Tag Archives: gardening

Tikorangi Notes: November 11, 2011

How curious is Hippeastrum papilio?

How curious is Hippeastrum papilio?

Latest Posts: 11/11/11

1) The exotica of Hippeastrum papilio in flower this week. To me it looks more like an orchid than a butterfly.

2) So you think you might like to open your garden to the public? Abbie’s column (based on 24 years of experience here).

3) Grow it yourself – parsley, a vegetable garden staple of underestimated value.

4) Cordyline Red Fountain receives high praise in Australia.

5) In the Garden this fortnight – the first of a new series written for the Weekend Gardener, detailing what we have been up to in our garden.

Tikorangi Notes: 11/11/11

Rhododendron Ivan D Wood

Rhododendron Ivan D Wood

With the end of our garden festival (formerly the Taranaki Rhododendron and Garden Festival but these days the equal mouthful of Powerco Taranaki Garden Spectacular), we woke up on Monday feeling like zombies. Ten days of standing on concrete and meeting and greeting of visitors takes its toll when the pressure comes off.

Dichelostemma Ida Maia

Dichelostemma Ida Maia

Our flowering remains late but no doubt the season will catch up soon. The curious Dichelostemma Ida Maia (formerly a brodiaea) has been attracting frequent comment and Rhododendron Ivan D Wood is justifying its place with its annual flowering – lovely colour range but the foliage is pretty unappealing for the remaining 50 weeks of the year. It wants to live in a colder climate than ours.

We are stripping out the retail area and are no longer selling plants, though the garden remains open. The plant sales list has been taken off this site until next September or early October. We will not be selling again until Labour Weekend next year when there will be a two week period of sales. We have just had enough of selling plants and would rather enjoy gardening and gardening conversations.

It was undeniably pleasing to see Gardening Australia name Cordyline Red Fountain amongst their top 20 plants in the last 20 years. Equally pleasing to see Fairy Magnolia Blush named amongst their top 10 recent picks for long term success.

Plant Collector: Hippeastrum papilio

The exotic looking Hippeastrum papilio

The exotic looking Hippeastrum papilio

Papilio is Latin for butterfly, though it would be a pretty spectacular butterfly to rival this lovely bulb from Brazil. I think it is more orchid-like in its markings and colouring of burgundy, green and cream. In fact it is positively exotic and is a showstopper if you can get it flowering in the garden.

Hippeastrums are often misnamed as amaryllis. They belong to the Amaryllidaceae family but that does not make them amaryllis – that would be like saying parsley is the same as carrot because they come from the same botanical family. H. papilio is a species (which is as it occurs in the wild) although much hybridising has been done within the wider hippeastrum family to get spectacular named cultivars for showy pot plants. It grows from large bulbs and there are usually two flowers to each stem, each bloom being about 18cm across and held up well, without needing support.

The biggest problem here is the dreaded narcissi fly which lays its eggs at the base of the leaves. The larvae hatch and burrow down, eating the bulb from inside out. For this reason, we grow H. papilio as a woodland plant in a raised bed rich in humus. The narcissi fly seem to prefer the sunshine. The raised bed means excellent drainage which solves the other problem which is the bulbs rotting out in wet and cold winter conditions. We find it is largely evergreen here, keeping its foliage all year in normal conditions.

The bulbs are large and slow to increase so best left undisturbed for several years. H. papilio is sometimes offered for sale in garden centres but be prepared to pay a fair amount for it because it can take several years to get the bulb to flowering size.

The other hippeastrum species that we have great success with in the garden here is the beautiful winter flowering H. aulicum, also from Brazil.

Grow It Yourself – Parsley

The parsley patch - naturalising nicely with the pretty but weedy forget-me-nots

The parsley patch - naturalising nicely with the pretty but weedy forget-me-nots

I am a huge fan of parsley. If you have a good big patch of it in the garden, you are never without a green veg, a garnish, a flavouring and a basic ingredient for all season pesto. Chop it through pasta, serve a thick layer on soup, use abundantly in coatings for foods – the options for use are numerous as long as you have plenty available. It is particularly useful in the depths of winter when you may have a shortage of other fresh greens. And you can feel virtuous because it is full of goodness if you eat enough.

