Magnolia – Michelia: the evergreens

Just another Magnolia laevifolia (syn Michelia yunnanensis) selection but in this case it is our selection which we called Honey Velvet

Just another Magnolia laevifolia (syn Michelia yunnanensis) selection but in this case it is our selection which we called Honey Velvet

I was surprised this week to have someone ask me what michelias are. I realised I have never written about them in a general sense. That is because I try and separate my published garden writing from our commercial interests and michelias are inextricably bound up with the latter.

Michelias are in fact a type of magnolia. They used to be seen as close relatives to magnolias, now they have been reclassified botanically as magnolias and this has involved a complete name change for some species.

Mention evergreen magnolias and most people think of the grandifloras from the southern states of USA. All readers will know these by sight, if not by name. They have big, tough, leathery leaves and they flower in summer with large creamy white blooms.

Personally, I am not a big fan of the grandifloras. They make big, chunky trees which are remarkably tolerant of harsh weather conditions. As such they have their place but I think that place is on golf courses and cemeteries. There is a row of them as you exit Huntly to the south and I am pretty sure they are on the edge of a cemetery.

Why am I not keen on them? They don’t mass flower, for one thing. In fact the flowering is generally random and intermittent. I find them a bit chunky in the landscape and if one is going to go chunky, I would rather have our native puka. The leaves are really tough and take forever to decompose.

That said, the varieties with deep velvety brown indumentums (the furry coating on the underneath of the leaf) can look attractive in the wind. Magnolia grandiflora “Little Gem” is a tough plant with exceptionally dark forest green leaves contrasting with cinnamon indumentum and is much favoured in modern gardens. Just be aware that it is only a little gem as opposed to an extremely giant gem. It will still get quite large over time and you will never get many flowers on it.

Fairy Magnolia Blush - bringing pink into the range

Fairy Magnolia Blush – bringing pink into the range

Michelias are very different. Their foliage is smaller and much lighter in substance so they are not an oppressive plant. And they can flower and flower because they set flower buds down the stem at nearly every leaf axel, not just on the tips. Most of them peak in spring but some keep on flowering for months on end and some will have a second blooming in summer.

There are a few michelias that are widely available here. M. figo has long been referred to as the port wine magnolia and many gardeners will know it. It has small leaves and is inclined to go a bit yellow in full sun. When it starts pushing out its scent in late afternoon, it smells remarkably like Juicy Fruit chewing gum.

There are various forms of doltsopa, the most common in this country being “Silver Cloud”. It has wonderfully large, pure cream blooms which are very fragrant. But, there are always buts, the flowers are floppy and often get frosted in colder areas, the tree tends to drop most of its leaves after flowering and it gets rather larger than most people expect. M. maudiae is a better bet as a garden tree but difficult to propagate so not generally available.

What we used to know as Michelia yunnanensis is certainly a popular addition to the garden plants of this country. It had a brief flirtation with being called Magnolia dianica before its current name was settled upon. It is now correctly known as Magnolia laevifolia but you are still more likely to find it sold as M. yunnanensis. It sets seed really freely so just about every nursery around the country has made a selection and named it (including us!). You can recognise it by its small leaves and creamy cup shaped blooms. You can hedge it and clip it but it is easier to start with a variety which is more generous in the leafage department.

Several decades ago, the late Northland plant breeder Os Blumhardt released Bubbles and Mixed Up Miss onto the market and these hybrids had many advantages over the species as garden plants. They are still tidy plants when juvenile, but nothing remarkable as they mature.

Now there is an explosion of new michelias on the market. Many are just the aforementioned M.laevifolia selections. Some are hybrids. I must declare an interest here. The ones you see being marketed as “Fairy Magnolias” are ours. For we are in the midst of a longstanding love affair with the michelias.

When camellia petal blight first showed up, my plant breeding husband immediately abandoned camellias and started on michelias. After about 17 years we have many, probably into the 1000s by now but we have never counted, as he has pursued breeding goals. They are in shelter belts, hedges, around the garden, through the nursery areas – anywhere there is space. Fairy Magnolia Blush was the first release a few years ago, bringing pink into the colour range. Cream and White are being released this year.

