Tag Archives: Tikorangi: The Jury garden

Garden lore

I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large Garden.

Abraham Cowley The Garden (1666)

“There is a psychological distinction between cutting back and pruning. Pruning is supposed to be for the welfare of the tree or shrub; cutting back is for the satisfaction of the cutter.”
Christopher Lloyd The Well-Tempered Garden (1973)
018 (3) Garden lore – spring pruning

With spring now officially here – unofficially it arrived some weeks ago for many of us – it is the last call for hard pruning and clipping. The birds will be starting to nest and if you leave it any later, you will be carrying out the ornithological equivalent of mass infanticide. In addition to that, the sap will be starting to rise and it is generally better to prune when the plant is in a dormant or near dormant state. Grapevines in particular must be pruned right now. They weep for ages after pruning if you do it too late.

My definition of pruning and shaping is anything that requires a saw (be it a hand saw or chainsaw), loppers and secateurs. Hedge clippers, line trimmers and snips see you in the territory of clipping and shaping. If you are using a line trimmer on hedges or bushes in spring, do a check for nests first. Those mechanised tools are unforgiving and indiscriminate once they are going.

Raspberries and apples should also be pruned without delay.

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

The story of the red magnolias

Vulcan to the left, Lanarth to the right

Vulcan to the left, Lanarth to the right

Few people realise that the story of the red magnolias is a New Zealand story. Probably even fewer realise that when it comes to stronger colours in magnolias, we get the best colour in the world here.

I am talking about deciduous magnolias. The evergreen grandiflora types are resolutely white in bloom and adding colour to the softer-leafed, evergreen michelias is very much a work in progress. But deciduous reds, we do well.

Most deciduous magnolias are in the white and pink colour range and very lovely many of them are too. But with many plant genus, there is always that quest to extend the range of flower form and colour, to build on what happens in nature to get a better performing, showier garden plant. Some of it is about pushing boundaries to see what can be done. A truly blue rose is still an unfulfilled quest but it is highly likely it will come sooner or later.

Some would argue that we do not yet have truly red magnolias and there is truth in that. There is no scarlet, no fire engine red. All the red varieties on the market still retain a blue cast to them and fade out to pink or purple tones rather than to the orange end of the colour spectrum. But if you line one of the red magnolias up against a purple one, it is clear that they are a different colour.

This (liliiflora 'Nigra')

This (liliiflora ‘Nigra’)

I started by saying that the story of red magnolias is a New Zealand story. In fact it started as our family story. Back in the 1970s, Felix Jury wondered if he could get a large flowered, solid coloured red magnolia on a smaller growing tree. He started with the red species – M. liliifora ‘Nigra’. In itself, ‘Nigra’ is a nice enough, low spreading magnolia but nothing showy. He crossed it with the very showy, indubitably purple ‘Lanarth’ (technically M. campbellii var. mollicamata ‘Lanarth’). The rest, as they say, is history.

crossed with this (Lanarth)

crossed with this (Lanarth)

‘Vulcan’ took the magnolia world by storm. This was the break in colour and form. It is not perfect. We know that. The flowers do not age gracefully. It flowers too early in the season for some areas. It does not develop its depth of colour or size of bloom in colder climates and is a shadow of its own self in most UK and European destinations. But after more than 20 years, it is still hugely popular and very distinctive, particularly in Australia and New Zealand. It set the standard and it opened the door to other cultivars.

... and the result was this: Vulcan

… and the result was this: Vulcan

In due course, but slowly, slowly, Mark followed on from his father. He raised hundreds of seedlings and named ‘Black Tulip’ (the darkest of the reds), ‘Felix Jury’ and ‘Burgundy Star’.

Fellow breeder, Vance Hooper, started his programme on the reds and he has named several. The best known is ‘Genie’. Like Mark, he is continuing determinedly down the red magnolia line in the quest for perfection, although improvement or variation will do as steps along the way.

There are other reds on the NZ market now, though none from sustained breeding programmes to match those undertaken by Mark and Vance.

