Tag Archives: Tikorangi: The Jury garden

Garden lore

Subjugated gardens abound, and I can see why. Unless discipline is maintained from the moment the spirit-level is laid across the earth, you are nourishing a vast, tactile, heavy-scented siren which will keep you forever in its thrall.

Hortus by Mirabel Oliver (1990).

Choosing plant containers

While round bellied pots are often more pleasing to the eye, you will save yourself a lot of trouble if you only plant short term annuals or leafy plants in them. More permanent woody plants fill up the space with dense packed roots and it becomes very difficult to extract them for repotting when the root mass is larger than the opening at the top of the pot. All container plants need repotting at least every two years to stay in optimum health (and who wants an unhealthy looking container plant on display?) but to extract one from a round belly pot requires cutting the roots with a knife until you have it small enough to pull out. Too often you can end up breaking the pot. Straight sided vase shapes or cylinders are a much easier shape to work with for woody plants.

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

Plant Collector: Gesneria cardinalis

Gesneria cardinalis, or maybe Sinningia cardinalis

Gesneria cardinalis, or maybe Sinningia cardinalis

The tuber in growth. I have cut chunks from it to grow new plants.

The tuber in growth. I have cut chunks from it to grow new plants.

Gesneria or sinningia? We have always known it as a gesneria but it appears that Sinningia cardinalis is equally valid as a name. Whatever, this is a comparatively rare plant which comes from the same family as both African violets and gloxinias – the family having the near unpronounceable name of Gesneriaceae. Most hail from South America and cardinalis is from Brazil.

Unlike most members of the family (and there are somewhere over 40 of them), cardinalis grows from a tuber which pushes itself above the ground. We have described it in the past as developing a football-like tuber, but with the passage of time, ours are getting closer to exercise ball in size. The leaves are soft and somewhat hairy while the tubular red bells sit above the foliage and flower over a long season in late spring. Come autumn, all the leaves will fall off. This is a plant for dry shade but needs to be frost free.

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

Garden lore

Garden radishes are in wantoness by the gentry eaten as a sallad, but they breed but scurvy humours in the stomach, and corrupt the blood, and then send for a physician as fast as you can.

The Compleat Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper (1653).

Spring planting – NOW

If you have not planted out your summer garden, now is the time to panic. An unseasonably cool spring may have led many to delay, but delay no longer because the official start of summer is a mere two weeks away. Top priority needs to be given to the plants which require the longest growing season. This includes capsicums, aubergines, both rock and water melons, kumara and even tomatoes. Starting with plants now, rather than seed, is advisable to get a jump start this late in the season. Other techniques are to plant in black plastic (which heats up the soil faster) and to use a cloche for the early stages because this heats up the air around the plant to encourage growth.

The generosity of some gardeners and the vandalism by non gardeners

I smile each time I pass a property down our road. The frontage is a froth of flowers for much of the year. There is nothing choice. Most of them are common enough daisy bushes and pelargoniums which balloon out onto the road verge. It is just a delightful picture for the passing motorist – it being in a position where there is no foot traffic. What makes it a little bit special, to my mind, is that the sole reason for this planting is to bring pleasure to passersby. From my vantage point on the road verge, it looks as if the property owner would not really see this particular planting from their house windows or indeed from inside their garden. That shows a generous gardening spirit, in my opinion.

The contrast to the bleak hillside on the edge of my local town could not be more extreme. Until about two years ago, this hillside was fully planted in mixed trees and shrubs, many of which were flowering varieties. I am guessing the property was sold and that it was the previous owners who had planted it up two decades ago. We always enjoyed the roadside view, particularly because at the bottom, it had a well established specimen of our Magnolia Vulcan which the owners must have planted in a prominent position not long after we released it on the market. Being in town, the air temperature tends to be a degree or two warmer so this Vulcan would come into bloom every spring just ahead of the time it opens in our own garden. It was such a feature and was on the way to becoming a mature specimen.

Cleared entirely and left to weeds and erosion

Cleared entirely and left to weeds and erosion

The hillside is too steep to garden intensively or indeed to mow or graze, and it lacks sufficient space to be terraced so there is very little that can be done with it beyond establishing permanent plantings. It took a lot of plants to cover the area but over twenty years, they had grown to give an attractive cover which had knitted together in a patchwork of colour, foliage and flowers. It would have stopped most of the weed growth below, prevented the risk of slipping in rain and given an attractive drive in to reach the house at the top. It would also have required very little maintenance yet it brought a great deal of pleasure to passersby who stood to benefit the most. The house, perched on the top, looked over the plantings.

It must be two years ago now that I drove past as the hillside was being stripped. By stripped, I mean every tree and shrub was removed, even the Magnolia Vulcan at the base of the hill. My heart sank but I thought they must have plans to develop the property differently. Not so. After two years, all that remains are weeds, rank grass growth and clay. But wait – a billboard has appeared, advertising loans at 11.9% to people who cannot afford them to buy new cars. It’s a destructive travesty.

My guess is that new owners moved in and found the shrubs at the top of the slope were starting to block their soaring views across the town and maybe distant views of the river and sea. You have to understand that these are soaring views of a former freezing works town which is not noted for the beauty of its architecture. Rather than seeking advice as to how to frame views, to establish view shafts and to thin or selectively remove problem plants near the top of the slope, they went in and cleared the lot from top to bottom. Believe me, the house will have unimpeded views (and wind) at the top and the owners may never realise how much pleasure people used to receive because of the generous gardening spirit of the previous owners.

Fortunately, this planting facing State Highway 3 still grows and blooms

Fortunately, this planting facing State Highway 3 still grows and blooms

Fortunately a similar planting alongside the state highway survives. A different owner with another difficult slope of some area, she planted it around the same time. Many rhododendrons, camellias and flowering cherries grace this hillside along with a large specimen of Magnolia grandiflora at the base of the slope. Very little of it will be visible from the house and again it is relatively steep. It too has billboards but in this case they are faded old ones promoting the activity of golf, rather than the town’s newest finance company. Every day thousands of motorists pass the boundary and for three months in spring, many of them will notice seasonal blooms and maybe it will bring a smile to their day.

To me, that sets a standard for generous gardening, way beyond the sharing of cuttings and divisions. With no expectation of admiration or appreciation, these good folk create beautiful plantings in areas where they can see little from their own homes or outdoor living spaces. They are there to be enjoyed by passing strangers.

Plant Collector: Deutzia x rosea

Deutzia x rosea

Deutzia x rosea

Flowering deciduous shrubs are a mainstay of colder climate gardens but less popular in our temperate to warm climes. This means that many gardeners miss out on delights such as this little deutzia. In winter it is a bare bunch of twiggy branches, in summer it is an anonymous leafy shrub with smallish, pointed leaves but in late spring it comes into its own with a mass of small starry flowers. The flowers are comprised of five slightly pleated, bi-coloured petals which sit flat like a daisy with a centre boss of pale gold stamens. If you look closely, they resemble icing flowers or ones made from fabric. There are plenty of blooms held in clusters and it is very pretty and dainty.

Deutzias are a relatively large family of hydrangea relatives and most originate in parts of Asia which experience colder winters. They are cold hardy, unaffected by even heavy frosts. While there are a large number of different species and hybrids, D. x rosea is hybrid between gracilis and purpurascens. Like the majority of deciduous flowering shrubs, it prefers sunny conditions though it doesn’t seem to be too fussy on soils. I think it is best treated as a border shrub where it can shine when in flower and gently meld into the background when it isn’t.