The critical aspect of ensuring that you have an uninterrupted supply is to get it established two years in a row because this is a biennial plant. In its second year, it will set seed and die. As long as you leave at least one plant to go to seed, parsley can naturalise itself and pop up gently throughout the vegetable garden or even in the flower beds. Once you have established it two years in a row, it should continue under its own steam as long as you let some of the seedlings grow and are not too vigilant on the weeding.

There are two types of parsley – curly leafed (which is arguably more flavourful and easier to chop) and flat leafed Italian (which is allegedly sweeter and is certainly more trendy in modern recipes). Both grow in the same conditions so you can have either or both. Parsley is usually started in the first instance from seed. Be patient. It can take several weeks to germinate. While it is starting, it needs to be kept moist so if you are planning on sowing some, start before the dryness of summer. After that, just let it grow and start picking. It does not require any care and is generally free from pests and diseases.

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

Cordyline Red Fountain receives high praise in Australia.

Cordyline Red Fountain and Mark Jury

Cordyline Red Fountain and Mark Jury

Gardening Australia, the top rating magazine and TV show, has named Cordyline Red Fountain as one of the top twenty new introductions in the last twenty years. It was the first of a new generation of clumping cordylines which does not develop a trunk allied to deep burgundy colouring. The hybridising was done by the late Felix Jury at Tikorangi in Taranaki and the plant was raised by his son, Mark Jury. It is widely available in garden centres both in New Zealand and overseas.

In the Garden: November 4, 2011

The start of a new fortnightly series first published in the Weekend Gardener and reproduced here with their permission.

An easy method of killing unwanted moss

An easy method of killing unwanted moss

With our garden festival currently in full swing (now styled the Powerco Taranaki Garden Spectacular), all our efforts in the garden have been on presentation for the most important days of our garden visitor year. We call this garden grooming – a bit like giving your car a valet treatment. It doesn’t last long but it looks great in the meantime. When it comes to the lawns, we have made a deliberate decision to avoid chemical use where possible, both for weed control and fertilising. We use a mulcher mower, an edger and we hand dig flat weeds. As long as the rest is comprised of small, fine leafed green plants which mow well, we are willing to live with a mixed colony rather than just rye grass and fescue. At least our lawns are not toxic.

We don’t worry too much about moss in the lawns – it occurs most in shade where the grasses struggle. And if we were Japanese, we would revere the moss. But with our high rainfalls and humid conditions, we get a lot of moss growth on paths, brickwork and stonework. Often I will sprinkle soda ash (which is simply powdered washing soda crystals available from bulk bins) which kills the moss overnight. Indeed, cold water washing powders work equally well though I have found the leading brands are better than the budget brands – perhaps they have more water softener in them. Our chemist daughter reassures me that there should not be any problems of toxicity in using soda ash or washing powder to kill moss though if you get too carried away over time, you will be altering the pH of your soils because they are alkaline. I have experimented on grass and it kills moss without harming the grass. Do not do as someone I know – use so much that when it rained, his entire lawn foamed. The moss dies but does not disappear so you have to rake it out of lawns and brush it off hard surfaces.

Rhododendron seed head, missed from last year

Rhododendron seed head, missed from last year

Top tasks:
1) Deadheading rhododendrons. While conventional wisdom is that all rhododendrons including vireyas need deadheading, in fact only those that set seed need it. Setting too much seed can weaken a plant and even cause it to die over time. The others just look better for having it done.
2) Mulching garden beds. There is no point in mulching dry soils so we like to get it on before summer. We mulch frequently with homemade hot compost mix which means we rarely need to fertilise garden borders.
3) Getting the planting out of this season’s trees and shrubs completed. November is getting late for this but we soak all root balls thoroughly and can generally rely on regular rainfall here in North Taranaki.