What we love about michelias is their versatility. They can be clipped tightly, even in topiaries. They make good hedges, even pleached into hedges on stilts. Some can become specimen trees without being forest giants. They give us masses of flowers, many are scented and they are pretty much free of all pests and diseases. They are an all round useful plant family.

We would not be without them.

Our new star - Fairy Magnolia White to be released this year

Our new star – Fairy Magnolia White to be released this year

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

Out of the box

1While we like the odd bit of sharply clipped hedging – which is essentially a green wall – we have never been big fans of buxus. In fact we have both been known to scoff at it as possibly the world’s most boring and over-used plant. A few years ago when buxus blight first appeared in this country, we made plans and built up some camellia options for hedging instead.

We only had four short lengths of box hedging last week. Now we have one and that is a low layer of a tiered hedge. The buxus blight had not struck but we weren’t that happy with two of the buxus hedges which did not keep good colour. Besides, the camellias were getting somewhat too large in the field and needed moving.
2The buxus was gone by lunchtime. That is our handy little tractor which was one of our better purchases 15 years ago.
3Our choice for beside the driveway was Camellia transnokoensis which has very small leaves and a mass of tiny white flowers in season.
4
That is our Lloyd planting the new hedge this morning. He is hardier than both Mark and me. We do not go around with bare legs as autumn draws into winter. The plants went in at about 40cm spacings. We will keep the final height to around 120cm.
5We cut the new hedges back by close to half. This reduces stress on the plants which will have undergone quite a shock with their move and we want to encourage them to bush up and grow densely, rather than the taller, willowy growth. It should only take one or two fresh growths and the hedges should look as if they have been there from the start.

We think we will be much happier with camellia hedges than the boring old buxus.

Fruity facts (pragmatism over romance)

Apples are a reliable crop for us

Apples are a reliable crop for us

???????????????????????????????The whole concept of a home orchard seems to evoke romantic images, often based on childhood books. The swing hanging from the old apple tree, the lichen encrusted gate by which one enters, feasting on windfalls, maybe sitting on a tree branch munching sun warmed plums – you get the picture. Needless to say, it is always sunny and there are no wasps.

In recent years, with the explosion of interest in growing one’s own produce, I wonder how many trees have been sold to people with that soft focus romanticism. Just as I wonder how many dollars have been spent buying fruit trees which are entirely unsuited to our geographic areas. No matter how optimistic you are, I’m sorry we are just not going to produce good Black Dawson cherries in the mid north.

Most fruit trees need care. There aren’t many that you can just plant and leave. The reality is that if you want a crop, you are going to have to give the plants some attention. They are not like an easy care camellia that you can bung in the ground and then hack back a decade later when it has grown too large.

Orchards take space, more space than many people have. This is because fruiting trees need full sun, some protection from strong winds yet plenty of area around each tree to allow for good air circulation. That air movement is what helps to combat the build up of pests and diseases. Over-crowded plants will not crop well.

Mark’s mother planted an orchard here. She was not without romantic vision. Little of it remains now. However we do grow a lot of fruit and maintain a fresh supply all year round. Most of the crop is organic. Over time, the fruiting trees have been placed in appropriate positions around the garden rather than in a designated area. However, as we are stripping out our former nursery, Mark plans a return to the old orchard and he has been stockpiling trees in anticipation. But unlike most gardeners, we have space.

There is no doubt that fresh, tree-ripened fruit tastes better and to be able to wander out and gather a bucket of fruit is a simple activity that marks a quality of life beyond dollar value. Much of the fruit that is sold commercially has been sprayed to make it look good for the consumer (pock marked skins just won’t do), picked green and cool stored. It is never going to compare with home grown produce, except in the looks department.

You are probably not going to achieve self sufficiency in fruit on a small urban section. But you can have the delight of some crops. Just think, before you choose what trees to buy.

Feijoas - one of the few plant 'em and leave 'em fruit crops

Feijoas – one of the few plant ’em and leave ’em fruit crops

The only fruiting trees and shrubs I can think of that can be planted and then ignored except at harvest time are feijoas, passion fruit, what we tend to call the NZ cranberry (myrtus ugni), the Chilean guava (Psidium littorale) and avocados (but generally you need to live within 5km of the sea to grow avocados successfully in this country). Pretty much everything else needs work.

