Tag Archives: Abbie Jury

Faffin’ around

This lemon cymbidium orchid has not flowered before that any of us can remember but it is a little charmer. The lilac is a Dendrobium Bardo Rose.

I am a faffer in the garden. At times it feels like an indulgent use of time but really, the greatest pleasure I find in the state commonly called ‘retirement’, is being time-rich. I have the time to faff and I derive a great deal of pleasure from paying attention to detail to get things right, in my eyes at least.

Our gardener, Zach, brought us two orchids he picked up at the local orchid show, knowing that we wanted to extend the cymbidiums beyond the ones Mark and our daughter gathered several decades ago. We wanted clean colours that could light up a space and provide contrast to the rather large number of brown cymbidiums we have. Brown was the fashion colour back when our young daughter became the recipient of generous gifts from enthusiasts wanting to encourage her.

Zach and I placed them where we thought they would work and he planted them in slightly raised mounds of coarse woodchip and bark that we gather on site. As soon as I looked, I knew they were wrong but I was a bit reluctant to say anything after he had gone to the trouble of planting them. Then Mark came in and started to say, “I was walking down the far end of the Avenue Garden when something startled me.” I have lived with him long enough to be able to finish his observation for him – “a lime green orchid?” “Yes,” he replied. “I didn’t realise when it was sitting on the bench that it was such a synthetic, fluorescent colour. Maybe it would fit in better in a more shaded area surrounded by green foliage.”

Better when placed more discreetly and not out on its own shouting ‘look at me! Look at me!’ The photograph has come out more gold and the earlier lime colour seems to be changing as the flower matures.
I think the white will bed in more harmoniously than where we had it
I originally placed it by this massive red-brown orchid but it was too stark a contrast and instead of adding a light touch, it simply looked out of place. This one may be brown but it has at least nine very long flower spikes laden with bloom.

Zach, bless him, is very obliging and willing to see the garden through our eyes. We found what we hope are final homes for the new orchids. The white one was also misplaced and looked far too starkly bridal amongst the browns but fits in more naturally in another place entirely. While we were about it, he moved one I thought was hideous – a caramel brown in tone with a startling red throat – to a less prominent position where it fits in with the colours of the clivias as opposed to being beside a pretty, pink cymbidium.

Not my favourite cymbidium

I am much happier with the result. Zach has been quietly dividing and relocating bits to extend the orchid display and feeding them with compost. The plants are responding most gratifyingly after decades of benign neglect. What the cymbidiums may lack in subtlety, they make up for with their exotic character and the many weeks they last in good bloom in the garden.

Pleione orchids flowering now

The pleiones are pretty rather than exotic and very much a seasonal delight. Their flowers are much more delicate and they have a short season. They also need more attention each year to keep them going. Without looking after them and replanting most years, we would lose them. We like them enough to be willing to fuss over them.

Dendrobiums in pink and white, backed by the primrose calanthe orchids that are passing over now

The Bardo-Rose dendrobiums are also dainty but not as pernickety as the pleiones. They too can survive on benign neglect with minimal attention.

We have brown brown, red brown, murky brown, caramel brown and golden brown. Six flower spikes so we can’t complain.

Faffing about pays dividends in my book. We garden on a pretty large scale for a domestic garden but it is the detail within that larger scale and landscape that keeps it interesting for us all year round.

In Monet’s garden – taking garden grooming to ridiculous lengths

Attention to detail is not to be confused with immaculate gardening. I have been in a fair number of immaculate  gardens in my time – not a leaf out of place, not even a blade of grass. Preternatural tidiness. It is much admired by some but really only achievable by extraordinarily precise, tidy people who have a small garden, because it needs attention every day. And maybe these immaculate gardeners only maintain this pristine perfection when their garden is open to the public. Even if we aspired to that level of garden grooming it is neither achievable nor sustainable across the 10 acres that we actively manage as garden. Fortunately, it is not one of our garden goals. I have never forgotten the sight of four young gardeners at Monet’s  garden in Giverny, picking over the pelargoniums. They were not dead-heading; they were literally dead-petalling – picking off the spent petals from each individual bloom. I was riveted by the sight but honestly, I couldn’t think that it was worth paying four sets of wages to pick off dead petals for the visiting hordes. That is much too much attention to detail.

