Cranberry Update

Making the acquaintance of proper cranberries (vaccinium) instead of the so-called NZ cranberry (Myrtus ugni)

In the review I wrote of the now infamous Tui NZ Fruit Garden (which was guilty of both plagiarism and downright bad information), I mentioned cranberries and that what we know and grow as the NZ cranberry is in fact Myrtus ugni whereas the proper, genuine article is Vaccinium marcrocarpon. I noted that we were not aware of the proper cranberry being grown in this country and to my delight, a bag of the genuine article arrived from one of the very few commercial growers, Cranberries NZ, They grow them in cold valleys on the West Coast and harvests are still small so I don’t think they reach Taranaki supermarkets yet. These fruit were a bit of an eye-opener – larger than the myrtus berries and not at all nice raw, being a little sour, crisp and not particularly tasty in that state. But cooked in fresh cranberry muffins they took on a different character altogether and were voted a genuine taste treat, a great deal superior to dried fruit.

Ever the keen gardener, Mark could not resist saving a few seed. Most berries were pale inside but just a few were dark red right through. Given that proper cranberries need cold winters and do best in fairly heavy soils, we don’t have conditions that resemble their habitat in any way, but he will not let that deter him from trying to grow a few plants to add variety to our home orchard.

Read the original review of the Tui NZ Fruit Garden.

In the Garden: Friday July 16

  • After a slight delay, Kings Seeds new catalogue is now officially available. This is simply the most mouthwatering line-up of seed choices from stock standard varieties, through gourmet vegetables, exotic crops, green crops, pretty annuals and even some perennials. You can send $7.50 to Kings Seeds, PO Box 283, Katikati 3166, Bay of Plenty, check them out on line at www.kingsseeds.co.nz or get your copy from Fairfields Garden Centre in New Plymouth. If you are not used to growing plants from seed, don’t get too carried away with your first order – half a dozen different packets is quite enough for most novices to cope with.
  • Further to the avocado recommendation last week, buy Hass (or Reed as second option) and plant immediately. Avocados are particularly vulnerable to root disease and strongly object to any mishandling. They are not a plant to keep hanging around in a bag or pot waiting for you to find a spot in the garden.
  • The fine, frosty weather this week has been ideal for getting out and pruning. Next week’s Outdoor Classroom will be on heavy pruning of elderly apple trees, which is happening here this week. Pruning can continue on roses, wisterias, hydrangeas, raspberries and most other trees and shrubs (except cherries).
  • If you plan to do major pruning to renovate rhododendrons, you can start that now so that they will push out new growth as soon as temperatures start to rise soon. You will be sacrificing the flowers but some of them flower so late that pruning after flowering is risky. Pruning rhododendrons back to bare wood (the stump) is kill or cure. If the plant is weak in the roots, it will die but vigorous plants will usually push our fresh growths and you will get a compact bush again. If you don’t wish to be so drastic, taking out the dead wood and tidying up will help the look but it will not force a leggy plant to put out fresh foliage from the base.
  • Summer flowering lilies have a fairly short dormant period so if you planned to dig any clumps, get onto the task now.
  • If you are heartily sick of planting brassicas, you can at least be sowing carrots, onions, peas and broad beans – all done from seed. In frost free areas, the first crop of early potatoes can go in.

Flowering this week: Vireya rhododendron saxifragoides

Eight years of growth, maybe more, in good nursery conditions and R.saxifragoides reaches this size

Eight years of growth, maybe more, in good nursery conditions and R.saxifragoides reaches this size

We have a standing joke here about plants which we won’t part with unless the recipient passes both an interview and a test – saxifragoides is one of those plants. After a good eight years, maybe more, this plant is 6cm high and about 14cm across. We don’t want to waste a plant that grows so slowly on somebody who has no idea what it is or too little appreciation of what it takes for the plant to reach this stature. It is an odd little vireya species from New Guinea which makes a mounded cushion (generally a small mounded cushion) and which is far more tolerant of both cold and wet conditions than any other vireya we know. In fact it is often found growing in cold bogs in its native habitat (other rhododendrons will quickly give up the ghost and die if their roots stay wet for long) as well as in alpine grasslands. It is not as forgiving in our garden where I have managed to kill off two or three plants now. It seems easier to keep healthy in a pot.

