Magnolia Diary 9, 1 September 2009

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Iolanthe yesterday morning after the storm - the petal drop was prodigious

Iolanthe yesterday morning after the storm - the petal drop was prodigious

Another fierce storm here two nights ago sorted out the durable magnolias from the fly by nighters. Poor old Mark Jury has gone for the year. He only looked sensational for a week. But his progeny are faring better. It is pretty remarkable how much petal drop we can get from Iolanthe and still have a tree full of flowers. The winds blew the petals over 40 metres away. These are short, sharp incidents of storms which last a few hours only but the strong winds and torrential rain certainly causes damage to magnolia blooms. Viewed from a distance, Felix Jury looks great but seen close up, there is quite a bit of damage and bruising and it is the same story on Iolanthe, Milky Way, Lotus and Athene. Cultivars which flower down the stems (as opposed to the short lived stars which set flower buds only on the tips so there is one mass flowering and then it is over) extend the season and there is a second chance to open undamaged blooms. Our white stellata is bravely flowering on through all conditions. Suishoren can blow apart rather easily whereas Manchu Fan takes pretty well all the bad weather in its stride.

Burgundy Star opening its flowers

Burgundy Star opening its flowers

Burgundy Star is the last of our reds to open and the original plant in our carpark is nowhere near to peaking yet. It is a very dark red and on the tree appears to have lost much of the magenta tone which can dominate the other reds. Mark is still hoping that he will get a good plant which is pure red (and we have some hopeful candidates on the track) but in the meantime Burgundy Star makes a very deep red pillar. It being three quarter liliiflora nigra, we are hopeful it may have more hardiness than some of our other selections.

The Snow Flurry series flower on

The Snow Flurry series flower on

Serene is the last flagship magnolia to flower here and is just opening the first flowers. None of the American yellows are open yet, but these mostly flower too late for us and are breaking into leaf at the same time. The doltsopa hybrid Snow Flurry series of michelias flower on and are wonderfully rewarding. The season on the michelias lasts considerably longer and we have many to follow. Alas we have to be very circumspect about what we show of new breeding lest it cut across the chance to patent later so this diary will not be showing the flowerings which make us most excited here.

Magnolia Diary number 8, 29 August 2009

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Mark Jury in full flower

Mark Jury in full flower

Back in the 1950s when Felix Jury was establishing the garden here, one of the plants he coveted was Magnolia Lanarth. He ordered it from Hilliers in the UK. History is a little vague as to what number and form the plant material took (scions or plants) but it included a seedling which, when it flowered after a number of years, was clearly not the solid purple flower of the chosen cultivar. No, instead it was very large and pale lavender pink and white. Enquiries from Hilliers established that it was most likely a cross between Lanarth and sargentiana robusta. Felix did manage to establish true Lanarth (Magnolia diary entries 1 and 4 have photos of the splendid specimen after fifty years), but the chance seedling proved to be the jump start for a breeding programme. Felix subsequently named it Mark Jury, for his youngest son and it has been distributed in the trade both in New Zealand and overseas. We have never promoted it widely ourselves. Although it makes a splendid large tree for a park, we think the next generation are superior garden plants.

Athene

Athene

From Magnolia Mark Jury came Iolanthe (ref Diary 7), Milky Way, Lotus, Athene and Atlas (all involving forms of lennei) which are all flowering now. Apollo too is flowering (this one does not have Mark in its lineage, being thought instead to be a liliiflora nigra hybrid crossed with Lanarth). Picking favourites is all about taste. Iolanthe has an exceptionally long flowering season and a large flower with good colour here (though we were disappointed at how it looked in Switzerland at Eisenhuts and it does not appear to be the stand out performer in the UK and Europe that it is here). Lotus has a perfect form in pure cream but can take 5 or 6 years to settle into good flowering. Athene has blooms which in our eyes are simply beautiful. Atlas had the largest flowers imaginable until rivaled by Felix. Apollo is our best purple so far. Milky Way is just an all round top performer. What more can we say? Felix’s legacy is still remarkable.

Magnolia Apollo, Felix's best purple

Magnolia Apollo, Felix's best purple

Daphne genkwa – flowering this week

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Daphne genkwa - a vision in lilac blue

Daphne genkwa - a vision in lilac blue

A daphne with no scent? What sort of plant is that? So asked a weekend visitor but we all agreed here that any plant that can look like this is worth its weight in gold. It is completely deciduous so flowers with no leaves at all and every arching branch is smothered in pure lilac blue flowers and has been for a good couple of weeks now. There are not many relatively compact shrubs that mass flower in late winter, let alone in blue. It makes such a statement in the garden that we are resolved to propagate more to use.

