Category Archives: Tikorangi notes

My farewell message to Waikato Times readers

No longer wanted at Waikato Times newspaper….
057 - Copy - CopyIt is time for me to bid farewell to Waikato readers. This will be my last garden page. The new-look garden page will be rolled out next Saturday but I will not be part of it. I have really enjoyed writing for this publication over the past 3 ½ years and would like to thank readers for reading it. Thank you also to those of you who have emailed and even written proper letters and cards.

I have an online presence for anyone who wishes to keep following – on Facebook under thejurygarden, on Twitter as @Tikorangi and a blog at http://www.jury.co.nz. I won’t stop writing. Eventually I may manage to compose my piece on the point where heavily ornamented gardens cross over to folk art (and, scarily, where they don’t). This will, however, will remain a mystery to readers of this page.

Thanks, goodbye and good gardening.

???????????????????????????????“I shall stop being queer,” he said, “if I go to the garden. There is Magic in there – good Magic, you know, Mary, I am sure there is.”
“So am I,” said Mary.
“Even if it isn’t real Magic,” Colin said, “we can pretend it is. Something is there – something!”
“It’s Magic,” said Mary, but not black. It’s as white as snow.”
They always called it Magic, and indeed it seemed like it in the months that followed – the wonderful months – the radiant months – the amazing ones. Oh! the things which happened in that garden! If you have never had a garden, you cannot understand, and if you have had a garden, you will know that it would take a whole book to describe all the things that came to pass there.

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden (1911).

The January Garden

Auratums and pink lobelia

Auratums and pink lobelia

I don’t cut many flowers to bring indoors. It feels a bit like murdering them to sever them in their prime and bring them indoors to die. We were lucky that Mark’s parents had the foresight to plan the garden so there is a different view from every house window and we have plenty of flowers in sight all year round. The lilies are different. In summer I love to bring in huge stems to scent the house. They are big. They are bold. They are beautiful. Lilies define our summers.

You need quite a lot of lilies to justify cutting the entire stem off and, after many decades, we have a few. Mark’s father Felix started breeding auratums maybe four or five decades ago and Mark has continued. This was never for commercial reasons. It was to build up plants for the garden, to extend the colour range and the season and particularly to get outward facing blooms rather than the upward facing ones which are preferred in floristry. Constantly replenishing with newly raised plants is also a safeguard against the potential ravages of lily virus. Not that we have had a problem with lily virus and disease, but if we ever do, we are prepared.

The lily we scorned at Wisley

The lily we scorned at Wisley

We noticed a floriferous new lily at the Royal Horticultural Society Wisley Gardens last June. People were admiring it and but Mark took one look and said: “Gross. No good as a garden plant. Look at those upward facing blooms waiting to mark.” Not only are the upward facing blooms more vulnerable to weather damage, but the pollen falls internally and spoils it sooner. So I photographed it, but not for the same reason as the admirers. It was showy but we wouldn’t give it garden space.

Although you can to leave auratum lilies in the ground year after year, lifting and replanting deeper on a regular basis saves having to stake every stem. They work their way upwards over time. In our free draining soil, if I put them anything up to 20cm down, they are much better at holding themselves upright. The other technique to save forever staking (and then de-staking at the end of the season) is to grow them through shrubs which can act as supports. Apple trees and azaleas work well for us. When I do have to stake, I prefer to harvest my own bamboo lengths and leave the leaf axils in place to grip the flower stem. It saves tying to a smooth stake.

Just another unnamed seedling (or JAUS, as we call them here)

Just another unnamed seedling (or JAUS, as we call them here)


Auratum bulbs do not respond well to drying out, even in their dormant season. This is why they are usually sold in bags of sphagnum moss or sawdust. Always try and buy them as soon as they come into garden centres in early winter and get them into the ground as soon as possible.
Orange tiger lilies growing through the espaliered apple trees

Orange tiger lilies growing through the espaliered apple trees

Our lily season starts with what we call the Christmas lily, or Lilium regale from China. It even Others sometimes refer to L. longiflorum as the Christmas lily. It is typically pure white and hails from Japan whereas L. regale has deep pink petal backs fading out to white. The orange tiger lilies with their reflexed petals follow soon after. They lack scent but they are a showy addition to the summer garden and very easy to grow. Next we get the aurelians – scented trumpet lilies in pretty gold and apricot shades. Most of ours have been raised from seed. They have a lovely elegance to them both in the garden and as a cut flower. You will notice their trumpets face outwards and downwards.
Aforementioned JAUS

Aforementioned JAUS

These are all but an overture to the main event – the glory of the auratums which take us through January and well into February. There is nothing subtle or understated about the flower power. Their common name is the “golden rayed lily of Japan”. How lovely is that?

???????????????????????????????First published in the New Zealand Gardener and reprinted here with their permission.

December in the garden

Kevin and Sharon - the reindeer - at the base of the toetoe Christmas tree

Kevin and Sharon – the reindeer – at the base of the toetoe Christmas tree

December is the month of rituals for us. It is all about countdown and preparation. Will there be new potatoes, fresh peas, strawberries and raspberries ready for Christmas Day? I think we have only ever missed one set of homegrown new potatoes. If my memory serves me right, it was an advanced season and we had eaten all the first crops and hit a lull.

