A forest of cycads

I admit not everybody will find a woodland understory of native cycads exciting but we were pretty taken with this natural phenomenon

I admit not everybody will find a woodland understory of native cycads exciting but we were pretty taken with this natural phenomenon

We drove through a cycad forest. It was so exciting – in a low-key sort of way. Most of us have gardens which are the botanical equivalent of the United Nations. While some of us may know in theory where at least some of the plants originate, to see them in their natural habitat can be a thrill.

Our New Zealand bush is thick, dense and verdant. Overseas visitors are frequently amazed by our ferns, particularly our tree ferns which we take for granted. Our dicksonias (the common pongas) are particularly highly prized overseas. When we had the garden open, I used to like shocking overseas visitors by commenting that they just seed down here and we chainsaw out those that are in the wrong place. Familiarity can breed contempt.

The Australian bush is different. It is much more open in character but it had never occurred to us to consider that of course their native cycad, Macrozamia communis, must have its natural habitat somewhere. At least one place is in the eucalyptus woodland heading inland from Bateman’s Bay on the coast south of Sydney.

We know the cycads as expensive, designer plants much favoured by Auckland landscapers in recent decades. Most are very slow growing plants and they show little seasonal change so they fit well into the near-static designer garden mode favoured by some. They have always been expensive because you are paying for the years of growth to get them to a large enough size to have visual impact.

Botanically, they are even more interesting, having undergone little evolutionary change down the centuries. These are ancient plants, traced 200 million years which takes them back considerably earlier than the dinosaur era. Individual plants can be long lived too – anything up to 1000 years. While they are often grouped with palms and there is a certain passing resemblance in form to some ferns, there is only a remote botanical connection to either at best.

Many cycads are rare and endangered around the world but not Macrozamia communis. It is common enough in New Zealand gardens because it is a species that can adapt to our cooler temperatures. We have several in our garden where they thrive.

In the wild, eucalypts and Macrozamia communis near the coast south of Sydney. Notice the lovely mottled bark on the gum tree

In the wild, eucalypts and Macrozamia communis near the coast south of Sydney. Notice the lovely mottled bark on the gum tree

But to see them in the wild was a different experience. They form the lower canopy beneath the spotted gum (what used to be known as Eucalytus maculata but has now been reclassified as Corymbia maculata) and there were hectares of them at various stages of maturity. They seed down and some had babies growing at their feet. One reason they have survived is that they are adapted to cope with bush fires sweeping through. Even if all the foliage is removed (either by fire or when cut off), the trunk and bulbous base are capable of pushing out fresh growth.

A carpet of bark, leaves and debris from the top layer of eucalypts creates conditions which discourage many other plants

A carpet of bark, leaves and debris from the top layer of eucalypts creates conditions which discourage many other plants

Being squeamish New Zealanders, we found the Aussie bush challenging. Even on the coast where we were staying in Vincentia, quiet strolls along well-trod paths by the scenic beaches took on new fears after we found the first ticks taking up residence on both humans and the two little dogs that were with us. Mark’s one brief foray off piste (to look at a native orchid in flower) resulted in a leach latching onto his foot. He was unaware of it until, replete, it fell off him on the kitchen floor. We missed seeing – by a matter of a minute – the red belly snake which freaked out another party. Truly our native bush and forest is benign compared to the natural hazards in Australia. So we were not going to go far off the track to explore the macrozamia wonderland but viewed it from the rough vehicle access. Their woodland lacks competition from a wide range of different plants. The top canopy of eucalypts drops vast amounts of foliage and bark which sits around taking a very long time to decompose. That, allied to the extremely dry soil conditions which result from the gums getting down on available moisture, creates inhospitable conditions. The macrozamias can coexist in this environment but not a lot else can.

I have a treasured memory of seeing natural bluebell woods in Scotland. Mark got all excited finding Helleborus niger and hepaticas growing wild in their homelands in Northern Italy. The cycad woodland of south eastern Australia ranks up with these experiences.

The macrozamia is equally popular as a garden plant

The macrozamia is equally popular as a garden plant

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission. 

 

Plant Collector – Brachychiton

Brachychiton - a showy Australian native

Brachychiton – a showy Australian native

Across the road from our daughter’s Sydney apartment was this eyecatching tree that I had never seen before. Being a better plantsperson than I am, Mark immediately identified it as a brachychiton. Common names are kurrajong and bottletree.

This one is summer deciduous, dropping its leaves before flowering. We are used to magnolias and flowering cherries blooming on bare wood in spring but I can’t think we have any fully summer deciduous trees here. From looking at the internet, I am putting my money on it being B. discolor rather than B. bidwillii. If I am right, it places its natural habitat amongst the eastern rain forests. There are 31 different brachychiton species, 30 from Australia and a solitary specimen from New Guinea. The Illawarra flame tree is perhaps the best known variety (B. acerifolius) but as these are large trees (anything up to 40 metres in their natural habitat although they won’t get that big in less than ideal conditions), these highly ornamental trees are not much favoured in suburban gardens in this country, even in areas where they could be grown. Some can also be very prickly.

The showy brachychiton does at least give lie to the idea that all Australian native trees are either gum trees or something with greyish foliage and bottlebrush flowers.
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First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Garden Lore: Friday 9 January, 2015

“I always think of my sins when I weed. They grow apace in the same way and are harder still to get rid of.”

