Tag Archives: Tikorangi: The Jury garden

Garden lore

“Some ladies asked me why their plant had died. They had got it from the very best place, and they were sure they had done their very best for it… They had made a nice hole with their new trowel, and for its sole benefit they had bought a tin of Concentrated Fertilizer. This they had emptied into the hole, put in the plant, and covered it up and given it lots of water, and – it had died! And yet these were the best and kindest of women, who would never have dreamed of feeding a new-born infant on beefsteaks and raw brandy.”

Gertrude Jekyll, Wood and Garden (1899).

Cutting back to bare wood

Cutting back to bare wood

Renovating old camellias
Not all big old camellias are things of beauty. But they are one of the easiest plants to renovate and now is the right time to carry out drastic pruning. If you cut a camellia off at ground level, most will resprout and come again. Even glyphosate doesn’t kill them. However, if you want to keep the plant, don’t cut it back to the ground because what you will get is a thicket of new shoots in spring. Look for the natural shape of the plant and cut off just above where the branches are well formed – usually about a metre up on an old plant. This means that when it flushes into growth, you will have an attractive and established shape already.

You can cut right back to bare wood with no foliage left at all. It is only the very occasional, contrary camellia that will die instead of rushing into growth.

The plant will respond by pushing out a mass of new leaves and you should have reasonable cover by the end of the first summer and a lovely bushy specimen which is flowering again a year later. If you can see mottling or variegation on the leaves, make sure you disinfect your pruning tools before you touch any other camellias. Camellias are susceptible to virus but that is not necessarily bad. It is what gives variegated blooms. However, you don’t want to transfer virus to specimens that are free of it, hence cleaning your tools. Household bleach will suffice as a disinfectant.

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

Reviewing roses

Graham Thomas has stood the test of time

Graham Thomas has stood the test of time

Who does not love the rose? The flower, I mean, for few could love the bush. While there are exceptions, most rose bushes are not noted as attractive and interesting shrubs. We grow them for the blooms.

I am no rose expert so the arrival in my letterbox of the NZ Rose Review for 2013-2014 was welcome. As far as I know, roses remain the top selling ornamental plant in this country despite the changing habits of gardeners.

Gone are the days when gardeners were willing to get out with their sprayer every couple of weeks, huffing on all manner of poisons to counteract diseases and fungi. I never did it but others told me it was pretty expensive and it certainly was not good for the soils or indeed the lives of beneficial insects. But the devotees got fine roses out of it. Environmentally, the rose spraying regime will not go down in history as one of gardening’s finest moments and much tighter restrictions on the sale of garden sprays have forced a change in attitude and management for most gardeners.

But what is a garden without roses? I want roses with masses of beautiful flowers on bushes which will thrive and stay looking okay (and okay is all I generally manage) without spraying. I don’t mind pruning and I will dead head, feed and mulch. But we do not regularly drench or spray any plants in our garden and we sure ain’t gonna do it for roses.

Enter the Rose Review. The most interesting pages for me are at the front of this 48 page booklet. There are rankings of the top roses in various categories as voted on by experienced rosarians. This is the sort of shortcut to information that I find useful in the case of roses because I want to have them in the garden but I am not sufficiently dedicated to spend a lot of time getting to grips with the detail.

Paddy Stephens - the top ranked rose overall. Again. (Photo: NZ Rose Soc)

Paddy Stephens – the top ranked rose overall. Again. (Photo: NZ Rose Soc)

‘Paddy Stephens’ is a clear winner. It tops the Hybrid Tea list for the tenth year in a row. A higher accolade in my books is that it also ranks number one on the Healthy Roses list. So as long as you want a coral orange Hybrid Tea, this is the one to get. I don’t grow Hybrid Teas, but many others do and it is a matter of personal taste.

Interestingly, for patriotic Waikato readers, ‘Hamilton Gardens’ is a proven star, too. It is ranked number 4 in the Hybrid Tea class and 3 in the Healthy Roses class. I looked it up and I see it is a sport of Paddy Stephens, so it is hardly a surprise that it is also a top performer. These are the work of this country’s foremost rose breeder, Sam McGredy.

Hamilton Gardens - sport of Paddy Stephens (Photo: NZ Rose Soc)

Hamilton Gardens – sport of Paddy Stephens (Photo: NZ Rose Soc)

‘Dublin Bay’ is still up there as the best large-flowered climber. In an industry driven by constant new releases, it is interesting that this variety which dates back to the 1970s has remained top of the pile. It is another McGredy rose. The world of roses owes a huge debt to this man.

