Tag Archives: Mark and Abbie Jury

Plant Collector: Dracophyllum latifolium (or neinei)

This is a seriously cool small tree to have in the garden. What is more, it is a native. It is often referred to as a grass tree because the long, thin leaves grow in tufts at the tips of branches but Mark has always thought of them as being like the trees from a Dr Seuss picture book with their wavy candelabra branch structure.

D. latifolium is reasonably widespread across the upper half of the North Island, occurring naturally as far south as North Taranaki but you don’t see a lot of them in the wild. They are an under canopy tree but not in dense forest as they prefer more light and less competition. In a garden situation, this tends to translate to woodland conditions – never too wet but never drying out and with filtered light. They are happier in company, so even though they are curious enough to warrant pride of place, they don’t want to be specimen trees standing alone. Apparently they have been recorded up to 10m high in the wild but our specimens have never got much over 2.5m in several decades.

The particularly curious Dracophyllum latifolium
The particularly curious Dracophyllum latifolium

It is now thought that our dracophyllums originated in Australia and arrived here (presumably by wind blown seed) a mere few million years ago, since when they have evolved into 40 different species. They have alkaloids in the foliage which make them unpleasant to browsing animals and these also inhibit fungal growth so the fallen leaves don’t break down but instead form long lived carpets beneath the tree.

The trick to gathering seed is all in the timing. Gather it too early and the seed will not be ripe. If you leave it too late, the seed pod will have dehisced – cracked open on the tree and released the seed. If you do gather seed, sow them immediately in seed trays and be patient. We do not get seedlings sprouting up naturally in our garden, despite having several trees.

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

Grow it Yourself – melons

The melons offer an annual challenge here because timing is of the essence. All melons like a hot summer so the further north you are, the more successful you will be. They also have a relatively long growing season of at least 3 months and you need heat at the end of the season to get sweet fruit. The trick is getting them out at the optimum time – early enough to get well established but not so early that they get checked in growth by inclement spring weather.

Melons grow on a vine, similar to a pumpkin or a courgette, each plant taking up at least a square metre. If you want to grow them vertically up a trellis, you will probably have to construct little hammocks for each fruit to support the weight. Because of the long growing season requirements, it is usual to put them out as small plants rather than starting from seed. You can try and hasten the initial settling in process by using a cloche or by planting into black plastic (which helps the ground to heat up more quickly). Mark has tried a new approach this year of building fresh compost beds in mounds for the melons, using grass clippings to generate initial heat. Ever the vigilant gardener, he has measured the temperatures and the mounds are sitting at around 35 degrees during the day, dropping to 18 degrees at night. He is hoping this is enough to really kick start the crop this year. It also has the advantage of supplying plenty of nutritious, organic material which the plants require.

Plants need to be well established and running profusely by Christmas if you are to have any hope of a decent harvest and even then, you are relying on a warm, dry autumn. So do not delay planting if you want to try growing them.

Water melons are a little more successful in marginal climates, though many of us may think they are a poor second to a good rockmelon.

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

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 18 November, 2011

The fragrant nuttallii rhododendrons are late season bloomers here

The fragrant nuttallii rhododendrons are late season bloomers here

Latest Posts: Friday 18 November, 2011
1) Plant Collector – the showy Geranium madarense

2) Yet another NZ book best left on the booksellers’s shelves. I call it candyfloss gardening.

3) What’s in a name? Quite a bit, sometimes. Abbie’s column.

4) Grow Your Own – carrots this week

5) In the garden this fortnight

6) Future success predicted for Fairy Magnolia Blush – in Australia.

7) On the case with Grandma’s violets – a step by step guide on digging and dividing congested groundcover.

The area we refer to as "the park"

The area we refer to as "the park"

The two most admired areas of our garden are the rimu cathedral walk (“under the rimus” as we call it) and the informal park area in spring time. The park is somewhere over 4 acres in size with the upper waters of the Waiau Stream meandering through. We have deliberately kept the area quite open and informal, featuring specimen trees and an abundance of seasonal colour from magnolias, then prunus, rhododendrons, azaleas and other flowering shrubs. It is that very informality that seems to appeal to garden visitors. Only the very observant pick the detail which underpins such a casual appearance. Bulb meadows don’t just happen of their own accord, at least not in our climate. Nor do clear flowing streams stay that way without some intervention – our torrential rains see flood waters full of suspended silt on a regular basis. But it all seems worthwhile every spring when the park is in bloom and with our unseasonably cool season this year, that flowering has extended by weeks. The nuttallii rhododendrons are in full bloom now, as are the later season maddeniis.