Black Tulip - the first of the second generation red magnolias

Black Tulip – the first of the second generation red magnolias

It appears that it is ‘Black Tulip’ that has enabled the rise of new selections in UK and Europe. It sets seed and every man and their dog is now raising seed and naming selections. Mark is a little wry as he comments that he raised hundreds of plants to get one ‘Black Tulip’ whereas others raise a few seed and name several. He has an ever-decreasing level of patience for amateurs who, as he says, “raise five seedlings and name six of them” based on the first or second flowering only, when he is still assessing seedlings which are 20 years old and showing their adult form, habit and performance.

So New Zealand is about to lose its position of world domination in the red magnolias. But we still get better colour here than others do overseas. There is no certainty yet as to whether that is related to our mild climate, our soils, the root stock used or the quality of light – likely a combination of all. ‘Felix Jury’, which can flower strong red for us is more an over-sized pink flamingo so far in European gardens. We are just relieved that it achieves full-sized flowers and plenty of them, even if it is not red in their conditions.

Magnolia Felix Jury at its best here

Magnolia Felix Jury at its best here

The quest for truer reds continues. A red that loses the magenta hue. Mark is assessing several with which he is quietly very pleased. They are not scarlet but they are an improvement in colour. Just don’t hold your breath. This is a long haul.

Finally, while NZ leads the world in reds, it was USA which gave us yellow magnolias. These all descend from one yellow American species – M. acuminata. I just say that for the record. Credit where credit is due.

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

The tyranny of monocultural gardening

We have abandoned the tyranny of the perfect lawn

We have abandoned the tyranny of the perfect lawn

Monocultures. We have been talking about horticultural monocultures – the cultivation of a single crop on a large scale.

I saw a monoculture in Malaysia – palm oil. The accompanying photograph was taken from a moving bus and shows a relatively recent planting. As palm oil plantations go, it is not one where native forest has been cleared for commercial purposes and no orang-utans were endangered for this one – that is happening in Indonesia more than Malaysia. But palm oil is an extensive monoculture.

Palm oil - the increasingly common monoculture of some Asian countries

Palm oil – the increasingly common monoculture of some Asian countries

In this country, we have a localised but more extreme example of the risks of monoculture in our golden kiwifruit. As I understand it, that was not only one crop – it was one clone. That means that pretty much all the golden kiwifruit plants descended from the same original specimen. So when that plant selection succumbed to the dreaded Psa bacterial disease, it affected all plants equally and threatened the very existence of the crop. The race is on now to find clones which are resistant to Psa.

You can’t buy plants of golden kiwifruit in this country because that one clone that was used and the replacement clone are restricted to licensed commercial growers only. In recent years, Mark has been raising seedlings from fruit we have bought and this year we had minor harvests. Because this fruit does not grow true from seed (it needs to be vegetatively propagated), our seedlings will be genetic variations. The fruit so far is not of the same size and consistency of the commercial selection and the taste varies between plants but it looks as if we may have some viable options amongst the crop to keep ourselves supplied.

Raising our own selections of golden kiwifruit gives genetic diversity

Raising our own selections of golden kiwifruit gives genetic diversity

But where do monocultures fit in when it comes to a gardening context? Matched avenues of the same tree. Massed plantings of a single selection in the modern landscape style. Lawns. Of those, lawns are probably the only monoculture in a technical sense, but they are a major issue.

Matched avenues can look fantastic when they are at their best. They give a beguiling formality and structure to a garden or landscape. When they are at their best. The problem is that plants are living things and don’t always oblige by growing uniformly. I am sure some readers will be nodding in wry agreement. Then there is the problem if a plant dies. Matched avenues with gaps are nowhere near as pleasing. And you are faced with a conundrum. Do you leave the gap? Or replace it with the same plant selection which will almost certainly be a different size and stick out like a sore thumb for years to come? And how do you know that the affliction that killed the missing plant isn’t in the soil and therefore likely to attack the replacement plant as well? Replace the dirt as well, maybe? It is often difficult when things go wrong.