I much prefer the floribundas and the shrub roses. ‘Raspberry Ice’ is top in the floribundas, and ‘Sally Holmes’ in the shrubs, with the tried and true ‘Graham Thomas’ coming second. I have Graham and Sally was already on my shopping list for this year. I can see I should have bought her years ago. We can’t credit her to our own Sam McGredy. This is the first rose ever bred by an amateur (Robert Holmes of the UK) to be inducted to the elite Rose Hall of Fame. Also in that heady company are “Graham Thomas’, ‘Iceberg’ and ‘Peace’ which are well known, even to non gardeners.

Sally Holmes - tried, true and still a top ranked variety (photo: NZ Rose Soc)

Sally Holmes – tried, true and still a top ranked variety (photo: NZ Rose Soc)

Most Fragrant Rose is topped by ‘Margaret Merril’ for another year. Patio roses are even further down my list than hybrid teas so I shall just say ‘Irresistible’, if you must.

If you are beyond the novice stage (and I have no illusions that I am anything above a novice when it comes to roses), the greater part of the Rose Review booklet is reviews of newer releases. They are all rated out of 10 as garden plant, exhibition bloom, on health and fragrance, with grower reports from around the country. All entries are accompanied by photos.

This is not an infomercial but it looks mighty good value for $7.50 (including postage). If you want your own copy, you can contact the secretary of the NZ Rose Society, Mrs Heather Macdonell (email: secretary@nzroses.org.nz, phone or fax 06 329 2700).

Don’t expect to find any of the handy Rose Flower Carpets mentioned anywhere. These are produced by nurseries outside the small circle of specialist rose growers who are major contributors to this publication and the main market suppliers. There is another story in those sometime, perhaps.

Raspberry Ice (photo: NZ Rose Soc)

Raspberry Ice (photo: NZ Rose Soc)

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

Plant collector: Nandina domestica ‘Richmond’

Orange berries all winter on Nandina domestica ‘Richmond’

Orange berries all winter on Nandina domestica ‘Richmond’

There is nothing rare or unusual about Nandina domestica ‘Richmond’ but it gives cheerful colour for many months in the colder season – an orange antidote to the dominant winter pinks. I read an English article which described it as the Far Eastern equivalent of holly berries, for hollies do not berry well in warm or even in mild climates. Clearly it is not attractive to birds. Otherwise they would strip it in a matter of days. It does, however, pick well if you are into flower arranging.

The nandina occurs naturally across much of Asia, from the Himalayas to Japan. It was introduced to the west in 1804 from a plant collection in China. Overseas, it is widely referred to as the heavenly or sacred bamboo, but it is not a bamboo at all. In fact it is related to barberry – but not prickly – and a member of the beriberidaceae family. It is hardy, evergreen and not fussy about growing conditions from full sun to semi shade. Our plants are just over 2 metres high and maybe 1.5 metres wide. We give them the occasional thinning every few years and snap off the spent flowering stems but beyond that, they are genuinely easy-care plants. ‘Richmond’ is a form selected because it berries particularly well and is hermaphrodite. In other words, you don’t need a male and a female plant to get the berries, which nandinas normally require. The flowers are white but tiny and insignificant. It is all about the winter berries.

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

My favourite white camellias

Left to right: C. microphylla, sasanqua Silver Dollar, transnokoensis, drupifera, gauchowensis, yuhsienensis

Left to right: C. microphylla, sasanqua Silver Dollar, transnokoensis, drupifera, gauchowensis, yuhsienensis

When you think about it, it is likely that at least two thirds of camellias are pink with the remaining third shared by red and white. In this country, we have a passion for white flowers. Indeed it is seen as a mark of sophistication in some quarters to create a garden with only white flowered plants (Sissinghurst’s famed white garden meets new-age minimalism in the far flung colony), perhaps alleviated by the occasional addition of one extra colour – touches of red maybe, or black for the ultra sophisticates.

That love affair with white extends to camellias, especially where hedges are concerned. I would guess there are many more white camellia hedges than pink or red ones. While I don’t put the whites on a pedestal above their coloured cousins, there is a charm in pristine, white flowers – though not if they then turn to sludge brown and stay on the bush.