Our garden remains open. If we are not around, we leave an honesty box out. However, plant sales have well and truly finished and we have taken to the end of retail like ducks to water. We would much rather be gardening.

I was, however, disconcerted by the garden visitors earlier this week – an older couple who came out of the garden, making the usual positive comments of how lovely it all was, when he came out with an extraordinary statement: “It must all be such a heavy burden for you.”

I think it said more about him than us!

Plant Collector: Geranium maderense

Geranium maderense

There is nothing rare about Geranium maderense but it is certainly eye-catching if you have not seen it before. The only tricky part seems to be getting the first plant to grow. It then sets seed prolifically and it will continue coming up for years to come. I weed out most of them, leaving two or three to grow on to flowering size each season.

This is the largest of the geranium family and it is biennial. It doesn’t flower until its second year and then it puts on a huge show, sets seed and dies. By this point it is at least a metre high and a metre across so it does require space. Curiously, its lower leaves (which are large and attractive in their own right) become elbows resting on the ground to enable the plant to stand upright without support when flowering time arrives. It comes from the island of Madeira and to save you looking it up, this island group belong to Portugal and is located southwards to the west (or left) of North Africa. So this geranium comes from a hot, dry, maritime climate and is not particularly hardy to cold areas but it seems to be resilient in a range of soil conditions.

Elbows!

Apparently the Romans used to call Madeira the Purple Isles which seems appropriate given the most common form of G. maderense is in cerise to purple tones. There is a white form available. Terry Hatch from Joy Plants on the northern border of the Waikato gave us three plants of the white form but, alas, they failed to survive with us. This may be because we didn’t get around to planting them out quickly enough though others have told me they have tried and lost the common purple form too. If you are going to try growing G. maderense, go for a position which offers warmth, sun, good drainage and space.

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

Postscript: I have just been alerted to the existence of an endangered geranium in Hawaii which would almost certainly beat G. maderense on size. Geranium arboreum can reach up to 4 metres high, though it does not appear to be as showy in bloom as the second place-getter in the big geranium stakes.

Grow It Yourself – carrots

First time we have had to net in the carrots but Peter Rabbit paid a visit in the night and nearly put paid to a row of very expensive gourmet carrots

First time we have had to net in the carrots but Peter Rabbit paid a visit in the night and nearly put paid to a row of very expensive gourmet carrots

Generally, carrots sold in the supermarket are high quality, cheap and grown in New Zealand so the main reasons for growing at home are if you are aiming for self sufficiency, you want to be organic, you really like eating them at a juvenile stage or you want to try some of the less common varieties. They now come in purple, yellow, red and white as well as in a squat radish shape. As far as the traditional orange carrot goes, there are higher value crops to grow if space is tight in your garden. The critical aspect is soil preparation. Carrots do best in sandy or grainy soils so you need to make sure that yours is very well tilled and cultivated.

Carrot is direct sown from seed and that seed is extremely fine. We usually cover the row with a narrow strip of Novaroof to stop the seed from being washed out by heavy downpours. Once the seed is germinating, start thinning the crop and keep thinning it several times to get final spacings of 3 to 5cm. This allows each root space to grow.

It is usual to sow carrots in an area where you grew leafy vegetables before but don’t add more manure, compost or fertiliser. They certainly don’t want nitrogen which encourages leafy growth. Fresh animal manures can cause the roots to fork.

The main pest is carrot fly whose larvae chew holes in the carrots. We find early crops sown in September or October usually mature before the fly is on the wing. There are some carrot fly resistant strains. Other than that, we just cut out the larvae holes and trails because we prefer not to use insecticides in the vegetable garden though Diazinon is effective if you wish to try that. Crop rotation (growing them in a different area each year) also helps reduce the build up of pests.

The different carrots are available from Kings Seeds for New Zealand gardeners.

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