Tag Archives: Abbie Jury

Plant Collector – Philadelphus

The exquisite simplicity of the fragrant philadelphus

The exquisite simplicity of the fragrant philadelphus

I went out to the garden looking for something Christmas-y but the recent rains haven’t helped. The perfect red dahlia did not quite cut the mustard for this column but my eye fell on the pristine, snow white flowers of the philadelphus. I think this one is P. coronarius, the most commonly grown species. The whole family is often referred to as mock orange blossom. Sweetly scented though this plant is, as one whose garden is at times awash with the genuine orange blossom scent, all I can say is that to label the philadelphus so was the work of either an optimist or a plant marketer.

Philadelphus only star when in flower. For the rest of the year, they are largely anonymous border shrubs but that is fine because gardens need some quiet fillers in order to highlight showier plants. While there are a few evergreen ones, they are generally deciduous. The simple blooms remain pristine white, not burning in the sun or turning brown with age.

We saw a large range of particularly showy philadelphus in early summer English gardens, many much larger flowers, semi doubles, doubles, even pink tones. We figured they are hugely more popular there because they are such an obliging plant in a wide variety of conditions including alkaline soils and hard winters. New Zealand gardeners tend not to be fans of twiggy, deciduous shrubs. Plants flower on the previous season’s new growth which means that it is better to prune and shape by taking out older, woody stems entirely rather than giving the plant a hair cut all over. However, these are well behaved shrubs which only need attention every few years.

Apparently they pick well. I may have to try combining them with my red dahlias for a Christmas themed vase.

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

Grow it yourself: basil

Was there life before basil? Surprisingly yes, but it probably amounted to soggy sliced tomatoes drowned in salt and fine white pepper with Maggi onion dip in place of pesto. Of all the herbs, nothing shouts summer like basil. In my opinion it is only worth eating fresh so it is very seasonal. It is not difficult to grow in rich vegetable garden conditions (the usual full sun and friable, fertile soils) but it won’t do much until summer is pretty much upon us because it needs warmth even to germinate – about 20 degrees of it. It is not too late to sow it now though you won’t get much to pick until late February. Enthusiasts start it earlier under cover and plant out into the garden as soon as temperatures rise sufficiently.

I see Kings Seeds now offer 17 different types of basil plus a gourmet blend for the indecisive. We have tried some different types but keep going back to the most common variety – Sweet Genovese, or its equivalent. To harvest, just keep picking leaves as required. Keeping the plants well watered encourages them to continue growing rather than bolting to seed early. Caterpillars can take a liking to the leaves but you can generally control these by hand.

The shortcut approach where time and equipment are a problem, is to buy the pot of smallest, least mature basil in the fruit and veg section of the supermarket and to repot these to a larger container with optimum conditions (good mix, full sun, plenty of water and liquid feed) and resist the temptation to start harvesting leaves immediately. The older pots of living herbs in the supermarket are leggy and stretched (reaching for the light) but if you get a fresh shipment they are sometimes a little more squat and juvenile. Elder Daughter used this approach to keep a year round supply going. Others recommend chopping up basil leaves, adding olive oil and freezing in ice cube trays. I have tried this but decided that I prefer to keep basil as a seasonal taste in summer, best picked with sun warmed leaves and eaten very fresh. Try it in a simple salad with slices of fresh, white mozzarella and ripe tomatoes – summer in a salad bowl.

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

Gardening books that stand the test of time

Over the past decade or so, a fair number of new publications of New Zealand gardening books have come across my desk for review. Precious few remain on the bookshelf. After being critical of the recent offerings for the Christmas market, I wondered at the manner in which NZ publishers are reacting in the face of competition from the internet. With all the information in the world available on one’s computer screen with a click of the mouse, I would have thought that the future of the reference book was as a highly credible, accurate, reliable, expert presentation of related information in one place. After all, one has to wade through a vast amount of dross on the internet and weed out unreliable information. It is often easier and a great deal more convenient to reach for the traditional book, but only if you trust its contents.

Reference books often used to be peer reviewed before publication to iron out errors and to identify problem areas. Wide ranging topics often had multiple authors, each working in their own area of expertise. Authors had solid credentials and there was a general expectation that information be accurate. Books were produced on the assumption that they could last for years, maybe even decades, and good ones would be reprinted. It took time to produce a new book.

Not anymore. The NZ gardening book today is more akin to the glossy magazine. Here today and gone tomorrow but looks good in the short time it is in demand. Who cares about the rest of it as long as the customer is seduced into buying it right now?

In both NZ books and magazines, the advice being dispensed so freely in visually appealing ways is too often coming from commercial interests which want to sell product to the consumer. And it is not always accurate advice, let alone best practice. Bring back independent, non aligned advice and information, I say. You know – the sort of information we used to get from books. I like to think that readers are neither dumb nor gullible. Would that NZ publishers thought the same way. Alas, they have redefined readers as consumers.

This train of thought led me to look at the books which we reach for regularly. We own a lot of gardening books. The dross goes to charity. Many of the specialist ones are particular to our interests but there are a few more general ones that we use regularly and which have stood the test of time and I am happy to recommend for any gardener’s bookshelf. Some will only be available second hand – try Touchwood Books who offer a mail order service.