Many modern landscapers favour massed plantings of a single plant variety. It is a broad brush technique which can be visually effective, if you like that look. But if you have a problem, you end up with the acne look which is not so nice at all. A few dead lavenders amidst your simulated fields of Provence, massed rust-spotted renga renga lilies which look as if they have chicken pox – this can easily be your lot if you favour the monocultural approach. Or indeed, you may lose the whole patch at once which can be expensive when it comes to a quick-fix replacement.

Nature of course does not generally grow as a single species. In the wild there is often a dominant species but around that, there will be a host of other plants in a natural mixed colony. That is what makes it nature.

Nowhere do we fight nature more than in the highly valued lawn. There, it is often decreed, the only plants to be accepted are the selected grass species – often rye and fescue. Anything else is an interloper to be weeded or poisoned out. That is a never-ending battle yet we persist in demanding the perfection of the monoculture of lawn grass. Lordy lou but I was reading about an obsessive English gardener this week who is so proud of his lawn that he tends it constantly and mows it with pride six times a week! I looked at the photo – a bowling green style with five brown patches where he had clearly sprayed out weeds.

We have made the conscious decision to abandon this futile quest for lawn perfection. As long as it is green, fine-leafed and able to be mown, it can stay. Perhaps more controversially, Mark tells me that he has decided the flowering clover and self-heal can stay. He likes the patches of colour and the fact that these flowering lawn plants feed the bees and butterflies. We are headed down the mown green meadow path rather than the garden lawn. No monocultures here. The more experience we get in gardening, the more we favour a natural style which works with, rather than against, nature.

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

Plant Collector: Magnolia Manchu Fan

Magnolia Manchu Fan

Magnolia Manchu Fan

The most spectacular flowering trees of the early spring season must surely be the magnolias. But not everybody has room for a large, spreading tree festooned with enormous blooms. Manchu Fan has long been one of our recommendations for a smaller growing white variety. It is not that the individual blooms are drop dead gorgeous and showy. They are just white goblets with a pink blush at the base but they have heavy textured petals (or tepals, as magnolia petals are more accurately described) which withstand weather damage. And there are lots and lots of them, produced on a small growing, upright, narrow tree that will fit in urban gardens.

Manchu Fan was bred by American hybridist, Todd Gresham, in the middle of last century. There are a fair number of his selections named – enough to be referred to internationally as ‘the Gresham hybrids’. Of the ones we have grown, Manchu Fan is the standout performer. After maybe 20 years, our plant is 5m high by 3m wide without any trimming or shaping. In overall performance, it is not hugely different to the better known M. denudata but, because it flowers later in the season, it escapes frost damage and the tree will remain smaller in the long term. It also has a longer flowering season.

Manchu Fan is in commercial production in this country and available on the market. For the purists, its breeding is (M. soulangeana ‘Lennei Alba’ x M. veitchii).

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

Garden lore

You buy some flowers for your table; You tend them tenderly as you’re able; You fetch them water from hither and thither – What do you get for it all? They wither.

Samuel Hoffenstein (1890-1947)

020 (4)
Garden lore- dividing polyanthus

Polyanthus are cheerful little souls flowering away at this time of the year but often treated as disposable plants with a short life span. Yet they clump up quickly and are easily divided to spread wider to get a carpet or patch that obligingly flowers when few other perennials do. I planted white polyanthus last year, all single crowns with just one rosette of leaves. This week, even though they are in flower, I have been digging and splitting the ones that have already multiplied well – the clump in the photo yielded five good sized plants. When perennials are in full growth, they can recover quickly from being divided.

Lift the clump and look at the base of the leaves. It should be clear where the different rosettes of leaves have formed. Sometimes you can gently pull them apart at the base. Sometimes you need to cut through the nubbly root formation just below the top. Each clump needs as many roots as possible. Trim off the outer leaves and replant into well cultivated soil, enriched with compost if you have it. You only need to water them in if conditions are dry. The replants should romp away with fresh growth and reward you with extended flowering well into spring. If you put the plants at maybe 30cm spacings, they have room to grow and you can inter-plant with something else entirely that will flower through summer.

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