I mentioned Camellia gauchowensis last week. After many weeks, it is still looking splendid and has plenty of flower buds yet to open. We think this is a sasanqua – the Japanese camellias which start flowering in autumn. Many sasanquas have a sort of mossy, earthy scent which is peculiar to this family and C. gauchowensis certainly has it. Some optimists on overseas websites refer to its wonderful fragrance but it is just that typical wet moss sasanqua smell.

The sasanquas bring us the greatest range of good performing pure whites. Pretty much everybody knows Setsugekka with its medium to large semi double flowers and golden stamens. In fact it is not dissimilar to C. gauchowensis, or Weeping Maiden for that matter. There is a whole string of them that are similar, varying more in habit of growth than in flower. C. gauchowensis is probably my favourite only because that is the one I have planted in a prominent spot where I see it frequently.

Early Pearly, one of the loveliest white sasanquas of them all

Early Pearly, one of the loveliest white sasanquas of them all

For beauty of white bloom in the sasanquas, it is hard to go past Early Pearly. It has what is described as a formal flower (a full set of petals with no visible stamens, held in tidy, overlaying circles). If I were to go for a white sasanqua hedge, I would probably pick Early Pearly but it is a matter of taste (and availability). It is the only white sasanqua I know with that flower form.

Away from the sasanquas, there are a fairly large number of species with small, white, single or semi double flowers. Tsaii is well known, though not my favourite. I think as it gets ever larger, it can be a little sparse in the foliage department. I have commented before about our choice of C. microphylla as both hedging and specimen plant. It has all but finished flowering for the season. We are also fans of C. transnokoensis (colloquially abbreviated to ‘transnok’) which has good dark foliage and masses of tiny white single flowers. In fact we are so keen on it that we have just planted two lengths of hedging and it is starting to open its flowers now. We are impressed by the somewhat obscure C. drupifera with its compact habit, dark foliage and plenty of mid-sized pure white flowers.

These single and semi double types have two big advantages. Many feed the birds in winter because the pollen and nectar are readily available in the visible stamens. They also fall and disintegrate quickly, so there is no sludge of spent blooms below. Most have blooms which are pretty short lived but to compensate for that, they set masses of flower buds so there are fresh flowers opening as the spent ones fall.

Whites are far more problematic in the japonica and hybrid camellias. These types tend to have flowers with much more substance – stiffer, more solid. This is where the show blooms come from and there is a wider range of flower form and blooms are often much larger. They also hang on to the bush for longer and the problem with white and pale blooms is that they show all weather damage and then hang about for longer in a brown and white state on the bush.

This one is Superstar. We can't pick it from Lily Pons

This one is Superstar. We can’t pick it from Lily Pons

The only ones I can honestly recommend in these larger flowered, mid season blooming types are Lily Pons or its twin sister, Superstar. We have never been able to pick the difference between the two. They are more semi doubles with fluted petals and golden stamens, showing better weather tolerance and more graceful ageing than other large whites of this type. We have never found a top performing, formal white japonica which doesn’t show every blemish.

In the end, it will come down to availability these days. The range of camellias offered for sale in this country has contracted dramatically. You may have to settle for what you can find, but take heart. There is a fairly high degree of flexibility possible because many actually look similar. In the end, choose on overall performance as a garden plant, not on the beauty of a single bloom.

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

Plant Collector: Lachenalia aloides quadricolor

The first lachenalia of the season: L. aloides quadricolor

The first lachenalia of the season: L. aloides quadricolor

The first of our lachenalias has come into bloom. ‘Quadricolor’ refers to the four colours in the blooms of this particular variety – lime green tubes with maroon tips are attached to the stem by a cap of orange and yellow. The commonest lachenalia that is seen in New Zealand is the somewhat garish, strong growing scarlet and orange which looks to me as if it should be sold amongst the plastic flowers in the red sheds. It is not in bloom yet. It used to be sold as ‘Pearsonii’ but that is an incorrect name, peculiar to this country. It is just a different form of L. aloides which is a variable species. We also grow L. aloides tricolor which is much later flowering and lime green with pale yellow and orange and the very different L. aloides var vanzyliae which is a striking pale blue and white with green tips.

Lachenalias are native to South Africa, predominantly the Cape Province. Most are winter flowering and summer dormant. We have different varieties flowering from now until early November in the garden. Many are easy enough to grow in sunny positions with good drainage, as long as you don’t get very heavy frosts. The foliage is not overpowering and doesn’t hang on too long after flowering finishes which makes for a tidier garden bulb. The highly desirable blue species come later in the season and not all are as easy to grow as L. aloides.

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