- Sow seeds under cover for summer annuals and summer vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumber and courgettes. The aim is to have them in top condition for planting into the garden around Labour Weekend which will be upon us before you expect.
- Feijoa bushes can be thinned and opened up to encourage them to produce larger fruit next season. Give them a feed at the same time.
- Keep pinching out the flowers on strawberry plants while the clumps build up size and strength, before you let them fruit.
- Dwarf beans can be started in pots now but it is a little early to plant them in the garden yet unless you have a really prime spot.
- Pruning out any dead wood from shrubs such as rhododendrons improves their appearance considerably and pruning tends to be more fun than weeding.
- You can still lift and divide hostas but time is running out as they are in growth. This also means that every slug and snail in the vicinity will be packing their bags and moving in to munch them. Laying a ring of sawdust, sand or grit can act like a barrier and discourage them from sliming across to reach the delectable shoots.
- It is a good time to give your spring bulbs a feed of blood and bone as they finish flowering. This growth period is critical for them to build strength in the bulb for next year’s flowering. If your daffodils have not set flower buds it is either because they are too shaded or they are too congested and need to be divided up for next spring.
- Readers who enjoyed Vicki’s piece on peacocks last week may like to have a look for photos of Isola Madre, the island villa and garden in Lake Maggiore, Northern Italy. They specialize in pure white peacocks (presumably rare albinos) and as they pose on all the substantial stonework, they make possibly the most elegant picture imaginable. Notwithstanding that, sadly peacocks and gardening do not go together at all. Birds of that size do a substantial amount of damage.
The Wild Green Yonder
Author: Philippa Jamieson
Publisher: New Holland, $29.99
Wwoofers started life as “Willing Workers on Organic Farms” and have since been renamed as “Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms” – a system whereby travellers can exchange half a day of labour for full bed and board with various hosts throughout this country and overseas. The author spent two and half years wwoofing her way around this country, somewhat unusual in that most of her fellow travellers are young adventurers from overseas whereas she hails from Dunedin.
In recent times, organics has become increasingly mainstream and Philippa Jamieson’s book is a fund of information for people who want to manage their home vegetable patch or lifestyle block on organic principles. Whether you want to know about pruning fruit trees, the use of comfrey or milking a goat, it is likely to be mentioned. However the index only refers to people and places so you will have to read the whole thing, not use it as a ready reference book. That said, it is an easy reading narrative, at best lyrical but at worst descending into some purple prose. The author’s fervour for biodynamics and some of the more fringe aspects of organics, along with its extremely PC nature, may get in the way for more pragmatic readers but it is a good yarn, an excellent insight into a different way of living and there is a wealth of information conveyed with clarity.
September 14, 2007 Weekly Garden Guide
- The rule of thumb for pruning is to do it straight after flowering. So pruning daphnes and pinching out luculias now will encourage bushy growth. Daphne odora (the common scented one) and Daphne bholua (the Himalayan one) both benefit from regular pruning to stop them from getting leggy and twiggy. You can be drastic on bholua but it pays to be more conservative with odora. Thinning every year will encourage the plant to put on more attractive, strong, juvenile growth.
- While the weather is dry, you can start the spring round on pesky wandering jew (tradescantia) before it makes its bid for world domination. It is dreadfully invasive. If you decide to hand pull it, you have to remove it altogether or every little bit will grow again where you leave it. Grazon is a heavy duty spray but will knock it for six but you need a follow up spray in a month’s time. Amitrol works well too and is readily available for the home gardener. Don’t waste your time with Round Up on it.
- It is full steam ahead in the vegetable garden preparing beds for planting. Dig them over, add in compost and blood and bone and let them settle for about three weeks before planting.
- Pruning out any dead wood from shrubs such as rhododendrons improves their appearance considerably and pruning tends to be more fun than weeding.
- You can still lift and divide hostas but time is running out as they are in growth. This also means that every slug and snail in the vicinity will be packing their bags and moving in to munch them. Laying a ring of sawdust, sand or grit can act like a barrier and discourage them from sliming across to reach the delectable shoots.
- It is good time to give your spring bulbs a feed of blood and cone as they finish flowering. This growth period is critical for them to build strength in the bulb for next year’s flowering. If your daffodils have not set flower buds it is either because they are too shaded or they are too congested and need to be divided up for next spring.
Magnolias – Number One in the Plant World
By Abbie Jury
If I am ever asked what my favourite plant group is, it does tend to be whatever is freshly in flower at the time. There is no single minded loyalty to one genus of plants here. But overall, magnolias are probably number one here. There simply is nothing in my experience that can beat the sight of a large magnolia tree in full bloom. Set against a blue sky, it can take your breath away.
The recent run of fine early spring weather with little wind has given us a splendid flowering this year. I have never counted how many we have planted out here but it must be well into the hundreds now. Some are splendid large specimens imported from England by Mark’s father fifty to sixty years ago, some are named plants of more recent breeding and many are simply part of the ongoing breeding programme here.
