It's that time again!! All bush & Climbing roses that were $44.99 are now just $30! First dibs for our clients !!!!
As we head into the Autumn we have reached that time of year where we need to think ahead about the space we need for the new season's
Roses. We have sprayed them, fed them, constantly deadheaded and they still look amazing and so to our database of clients, here is first dibs on the range that we still have. They are available by mail order, hold for pick up or just come on out and select your own. It's always worth having some second choices up your sleeve in case the ones that you want just can't be found. Failing that, there is always the waitlist for new season's roses.
I believe that this is one of the best times to plant new
Roses as the ones we have here have been growing well and have an established root system and will go into a warm growing season.
I went for a wander to see what was out there and there are some good numbers of some pretty good roses which I have written about below. Having said that, there is still plenty of choice to come out and browse through.
Elina is an oldie but a goodie... What you could describe as a classic hybrid tea with that beautiful bud form, that lends itself well for picking for the vase. This one is a pretty robust and healthy rose, repeats well and flowers a very soft pale lemon yellow.
Berry Nice is from the Matthew's stable and classed as a floribunda. I would have said the flowers are old style in form and in a very attractive rich shade of berry magenta, repeats well and is very healthy having been bred for a no spray regime. Another choice rose from Bob Matthews is
Wise woman named to celebrate the centenary of midwifery, pretty and pink with a gentle fragrance.
NZ Gardener is a reasonably new one to me and has performed well in the garden centre. I am a sucker for that old style bloom form and this one is particularly pretty in apricot pink and also from Bob Matthews.
Iceberg of the
Blushing and
Brilliant pink shades. We are probably all well acquainted with this very popular floribunda with its great performance and repeat flowering. Imagine a hedge row of either the
Blushing or
Brilliant pink in full bloom. If that's a thought then plan for one per metre, cut back and repeat every seven weeks.
Eye candy and
Fireball both have been bred here in NZ by Rob Somerfield and both great roses.
Eye candy is a cluster flowered rose in a very pretty shade of medium pink.
Fireball is s showy orangey red with a white reverse, floribunda in form and a lovely fragrance. In line with with Rob's philosophy to breed healthy roses, this one is disease resistant and has few thorns.
There are also some
David Austins in good numbers, like
Charles Darwin.
The large double blooms of this rose are a shade of yellow that I would describe as old gold. Very fragrant, so plant where you will enjoy the perfume. Broad spreading vigorous growth and good disease resistance.
Wildeve The blooms of this beautiful rose are fully double and rosette shaped. The petals are a delicious, delicate pink touched with just a hint of soft apricot. Delightful fresh fragrance.
Princess Anne has a unique character and a very special beauty. The young flower is deep pink, almost red, gradually fading to a pure deep pink as the bloom matures. The undersides of the petals have a pleasing hint of yellow. The petals are rather narrow and unusually substantial.
Also all Standard Roses 80cm just $50.00 and Std 45cm just $40.
Surprisingly, we still have
Iceberg standards left, though I have a hunch that you may need to be quick to be in for these. Probably don't need a description from me, but fair to say that these are our largest seller for their great performance of white flowers and repeat status and health!
Elephant Garlic or Allium ampeloprasum
Elephant garlic has a mild flavour, large cloves that are easy to peel and is delicious roasted as a vegetable in its own right as well as imparting flavour to the other veges. Others use it as regular garlic knowing that it has a more mild flavour.
Last year I planted around 50 individual cloves of
Elephant garlic and was impressed with the result that I achieved. Nearly all the bulbs came up to flower and when I harvested in late December, well I had quite a decent crop and there were quite a few large clusters. In fact the other evening I sorted them into the biggest to use and then I reckon that I had about 80 smaller cloves to replant this season. I needed to know more as I want to plant these and get even bigger bulbs.
Elephant garlic is actually not related to ordinary garlic, but rather to the leek family. I did a Google and found a site that really explains growing these big beauties really well. I actually learnt that it's also a biennial, which I didn't know, and that those cloves could possibly flower in their second season. Though most of mine did flower in their first season, perhaps due to the length of this season. Another big tip is when those flowers do appear, you can remove them so that the growth goes into the bulbs. I will try that next year. The ones that don't flower or form a head of cloves can either be used like the rest or grown on again for another year.
Importantly, they like full sun, deep well drained soil that has good compost and food and adequate water to keep them growing right through the season. They need to be planted at around 10 to 15 cm deep and apart so that there is room for the cloves to become large.
The challenge to myself is now to grow large heads of
Printanor garlic with large cloves as I hate fiddling around with tiny cloves when I'm cooking!!!
I am also quite keen on
Shallots and am eager to give these a go this winter as well.
The Feijoas keep disappearing
It's about now that the
Feijoas begin to fall, but every time I go to look under the trees that we have here in the nursery they have all but disappeared. Tony was determined this morning and went down before the team arrived at work and had success for his morning muesli. Remember, the ones to collect are the ones that have just fallen, as that is when they are ripe.
I think that the team here all have the same idea as I see them munching them with their lunch. I reminisced about how back in the day, for potting season, my Dad would bake them morning tea every day and his Feijoa and coconut cake was legendary. I'm sure that I have have written about it before, and it's in the
What's Cooking section of our website, but here is the
Link to Petes Feijoa cake. The next day a Feijoa and fig cake turned up for morning tea which I can attest to being delicious and then Ang brought up in conversation the challenge of the best feijoa cake. Perhaps she will be first?? I am patiently waiting for there to be enough fruit, LOL, and I will give Dad's cake a go.
Feijoas are pretty easy to grow and you can do so much with the fruit other than just eating fresh, stewing or bottling. They really do lend themselves to cakes and chutneys. It's worth getting several different cultivars as this will really extend the season. The early ones are falling now whereas the latest ones won't start until May but may have fruit up until perhaps the end of June. Don't forget there is a chart that shows which-varieties-fruit-when available
here. We mentioned lots of specific varieties in the March 15 edition of this newsletter (see
here) but there are so many great varieties, it's hard to go wrong. Note that if you only have a small section
Bambina is quite a compact variety, growing to only about 1.5 x 1.5 m in 7-10 years, compared with 3m x 2m for
Takaka, 3m x 3m for
Arhart and 4m x 4m for
Antoinette.
It's going to be a beautiful Autumn weekend, I just need to finish planting my winter veges. Tony has been out there trimming the hedges that have regrown making the place look very sharp and tidy. Planning to get in some poppies for winter colour.
Daylight saving will end next weekend making the mornings a tad lighter. There are a couple of long weekends on the horizon being Easter and Anzac. Note that we will be closed all day on Good Friday (18th of April) and closed on the morning only of Anzac day (Friday 25th of April, Open 1-5 pm). Otherwise, we will be open our usual hours of 8.30 am to 5 pm, 7 days a week.
Don't forget the Gordonton art trail is also next weekend, the 5th and 6th, from 10am to 4pm. Maps are available from us here at the nursery.
Have a fab weekend.
Cheers from Lloyd, Tony and the Wairere team.
