Tag Archives: Tikorangi: The Jury garden

Tikorangi Notes: Tuesday 14 September 2010

The original Magnolia Iolanthe is a sight to behold in full bloom

The original Magnolia Iolanthe is a sight to behold in full bloom

There will be no updates for the next three weeks owing to the fact that I am flying to Spain and Portugal today and Mark, who remains behind here at Tikorangi, is computer illiterate. New posts are all scheduled for www.abbiejury.co.nz and will appear each Friday as usual, but linking through to each from this site was one task too many to complete before I left.

In the meantime the garden is open daily and the magnolias and spring bulbs are looking splendid. Mark will be available for plant sales on Fridays and Saturdays as usual but he is less enthusiastic at other times unless by appointment. I plan to be far away eating tapas and drinking sangria in a country I have not visited before, although the thirty six hours it takes to reach Madrid from here has to be endured first.

Plant Collector: Tulipa saxatilis

Plant Collector: Tulipa saxatilis

Plant Collector: Tulipa saxatilis

I am not a great fan of the common tulip and even less so of the novelty forms so prized in colder, northern European gardens. But get back to the original species, (how they occur naturally in the wild) and it is a different matter altogether. This very pretty tulip is a combination of soft lilac with a yellow throat which is not the world’s most obvious colour scheme but generally the colours of nature do not clash. It hails from the island of Crete (the home of Zorba the Greek) though apparently it is also found in Turkey. In their natural environment, these are wild flowers and if you have ever visited the Greek islands or the coast of Turkey, you will know that conditions are hard with poor stony or clay soils, very low fertility, drying winds and next to no rain for most of the year. These are not conditions that we can replicate in the garden here but Tulipa saxatilis is not too picky and has thrived in our rockery for many years. With open conditions and excellent drainage, it is genetically programmed to be a survivor.

This is an early spring bulb, so it starts to grow in winter (triggered by autumn rains) and flowers in early spring for a period of several weeks. Each bulb puts up a stem which flowers its way down in succession so you get several blooms per bulb. It is a good example of a bulb which will find the depth it is happiest at in the soil so it will often drag itself down quite deep and it is a rarity amongst the tulips because it runs below ground. Because the foliage doesn’t hang on very long, it lends itself to being co-planted with a summer perennial which is dormant when the tulip flowers. We have had a dwarf species oenothera, better known as Evening Primrose, interplanted with our main bed of Tulipa saxatilis for many years and it comes into its own as the tulip goes dormant.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday September 10, 2010

LATEST POSTS

1) There is clearly no Dutch blood running in my veins. I am not generally a tulip fan but I am happy to make an exception for the Cretan species, Tulipa saxatilis which has just come into flower.

2) Taking a second look at camellias as garden plants despite the ravages of camellia petal blight – Abbie’s column (and de facto instalment on the Camellia Diary).

3) Garden hints for the second official week of spring – but we know that spring is well advanced here.

4) Counting down around the province to our annual Taranaki Rhododendron and Garden Festival.

Big clumps of Hippeastrum aulicum are just coming in to flower in our woodland
Big clumps of Hippeastrum aulicum are just coming in to flower in our woodland

Eighty feet of fallen Lombardy
Eighty feet of fallen Lombardy

TIKORANGI NOTES:

The sad sight of a very tall Lombardy poplar lying on the ground has preoccupied us this week. We were standing in the shed last Friday watching a sudden wind hit our huge pine trees and as it was calm on the other side, we briefly thought that maybe one of the dreaded little tornadoes that can wreak havoc here was hitting us. Mark was wondering if he should shut the roller doors of the shed – is it better to close a building off or to allow air flow in a tornado? Fortunately it was not a tornado but it was quite fierce, very shortlived and so noisy that we didn’t even hear the tree fall. We found it the next day, upon the ground. All 80 plus feet (about 25 metres or so) which can make quite a mess. The toll included a big Loderi Rhododendron King George and about half of the Magnolia campbellii which is fifty years old. It has opened up our view of Mount Taranaki a little more but we are sad about campbellii and King George. We don’t care about the poplar which is no loss, but now we are worried about the remaining two poplars of similar stature.