1) Bulbs for New Zealand Gardeners and Collectors by Terry Hatch and Jack Hobbs. First published by Godwit in 1995, it may look a little dated and it is not the most comprehensive bulb book available. But it is accurate, written for NZ conditions and covers the bulb material available here. We trust it.
2) The Hillier Manual of Trees and Shrubs (Redwood Press). The version we have has no pictures but is still the best comprehensive listing of trees and shrubs we know. There are good reasons why it has had multiple reprints and editions.

3) Grow It Yourself Vegetables by Andrew Steens (Batemans, 2010). It is not the smartest looking of the latest crop of vegetable books and the sow/harvest diagrams are an unreliable afterthought, but the text is practical, helpful and reliable. According to Mark, the real gem if you can find it, is Vegetable Growing in New Zealand by J A McPherson and F J E Jolie. It was published by Whitcomb and Tombs and we have the sixth edition with no date but it retailed for three shillings and sixpence.
4) Koanga Garden Guide by Kay Baxter (Body and Soul, 2007). Simply the best and most comprehensive guide to organic and sustainable fruit and veg gardening that we have found. It is self published and a little rough around the edges (the edition we have lacks an index which makes it harder to use), but serious gardeners will read it cover to cover and take heed. What is more, they will keep going back to it which is a measure of a good book.
5) Like a shining beacon of hope, came New Zealand’s Native Trees by John Dawson and Rob Lucas from Craig Potton Publishers this year. A comprehensive, high quality and credible publication which is likely to remain on the bookshelf as a key reference for decades to come. We never did get the definitive two volume edition of Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand (latest version is 2007 from Te Papa Press) – equally credible and enduring but more expensive.

6) We still use the 1993 Perennial Gardening in New Zealand by Christine Dann (Bridget Williams Books), particularly for identification.
7) The old (and I mean really old) Department of Agriculture publications on fruit trees – the bulletins and their 1973 book “The Home Orchard”. Treasure these, if you find them. Technically they are still very good on basic fruits though they are way out of date now with modern options and new cultivars. Use them for information on planting, pruning and general care but with the proviso that the excessive and toxic spray regimes can be totally ignored. They have their origins in the Chemical Ali times and we have since moved on.

I cannot think that many of the New Zealand gardening books published in recent times will still be on the bookshelves in decades years to come. Even fewer will be a resource of first choice. What happened to professional pride?

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

The DIY Christmas Tree – mark 2 (for 2011)

Last year’s Christmas tree constructed from toetoe plumes (overseas readers may like to think pampas grass) was a tour de force, though I say so myself. On the downside, it did moult badly and I can recall quite a mess as we manoeuvred it out of the house after the event. Though the same can be said for the traditional pine tree too, and pine needles are a great deal more difficult to vacuum up. The step by step instructions for this model are still available.

The tree this year does not lend itself to last minute creation. It needs a sturdy frame to hold the shape. Fortunately we have one, most kindly given to us by a friend.

We saved the grape vine stems from the winter pruning round and kept them under cover. It takes quite a few and I only just had sufficient. Any flexible, long whippy growths could be used – willow, soft canes or wisteria come to mind.

Build in layers by simple weaving. I tied the first rows in place temporarily, to hold them in place. By the following day, they had set in place and no longer wanted to spring out.

Because the top of the frame was very narrow, the grape vines were not sufficiently flexible. I swapped to fresh wisteria vine for the peak. It will dry to a brown shade but will be covered by the angel anyway.

I trimmed any large ends which spoiled the shape. If I had more grape vine, I would have packed the weaving tighter as I went, but I didn’t so I couldn’t.

The finished product is in place and decorating can start. It is possibly the easiest tree ever to decorate, because the ends of the vines make handy little hooks all over the surface. Rather than adding Christmas lights on the outside, we are lighting from the inside of the tree using a table lamp.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 2 December, 2011

The next series of Mark's arisaema hybrids is coming into flower

The next series of Mark's arisaema hybrids is coming into flower

Latest Posts:
1) A love/hate relationship with roses – Abbie’s column.
2) My fortnightly garden diary from the latest issue of the Weekend Gardener.
3) Continuing the rose theme, Plant Collector is on Roseraie de l’Hay.
4) Grow it Yourself is on capsicums this week (though apparently we will not be growing them ourselves this year).
5) Fruit by Mark Diacon (British gardeners are apparently sufficiently intelligent or adequately educated and they are allowed an index in a gardening reference book).

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 2 December, 2011
The second wave of Mark’s arisaema hybrids are coming into flower. These are visibly candidissimum hybrids but with colour (and stripes). In our conditions, we struggle with many of the species but hybrids add a new vigour. They may not appeal to the purist and the plant collector, but they will appeal to gardeners! However, the hybrid arisaema have not been offered for sale at all, and at this stage we have no plans to do so.

We have been delighted to see our Cordyline Red Fountain honoured with an award in Japan this week (it was Australia a couple of weeks ago).

And I have been having some fun on the website of our national museum with the DIY Monet facility – turning a photo into a Monet lookalike (of sorts).

The DIY Monet image, courtesy of the Te Papa website

The DIY Monet image, courtesy of the Te Papa website

Coming up next week: the Higo irises

Coming up next week: the Higo irises