Lifting & limbing – the before and after of careful pruning

1) This garden aspect is generally all right but you would not look twice at it. The large tree is a weeping cherry, Prunus subhirtella pendula. The fact that the left hand tree, a malus or flowering crabapple, has no leaves on it in high summer is a bit of a giveaway. It is dead.

2) The malus is showing fresh growth at its base but as we knew it was a grafted plant, this is just the root stock growing away.

3) Spend some time working out which branches need to be removed. You can’t glue branches back on and it is surprisingly easy to make a mistake. We are taking off the lower branches and a few higher ones which extend too far over the adjacent gardens. We used a squirt of paint to mark the branches destined for the chop.

4) Make an initial cut underneath the branch. This prevents the branch from ripping off and damaging the bark when you cut from above.

5) Cut close to the trunk or main stems. Don’t leave ugly stumps which resemble protruding coat hooks. There are different schools of thought about whether wounds need to be painted with an antibacterial paint. In this case we have coated the wounds but we don’t usually bother.

6) The dead malus has been removed entirely, even the main stump. If you can get most of the root ball out, it reduces the chance of honey fungus or armillaria getting established on the rotting roots and potentially spreading to surrounding trees. The cherry tree now has a more pleasing shape and it is possible to see beyond the tree and to notice other garden features in the same view. Successful pruning is often discreet – quite a bit of material is removed without it being obvious where it has come from.

Tikorangi Notes: March 12, 2010

Latest posts:

March 12, 2010 The ephemeral delight of Rhodophiala bifida in late summer.

March 12, 2010 Early autumn garden tasks for this week.

March 12, 2010 Who should pay when a garden is uneconomic to run? Transferring the costs of running Pukeiti Rhododendron Trust to the wider public.

The case of the nonconformist sunflower.

The non conformist sunflower

As anybody who has ever grown sunflowers knows, the flowers face the morning sun. All but this one. In a row of sunflowers standing around two metres high, all are obediently lined up to curtsey to the east, bar one which is defiantly facing west. Theories abound. It has a contrary nature. It is a northern hemisphere sunflower, confused by the southern orientation. It was planted back to front. Mark is of the opinion that the other flowers voted it to be the watch flower to ensure there are no ambushes from behind. I just think it wants to be different.

Flowering this week – Rhodophiala bifida

An ephemeral late summer delight - Rhodophiala bifida

An ephemeral late summer delight - Rhodophiala bifida

Markers, perhaps, of late summer or harbingers of autumn, rhodophiala are not well known in this country. They are bulbs again, but this time from South America (Uruguay and Chile, in fact) and closely related to hippeastrums. We used to know them as Hippeastrum bifida and they do resemble a smaller flowered hippeastrum. However, they are certainly not as touchy and particular as some of their exotic cousins and they are hardy. The stems shoot up and pop up heads of up to six trumpet flowers each before there is any hint of foliage. The colour is in shades of rich deep pink to maroon red with contrasting yellow anthers. When the leaves follow, they are modest and strappy.

Rhodophiala have to be increased by seed because the bulbs rarely if ever set offshoots (though there is apparently a Texan variant which sets multiple offshoots). They also have the characteristic of finding their own depth in the soil, pulling themselves down deeper to a level where they are happiest. Gloriosas do the same thing. In all honesty, I have to admit to admit they are a fleeting seasonal pleasure with each bulb only putting up a single flower spike which passes over reasonably quickly. But they don’t take up much room at all and they are a transient delight.

In the garden: March 12, 2010

  • With temperatures cooling, particularly at night, conditions are good for gardening. Leave planting or shifting of woody trees and shrubs until later in autumn but you can turn your attention to clumping plants and perennials. Lifting overcrowded plants and splitting them up at this time of the year means that the plants can recover and re-establish before winter. This can avoid bare patches in the garden in spring which is particularly important for those who open their gardens. Always dig the ground over to loosen up the soil and add some compost or other soil conditioner along with a dressing of fertiliser. To reduce the shock to the plants, cut back the top foliage by about half and water the plants in well. Keep watering for a few days if we don’t get rain.
  • While working with your perennials, you may want to try taking some cuttings from types which only grow from a few stems rather than forming a clump of many shoots. We demonstrated this in an earlier Outdoor Classroom but the rule of thumb is to use firm new season’s growth and to take off any flower buds or stems. We are about to do some gypsophila cuttings.
  • Flaxes, astelias and grasses will respond very well to being divided at this time of the year but they need their tops cut back. The Mohican hair cut is not a good look but done now, the clumps will spring into fresh growth and cover that. Done later, you will have the ugly cut leaves until late spring.
  • A sharp spade makes digging and cutting hugely easier. We sharpen our spades by securing them in a bench-top vice and using a file. Remember to only sharpen the side which faces outwards when you use it. Once you have used a sharp spade, you will appreciate just what a big difference it makes.
  • In the vegetable garden, you are really too late now for Brussels sprout, leeks, carrots and parsnips but you can still plant Florence fennel, winter spinach, peas, winter lettuce and all the obliging brassica family.
  • Gardeners in colder, inland areas should be thinking about starting the autumn hedge trimming round. The trick to timing is to allow the hedge to make a light flush of fresh growth only and have time to harden it slightly before the onset of winter stops all growth. Get a man in, was the suggestion of friends over dinner at the weekend. We own up to having just such a treasure here (and he is not Mark) who is a perfectionist when trimming sharp hedges, even using a string line to keep the levels straight.