Half the campbellii - killed in action
Half the campbellii – killed in action

Shame the poplar is no good for firewood
Shame the poplar is no good for firewood

In the Garden this week: September 10, 2010

Daphne genkwa looked fantastic last year - but died when I pruned it after flowering

Daphne genkwa looked fantastic last year - but died when I pruned it after flowering

  • The common daphne is odora and does not appreciate hard pruning. Dainty Daphne x burkwoodii can also be touchy. Keep pruning to a light haircut each year rather than a major cut-back. The Himalayan Daphne bholua has a more robust constitution and can get rather large, scruffy and leggy if left to its own devices. This one you can cut back hard. Now is the time to prune those daphnes which are finishing their winter flowering. The beautiful blue Daphne genkwa will be coming into flower soon – don’t even prune this one. I killed a splendid, established specimen last year by cutting it back after flowering.
  • If you can reduce your number of slugs and snails now, you will be reducing the breeding population when they get frisky as spring temperatures warm up.
  • Keep an eye on emerging hostas because you can be sure that all slugs and snails are watching closely for this manna from the soil. Jenny Oakley from Manaia swears by the use of crushed eggshells sprinkled on the crown of the hosta before the leaves unfurl to deter early munchers though she also follows up with bait later. Ringing the plants in sand, coffee grounds, sawdust or anything gritty is said to discourage some slimy predators though Mark is sceptical of this claim. However, the bakers bran liberally sprinkled around plants under attack worked a treat and is an environmentally friendly technique – the birds eat the bloated slugs and snails.
  • It is the last chance to get a crop of late broad beans sown. If you leave it any later, it won’t be worth the effort and space. Get carrots sown soon. Don’t fertilise carrots but they need well cultivated soil to get their roots down. Fresh animal manure is a particular no-no for carrots and causes forking of the carrot and too much leafy top growth.
  • If you want to plant yams, you can be setting them to sprout in trays now. Yams are frost tender but need a long growing season (five to six months) so you want to get them started as soon as the danger of late frosts is over.
  • You can continue lifting and dividing perennials as they come into growth because they have the energy to overcome the havoc and destruction you wreak on their root systems and crowns. If you have many to do, prioritise the spring perennials and then follow up with summer ones like coreopsis, asters and chrysanthemums.

Outdoor Classroom: Moving large plants, a step-by-step guide

???????????????????????????????1) This tree aloe (Aloe thraskii) is in the wrong place and has been for at least fifteen years. Large plants can be moved, but this involves taking a large enough root ball to support the top. It is best carried out between late autumn and early spring so that the plant has a chance to settle in and put out new roots before summer.

??????????????????????2) A large trench needs to be dug out, wide enough for you to stand in. This trench is around 60cm deep. Dig it with straight sides to start with. It allows you to look at the plant’s roots and to get access right underneath the plant. Keep it well out from the plant because you can make the root ball smaller but you can’t make it larger again.
???????????????????????????????3) Standing inside the trench, start digging to excavate right underneath the plant. We wanted to keep the root ball relatively whole to act as an anchor because this plant is very top heavy. Gradually reduce the size of the clump, removing excess dirt, keeping a close eye on the root system. If it has a huge root system, you don’t want to be cutting into it too much. If it has a smaller root system, you can reduce it to a size that is more easily managed. We were surprised at how small the root system was on this plant and they were mainly on the surface.
???????????????????????????????4) Get some heavy plastic, sacking or old weedmat underneath the plant. Do this by rocking the plant to one side and getting the wrapping right underneath it. This usually requires more than one person. Do not let the roots dry out at any stage. With very big plants, the plant can be raised out of the hole by tilting it to one side and backfilling that side. Then rock the plant back and put dirt in on the other side. Repeat the process until you have raised the plant to the level where you can lever it out of the hole more easily. We moved this plant on the front bucket of our baby tractor. You may need to do it by trailer.
???????????????????????????????5) In this process, we had an accident and the heavy top was knocked out so we were forced to cut the the poor aloe back but there is no reason why it should not recover. Get the planting level as close as possible to where was. Measure the depth of the root ball and the depth of the hole before planting by placing a board across the hole and measuring from that. Put the stake or stakes in before the plant so that you do not cause more damage to the roots by driving the stakes through them later. We have gone for one very strong stake and a flexible tie.
???????????????????????????????6) Two years later and the plant is recovering well although the foliage has yet to reach its former spread. It should now be safe to remove the stake.