Some fruiting plants need quite a bit of work – vines like grapes, raspberries and kiwifruit are not worth giving garden space unless you are willing to actively manage them. Given the major disease issues with kiwifruit in the Bay of Plenty, they are probably best avoided for a few years anyway. Besides they are frost tender, so not suited to inland areas.

Some fruiting plants need a different climate altogether. Cherries and apricots, in particular, thrive in conditions where winters are dry and cold and summers are dry and hot. Nectarines and peaches are similar but a little more tolerant of humid, temperate climates. However, if you want consistent cropping from them, you are probably going to have to spray for disease. Plums are the easiest of that range, but we find they are intermittent croppers and will skip some years altogether.

The modest lemon - common in many NZ gardens

The modest lemon – common in many NZ gardens

We grow a lot of citrus but we are coastal so don’t get much in the way of frosts. Oranges are our year-round staple fruit and we also have grapefruit, mandarins, limes, lemons and tangelos. Inland areas of the Waikato have summers that are plenty warm enough, but anything other than the ubiquitous lemon is going to be problematic without some frost protection. We get away with just one spray of copper in winter on the citrus.

The pears crop well, but not every year. As ours are not on dwarfing root stock, it takes an extension ladder to pick the crop but at least the trees survive on benign neglect. Apples really need annual pruning and some active management for pest and disease control. Our most successful ones are free standing espaliers on dwarfing stock, which allow plenty of air movement. Generally, they only get a copper spray once a year and occasional intervention when the codling moth gets going. Apples in our household are quartered, peeled and cored for eating because they are less than perfect. But they crop prolifically every year and taste good.

There is a whole range of lesser known fruit now on offer for sale – medlars, persimmons, pomegranates, kaffir lime, novelty citrus like Buddha’s Hand, to name just a few – but where space is limited, you are probably better to stick to the tried and true that will crop consistently.

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

Plant Collector: Dichroa versicolour

Dichroa versicolour - flowers all year round here

Dichroa versicolour – flowers all year round here

It is a member of the hydrangea family and grows like a hydrangea. But the beauty of the dichroa for us is that it flowers for pretty much twelve months of the year. The trade off is that we never get the massed seasonal display that we usually associate with hydrangeas, but it is rare not to see a few cones of pure blue flowers.

A Google search suggests that not all dichroas have as good a colour as we expect in New Zealand. It was Taranaki plantsman Glyn Church who introduced the dichroa to this country and I would guess that the form he brought in has consistently good blue colour.
blue

This is a relatively large growing evergreen which is a back of the border plant. It is quite happy in sun or shade. This plant is growing beneath a huge magnolia. If you don’t trim it from time to time, it will get large – in the 3m x 3m range. I keep this specimen under control and a little denser in growth by trimming back long branches to the lowest point where there are clearly two growth shoots on the stem. It doesn’t seem to matter what time of the year this is done so I just snip and clip when the flowers on the branch have finished or before buds have formed. It is native to North Burma and the Yunnan area of China and is reasonably hardy.

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

Garden lore

“The area of a handsom Garden may take up thirty or forty Acres, not more.”
Philip Miller, The Gardener’s Dictionary (1724).

???????????????????????????????Breaking the rules on dividing bulbs

Traditional wisdom is that bulbs are divided when they are dormant. The problem is that when they are dormant, it is easy to forget where they are in the garden. Inspired by the fact that English gardening practice is to divide and replant snowdrops when they are in full growth (usually just after flowering), I have been breaking the rules about dividing other bulbs in recent years. Now when it comes to the likes of daffodils, lachenalias, crocus, nerines – in fact most bulbs – I split them up and replant at pretty much any time of the year. Gently does it, is the rule. You need to tease apart the clump of bulbs so that each one retains as many roots as possible. If they don’t tease apart, then replant them and do it when they are dormant and less vulnerable. It does not seem a good idea to replant any growing bulbs into heavily compacted ground so I dig over the ground well and add compost before gently spacing each growing bulb in place and covering with soil. Don’t let them dry out after replanting. That is it. Flowering is generally determined by the previous season, so dividing when in growth does not usually disrupt their display. If they are going to protest and sulk, it will be next year that they skip blooming.

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