Tag Archives: gardening

Plant Collector: Podocarpus henkelii

Podocarpus henkelii looks handsome all 12 months of the year

Podocarpus henkelii looks handsome all 12 months of the year

One of my favourite trees here is this African podocarpus. It must be fifty years old by now and stands some 8 metres high. About 25 years ago, we built part of our nursery around it but we made sure it remained unaffected. Now, as we turn that nursery area into garden, we are really pleased that we kept it as a feature tree for our planned Palm Walk. You can’t hurry up maturity on slow growing trees. Not that it has any connection to palms but it fits right in to that slightly exotic theme.

Henkelii comes from the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal area of South Africa. In the wild, it now has protected status but it is common as a garden plant in its homeland because it is an elegant, slow growing evergreen tree. It is commonly referred to as the Yellowwood because its timber is apparently yellow and excellent for making furniture. This may account for it needing to be protected. The narrow leaves measure over 20cm long and hang in a sickle shape. We know ours is a female because it produces plenty of seed which looks like green olives but as henkelii is dioecious, it needs both male and female plants to get fertile seed. In other words, the seed from our tree is sterile because it is a solitary specimen.

The podocarps are a big family and widespread, though mostly from milder areas south of the equator. Our native totara is a member.

In the Garden this Week: May 20, 2011

Arguably the most critical copper spray of the year on citrus now

Arguably the most critical copper spray of the year on citrus now

• Get a copper spray on to citrus trees as soon as dry weather returns. This is a particularly important spray to stop fruit rotting on the trees before it even ripens and to stop leaf drop. Mandarins are particularly susceptible.

• Sow broad beans and you can continue planting the reliable brassicas (except Brussels sprouts – it is far too late for them. Your Brussels should already be half a metre high by now if you are to get a crop in late winter).

• We are dubious of the practice of fertilising and routinely spraying your lawns because it is just all round bad environmental practice but if you insist on continuing to use hormone sprays, getting them on now rather than waiting for spring may contain some of the damage to neighbouring plants. Plants coming into fresh leaf in spring are extremely susceptible to the faintest hint of spray drift. Hormone sprays are used to take out undesirable lawn weeds. Hand weeding is kinder to the environment if you don’t want a bio-diverse lawn.

• Get the last of your autumn harvest in before you lose the lot. Any potatoes still in the ground will be getting eaten. We have finished the tomatoes here but the capsicums and peppers will hold longer in the shed whereas they rot in the garden. Gather nuts and dry them rather than leaving them to feed the local rodents.

• Polyanthus can be lifted and thinned. Replant the strong crowns to get a better display shortly.

• Keep an eye on leaf litter landing in fish ponds and water features. If you let it rot down in the water, it increases the nutrient levels leading to later problems with algae growth and it can even kill the fish by reducing oxygen levels. A kitchen sieve or butterfly net is a useful scoop for this task.

• Lily bulbs are now in stock at garden centres. These are best bought fresh so if you want to grow these wonderful summer bulbs, get in early. Pot them if you are not ready to put them straight into the garden because they don’t store well.

Tikorangi Notes: Sunday 15 May, 2011

LATEST POSTS: Friday 13 May, 2011

1) As autumn closes in, the rewarding sasanqua camellias come into their own and none I know are lovelier than Early Pearly.

2) Battening down the hatches in preparation for winter which will arrive soon – tasks for the garden this week including a message from the Chief Weed Controller here. In the garden this week.

3) Outdoor Classroom this week is in a new format on our website (which is just as well given the hash made of the photographs in the newspaper on Friday where readers would not, alas, have been able to see what to do) – looking at rejuvenating tired perennial patches. Outdoor Classroom.

If only they were coffee beans - excessive seed set on Michelia maudiae hybrids in particular
If only they were coffee beans – excessive seed set on Michelia maudiae hybrids in particular

TIKORANGI NOTES: Sunday 15 May, 2011

We have an extensive breeding programme running here on michelias (now reclassified as magnolias but most people still know them by their former name). The first of Mark’s cultivars is already on the market under the name of Fairy Magnolia Blush and attracting a gratifying amount of positive attention in Australia. The next two selections are being built up for release and subsequent ones are still at the trialling stage. This whole process requires the growing on of pretty large numbers of different crosses and Mark is frankly alarmed at the seed set on some plants – particularly those with M. maudiae in their parentage. If only they were coffee plants, we could be self sufficient in beans but alas the tendency to set prolific bunches of seed is not a desirable feature at all in michelias. The weed potential of some of these crosses is huge. Added to that, too much seed set means the plant is not putting its energies into producing further flowers and foliage. It is not enough to select a plant on a pretty flower alone – michelia selections need to be sterile or close to it to make them worthwhile taking to the next stage of trialling. These seed setters are destined for firewood here.

Outdoor classroom – rejuvenating tired perennial patches

[1] Many of us have areas of garden which look like this – tired and dull. Although this patch has been kept weed free, mulched and deadheaded, it is many years since it has been actively gardened. There is no alternative to a bit of hard digging.

tired and dull

[2] Dig out all the plants. You can see how heavily compacted the soil has become over many years. It was originally rotary hoed which made it light and fluffy but that was a long time ago.

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Placing the plants on a mat beside where you are working will reduce the mess.

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[3] Dig to at least the depth of the spade and dig again, breaking up any clods of dirt. This incorporates air into the soil and encourages worm activity. Rake the area to an even surface for replanting.

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[4] Different plants divide in different ways so look closely at the plants. The pulmonaria at the top of the photo will pull apart easily to three separate pieces, all with roots and growing crowns. The phlomis at the bottom of the photo could be cut into many plants but I will take this to just two strong plants, reducing each to only one or two growing points.

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[5] If you have dug well, you can replant using just a trowel. Try and avoid planting in rows – staggered drifts look better. I want a quick result so am planting at about 15cm spacings. Take the oldest leaves off the little plant, leaving fresh new growth tips. Remember that the soil is fluffed up and the next rains will compact it a little, so don’t plant at too shallow a depth. Only plant the strongest and the best divisions.

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[6] We give a light feed of an all purpose fertiliser – in this case our locally produced Bioboost – and then mulch. This patch was dug, divided and replanted about three weeks ago and has a mulch of wood chip from our shredder. It should be well established and look lush and vigorous in spring time.

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A step by step guide by Abbie and Mark Jury first published in the Taranaki Daily News and reproduced here with permission.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 6 May, 201

Latest Posts: Friday 6 May, 2011
1) Breaking the mould of the modern New Zealand garden – the dreams at Paloma. I admit I only worked out after writing this piece just why the two arboretums are named the Matchless Arboretum and the Norton Arboretum or I would have included reference to them by name.
2) The autumn colour on Taxodium ascendans “Nutans” in Plant Collector this week.
3) Garden tasks for the week as we descend into a somewhat wet and dreary spell but at least it is still mild enough to want to garden.

Taxodium ascendans "Nutans" in our park

Taxodium ascendans "Nutans" in our park

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 6 May, 2011
Driven indoors by yet another passing shower, I commented to Mark that the little corner garden by the garage that I was renovating was taking some time. “Ah,” he pontificated. “Regular maintenance and periodic overhauls – that is what it is all about.” I was slightly startled by this tripping off his tongue so readily but he admitted that he had just read that phrase in the paper. However it does sum up the nature of maintaining a large garden like ours, however pompous it may sound.