A tale of the future of Pukeiti Rhododendron Trust and ratepayer money.

“So what do you think about Taranaki Regional Council taking over Pukeiti?” is a question we have been asked by a number of people recently. Speaking initially out of complete self interest, we have to say that we think it is a good thing. We are deeply involved with the open garden sector, particularly our annual festival, because that makes it worthwhile for us to maintain our own garden to opening standard. For Taranaki to retain a pre-eminent position in the open garden scene, we need a solid core of professional gardens with a secure future and the public garden sector has a big role to play in that. We have a proud tradition here of splendid private gardens but over the past two decades we have seen quite a few come and go. Ageing owners, sales of properties, ill health and, alas, deaths can see a first rate private garden closed overnight. I could reel off a list of a dozen excellent gardens which no longer open or have simply gone. So the public gardens give a level of stability for the rest of us.

That is not to say that we don’t have reservations about ratepayers picking up the tab for Pukeiti. We certainly don’t blame the trustees of that garden for trying to sell their dream to Regional Council to ensure preservation in one form or another, even if Mark has been quipping that he would like to place a death notice for demise of the original vision of founder Douglas Cook and his colleagues. There always have been some issues with Pukeiti, particularly a degree of cargo cult mentality (build the facilities and the crowds will come) and a level of grandiose vision which was overly optimistic. The remarkable achievement in establishing an international reputation rests on a few key individuals over time backed up by great support from volunteers. Pukeiti was particularly lucky to attract and retain the services of its now retired director, Graham Smith, who more than anyone fronted at an international level and established the credentials of the rhododendron collection here. But times change and an organisation which always had trouble living within its means, failed entirely to keep a lid on the budget to the point where its very existence is threatened. So what to do? Transfer it to the ratepayer.

I imagine that every single elected councillor and senior officer of the three district councils in our area are heaving a collective sigh of relief that the problem that is Pukeiti has landed on Regional Council, not at district council level. But they are also probably wondering just how Regional Council can ease this whole situation in under the ratepayer radar. When every dollar the district councils spend is scrutinised closely, even to the provision of public toilets, somehow the TRC can get away with massive new spending and little is said.

TRC claim that the decision to take over the management and ownership of Pukeiti is currently out for consultation but I have yet to hear from anyone who is being consulted. And as the latest Pukeiti newsletter tells us that the CEO has been made redundant and gone already, it all looks like a done deal to us. Rather it appears as if the lid is being kept tightly pressed down to discourage any public debate and consultation is probably limited to those who are going to give the right answers. As I say, a done deal.

It is a slight mystery to us as to why the TRC are so hellbent on owning and running gardens. District Councils run parks (Pukekura Park in New Plymouth and Stratford and Hawera have their own established city parks) but TRC has taken on extremely labour intensive gardens, by no means in the best locations or with the most friendly terrain and with no record of being financially viable. What is more, TRC policy is that these gardens have free entry, not even raising money through gate charges or added value experiences. So moving against the national tide of change where there is a trend to more and more user-pays, TRC is determined to provide these facilities with free entry. Except that there is no such thing as free. It is merely a case of transferring who pays and spreading it across the total ratepayer base. This is interesting when the target visitors go well beyond locals to include both international and domestic tourists. Why would you Qualmark a garden unless you wanted to attract tourists?

The TRC has gone beyond providing quality gardens. The add-on now to justify the spending is swelling the numbers tracked in the garden gates with free entertainment. Except it is not free. It is ratepayer funded. In saying that, I do not denigrate the efforts by the TRC staff and the regional gardens’ manager who are working hard to attract the punters and clearly there is some considerable success in the numbers game. All credit to them for their gardening workshops and tours. I question a little how farmers markets fit in with the vision of Bernie and Rose Hollard which is meant to drive the ethos of Hollard Gardens. But more incongruous is the cheap cuts cooking workshop at Tupare (Relive the Splendour, I think was how the vision of Tupare was encapsulated by TRC). I am not sure that the style and panache of Sir Russell and Lady Matthews sits easily alongside cheap meat cuts. But all is fair when you measure gardens’ success by numbers through the gate. Except that people who go to farmers markets or to cooking demonstrations are not bona fide garden visitors. It is one thing to count people who go to garden workshops run by the garden staff, it is quite another to count people who go to free entertainment or unrelated activities which could just as well be hosted in any number of other more convenient locations.

Some might be wondering what lies in store for Pukeiti. What hoops will the garden managers be expected to leap through in order to attract bigger visitor numbers to that somewhat out of the way location with its relatively inhospitable climate? I for one don’t envy them though I would suggest that if they could just negotiate with John Rae to get Americana based at Pukeiti next time, they might reach their targets without having to stage jelly wrestling, big time wrestling or other crowd pleasers.

Personally, we don’t mind paying a little extra in our rates to see these gardens managed well but we would like to see some wider debate about TRC’s activities. The justification of preserving our heritage has a whiff of empire building about it. Now that we have the gardens, are they going to be looking at other heritage places and activities. Chaddy’s Charters has a sense of heritage. When Chaddy wants to retire, will TRC take over the lifeboat and offer it free to all comers? If the Mokau cream boat run would just move to the south side of the river, would it be eligible as Taranaki heritage? Maybe we should just be grateful that it is too late for the regional ratepayers to pick up the tab for the Patea chimney preservation.