Tag Archives: Tikorangi: The Jury garden

Plant Collector: Magnolia Lanarth

Magnificent in its purple splendour - Magnolia Lanarth

Magnificent in its purple splendour - Magnolia Lanarth

It is magnolia time and Lanarth is always one of the early bloomers and still sets the standard for pure stained glass purple colouring. We have yet to see a modern hybrid match the colour, flower form and size of Lanarth. So it is a bit of a shame that it is hard to propagate, so rarely offered and not that easy to establish so there can be a fall-out rate amongst those that are produced. On top of that, it takes a few years to flower (sometimes a decade or so), it makes a fairly large tree and the flowering can be short-lived. Get a storm at the wrong time and the season is pretty much over not long after it began. But in full bloom, it is a magnificent sight and that is why it is a collector’s plant.

Its full name resembles a stud animal – Magnolia campbellii var. mollicamata Lanarth – but it is usually just referred to as Lanarth, sometimes with the mollicamata in front to impress. Lanarth refers to where the seed was raised which was a garden in Cornwall. Intrepid plant collector George Forrest collected the seed in North West Yunnan in China back in 1924 where it was growing at a fair altitude of over 3000 metres. Only three seeds were grown and Lanarth was selected as the best of them. The usual pink and white campbellii magnolias come from the more westerly areas of China, Tibet and Burma whereas the mollicamata variants come from the more easterly side of that magnolia habitat.

Tikorangi notes: August 13, 2010

Magnolia Lanarth

Magnolia Lanarth

LATEST POSTS:

1) The wonder of Magnolia Lanarth in flower.
2) Hints for tasks in the garden this week as we race headlong into spring.
3) Beware the bangalow palm – our deep reservations about the weed potential of Archontophoenix cunninghamiana (Abbie’s column).
4) Tried and True for autumn colour where space allows – tree dahlias.
5) Counting down to our annual Taranaki Rhododendron and Garden Festival.

Magnolia campbellii in full flower this week

Magnolia campbellii in full flower this week

TIKORANGI NOTE:
Magnolia time here is our absolutely favourite time of year. At this stage, the spectacular performers are M. campbellii and Magnolia Lanarth, with Vulcan just starting and some of Mark’s unnamed seedlings putting on an early show. With the dwarf narcissi also at their peak (the snowdrops are largely over), there is something particularly delightful about the big and small pictures running simultaneously. The big-leafed rhododendrons in our park are opening, the earliest michelias are flowering and our garden visitor season started this week with an early visit from a local garden club. The pressure is on to get the garden groomed up and the planting out up to date. The pressure of spring is upon us.

Beware the bangalow (Arcontophoenix cunninghamiana)

A very handsome palm in the landscape, but scary weed potential

A very handsome palm in the landscape, but scary weed potential

The newest weed in the garden here is a palm. Not the native nikau palm, although that too seeds down freely and we regularly cull self sown seedlings. By definition, we don’t regard natives seeding down as weeds. No, the offending palm is the incredibly popular and very attractive bangalow palm. We have had it in the garden here for decades but it is only recently that it has started to set viable seed. It is a bit too efficient in the seeding stakes and, being attractive to birds, it has been dispersed throughout our entire property at a scary speed.

When alarm bells were first sounded in the Auckland area about bangalow palms, the howls of outrage and denial from within the nursery industry were instant and loud. We watched with a desultory interest and felt that it might not have been our industry’s finest moment. We need to take some responsibility for what we produce and we certainly have enough noxious weeds in this country without knowingly adding more. So we should look at the facts and the information, rather than immediately assuming that out of control bureaucrats are trying to control our livelihoods. The howls of alarm were such that the proposals to ban its sale were put on the back burner and its status is part of a five year review so nothing will happen quickly.

The so-called Chinese Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) is also under threat of reclassification as noxious weed. While it has not proved a problem here in our garden, Mark has seen it seeding down and giving rise to a thicket of babies in the Nelson area. I have just found a photograph in the Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms showing it naturalised in Switzerland. Plants with a climatic range from Switzerland to Nelson and Northland have scary potential. Trachycarpus fortunei is enormously popular throughout the world because it is generally hardy but with that tropical and exotic look so frequently sought by gardeners irrespective of nationality. The big advantage of trachycarpus is that you need both male and female plants to set seed so if female plants were culled, it would not be a problem. Our specimens in the garden here are male so no seed is formed. And Mark’s guess is that the seed is not spread by birds because it only seems to fall to the base of the tree and sprout there, which makes it much easier to contain. The seedlings can be mown off, grubbed out or sprayed. If it was spread by birds, we would hear a great deal more about it appearing all over the place in parks and reserves.

Side by side germinating self-sown bangalows

Side by side germinating self-sown bangalows

But it is the bangalow that worries us more and that is because of our personal experience. There would hardly be a square metre of our garden (which stretches across several acres) where we have not found a bangalow germinating and in those early stages, they closely resemble young nikau palms. Left to its own devices, this Aussie import will threaten our native nikau swamping out the habitat and growing at a hugely faster rate. The proper name is Archontophoenix cunninghamiana and it grows naturally in the coastal forests of southern Queensland down into New South Wales. It is a most elegant palm, tall and graceful and growing sufficiently quickly to give a fast result. It can reach 20 metres when mature, but like many palms, it takes up little space and casts little shade. It is easy to grow but it is also tougher than many palms and will tolerate cooler temperatures – light frosts, even – and damper conditions. It is that easy-going nature which has made it so popular and useful as a garden and landscape plant in relatively mild areas of this country. Alas, if it had only been dioecious, it could have had its wayward reproductive habits curtailed – dioecious meaning that you have both male and female and one of each is required for reproduction.

