Category Archives: Tikorangi notes

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 13 July, 2012

Spring must be getting close - dwarf Narcissus Twilight is opening

Spring must be getting close – dwarf Narcissus Twilight is opening


Last week was garden bed...

Last week was garden bed…

Latest posts:
1) The Great Garden Make Over (aka renovating the rose garden). Not quick, not even that easy, but hugely satisfying.
2) They were the first narcissi to flower this season – Narcissus bulbocodium citrinus ‘Pandora’. However, others are starting to open, including the little Felix Jury hybrid ‘Twinkle’ above.
3) Grow it Yourself – tamarillos, this week. Yet another subtropical fruit, from South America again this one, that we have taken over in this country as if it were our own – even to the extent of branding it tamarillo!
4) Away from gardening and on to recipe books – 500 Tapas reviewed.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 13 July 2012

The work in the rose garden has absorbed all my recent energies, and a good deal of Lloyd’s too. If the rain had just held off for another couple of days, it would have been finished but intermittent showers and the developing mud has driven me indoors.

Camellia Fairy Blush

Camellia Fairy Blush

Camellia Fairy Blush is looking particularly pretty in our little hedge. This was the first camellia Mark ever named – a scented, lutchuensis hybrid. Mark is not given to exaggeration or overstating matters so he was always rather deprecating about Fairy Blush. “It’s just a little single,” he would say, “but it does flower well and has reasonable scent.” Yes, it is a little single that flowers for several months on end and is as fragrant as any camellia, on a compact plant which clips very well. These days we regard it as the one that got away from us. We should probably have taken out Plant Variety Rights (a plant patent) on it. It is now a market standard in both Australia and New Zealand and it can be a little galling when nurserymen tell you how very well they have done out of your plant. Such is life. But then we have learned the hard way that even agreements and Plant Variety Rights don’t necessarily give market protection either. We would still plant Fairy Blush in our own garden and recommend it to others, even if it wasn’t our cultivar and that is a fair testimonial.

Our hedge of Camellia Fairy Blush

Our hedge of Camellia Fairy Blush

Tikorangi Notes: Friday July 6, 2012

Our maunga, Mount Taranaki

Our maunga, Mount Taranaki

The tui are back

The tui are back

Latest posts: Friday July 6, 2012

1) Fragrant rhododendrons – the final feature article I have written for the Weekend Gardener. So you only want scented plants in the garden? There are fragrant rhododendrons to choose from.

2) The understated elegance of Helleborus orientalis in Plant Collector this week.

3) Reviewing the role of container plants. Do they add anything to the garden other than work?

4) Grow it yourself – celery. We don’t because Mark won’t, so I buy it but you can if you wish. The word from Mark is that it is not that easy to grow well and the one year he got it absolutely right, we only hate about two complete heads of celery and the rest went to waste.

5) In the Garden this fortnight. The final in this series I wrote for Weekend Gardener. It’s on gloriosas this week.

6) Outdoor Classroom revisited – sharpening garden tools. Everybody says do it but nobody says how.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday July 6, 2012

As you may gather from above, I have resigned as a contributor to the Weekend Gardener so the pieces first published there will cease after today. But do not let that stop you – please take the time to fill out their survey and let them know what you think of the changes they have made with their new management.

The three new posts a week from the Waikato Times will continue uninterrupted. Though if anyone has any ideas for replacing Grow Your Own, I would appreciate hearing. There are a finite number of vegetables and I am nearing the end of all available options, even allowing for extensions into some herbs and soft fruits.

In the meantime, great winter weather has seen plenty of sun, mild days (15 degrees yesterday) and very little wind. The mountain has a good covering of snow and is looking its most spectacular. More camellias are opening flowers and the tui and kereru are here in good numbers. It won’t be long before the magnolia season starts.

A little bit of Tikorangi at Clarence House

The promise of big fat buds on the magnolias just yesterday morning

The promise of big fat buds on the magnolias just yesterday morning

Latest posts: Friday 29 June, 2012

1) Snowdrop season has started!
2) Not perhaps for everybody. The exotica of a bilbergia in Plant Collector this week. (Hint: it is a bromeliad).
3) Grow it yourself – whacking great Oriental radishes.