Genkwa is an oriental species, native to China and long prized in Japanese gardens. It can be a touchy character to get established. This specimen is our third effort but it is worth persevering. It is available on the New Zealand market though you may need to find an obliging garden centre to order it in for you if they do not have it in stock.

August 28, 2009 In the Garden

  • Members of the “Living Art” bonsai fraternity know that early spring is a critical time for repotting many of their little treasures. Bonsai is a highly specialized area of plant management and if you want to know more and to see how it is done, they will be at Cedar Lodge Nursery on Egmont Road all day this Sunday from 10.00am to 4.00pm. This is a particularly good hobby for those people who can not have outside gardens for whatever reason. Generally you can take your bonsai collection with you when you move.
  • If you are not into bonsai, you should still be heeding the advice to see to container plants at this time of year. It gives them time to settle in before summer. Trees and shrubs in containers should generally be repotted every two years. If you have them in rather small pots or slightly tortured states, repot annually to keep the plant healthy. For trees and shrubs, buy decent potting mix with controlled release fertiliser. Keep the cheap stuff for annuals. You get the quality you pay for with potting mixes and they are by no means all equal.
  • If you are not repotting your plants this year, feed them. Remember more is not better. Follow the recommended dosage rates, erring on the conservative side. Too much fertiliser can burn the plant.
  • The rule of thumb for fertilizers is that the expensive controlled release ones (mostly the coated balls of the Osmocote, Nutricote, Acticote type) are designed for container plants but cover them under the top layer of potting mix for maximum effect. Slow release fertilizers are primarily designed for topdressing container plants. These are different to controlled release and usually come in powder form. We favour one we buy in commercial quantities as Triabon (also known as Compo) which we call magic dust – albeit expensive magic dust. We only use it on containers for a three month topdressing feed. There are other brands which will be comparable – seek advice from your local garden centre but you need to understand a little first so you are buying the right fertiliser for the right use.
  • The cheap and cheerful types like Nitrophoska Blue, blood and bone or Bioboost are what you use to broadcast all over the garden where exact measurements are not needed. Liquid fertilizers are used for hanging baskets and pots of hungry annuals or top dressing fast growing vegetables where you want a quick feed and you are watering often. Compost tea, worm farm product, seaweed mixes – these are all in the quick feed liquid application group and you use them up to once a week.
  • If you plan hanging baskets for summer, get them planted up now. Don’t hang them in the full sun to start with.
  • It is still pruning, feeding, lifting and dividing, mulching and planting time in the ornamental garden.
  • At this time of the year, fruit and vegetable prices tend to soar. It is all about supply and demand. As quick turnaround crops to keep the food bills down, sprout beans at home and sow micro greens in seed trays. Swathes of parsley are a versatile standby at this time and will keep scurvy at bay.
  • If you are planting peas, the pesky sparrows may beat you to the germinating shoots unless you drape some temporary netting to discourage them. Peas can be sown on a regular basis to get continual harvests in a 90 days time.
  • New potatoes can be planted now in all but the coldest areas. Last call for planting garlic.

Yates Young Gardener Growing Things to Eat, by Janice Marriott

We are pretty keen on young children here and also on gardening so we really wanted to be positive about this book. But we can’t be. It is frenetically busy, hyped, packed with a gazillion ideas, jokes, puzzles, talking worms and snails and a whole lot more. The bottom line is that the technical information is patchy and the activities and experiments are often too superficial and lack detail so are destined to fail. By way of examples: “Put a plant into a glass jar of coloured water. Watch the leaves change colour.” I think what is meant is that you can change the colour of a white flower such as a camellia or a carnation or a variegated leaf with white patches by putting it in a jar of water with food colouring or ink added but children (or facilitating adult) need an idea of quantity of colouring to liquid. And they are not putting a plant in the water; they are putting a flower or suitable leaf into the water. We used to grow pineapple tops but when did you last see a pineapple in the supermarket with an intact rosette of leaves at the top? They are generally all cut off now. A pine cone is not a seed. Nor is pine seed dispersed by the cone rolling down hills. Get the picture? Too busy, too much content with insufficient critical thought and rigour in the underpinning information.

This is also a book which purports to be for children but it is actually a handbook of ideas and information for a sympathetic adult to use with children in shared activities. It may appeal to hands-on, dedicated parents such as home schoolers or Playcentre parents but despite the prevailing busy-ness and jokey-ness it is unlikely to keep any child busy and motivated on their own. Give it as a gift to parents, not to children.

Harper Collins ISBN 978 1 86950 7947