Today is the last day of February and I guess the last official day of summer and all of a sudden it has become quite dry here in the Waikato. Hard to believe that tomorrow is technically the beginning of Autumn, though the mornings have become quite cool and sunrise is quite a bit later these days, sure signs that Autumn is on its way.

For me personally, Autumn is one of my favorite seasons for many reasons. I just love the clear warm days and the cooler mornings and evenings associated with this time of year. Then there is always something to pick from the garden. I have been eating peaches from our trees and pinching the odd apple off the plants in the nursery. Big purple and green bunches of grapes are hanging off the vine at our back door and do they ever look stunning and you can pop a grape in your mouth as you walk past. 

I'm a big fan of feijoas and I cant wait for them to ripen as Dad makes this stunning Feijoa cake, usually around the time that the roses arrive to be potted. I was looking back on a past newsletter and remembered a recipe for Peter Gordon's Feijoa chutney which was really quite delicious and I will have to con the old boy into making a batch for us when the Feijoas are ready. Writing this reminds me that there is a heap of Packhams pears nearly ripe in the garden that we must pick and finish ripening inside and then bottle them as we have used all our pears from last year.

There is some stuff about feijoas that is worth knowing and the first point is that they are pollinated by birds who are attracted by the bright red flowers. Believe it or not but Blackbirds and Mynas in the North Island and mainly Blackbirds in the South Island are responsible for helping the sex life of our precious feijoa. Apparently its not exclusive to birds and some insects also get in on the act like the bumble bee. So its a good thing to have an open pruned tree to allow the birds to feel comfortable to get the pollen.

Something else that I have learnt is that they like a temperate climate and whilst they don't like it excessively cold, they do require some 50 to 100 hrs of chil l and excessive heat (over 40 c) can also damage the fruit crop. Knowledge that I must remember as I sometimes get asked why aren't our feijoas fruiting.  So the feijoa is a bit like us really, not liking it too hot or too cold and most of NZ sounds great.

New varieties of feijoas that people have been waiting a while for have arrived at the nursery this week from the South Island produced by Waimea Nursery.  Feijoa Anatoki, Kakariki and Kaiteri. Now these varieties have the reputation of having really large fruit and are good early season varieties. Waimea Nursery are the exclusive supplier of some feijoa varieties that have been bred by Roy Hart who continued to breed feijoas after Hort research discontinued. Roy has introduced Brazilian strains into his crosses. Many of these crosses have Apollo in their mix and they have been chosen for exceptional flavour, good size and prolific crops. 

Blechnum Silver Lady (Crown Fern)  Also known as the dwarf tree fern as it develops a short trunk when mature. These are quite cool planted as a group and will prefer classic fern conditions to do their best, dappled light and adequate moisture. They are frost tender and so out of the frost will see them keep looking great.

Tibouchina Blue Moon  Glory Bush. Beautiful dark green velvety leaves and lilac coloured flowers in summer and autumn. I reckon the colour of this one must be pretty cool in that pretty lilac shade as the normal tibouchinas are quite purple. Again needs protection from the frost but its amazing with the right micro climate how well this could do.

ARS secateurs in two sizes, 22 and 25 mm.

ARS hedge shears, super sharp and specially designed for professional trimming and manicuring of shrubs and hedges.

ARS lopping shears. Ideal for branch lopping. Heavy duty steel handle with an ergonomically designed comfortable plastic grip.  As an added bon us when you buy these loppers you get a free pair of ARS fruit pruners. Light weight, comfortable to grip and easy to use. Perfect for cutting fruit, vegetables and flowers.




Young Lycidas   The double full blooms of this gorgeous rose are large and deeply cupped even when fully open. They have a strong fragrance and are coloured a deep magenta shade with a silvery hue. A lovely rose that will provide you with plenty of blooms to pick and  enjoy. PVR 2008.

Lady of Shalott  Robust and hardy  with full double blooms that appear continuously throughout the season. The buds are a rich orange-red and open to rev eal loosely arranged blooms in salmon pink with a golden yellow  reverse on the  petals. Nice fragrance and good disease resistance. PVR 2009.
The Wedgewood Rose A vigorous and hardy rose with glossy green disease resistant foliage. The soft pink blooms have a delicate beauty and are beautifully formed, full and double. Repeats well throughout the season.  Nice fragrance too. You'll want this one. PVR. 2009.

Pittosporum Golfball Green and Pittosporum Goldenball on sale, were $19.99 down to $14.99. I like these and if you are after a small growing pitto then these are pretty good. A light trim will keep them nicely rounded and bushy. Excellent for in a pot, used as accent plants in the garden or even mass planted as a series of ball shapes. You could even plant them in a line and hedge them.

Day lilies Hemerocallis all now with 25% off. Day lilies are technically a full sun, well drained soil, type plant, but will just about grow anywhere that you want, quite often coping well with shade or even quite wet soils. Too much shade may reduce the flowering though. They are pretty good for mass planting awkward areas and are easily cleaned and very tough tolerating total removal of foliage and will come back with new clean leaves.