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Peas are more problematic and require some precision of timing and management. I adore fresh peas though I lose interest when they are podded and boiled. Browsing from the plant is my preference, followed by raw in salads. Peas generally do better in cooler climates. I admit the ones in the photograph are English. Ours never crop that heavily. In fact they take up quite a bit of space for a meagre to moderate crop here. There are more productive options where space is limited, not the least being beans. But nothing can replace the taste delight of fresh peas. We never have a Christmas turkey here, but we do peas if we can.

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Some years, the raspberrries will ripen in time for Christmas Day. The week or two after Christmas they come on stream at an alarming rate, needing to be picked every day but whether those early ones make the deadline for dessert is entirely beyond our control. Even with our raspberry cage, it is an ongoing battle between humans and birds, mostly blackbirds. The pie seems a fairly good option for the birds, in my opinion. They will scout out the slightest weakness in the cage, squeezing through tiny gaps in their determination to help themselves. The wretches will also breach the cloche defences to take out the strawberries we guard for Christmas breakfast. It is a war out there as Christmas approaches.

Christmas trees, we’ve had a few. The DIY ethos rules unchallenged. We have never bought a tree and never had a tinsel one. Generally we have wildling pines harvested from the property. If we are lucky, Mark has preselected the wildling pine and actually given it a couple of trims to get the growth denser than usual. More often, he resorts to wiring in additional branches in a vain attempt to create something akin to the commercially trimmed pines, or the Northern European abies with their wonderful conical shapes. The thought is there even if the reality is a little different.

By far our most creative tree was the one our second daughter made out of toetoe a few years ago. Home from London, she was inspired by an illustration she had seen of one created from the plumes of pampas grass. No pampas here. It is on the absolutely banned list as a noxious weed. But toe toe (which used to be a cortaderia but has now been reclassified as an austroderia) is our native substitute.

Should you wish to try this at home, be warned. It takes many more toe toe plumes than you think. Many, many more. They will moult through your car boot, even more in the construction area and they will then gently shed in the house all Christmas. But then so do pine needles and they are a more difficult to vacuum up. The toe toe tree was a tour de force. It had a certain Pacifica vibe going, combined with European style. If you want to try it yourself, there are step by step instructions on my website. https://jury.co.nz/2010/12/24/construct-your-own-christmas-tree-with-abbie-camilla-jury/

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All this is entirely academic for us this year. After more than three decades of building our own family traditions and keeping them the same as assorted offspring migrated home for Christmas, this is the first time we will not be celebrating at home. We are heading over to join the Australian-domiciled daughters and their families this year. I guess it may even be prawns on the barbie. It will be different as the next generation build their traditions for the festive and family season.

First published in The New Zealand Gardener and reprinted here with their permission.

From New Plymouth, New Zealand to Plymouth, England

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I found this photo in our archives. On the back it reads: “Planting of Magnolia Iolanthe on Monday 25/7/88 in New George Street, Plymouth, England by New Plymouth, NZ Soroptimist Carolyn Lean and Plymouth and District Soroptimist President – Ida Miles.”

Iolanthe is of course the first flagship Jury magnolia. Are there any readers in Plymouth UK who know if it is still growing? I am pretty sure that is the New Zealand Soroptimist doing the digging. I recall meeting her once.

The original Magnolia Iolanthe in our garden here last spring

The original Magnolia Iolanthe in our garden here last spring

Treemageddon

???????????????????????????????It is both a blessing and a curse to have a garden with very large trees. The pines (mostly Pinus radiata), native rimu trees (Dacrydium cupressinum) and Australian eucalypts all date back to 1870 to early 1880s when Mark’s great grandfather planted them. The rimus are rock solid with a life expectancy of many hundreds of years but from time to time we lose a pine or gum.

014 (2)While we can manage most of our tree work ourselves, this one posed a major problem. It broke about 6 metres up where Mark’s grandfather had topped the row in the early 1900s, creating a weak point. But it didn’t break cleanly and the top formed a major swinger. We did the initial cleanup but dealing to the body of the tree required specialist attention.

002 (2)Enter the arborist crew this morning.

003 (2)There was a lot of consultation for this was a tricky operation.

009 (2)And a lot of supervision.

004 (2)Cuts were made but things did not quite go to plan.

005 (2)Soon, more equipment was needed. Do not laugh at our baby tractor. It is enormously useful, though not quite equal to this task.

023 (2)Both ends of the tree were cut through but it remained determinedly in position, defying all attempts to unbalance it.

022 (2)There was much manly consultation.

025 (2)And even more consultation. Lots of consultation. A winch was needed, they decided. The crew departed for more gear.

???????????????????????????????In the end, the crew returned with us not even noticing and both Mark and I missed the final rites when the tree was winched down. We were a little disappointed. It all seemed a bit of an anticlimax but is at least a major problem solved. It is remarkable how a tree some 40 metres high can eventually come down with minimal damage.