Magnolia time

Blue skies and space to let magnolias grow to their potential certainly helps the display

We are currently at peak magnolia and this year has been a relief. Flowering in the past two years has been – dare I say it – pretty damn disappointing. Very wet springs saw blooms weather-mark badly, infected by some form of blight, and turn to droopy brown slush. They were not inspiring at all and I was beginning to wonder if one effect of climate change might be to take out the impressive splendour of our flagship plant family. This year they are magnificent after a bit of a stuttering start. Mind you, we have been blessed with perfect conditions – clear, calm and dry with only the occasional storm or downpour.

June 13, which is very early for us. The display this year never actually improved on this although more snow fell.

The season started unusually early. The first flowers on M. campbellii var campbellii opened at the end of May before the leaves had even fallen and winter was upon us. Every year I like to get out and photograph our tree against the maunga, Mount Taranaki, and the first photo of that was on July 6, before the mountain even had its full cover of snow. Similarly, ‘Vulcan’, ‘Burgundy Star’ and M. campbellii var mollicomata ‘Lanarth’ all opened their first blooms in early June and early July which is mid-winter here. Interestingly, that early start proved to be a false start on all four of them. They never really recovered from it to give us their usual mass display of splendour. Some are limping on, still with flowers, but the overall display from them has not had the usual breathtaking oomph. There are always some disappointments and this is the first year I can remember when those varieties have been rather ho-hum. We are concluding that an early start can in fact be a problem more than a promise.

Magnolia ‘Felix Jury’ on the left with white ‘Manchu Fan’
Magnolia ‘Felix Jury’.

The main flowering on  the rest has more than made up for the disappointing. Day after day of blue skies have delivered us perfect blooms with none of the previous problems of blight turning petals to mush. We know it is a good season because Felix’s Magnolia ‘Atlas’ is looking splendid. When we first released it, Mark described it as being like a giant pink cabbage and one of the largest magnolia flowers in the world at the time. It is the only one of ours that seems to perform better overseas than here. Year after year, I have struggled to get good photos of unblemished blooms because it does not like our spring storms but this year, this year it is perfect.

Magnolia ‘Atlas’
Magnolia nitida, for those of you who like to see something different

We have many magnolias. I have no idea how many. We also have space so we can allow trees to grow to the size they wish. Some of our magnolias are species and some are named cultivars from other breeders but the vast majority of our plants are seedlings from the breeding programme and there are literally hundreds of those. While we have only ever named twelve Jury magnolias (eight from Felix, four from Mark and another four of Mark’s are in the pipeline for release), they are the pick from several thousand seedlings. The majority end up getting chainsawed out as being of insufficient merit to retain but some are very good. They don’t meet our stringent criteria for releasing a new plant but they are good enough to keep across the property.

Just an unnamed seedling but looking very pretty this week

Finally, I saw a death notice recently for writer, gardener and magnolia lover, the inimitable Biddy Barrett. We have always referred to this pretty pink seedling as ‘Biddy’s Pink’ as she was adamant it should be selected for release. Mark didn’t agree so it remains a one-off plant but R.I.P Biddy. Your pink lives on.

Biddy’s Pink – a reference name only. This one has never been named and released.
Biddy’s Pink – pinker than Iolanthe but otherwise very similar
Mark’s Magnolia ‘Honey Tulip’
Felix’s ‘Milky Way’
And a purple seedling to cover the current range of colours in deciduous magnolias

Orchids a-plenty

It is magnolia season and I have been photographing magnolias to share on a Facebook page I belong to, mostly populated with Northern Europeans which is how I learned yesterday morning that Mark’s Magnolia ‘Honey Tulip’ is performing well and bringing delight to a magnolia enthusiast in Ukraine. That seemed a little poignant. But this lovely yellow orchid has been sitting in my photo files waiting for its week to star so it is the turn of orchids to feature in this busy spring season.

I can’t recall seeing this yellow one flower before. Our garden apprentice, Zach, is a keen orchid man and I asked him if he had moved it to its current location, fed it or done anything to encourage it to burst into bloom and he thought not. It may be that after Cyclone Dovi, we have more light in this area and that spurred it on. It is lovely.