Helena Rutherford Ely A Woman’s Hardy Garden (1903)

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Garden Lore: tree puning

This is not pruning. It is, alas, tree amputation verging on butchery. The poor tree is outside the charming, little country church near where I live. I drove past and saw three elderly gents whom I know, all members of the congregation and retired farmers, carrying out the assault. I don’t dispute that the tree may have needed to be cut back but there are better ways to achieve this. It can be done so that it is barely visible, even immediately after pruning.

The first cut to each branch takes the weight off and that weight can rip down the bark and first layers on the underside as the branch falls, visible to the left in the photo. If they had followed up that first cut with a tidy up, trimming the branches not quite flush to the trunk, you wouldn’t even notice what has been done over time.

Leaving protruding branches – the coathanger effect – is an ugly look.  Usual advice is to leave a small collar where the branch meets the trunk rather than trimming flush but that collar is a mere centimetre or so. Using clean cutting equipment is important. Some people like to seal the cuts – Bacseal is a proprietary, pink product for this purpose – but we just make sure it is done on a fine day so the wound can dry out and we don’t get disease problems. This tree is an Australian lillypilly or syzgium for those who want to know, so neither rare nor choice, but it didn’t have to look like this.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission. a

Garden decoration 2: contemporary colour and bold statements

A few weeks ago, I looked at a selection of somewhat subtle garden ornamentation, understated even. Returning to the topic today, it is some more colourful statements that have caught my attention.
???????????????????????????????1) The box with its flat planes of colour is by Coromandel-resident artist Michael Smither and has found its permanent home at Puketarata Garden near Hawera. It has echoes of a child’s play house but the simplicity is deceptive. So too is the placement. It becomes the absolute centre of attention in the middle ground but is also successful in drawing the eye to the large landscape beyond.
???????????????????????????????2) In a similar vein, the whimsical pavilion created by garden owner, Clive Higgie at Paloma Garden near Whanganui makes an undeniable statement as a focal point in an otherwise natural environment. The reflection is an integral part of the picture. As with the Smither box, it is the combination of a vibrant creation with thoughtful placement which makes this a successful installation. What appears to be a blue ceramic ball topping the roof is arguably the best use I have seen of one of these mass produced decorative items.
???????????????????????????????3) The freestanding, two dimensional yellow cow was on temporary display in our garden, the work of Joep from Arttoi (www.arttoi.co.nz) so we won’t mention the placement. The gentleman in the very purple jersey posed so willingly, adding a certain ambience, I felt. The cow may or may not be to your personal taste (I would have preferred it without the map of New Zealand). The purple jersey, the man’s wife told me, had been found in a skip and became an instant favourite for the wearer. Each to their own.
???????????????????????????????4) At the same temporary installation of Joep’s work, the stainless steel sculptures were beautifully executed and caught my fancy. The reflective qualities of the highly polished stainless steel were a great deal more subtle than a garden mirror. While there is a tendency to put this type of work in a hard-edged, minimalist, modern garden, I admit I was surprised by how well they fitted in to our own setting which is anything but that. We placed them in positions with relatively plain backgrounds where they could star and the reflections made it a two way interaction with their surroundings.
???????????????????????????????5) While not keen on reproduction classical statuary in a New Zealand garden context, these modern interpretations made me smile. In a very family-oriented garden, they fitted thematically. The frozen moment in time captured with the balance of their poses gave the contrast of tension with the subtle placement against the nikau palms. I could see these ageing gracefully down the decades.
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006 insert - Copy - Copy6) When out and about garden visiting in spring and I could not help but notice a plethora of parking meters as garden ornaments. I am sure this was a result of the market being flooded with old meters in this particular area, which had moved to an electronic sensor parking system. The customised triple meter installation was perhaps more witty and striking than those single ones which had simply been placed as a relic of the past decade.

First printed in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Garden lore January 2, 2015

“Jack used to curse the front lawn as if it were a living thing…[He] hated the front yard because he thought it was against him. There had been a beautiful lawn there when Jack came along but he let it wander off into nothing. He refused to water it or take care of it in any way.
Now the ground was so hard it gave his car flat tires in the summer. The yard was always finding a nail to put into one of his tires or the car was always was always sinking out of sight in the winter when the rains came on.”

Richard Brautigan The Revenge of the Lawn (1971).
???????????????????????????????Garden lore: lemon problems
If your lemons look like this, you have problems. We have problems. Not only did much of the fruit rot and fall, but the tree has also lost rather a lot of its leaves which is not good for it. The plant relies on having foliage to keep it well and growing strongly. There are a number of reasons for rotting fruit and defoliation including Brown Rot and anthracnose but the first call of action is to reach for a remedial copper spray. Had our lemon tree been given its preventative winter copper spray, it would not have looked like this.

One dead branch is often an indication of borer damage. We tend to deal with this simply by cutting off the offending limb but we have never had to deal with it threatening the entire tree. It is of course the burrowing larvae that cause the damage (as they do in wisterias), not the flying insect. If you see sawdust either on the ground below or on a branch, it is a sign of an active grub. You need to find the hole and pour in some treatment. Some recommend diesel or kerosene but we are not so keen on putting those into the plant. I have used both cooking oil and CRC (the can of the latter comes with a handy long tube to direct it) which smothers the grub. Flyspray can work. Mark prefers Decis which is one of the safest insecticides, being a synthetic pyrethroid which is also the active ingredient in fly spray.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.