The flowers are red and held singly (most rhododendrons have clusters or trusses). Sharp-eyed readers may pick the similarity in flower to the rather larger vireya hybrids, Jiminy Cricket, Saxon Glow and Saxon Blush. Yes, saxifragoides is a parent of these and gives the hardier characteristics and the leaf shape to its offspring. In the wild, saxifragoides will layer naturally (put down fresh roots from branches which touch the ground) and seed down. Very old clumps have been found which have even developed a woody rhizome below ground but in cultivation it is normally propagated from cutting – very small cuttings as you can perhaps imagine from the picture.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday July 9, 2010

LATEST POSTS
1) July 7, 2010: Vireya rhododendron saxafragoides is flowering this week – a distinctly obscure and different vireya species.
2) July 7, 2010: In the garden this week (and why citrus and avocado are essential home orchard trees here)
3) July 7, 2010: Bravely attempting to demystify rose pruning in our latest Outdoor Classroom.
4) July 7, 2010: Counting down to our annual Taranaki Garden Festival.
5) July 3, 2010: Camellia Diary number three where we celebrate Camellia Waterlily, a cultivar which I think could be described in the vernacular as an oldie but a goodie.

Rhododendron augustinii - a bit of a triumph in our climate

TIKORANGI NOTES
Probably the most exciting aspect of our gardening environment is the huge range of plants we can grow here. We have never been able to understand the mindset of those who favour mass plantings and the so-called restrained plant palette. Mark has been known to ask why on earth anybody would want to mass plant when there are so many interesting plants in the world to grow. So our mid-winter garden pictures this week are of Rhododendron augustinii and zygocactus.

The winter flowering chain cactus - more fun than polyanthus

I am not sure which form of augustinii this is (possibly the Medlicott form) and frankly we are just delighted that it is still alive with us because it much prefers a colder climate than we can give it here. On their day, you can not beat the species and augustinii is one of the loveliest species of all. The bronze beetle attacks the foliage (pretty well every leaf outside the photograph is notched all round), thrips can turn the leaves silver and there are smarter, neater garden plants but we rejoice when those lovely blue flowers appear each winter.

By way of contrast, the exotica of the chain cactus or zygocactus (schlumberga?) lightens up the dark woodland areas and is maintenance free and undemanding. We grow them as epiphytes, nestled into forks of trees or positioned on top of tree fern stumps. They have to be frost free and are generally grown in house plants throughout the world and they add a splash of cheering winter colour which I prefer to polyanthus.

In the Garden: Friday 9 July, 2010

Our citrus trees actually do save us money

Our citrus trees actually do save us money

  • Avoid stomping around the garden or lawn where you have spring bulbs. It is a hard life already for a bulb, pushing through cold, wet soils without being stomped back into the ground. Even worse, some only put up one flowering spike and if you break that off, you are sunk for this season’s display.
  • Prune and keep pruning. I am halfway through the roses but have finished the wisterias. The hydrangeas have been started. As luculias finish flowering, it is the best time to prune and feed them because their instinct is to spring into growth. It doesn’t pay to be too brutal with luculias – they can up and die on you. Regular pinching out or cautious renovation is recommended. They are not difficult to root from cuttings in late spring or early summer if you want to start afresh.
  • Sasanqua camellias can be pruned and shaped as they finish flowering. This includes sasanqua hedges but it won’t matter if you leave it until spring.
  • With our comparatively mild winters, we can lift and divide dormant perennials such as hostas all winter and spring. In cold climates where there is no growth over winter, recommended practice is to leave it until temperatures start to warm in spring (presumably divisions can rot in completely dormant, cold and wet conditions) – hence the different advice in books and TV gardening programmes from England. However it is wise to leave grasses, reeds, rushes and similar plants until they are growing again because they can be surprisingly touchy.
  • You can at least be planting your fruit trees which are now available in abundance. Put in the sure-fire crops first and go to the riskier, more exotic options if you have space remaining. Apples, pears, plums and feijoas are extremely reliable whereas it can be hit and mostly miss with peaches, nectarines, cherries and apricots. In mild coastal areas, citrus and avocados are well worth a try – for us they are the crops that save us significant money. Only buy named cultivars of feijoas – the cheapie plants are patchy seedlings for hedging and may never even fruit.
  • Get a winter strength copper spray onto deciduous fruit trees, citrus and roses as a winter clean up. This will reduce disease and lichen.
  • I have a new definition of a gardening optimist – the person who googled “sub tropical fruits Southland”. Southland may be many things, but sub tropical is not one of them.