It may take a little while for the Black Tulip at Clarence House to reach this scale of display

It may take a little while for the Black Tulip at Clarence House to reach this scale of display

Tikorangi Notes: Friday June 22, 2012
Without a doubt, the highlight of the week was when it was pointed out to us that the magnolia planted by Aung San Suu Kyi at Clarence House, the London home of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, was in fact none other than our very own Black Tulip. The story came via The Telegraph complete with short video of the Nobel peace laureate and Burmese Opposition leader scooping three spade loads of dirt around the tree. Black Tulip is adjacent to another magnolia planted by the Dalai Lama in 2008.

Magnolia Black Tulip was bred here at Tikorangi by Mark. Last year, the Queen herself was given a presentation of Black Tulip, though it looks as if the Clarence House specimen may be slightly larger.

We are honoured by this international recognition, though Mark would have preferred them to have planted his Magnolia Felix instead. It appears to be performing very well in the UK and the Royals’ gardens are large enough to take large flowered magnolias.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 22 June, 2012

Latest posts: June 22, 2012
1) The garden identity crisis (or why you need to do quite big things around about year 15). My column from the Waikato Times this morning.
2) The sugar candy pink of Luculia gratissima Early Dawn on a winter’s day. Not my favourite luculia, perhaps. Plant Collector from the Waikato Times this morning.
3) The strawberry bed should be planted this weekend. Time is running out. From the Waikato Times this morning.
4) Much of what you may want to know about the early flowering camellias (plus more). From the latest edition of Weekend Gardener.
5) In the garden this fortnight. On actually getting around to digging and dividing instead of merely advising others to do it and getting rid of excess mondo grass – my garden diary from Weekend Gardener.
6) For absolute beginners – how to plant a tree. Outdoor Classroom has a second coming with our step by step guides.
7) Latest cookbook reviews – and why it may be better to keep local. In fact our NZ cookbooks are particularly good so it is a mystery to me as to why a NZ publishing house would want to import and release this utility series from Kyle Books in the UK.

A reasonably remarkable mid winter sight - the original R. macgregoriae aged 55 years!

A reasonably remarkable mid winter sight – the original R. macgregoriae aged 55 years!

A week of typical winter weather – random rain, torrential at times with thunder storms and just enough sun to remind us that our weather isn’t too bad, temperatures swinging from cold (like 10 degrees during the day) to a balmy 16 or 17. A typical mid winter’s week, really. I have at least started my major renovation of the rose garden. It is fun and not all gardening is fun. Wait for more – it is all part of learning to garden with perennials and finding a level we are happy with in terms of a modern look without resorting to mass planting and utilitiarian ground cover.

The snowdrops are opening here and that is a simple delight. But the flowering star this week is the vireya rhododendron, R. macgregoriae. This is the original plant that Felix Jury collected in what was just New Guinea in 1957. It is a particularly good form and gave the basis of a breeding programme here. But the astonishing thing, for anyone who knows vireyas, is that it is still thriving after 55 years. This is not a plant genus that is known for its longevity.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 15 June, 2012

And the winner for colour this week - the persimmons

And the winner for colour this week – the persimmons

Latest posts:

1) The sweet smell of daphne in winter (though the showiest is D. genkwa which has no scent at all).

2) Good things come in small packages and may take a long, long time to reach maturity. Chamaecyparis obtusa “Caespitosa”

3) Taking another look at your common or garden radish (of the European persuasion).

What a difference a week makes... frost damage

What a difference a week makes… frost damage

What a difference a few days can make. Last Friday, I wrote about the tree dahlias. One frost and now they are mush and over for the year. Frosts are an unpredictable event here. Some years there are none (or no visible frost at least), other years we might get two or three rippers. It was a ripper on Wednesday. On the bright side, there has been remarkably little damage and our run of calm, sunny weather continues. We are making great progress in the garden and I am thinking about perennial combinations and more active management to keep them looking good. Mark and Lloyd entertained themselves bringing an old shed across the road to convert into a pigeon house. Lloyd is now replacing the door and re-roofing it. I am hoping new sides will be next so by then there will only be the framework and the window left of the original.