The bangalow seed is freely dispersed by that great seed dispersal machine that we have in our kereru or native wood pigeon. Presumably the seed casings taste delicious and the resulting guano gives the falling seed a good start after aerial distribution. And it sets a simply astounding amount of viable seed. When our specimen finally set seed for the first time, Mark just left it, noting how very decorative were the lavender flowers and bright orange-red seed hanging in voluptuous bunches. Within months, we were picking out the rash of self sown seedlings everywhere. We left one in the coldest, wettest spot in our garden just to see how it would grow. This is an area where Mark plants his treasures which need a winter chill – the deepest red hellebores, the Chatham Island forget-me-nots, trilliums and Himalayan blue poppies. Nowithstanding the fact that it comes from sub-tropical Australia, the bangalow is very happy there too, thank you. It is a worry.

It is still perfectly legal to buy and sell bangalows or Archontophoenix cunninghamiana in this country. If the prices I have seen on the net are a fair guide, you will pay around $150 for a reasonable sized one, up to an eye-watering $1700 for one already six to eight metres tall. For that sort of money, if you are starting out, our recommendation is to look at alternative varieties which don’t show the potential to be a noxious weed. It really does matter. Besides, as Mark will testify with the advantage of new information, it is an awful lot easier to plant something that will not require you getting out the extension ladder to take off the flowers and fruit when it is mature. Our recommendation, based on personal experience, is the Queen Palm, Syagrus romanzoffiana.

While on the subject of palms, which are a fantastic family of plants, we would like to pay tribute to the work done over many years by Colin Verlaan at The Palm Farm. Some readers may not realise this nursery is local but Colin has done more than anybody to make a huge range of palms available in this country at more affordable prices. Most of the palms you buy could be traced back to The Palm Farm as the main supplier. Colin has announced he is retiring and we think it might be for real this time (I am sure he has tried to retire before). While he may not agree with our opinion of the bangalow and the trachycarpus, we would certainly find common ground in admiring many of the magnificent and interesting palms he has made available. Mark has been gently building a collection of palms from him over recent years, concentrating on varieties which we think should be hardy in our conditions. He hopes to get his new Palm Walk planted sooner rather than later and is pleased he started work on it while he could still source a fantastic range locally.

Tikorangi notes: August 6, 2010

Our plant sale starts today. It is of limited duration (from today until Monday 9 August and then again the following Friday and Saturday) but there are good bargains as we try and clear space in the nursery.

Latest posts:
1) August 6, 2010: Illicium simonsii is flowering now with dainty little blooms which resemble unlikely water lilies cast from wax.
2) August 6, 2010: Hints on garden tasks for this week – don’t beat the gun on planting out summer vegetables, a recommendation for white sapotes and what you should not be doing with your wheelie bin.
3) August 6, 2010: Into the fraught territory of lawn renovation – our latest Outdoor Classroom.

Tikorangi Notes
As the galanthus start to pass over, the dwarf narcissi are opening, along with the early magnolias. The cyclamineus types are a favourite here – resembling a floppy eared dog with its head out the car window, perhaps? Twilight, shown here, is one of Felix Jury’s most successful cyclamineus hybrids – not so reflexed in the petals but a pleasing form and colour and it increases at a most satisfying rate. More magnolias open each day but we are still a couple of weeks off having the display entering its most spectacular phase. The fragrance of the earliest flowering michelias (all white at this stage) is already noticeable, hanging in the air. The worst of winter is over and temperatures are on the rise.

Renovating a lawn: step-by-step guide

Sometimes a make-do patch and feed is not sufficient for a lawn and more drastic remedial action is required.

1) Rake out the dead grass and accumulated debris from the existing lawn – referred to as scarifying or dethatching. We have a manually operated tool for this purpose which is easy to use. You can also use a garden rake or there are powered machines which you can hire. Remove the piles to the compost heap.

2) Level out bumps and hollows, bringing in clean topsoil if required. Ideally you want the top soil to be free of weeds. Where possible, rake to a fine tilth but if you are working over an existing lawn, you can only do this in the bare patches. Too much raking and scarifying can remove the existing grasses that you want to keep. Preparation is the key to a good lawn – there are no shortcuts.

3) Grass seed is best bought and sown fresh. The packet will give the recommended application rate. Measure out a sample square metre and weigh out the recommended quantity so you can see the correct quantity. Don’t rely on guesswork. Broadcast the seed by scattering to get a feel for how thickly to spread it. We applied it about half rate because we were over-sowing existing lawn which still had some grass growing.

4) Compress the soil. Traditionally, lawn rollers are used for this process although we used our lawnmower which has wide tyres. Any rolling weight is fine. You are compressing the top layer, not trying to compact the entire lawn.

5) We chose to spread a fine layer of compost about one centimetre thick to hold the grass seed and give it a good start. We raked out all twigs and larger pieces from the compost. This was spread after rolling.

6) The greatest peril is birds – every seed eating bird in the district will be trying to get the grass seed. The worst offenders are sparrows and finches. It is worth the effort to cover the sown areas until it is clear that the grass is germinating and starting to look green. We used a combination of bird netting and old shade cloth and left it on for about three weeks.