Brown shades are not my favourite but it earns its keep every year

Cymbidiums have long been imbued with an aura of luxury because of their role in floristry but have, perhaps, been somewhat overlooked as garden plants in areas where they can be grown. The flowers last for many weeks in excellent condition and then die off fairly gracefully. Of all the orchids we grow, they have the longest season in bloom and are very showy, even if they lack the more delicate charm or curiosity of many other members of the same family. And they are easy-care. We have had most of ours for decades and the only attention they ever had was to stake flower spikes when necessary. They are getting a bit more love from Zach who is dividing larger clumps to spread around and giving them a bit of compost from time to time but they still rate as low maintenance plants.

This one is growing in the fork of a tree and gets completely ignored until it comes into flower each year

Our style is to work them into woodland plantings in conditions of high shade and go for the natural look. I have seen them used in mass plantings and I am guessing that is an expensive option because it involves buying mature plants with spikes forming from a commercial grower. The problem with sourcing plants from a commercial grower is that their main market is floristry and the flowers can look a bit over the top in a garden – a bit too large. That is fine if it is the look you are after but it is not our preferred look.

This one is small, dainty even for a cymbidium. Bigger is not always better.
For context, it is in the bottom right of the photo, in Zach’s most recent orchid and fern construction to add some height in a formerly dull end-point of a border

We are not experts in orchids. Aficionados – and the incredibly complex family of orchids attracts its own devotees who often develop an extraordinary in-depth knowledge of different orchid species and groups – tend to be collectors who lavish a great deal of time and love to growing their orchids in pots, often under cover. But they aren’t often gardeners. Our interest in orchids is pretty much focused on what we can grow in the garden here. Over time, that has come down to a limited range as we have learned what will thrive and lost what does not.

Calanthes

Cymbidiums are the current stars, along with calanthes. We only have four different calanthes and I am sad I lost the pretty lilac one but we have A Lot of those four different ones, particularly the pale yellow one which I am told is Calanthe ‘Higo’ (C. sieboldii x C. aristulifera). As Zach and I stood admiring them, he commented that they look way better in the large drifts we have, that a single plant in a pot is not particularly remarkable. What a difference 50 years of allowing them to multiply in the garden can make. The calanthes last for several weeks in flower and having different ones means we will have them flowering from now through until the start of November.

Pleiones

Pleiones are another ground orchid. They are just starting to put up flower spikes so I had to find a photo from previous years. They are much more delicate in texture, their season is pretty short and they need more care and management to keep them thriving because their bulbs sit half in and half out of the soil and die off after flowering. But they are one of the prettiest orchids and worth the effort. Ours are all in white and shades of lilac and purple. There are lovely yellow ones and we built them up into the hundreds but they did not last in the garden. The yellow ones need more of a winter chill than they get here. We will give plants some care but not the level of mollycoddling required to lift them each season and reproduce the chill factor by refrigerating them and then planting them out again.

Dainty Bardo-Rose dendrobiums which we have in shades of pink, lilac, lemon and white

Dendrobiums can be fantastic garden plants and the Bardo-Rose hybrids are just opening their first flowers. They are another easy-care woodland option but much daintier and more refined than the cymbidiums. Later in  spring, will see the Satyrium corrifolium which is happy in the rockery and demands only admiration and no care, followed by the Dactylorhiza (maybe maculata) which is slowly and quietly in retreat – which is probably a reflection of our warmer winters in recent times.

I have just discovered that we have around 120 native orchids, almost all of which are so modest (read: tiny and often green or greenish flowers) that they might be described as visually insignificant. At least one of the native earina species appears naturally over trees all through the garden but only orchid devotees will find it thrilling to see. I went to photograph one but it is not in flower yet so must close with more cymbidiums.

Of matters related to fertility and sterility

Prunus ‘Felix Jury’ by our driveway. It is a handy, small tree with good colour but beware its seeding ways.

I received a phone call on Friday from a garden centre in another area. The caller wanted me to confirm that Prunus ‘Felix Jury’ was sterile. Their regional council had asked them to remove their plants from sale because they seed everywhere but their supplier had assured them it was sterile.

