Friday 26th September, 2014
Rose, Rose and Rosemary or is it Rosemarie ???
Hi
What do you do when you have a business and someone down the road cuts through the telecom cable, cutting all ties with the world. LOL, ... well firstly we all live in hope that it doesn't happen, esp when we are totally reliant on the internet for all our software. But you guessed it... it did happen and it took hours to fix, well all day really.
I did have a back up plan for the till, at least in the form of a telecom internet stick but don't think that worked because the local exchange was out but did manage a vodafone hotspot for the till at least. It just wasn't fast enough so Ang had to write every sale down in the shop and invoice them all out the next day.
Rose and Rose, the admin team (imagine having a rose nursery and having two office girls called Rose and both with husbands called Paul, working for you. To save confusion one is now Rosemary) spent the day sorting out all those old documents from over the years, into future dates for destroyal.
It was one of those jobs that was just waiting for such a day as we are always too busy to have time for such chores and such a neat feeling that it's now all organised.I'm not sure that Rose in accounts loves my idea of tidy and organised but there you go, it was the perfect day for such a task.
The Nursery is about a week behind the garden ?
I often get asked about when something will flower or fruit and there is never a hard and fast answer but rather some sort vague time frame of spring time or summer maybe even late spring.
Now an interesting thing is that I have two avenues of the flowering cherry, "Awanui" and the ones down by the pond are looking just stunning and in flower right now. The other avenue which takes pride of place in the garden centre has hardly even broken out into bloom. I know that several factors can influence this but these two different rows of tree are hardy 200 metres apart. The pics above show quite clearly how advanced the garden ones are compared to the ones in the garden centre.
The only thing that I can put it down to is just the fact that perhaps the ones in the garden are more sheltered and therefore warmer and the ones in the garden centre are just behind because they are just that bit more exposed. Wetter soils are usually cooler and that can make a difference but in the case of my cherries I would have thought it to be the other way around.
It must be spring with so many plants in and looking pretty...
I have to say if there is a time to come out and see what we have, it must be from now on. The nursery is just brim full and looking very colourful and I can't possibly highlight them all here.
Delphiniums... My Favs I just love these especially the true sky blues and the whites. The Dowdeswell delphiniums have a reputation from being the best around and they are the true elataum type or the true tall majestic types. It always amazes me that these plants are so cold tolerant even able to push their way through the snow but don't forget that they are just the finest fodder for those blessed slugs and snails.
Lavender, every ones favourite especially the bees and its really nice to have so many plants in early this year. The Stoechus or Spanish types are in bud and in flower already attracting the bees. Now remember that Lavender is a plant that loves all the sunny spots in the garden and has to have good drainage to boot. Trim them regularly to keep them bushy. My favourites are the English type and these I call true lavender with flowers that you can cut and dry.
Boronias such a gorgeous fragrance or so everyone tells me but the other day I was standing at the shop with mum next to me who just happens to mention that she cant smell the fragrance of Boronia.. guess that I inherited that gene. We have a few different versions from the classic brown to quite a pretty yellow and the red heterophylla one
Helleborus Tutu Ballet, Hard to believe that these belong to the buttercup family and this oine Tutu Ballet is very pretty in its pinkish tones, Big flowering plants that would normally be $24.99 these are just $12.99
Sparaxis. Gosh this is a newbie for us. This bulb has flowers like Freesias except brightly coloured and they are out there doing their thing right now
Asparagus, Both green and purple and they need planting right now. They should be pretty easy to grow in their own dedicated bed with plenty of compost. Plant them approx 50cm apart and make sure that you plant enough crowns to provide a feed every spring.
I can't sign off without putting in a plug for our roses and they are just looking stunning. I reckon they are just the best this year and they are all budding up to flower fast. I was out there looking at them this morn and some have actually just started to flower and over the next couple of weeks there will be more and more blooms.
Don't forget to put those clocks forward this weekend and then it will be back to getting up in the dark but just think of those long evenings that you can garden to your hearts content.
Have a great weekend!
Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team
Make it a Wairere weekend where even
GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag.
