Tag Archives: Mark and Abbie Jury

Tikorangi notes: Friday 25 May, 2012

Latest posts:

1) Reviewing our mixed borders (and why the old fashioned activity of reading books can have quite an impact).
2) Iochroma grandiflorum (blue tubular trumpets non-stop for the past seven months or more).
3) Grow it yourself: rosemary
4) It has not been a good year for monarch butterflies in the garden – our garden diary from the Weekend Gardener.
5) Revisiting garden mulch options in Outdoor Classroom.

I can’t think I have ever written about maples (except maybe Acer griseum which is notable for its superb bark). Part of the reason could be that I have never got to grips with names of the cultivars we grow here. I recall Mark and I taking a tour of the British Hardy Plants Society around the garden one time. They were a knowledgeable crew but they also collected plant names as some collect autographs – it didn’t matter if they could never grow the plant in the UK. Every plant had to be recorded. Between us, Mark and I could name everything except… the irises and the maples.

At this time of the year, the maples come into their own. Some have lovely autumn colour. Most have a lovely form which comes into sharp relief as the foliage colours and falls. They are pretty in fresh growth in spring, and fit in very well over summer (as long as they are well sheltered from wind), but it is the bare form that I like the most. They clean up very well with a little pruning and grooming to make excellent skeletons in winter.

Plant Collector: Iochroma grandiflorum

Our Iochroma grandiflorum on a magical late autumn day

Our Iochroma grandiflorum on a magical late autumn day

We were looking out at our iochroma this week, marvelling that it was still in flower and making a wonderful picture in the late autumn conditions. We tried to remember when it started flowering and we are pretty sure it was in bloom by late October. A plant which flowers for seven months is not to be sneezed it. Technically it is a shrub, though at over 3 metres high it is a large one, yet it never gets very woody. The stems are quite brittle. Iochroma hail from Central and South America – this one is mainly found in Ecuador. It doesn’t mass flower but keeps producing an apparently inexhaustible supply of these pretty blue trumpets which are about 10cm long.

Iochromas belong to the solanaceae family (think solanums, like tomatoes and aubergines) and you may see a resemblance to its pest cousin, woolly nightshade. The leaves are large, soft and almost felted. Being large growing, brittle, soft foliaged and from warmer climes, you might think it is not a starter for colder, frost prone areas but it is remarkable resilient. Wind, frost, cold and heavy rain will knock it about, even defoliate it at times, but as long as it is well established, it can return to fine form very quickly as soon as temperatures rise. It sets its flowers on new growth so as long as it is warm enough to keep the plant growing, it continues to produce blooms. However, it is not a tidy little plant suited to immaculate little gardens but sits more as a large border plant in similar conditions to abutilons. Tui are reputed to love it feeding from the flowers.

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

Tikorangi Diary, Friday 18 May, 2012

Latest posts: Friday 18 May, 2012.
A mere three new posts this week.

1) Cyclamen purpurascens – one of the most rewarding of the species cyclamen in our garden.

2) Differing shades and grades of organic purity in gardening. Like being a part-time vegetarian here.

3) Grow it yourself – aubergines (if you can – there are easier crops to grow and timing is everything).

Tikorangi Notes; Friday 18 May, 2012

Back in summer, I wrote about my battle with the water weeds. Now it is time to own up and say that when I reached the first of the ponds, I retired. Mark has persevered and has now reached the point where he has all the sludge now accumulated in the lower large pond. It has reached the point where he needs to hire the sludge pump to finish the job once and for all – or rather once in a decade or maybe slightly longer.

Narcissus bulbocodium citrinus "Pandora" - the first in flower this season

Narcissus bulbocodium citrinus “Pandora” – the first in flower this season

At least we are both back into the garden though it was pretty disappointing when the magic autumn weather staged an exit this week and the temperature dropped. Writing and publishing garden advice and thoughts every week is an exercise in keeping us focussed but it doesn’t always mean we get around to following our own advice. This can make us feel a bit of a fraud at times. The hellebores still need to be cut down (getting urgent), the major project in the rose garden has yet to be started and Mark’s vegetable garden is severely under producing at the moment – though we should be able to hold famine at bay with potatoes and dried beans. But at least we are enjoying the autumn flowering of the massive evergreen tree hydrangea is in flower, looking decidedly impressive (pictured above). The earliest of the narcissi, N. bulbocodium citrinus “Pandora” is coming into flower. Before we know it, June will be upon us and the magnolia buds will be fattening.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 11 May, 2012

Monarch butterfly on Dichroa versicolour

Monarch butterfly on Dichroa versicolour

1) Garden diary – in praise of cheering pink sasanquas and being grateful for living in a mild climate.
2) Step by step instructions on how to prune raspberries – Outdoor Classroom revisited.
3) Passing the sniff test – fragrant and scented plants.
4) Metasequoia glyptostroboides Such a difficult name for a magnificent tree. It is no wonder it is oft referred to as the dawn redwood (a living fossil).
5) Grow it Yourself – cape gooseberries or, more correctly, Physalis peruviana.
6) Nothing to do with gardening, but there are new reviews on my book site (http://www.runningfurs.com) including three cookbooks – Jax Cooks, Dulcie May Kitchen and Nadia’s Kitchen – and assorted children’s picture books including a couple of exceptionally good ones.

I have an admission to make – the monarch butterfly was in fact dead. They’re easier to photograph that way and we have an alarmingly low number of live monarchs this year (blame the wet and cold summer – more on that topic later). There were not enough fluttering around for me to snap with the camera. In fact we still have an abundance of swan plants which are now interplanted with stinging nettle. Why stinging nettle? Because we are besotted with butterflies and we won’t get the beautiful red and yellow admirals in the garden unless we have their host food which, unfortunately, is stinging nettle.

Outdoor Classroom: pruning raspberries, step by step

 

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1) The timing of pruning raspberries is not critical as long as it happens before they come into growth in early spring. In fact it is widely recommended that you start taking out spent canes as soon as they have finished fruiting in summer (or in autumn for the twice fruiting varieties) but it is far easier when they have lost their leaves and you can see what you are doing. In our experience, it does not matter if we leave it until winter because it does not seem to affect fruiting or plant vigour.

 

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2) We grow our raspberries in a netted cage which is currently home to the new pigeons who are undergoing six weeks of acclimatisation before release. The pigeons were less than impressed at our intrusion.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA3) Strong gloves are recommended, along with sharp secateurs.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA4) This season’s new canes which will bear fruit next summer are red. The old canes, which are dying off, are brown and dry. Remove all old canes from the base of the plant. Thin out any weak new canes.

 

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5) Shorten the new season’s canes to a manageable length around 150 to 180cm. Dig out any suckers which are in the wrong place.

IMG_00316) Alternatively, hoop the canes over and tie them to a frame as shown here. This is now my preferred approach. While it takes a little more time, it keeps the rampant canes under better control, increases the fruit set down the stem and makes picking very much easier. I then feed each clump with a generous helping of compost.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA6) The prunings need to be burned or disposed of. We clip them to manageable lengths and gather them in a wool bale for convenience. You can’t compost prickly old stems. Town dwellers may like to dry them and then burn them on a woodfire or put them out with the rubbish. Ours will go on the burning heap.