For some reason we have not yet managed to fathom, we get much richer colour in New Zealand than is apparent in some other countries. When we looked at peak flowering in England, Italy and Switzerland a couple of years ago, we were a bit surprised to see how washed out the colours can be in their conditions. Named cultivars which we know here as rich pinks, purples and wine reds appeared to be much paler. It may be due to soil conditions there and our high light levels may also have something to do with it. While we have not yet seen the magnolia flowering in areas of the USA or in their native habitats of China and central Asia, we returned from Europe convinced that a New Zealand flowering is something special.
I am talking of deciduous magnolias here. The evergreen magnolias, mostly native to USA, are a different plant altogether and decidedly less spectacular in their flower power. I had a call this week from a woman (out of the readership area) who was trying to source a pink or red magnolia. She had a white one but she wanted another colour because she was planting her children’s placentas. (Did I need to know that? Not really.) I then ascertained that she wanted a pink or red evergreen magnolia. I restrained myself from commenting that the rest of the world wants one too. Despite the best efforts of some international breeders to get colour into the evergreens, they remain resolutely white in their flowers.
Evergreen magnolias have their place (as windbreaks and in cemeteries in my book, I am afraid) but they are unlikely to ever make you say “oh wow”.
Magnolias are one plant group which has benefited hugely from the interference or endeavours (depending on your point of view) of the modern plant breeders. Even fifty years ago, there was not a big range to chose from – campbellii, soulangeana, Rustica Rubra, liliiflora, kobus (the stellata or star magnolia) and not a huge amount more. Some you had to wait a good fifteen years or so to open a flower and some had a huge burst of wonderful blooms only to be over in about 10 days. And they were mostly pink or white unless you were American in which case you had the small flowered yellow species.
How times have changed. Now some magnolias will flower in the garden centre (bred to encourage flowering on juvenile plants) though it must be said that early blooms on very young plants aren’t always up to quality. Most modern hybrids will at least flower within a couple of years of planting out.
Many modern magnolias will extend the flowering season because they set flower buds down the stem, not just on the tips. This means that the flower buds develop at different rates and consequently the display lasts longer. A number of years ago, a very late and severe frost here turned Magnolia Iolanthe from a vision in pink and white to brown slush overnight. It was very discouraging but within a week she had opened a full set of fresh flowers and was back to her former glory. Iolanthe was one of the first modern large flowered cultivars to show this propensity to set buds down the stem and from first to last flowers can be as long as two months.
In New Zealand we tend to favour solid petals and more robust flower form which has to do with our wind. In countries where wind is not an issue, big floppy flowers are quite acceptable but they just blow to bits here. I am not so keen on the stellata or star magnolia types because the petals lack substance and can fall apart rather too quickly. They also tend to make multi trunked rather twiggy large shrubs to small trees which are not as appealing as a well shaped solid tree, in my eyes at least.
Modern breeding has also brought a wider range of smaller growing plants onto the market which means that you don’t need to own a very large section to be able to grow at least one tree. That said, the bigger the tree and the bigger the flower, the more spectacular they are. Some trees just get old and tired as they get bigger whereas magnolias go from strength to strength.
Mark will tell you that a watched bud does not open. He is popping up and down the hill several times a day in anticipation of a rather special cross which is about to burst into flower. It looks exciting with the promise of a colour break and the bud is satisfyingly large but the wretched thing still has not rewarded him by showing its true colour and form.
Those of you who grow magnolias will have seen the large furry sheath which encases the bud. When they were little, our children used to refer them as sleeping bags for mice.
Yes, magnolias are number one in the plant world for us here.
September 7, 2007 Weekly Garden Guide
Spring is indubitably here and Tuesday may have been our last cold snap. The danger of frosts in coastal areas is pretty well over now but inland areas will still need to expect a few.
- Warmer temperatures mean slugs and snails are back on the agenda and munching their way through fresh foliage. Mark is experimenting with flat beer which certainly attracts them but he is worried that it may in fact attract them along to eat the prized plants alongside (in this case tecophilia flowers). Slug bait is not very nice for birds, pets or hedgehogs so if you can find organic controls, so much the better.
- Clumps of dahlias can be lifted and divided now. When tubers get too crowded, they tend to fall apart in growth which rather wrecks the display.
- Groom grasses to remove dead foliage. If the clump is very dense, you can lift it and divide it or dig out some of the growing tips to encourage renewed vigour.
- Spring is the peak growth season for almost all plants so it is the optimum time for applying fertiliser as you see the plants start to grow. More is not better with fertiliser as over feeding can burn the foliage.
- In the vegetable garden, stay on top of the germinating weeds. Pretty well everything can be planted now (though it is too early still for beans). Spinach, silver beet, lettuce, onions, broccoli and peas can all be sown directly into the garden. Caulis and cabbages are generally planted out as small plants rather than from seed which ensures a better survival rate.
- Magnolias are at their peak this week so get out to parks and gardens to admire these aristocrats of flowering trees.
