Tag Archives: Christmas in summer

A white Christmas

Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, we don’t ever do traditional white Christmases. This is on account of us being in summer and currently two days past the summer solstice. It is a very different experience here in the south of the southern hemisphere. I was surprised when I looked around over the last week by quite how many white flowers we have in bloom at this time.

I felt my all white flower lay was not really festive enough for the day before Christmas so I added just a touch of red. Meri Kirihimete, as many (but not all) of us now say in Aotearoa. May your festive season be full of love and laughs, or at least tranquillity.

I have never wanted a white garden myself, but I have looked at them and thought about them in the past. It was UK designer and gardener, Dan Pearson who made me think about the different shades of white which is a very important consideration if any readers are contemplating planting one. Not all whites are the same, not at all. And I wrote about more contemporary approaches to white gardens after our 2017 visit to Italy, France and the UK. Garden styles have evolved since Vita Sackville-West put in her famous white garden at Sissinghurst.

Meantime, please join me on a foray around parts of our summer gardens this week.

There is something very charming in the simplicity of a carpet of white daisies seemingly suspended in the air in the twin borders. Alas these ones only bloom the once and then need to be cut back to the ground level rosettes but they are showy enough for me to forgive them.

The common ox-eye daisies, however, are lighting up the Court Garden. Soon we will cut them back hard and they will be in full bloom again in six weeks.

Rhododendron sino nuttallii was still in full bloom at the start of last week. My favourite rhododendron of all, it flowers late in the season and the only drawback is that warm weather can cut its flowering season short.

Albuca nelsonii is inclined to be large, sometimes unwieldly and in need of some targeted staking, but it is very showy and handsome and the flowers are perfect for adding to Christmas bouquets.

Lychnis coronaria would be a perfect choice for a white and grey garden. We just let it seed down gently in the Wave Garden. I can’t believe I have lost the shocking pink form – I thought it was indestructible.

Alstromerias in white with a sunny yellow throat – but they are probably not white enough for white garden enthusiasts?

Spring was surprisingly late this year, considering our winter was mild, and the lateness of the season has also affected the lilies. Usually, I can pick Lilium regale for Christmas but they have yet to open. The only lily currently in bloom is this compact one in the rockery and I don’t even know what it is. Beautiful flowers, but alas it has no scent.

Finally, I know next to nothing about cacti and succulents and I have no plans to remedy that gap in my knowledge. As a group of plants, they do not inspire me enough to put the effort in but this one in the Rimu Walk delighted me this week. I don’t think I have ever seen it flower before but maybe I just haven’t looked at the right time. Flowering in subtropical woodland, it lit up the area.

Meri Kirihimete one and all.

Kindest regards,

Abbie

An antipodean Christmas greeting

It took a pocket full of dog biscuits to persuade our pair to pose for a festive snap down in the meadow. From left to right, Sharon, Kevin, elderly and deaf Spike and food-focused Dudley at the front. The story of how and why the reindeer are known as Kevin and Sharon is a family joke that may well be lost in the retelling.

I had always regarded our Christmases as a traditional affair – our own traditions adapted for an antipodean summer season – the preparation, the food, the protocols of how the day must proceed. We are lucky in that our children continued to place a high priority on coming home for Christmas well into adulthood, even when it meant exorbitantly expensive, festive season, international airfares. I figured that they came home for those very family traditions.

But times change, and this year only one could get back. And it made me realise how our family traditions gently evolve, particularly with regards to food. Mark and I are about 90% vegetarian nowadays but returning daughter made it very clear that the Christmas ham was non-negotiable. When I realised this, it created a problem. Of all the meats, the industrial production of pork distresses me so it had to be a free-farmed ham. It was a mission, I tell you, to find a free-farmed ham that was not so large that it would feed 40 people. I think I may have found the last small sized one in town. I was triumphant.

It was doing the final Christmas shop that made me realise how much we had changed the way we eat. We are determinedly reducing the amount of packaging and plastic that comes into our house. And apparently our taste buds change. So that final shop was heavily focused on tropical fruits and good cheeses. And a better class of wine than we used to drink when we were younger and poorer. While we produce the greater part of the food we eat these days (and at least the raspberries are our own), the likes of mangoes, pomegranate and tropical pineapples are beyond us unless we build a tropical house. Nor do we have the right climate to produce peaches and apricots that are shipped here from drier parts of the country with hotter summers. This is now a household that is light on chocolate and junk food, very light on meat but we can offer plenty of good cheese and fruit and wine! And ethical ham….

Seasons greetings and may your festive season be full of laughs, love, companionship and good cheer.

A New Zealand Christmas post would not be complete without a photo of what we call the New Zealand Christmas tree that grows all round the area where we live and flowers at this time – our pohutukawa or Metrosideros excelsa. We prefer it to the prickly holly.