The Winter Garden

Magnolia Lanarth has a short but glorious season

Magnolia Lanarth has a short but glorious season

I have been away for a couple of weeks. To the tropics, no less, but I need to let the experience percolate in my brain a little longer before I can translate it to anything of relevance for gardeners in our temperate climate.

What amazed me was coming home to our winter garden. When I left in mid July, the earliest magnolias were just showing colour and the first blooms, along with some of the narcissi. By early August, we have trees full of bloom. The garden is awash with scores of tui as the campanulata cherries flower. I briefly thought of writing about plants for winter colour but there is just so much in flower that it would quickly descend to a boring list.

If narcissus could look startled, these cyclamineus growing in the park certainly do

If narcissus could look startled, these cyclamineus growing in the park certainly do

This is our winter, dear readers. Technically spring does not start until September 1. Gardening is different here to many countries.

If you have looked at British and northern European gardens, there is a long spell in winter when nothing happens. People basically put their gardens to bed and retreat indoors. A heavy dependence on deciduous perennials means that gardens which are full of foliage and bloom in warmer months look dead in winter. The majority of their trees are deciduous so become bare skeletons. It is why the definition of form becomes hugely important because that is all there is to look in the depths of winter. Hardy plants like buxus, yew and conifers give accents which are often the only statement plants in those cold months.

The same is probably true of many inland areas in the world (outside the tropics) where temperatures plummet. My Canberra-resident daughter is always astonished when she comes home in winter to see how lush and colourful we are compared to her arid, hard conditions.

Those who shun deciduous plants miss out on the wonder of plants like Magnolia Vulcan

Those who shun deciduous plants miss out on the wonder of plants like Magnolia Vulcan

For starters, our native plants are all evergreen. So too are most of the ornamental plants we favour in our gardens. Over the years, I have met a swag of customers who point blank refuse to have anything deciduous in their garden, which I think is a bit of a short sighted view. Some of the showiest plants of all are those which go dormant in the colder months and then leap into spectacular display – magnolias, for example. To my mind, there is a place for both evergreen and deciduous plants in gardens.

I do, however, find it curious when I see people unquestioningly grabbing the fundamentals of garden design from other climates without considering the application to our conditions. Most of us like some element of design and definition in our gardens, though there are looser styles which don’t rely on these – meadow, woodland, prairie and food forests are examples. But that definition is not essential to give us something to look at in winter.

Similarly, I am inclined to silently snort when I hear people pontificating that foliage and form are the most important elements in plants because flowers are but transient (or worse, vulgar). I think we should celebrate living in a climate which is so temperate that we can have flowers and seasonal colour twelve months of the year, that we don’t need to put our gardens to bed for winter (or indeed for hot, dry summers) and that the clarity of light and the brightness of the sun seems just as great in July and August as it is in January. We just have shorter daylight hours, lower temperatures and a few more storms.

Being so temperate, few gardeners in this country have conditions where there is a sharp seasonal change. Most of us just drift imperceptibly from one season to the next with flowering extended over longer periods. The mid season camellias are at their peak here – more winter than spring flowering in this country. The snowdrops are passing over, but the dwarf narcissi are flowering all round the place and many of the lachenalias are blooming. Daphne scent hangs heavy in the air. The earliest rhododendrons are blooming already, michelias are opening.

And the magnolias. Do not forget the magnolias. Lanarth has a short but spectacular early season. M. campbellii is at its peak, red Vulcan is opening more flowers every day. The most spectacular time of our gardening year is upon us already, and it is still winter.

I rarely complain about the winter garden here.

While not usually fans of variegated flowers, The Czar var on the back lawn is an exception

While not usually fans of variegated flowers, The Czar var on the back lawn is an exception

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

Garden lore

“Woman has no seductions for the man who cannot keep his eyes off the magnolias.”

Anonymous, from Up the Garden Path by Laura Stoddart.

