Set the garden up for Winter

Hi

Where did those muscles go too!!!

Oh my word, I went out on a planting job yesterday with our designer Anthony and did I ever find  a few muscles that had been hidden away for a while. It was one of those hugely satisfying projects, where you have to remove all the old plantings that had past their use by date and replace with a brand new plants and image. I got the job of removing an old pitto hedge and then digging out the remaining stumps to make way for a new hedge. Then there was planting of all the new plants where an old established shrubbery had been and I have to say  there is always an old stump just where you need to plant a key plant. It looked awesome and it's always so neat to work for a client that is so enthusiastic and loved the resulting garden!!  

I'm hankering for a day that I can get into our gardens but that will have to wait until the roses are potted now seeing that they will start arriving on Tues. Being the plant nut that I am there are heaps of different plants that I want to get in and there is a whole pond area unplanted  just waiting. I intend going through our sales trees and sorting out a few out for the garden like  some of the Ginkgo varieties or maybe a few of the Judas trees with their amazing flowers all up their stems. I'm sure that there will be a few other special bits and pieces there that will look cool planted around the pond. Then there are existing gardens that I can't wait to get into. As the garden ages there needs to be change as  it either becomes more shaded or one just wants a new look LOL. A bit like ourselves really but not as easy ay the garden!!

Whilst on the subject of roses it will take us a few days to get them all sorted but I expect that we will  be on track by about the 1st of June  with quite a bulk of them in and potted and down in the bay in alphabetical order.  I hope that we will have started to contact all our back orders around this time as well, but feel free to send us an email if you are anxious to see if yours are all set to go.

ROSES AND RASPBERRIES ARE CUZZIES

Apples, Pears, Cherries,Raspberries and Blackberries are all cuzzies, they all belong to the same family of Roses, Now before I go too far, plants that belong to the same family mean that they have similar flower structure and are grouped accordingly.  The other classification they all have is their Genus and usually there are lots of different species within. Now without getting too technical Rubus is the genus name for Raspberries (Rubus idaeus) and Blackberries (Rubus fruticosa) but they are different species.
Now I  learnt something that these close cousins can easily be distinguished by picking of the fruit and if you get left with a hollow fruit then it's a raspberry and if not then it belongs to the blackberry side of the family. These vigorous plants are commonly called Brambles and we all know that they can wander a tad. Best to plant them against a fence or on wires to that you can train them along.

Now there are more to these small fruits than just Raspberries and Blackberries, there has been a bit of hanky panky by well meaning fruit growers aiming for well, that, xtra large fruit and so we have quite a few resulting crosses. Now we are all pretty familiar with Boysenberry which is a 3 way cross between Raspberry, Blackberry and Loganberry. Now just to add to this to keep it all interesting we have Marionberry's which are more like 'souped' up blackberry and the result of crossed crosses for the want of a better expression. The same goes for the Ranuiberry which is from a NZ breeding programme. The Tayberry  is a Blackberry Raspberry cross. Finally we have Blackberry Karaka which is a damn fine selection of a true blackberry.

Mulberries  A berry that's not a raspberry or blackberry but looks like one and yet grows on a tree would be the mulberry and these come in shades of white pink and black as well and make for quite handsome trees. There is even quite a cool weeping form which has pink fruits.

   

Blueberries have very handsome dark purple blue fruits and the shrub itself has quite blue green foliage. Now if you keen on growing your own small fruits the blueberry forms quite a manageable shrub for a small  section. Its probably worth planting a few shrubs so that you can pick enough to make that berry dessert and off course you always get a better crop if you have a mate or two for cross pollination. Its worth remembering that rabbit eye and Southern highbush suit warmer  climates like us here in the Waikato and Northern highbush like it cooler.

We all probably remember the Loquat which has large yellow berry like fruit and is a little diiferent. They make for a attractive round headed evergreen tree with deep green glossy leaves and fragrant flowers in the winter but lets not forget those delicious tasting fruits. Thereare a couple of clones here with foreign sounding names like Kusunoki amd Mogi.

Strawberries Camarosa, These will be in soon and its time to plant them now. Order yours online now and we will email you back when they are in.

Its looking gorgeous here. The big trees that we have planted have gone a beautiful shade of yellow and their leaves are lining the driveway like confetti. Yes we do rake them up buts its a small price to pay.

Another week done and dusted and the weekend ahead to enjoy, whatever you have planned have a good one.