Reader, Prunus ‘Felix Jury’ is NOT sterile. The woman on the other end of the phone was perfectly pleasant and thorough and said she would immediately remove the remaining plants from sale. All credit to her.

I feel like I am shouting into the abyss when I say that Prunus ‘Felix Jury’ is not and never has been sterile. I have even written to a nursery and garden centre to advise them of this fact when I saw them advertising it as sterile. I was ignored. They are still advertising it as sterile. The original plant was raised here by Felix himself and it was Duncan and Davies Nursery who named it for him and put it into production. So it is a Jury plant but not one that we have any control over at all in the market place and Felix was never paid for it.

Our native tui, feeding from ‘Felix’

Times were different 50 years ago. We didn’t realise that campanulata cherries would become invasive weeds which are extremely difficult to eradicate because if you just cut them down, they grow again. The seed is spread far and wide by our native birds who eat the small cherries that form after flowering and excrete the inner pit or seed as they fly. Back then, they were just a pretty, flowering tree providing valuable food to tui, who adore them, in late winter. Now they are on the banned list – as in banned from sale, not banned entirely from gardens – in a number of areas and for good reason.

Once and for all: PRUNUS ‘FELIX JURY’ IS NOT STERILE.

If it was sterile, there wouldn’t be a problem because none of the seed is fertile so it can’t spread. The only Jury-bred campanulata hybrids that are sterile are ‘Pink Clouds’ and ‘Mimosa’ and they are sugar pink, not the carmine red of the campanulatas.

Prunus ‘Mimosa’, named by Felix for his wife. I took this photo to try and capture the korimako, our native bellbird, in the very centre.
I only add this photo because in the top left quadrant, you may spot the orange wings of a monarch butterfly feeding on ‘Mimosa’

We haven’t cut out our campanulatas and seeding cherries… yet. We derive a great deal of pleasure from watching scores of tui making the trees dance with movement as they feed and then fly on to the next tree. Mark is making mutterings about them. I think it likely we will keep the trees in the areas we actively garden; we are vigilant weeders and constantly pull out seedlings at a very early stage. We can manage them. But the ones on the margins and in wilder areas where we don’t spot the seedlings until they are too large to pull out by hand may get the chop in the next few years. It will be a big job because not only do they get the chop but the stumps have to be poisoned to prevent regrowth.  

I would be thinking twice before planting one and, were we still in the nursery trade, you can be sure we would no longer be selling them. Times change, knowledge grows and we need to recognise that and respond.

‘Felix Jury’ again

Spring has sprung

“Spring has sprung

The grass has riz

I wonder where the boides is.“

I had to do a little search on that bit of doggerel from my childhood and it appears there are multiple versions – although this one is the most common – and it may or may not have originated from Ogden Nash. But here we are; spring has indeed sprung. A visiting friend last weekend got out of his car and stood, momentarily transfixed by all the bird song he could hear so that was a nice way to start a visit. We don’t need to wonder where the boides are because they are here.

With Daffodil Day officially scheduled for the last day of winter next Thursday, all I have to offer today is a host of golden narcissi, that your heart, like William Wordsworth’s, may fill with pleasure and dance with the daffodils.

Ralph is no respecter of the garden but he does add a certain ambience to the ‘Peeping Toms’ beneath the old apple tree.

I see the pink and white Onixotis triquetra has been reclassified by some as a wurmbea but I am not sure I can cope with that; it is seen here with cyclamineus hybrids and our native brown carex grasses. We favour the early flowering dwarf narcissi and those within the cyclamineus group are hands down the best performers in our climate.

While we have many narcissi in more cultivated areas of the garden, it is the clumps that have naturalised well on the grassy banks of the park that make our hearts sing the most. There is something magical about seeing bulbs naturalised in more casual settings. This one is ‘Twilight’, a most successful cultivar bred by Mark’s dad, Felix Jury.

We favour early flowering varieties because they are pretty much over and dying down before the narcissi fly is at its most active. And we opt for the dwarfer types because we like their more delicate, somewhat refined appearance and they generally hold their heads up better. The larger the flower, the heavier it is and they are much more vulnerable to being beaten down by early spring storms.

The snowdrops are all but over, the magnolias are not yet peaking. This week belongs to the golden narcissi.