Magnolias and lawn spray do not mix. This one is Sprengeri diva

Magnolias and lawn spray do not mix. This one is Sprengeri diva

Magnolia problems
If you insist on spraying your lawns, and many do, then get onto it straight away. Many of the common lawn sprays are hormone-based. If you delay any longer, you risk causing severe damage to deciduous plants just breaking dormancy. It doesn’t matter how careful you are – spray drifts invisibly and the slightest whiff can damage other plants at critical times. Kiwifruit are particularly sensitive and so are magnolias.

There are two common questions about deciduous magnolias we are asked repeatedly, year in and year out. The first is related to malformed leaves, or sometimes defoliation on one side of the tree. Almost invariably, we find the enquirer has sprayed their lawn for moss and flat weeds. Of course, magnolias are often used as lawn specimens. So if you must spray, get it on as soon as there is a fine, calm day. It should not affect your magnolia at this time of winter. If you leave it until spring is advanced, there will be damage and it can be severe and unsightly.

The second common question is about completely malformed flowers on magnolias. Possum damage. You just need one critter who develops a taste for them and it can take out pretty much an entire season of blooms. It nibbles in from the top to eat the bud so you can’t spot the damage from below.

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

Plant Collector: vriesea

A vriesea, but we are not sure which one

A vriesea, but we are not sure which one

In the depths of winter, most of the bromeliads come into flower – an exotic counterpoint to wintery gloom. Bromeliads are a surprisingly diverse plant family. The best known brom is the pineapple but fewer realise that tillandsia or Spanish moss is also a member. The vast majority come from the warmer climes of Central America. This one is a vriesea. It will be a named cultivar but we lost the labels in the mists of time. Unlike many in the family, it is not prickly. Its foliage is just an anonymous looking green rosette, really, which holds water and also traps an abundance of falling leaves and debris. Then it puts up this flower which lasts for many weeks, stretching into a couple of months. The bloom is like a flat wax cast, almost two dimensional and of such heavy substance that it is unaffected by the weather.

Like many bromeliads, the vriesea is epiphytic and generally self sustaining. It draws all the sustenance it needs from the air and rain and will grow perched in the fork of a tree or on an old stump. This one is in the ground but it will never develop much of a root system.

We grow most of our bromeliads in protected woodland conditions with high shade from evergreen trees. It can get cold for them, but they never get any frost. We go through and pluck out debris and remove dead leaves from time to time and in return, they are totally undemanding and surprise us with the most wonderfully exotic blooms.

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

Flower Carpet Roses

Flower Carpet Appleblosson - one of the prettiest of the series

Flower Carpet Appleblosson – one of the prettiest of the series

When I wrote about roses a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the Rose Flower Carpet series in passing at the end, noting their absence yet again from the Rose Review. One of the comments I received in reply acknowledged that absence and noted: “the Flower Carpet range is part of the rose scene here and overseas”.

For readers who don’t know the history, the Flower Carpet series of roses hit the retail scene with a roar close to two decades ago. Most roses in this country are grown by a handful of specialist nurseries and the production is tightly controlled because so many varieties can only be produced under licence. At a time when the market was starting to call out for easier care roses that could be grown without the usual recommended spraying routine, nurseries were slow to react. Their focus remained on more beautiful flowers, too often at the cost of good garden performance.

Flower Carpet Pink - rather bright but undeniably a fantastic performer which keeps wonderful foliage

Flower Carpet Pink – rather bright but undeniably a fantastic performer which keeps wonderful foliage

Flower Carpet Pink (the first of the series) was launched with an unusually strong marketing campaign and its production came through general nurseries rather than specialist growers. Sales were made through the big box stores as well as the usual retail garden centres. Gone was the traditional prestige of roses, the romance, mystique, fragrance and cut flower potential. This was a new generation of utility rose with a utility name. It was followed by the rest of the series, identified by colour, not by evocative names – Flower Carpets White, Appleblossom, Red, Yellow, Scarlet, Gold, Coral and now Amber.

The market place seized these roses with alacrity. They promised to be high health and require very little care. The purists sniffed and derided – and still do to some extent. Many looked for fault. But sales figures do not lie. While the initial spike could be attributed to an aggressive marketing campaign, the endurance of these varieties now should force a rethink from the doubters. There have been 2 million sold in NZ alone, 75 million internationally. They are here to stay and the reason is that people buy them because they make good garden plants. By now they have amassed goodly swag of international rose awards too.

Utility roses the Flower Carpets may be, but they deliver on health and performance and we all need some plants in our garden that are undemanding and reliable. Not that they are all equal. The first release, Pink, is a fantastic performer but a hard, somewhat garish colour. It creates a lovely bright spot if you situate it in a very green garden, but it lacks subtlety. It is a bit “look at me, look at me” when surrounded by other colours. With my inside info, I can tell you that it is much favoured in the UK where lower sunshine hours and lower light levels mean that people favour bright spots of colour.

Flower Carpet White growing growing through a dwarf maple

Flower Carpet White growing growing through a dwarf maple

White remains the best seller in New Zealand. I have it both grafted as standards and as a shrub rose. It flowers on and on and on. It still a few flowers right now in mid winter. It is a terrific performer and completely reliable, in my experience.

Appleblossom is arguably one of the prettiest in flower form and colour, but its flowering season is shorter and the one I have in partial shadow does tend to ball in heavy rain. If it wasn’t a big standard, I would move it because the shrub ones in full sun are much better.

I didn’t keep Red (but that may have been issues with the position I chose to plant it), and Yellow is a bit average in my experience, but Coral has been a surprise as a top performer. It is a single (just one row of petals) and the trouble with single flowers is that as soon as a petal drops, the whole flower falls apart quickly. Coral just has so many flowers that it doesn’t matter and I have found it more upright in growth than the yellow.

I am told both Amber and Scarlet are very good, but I haven’t found a place for them yet. These two are the first releases of the next generation of Flower Carpet roses. The initial six colours were all the work of the late Dr Werner Noack, a German rose breeder who started work over 30 years ago on breeding healthier garden roses. Now the mantle has fallen to his son. Look out for Pink Splash (the first bicolour and a sport of Pink) and Pink Supreme.

I would not only grow Flower Carpet roses. There are others I like too, especially for picking. But I would certainly miss them in the garden if they were removed. They are the best garden plants in terms of flowering season and health.

In the interests of disclosure, I should note that the company which manages the Flower Carpet series also manages some of our Jury plants internationally. In practical terms, what this means is that if I did not think the roses were good, I would remain silent.

White again, much favoured by New Zealanders

White again, much favoured by New Zealanders

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

Plant Collector: Cycas revoluta

Cycas revoluta - the so-called Japanese sago palm

Cycas revoluta – the so-called Japanese sago palm

It is often referred to as the Japanese sago palm. It is from Japan but it is definitely not a palm. Cycads are different to palms with only a distant botanical connection. Apparently you can extract edible starch to make sago but the plant is so very slow growing that I am sure there are more sustainable and easier food sources should you feel the need for sago in your diet.

There is nothing rare about C. revoluta. It is probably the most widely available variety on the international market, often sold as a house plant. After several decades – five or six – ours is quite large but these are slow growing plants which are generally undemanding. As a house plant, it will want good light levels. In the garden it is one of the hardier cycads, not turning a hair at several degrees of frost but it needs a well drained situation. Ours is in the rockery, too close to a narrow path so I am forever clipping back its very stiff leaves to allow passage. It develops oversized football-like offshoots which can be grown as new plants. Over time a trunk develops – up to 6m, apparently. As the trunk of ours is sitting around 20cm at this point, it won’t be in my time. It has been taller but rotted out some years ago, re-growing from the base.

Like all cycads, C.revoluta is dioecious. Both male and female plants are needed to set seed. This is probably a good thing given that the seeds are toxic and can kill dogs.

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