Hi
Lol.... no sexual harassment here !!!!
What more could you want from a tree that has most amazing summer flowers and the stunningest (my word) trunk and bark ever. You just want to reach out and touch the very smooth satiny trunk of the tree. I have to own up to the fact that some plants just ask to be touched and don't think that I have some strange kind of fetish. Take a Nikau palm for example with that beautiful truck and all those age rings going up to the frond like leaves, well you just want to caress it on the way past. Another really tactile plant would have to be the moss like Scleranthus and it just lends itself to being stroked and I will tell you that I have watched many a customer unconsciously do just that. (It's ok, I won't tell.)
Back on track the tree with the silkiest bark, has tissue or crepe like flowers right now, in the hottest month of February. Commonly called Crepe Myrtle and for the plant buffs it is properly called Lagerstroemeria indica. There are a couple of types of these, some stay as medium sized shrubs in the garden and the others will grow into quite a nice specimen tree. I have found with mine in the garden that I can remove all the flowered growth every year and it will flower again the following year. Quite handy when it comes to maintaining the size tree. Flower colour ranges from white through to medium pinks, hot pinks and even lilac shades and it so nice to have a summer flowering tree or shrub.
Oleander is another plant that just loves the heat of summer flowering its hearts out in the hot summer, usually in shades of white through pink to quite reddish pink. Its full name is Nerium oleander ( olea as its leaves may bear some resemblance to olive leaves, Olea) and is naturalised and native to the warm parts of the world being Morocco, Portugal and east towards the Mediterranean.
Hardy and easily grown here and useful as either a large shrub in the garden. I have seen these used as hedges in the middle of the motorways in europe so that proves that they can withstand quite extreme conditions not to mention being hedged by machinery to keep them neat and tidy. It is commonly known that all parts of Oleander are posionous.
While I'm on the subject of different plants, well Harry really surprised me with his latest plant purchases as these are something that we have never had before and Im a tad out of my area of knowledge and expertise other than knowing them for being a frost sensitive climber. A quick google search suggests that
Mandevilla and
Dipladenias are synonymous with each other.
These pretty flowered climbers are best suited to to the warm sunny areas of porches and verandahs or very protected outdoor positions unless you are in a warm part of NZ. They look really cool grown in a pot twining their way through a cone shaped frame or grow them up and over a door way or in those nice warm conservatories. Now Harry went the whole way and bought a range of shades from the classic pink to bright reddish pink to white and include the fabulous Mandevillea Alice du pont.
GardeniasLast week we looked at the different edible plants available at the nursery so this week I thought we could look at what we had available that would delight our
olfactory systems. For this purpose you can't go pass a gardenia without having to breath in it's delightful fragrance. A single flower has the ability to alter moods and lift the spirits. Gardenias have a travelling scent, sit in a courtyard with gardenias planted nearby and the smell will soon envelop you.
Snowball tree
Viburnum Opulus sterile and no prizes for guessing how it got its common name. Pretty neat in flower with masses of snowball like flowers in the spring and a medium to large shrub These well field grown, large plants are pretty good value at half price.
A large range of Hostas are reduced by $5.00. If you are looking to mass plant a dappled light area, then these are just awesome. Mulch the area well and keep moist and these will reward both with leaves and flowers. My favourites are a new one called Silver Knight with its attractive blue silver leaves, Raspberry sundae is dapper with dark stems and cream and green leaves and don't miss the large growing one of Empress Wu or check them all out.
It early I know but we have the start of the new seasons Camellias arriving in and damn nice plants too. Hedging grades of
Sasanquas camellias are always popular and Silver Dollar, Early pearly, silver column and even Transnokoensis to name drop a few. These all should appear in the newly arrived column or check them out under their proper category by following the
linkWhats Happening in the garden right now
There is nothing quite like the look of freshly trimmed hedges and that's what we are up to now. Gay baby (now that is a species Hybrid Camellia) outside Pete's place has been squared off and we will wait for it's new autumn growth of bronze red foliage. Possibly better than
Photinia Red Robin I reckon and hot pink flowers to boot. The hornbeam have been hedged to look picture perfect and next on the agenda will be all the holly hedges at the road frontage. Keep watching our space on
facebook to see the progress.
We use ARS professional pruning tools here at the nursery for all our trimming and pruning. These top quality tools are available for purchase via our website.
Are you over trimming hedges yet? If so then checkout the New Tudor Garden at Hamilton gardens which opened from Wednesday 11 Feb this will help to put it into perspective!
If your roses are looking past their best then prune them back just like winter.
We are happy to have been selected to have 3 new roses released especially to us this year. They are:-
The Daisy Rose, Englands Rose and Princess Anne.
If you are interested in acquiring these roses please let us know by ordering online or you can email backorders@wairere.co.nz to ensure you don't miss out as these are limited in numbers.
Other roses that are also new to us will be Angels Delight, Christchurch, Essential Cover, Little Angel, Precious Memories, Remember, Little Miss Perfect, Topsy Turvy. You are also able to pre order these roses to ensure you get the ones you want.
Goodness me Sat Feb 14 Valentines day has loomed very quickly, have you got your special surprise for your valentine ready? You could offer to do their weeding for a week or get those hedges trimmed, that would certainly get you in their good books! Or if that fails bring your valentine here for a walk round our gorgeous garden or peruse our plants in the nursery.
Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team
Make it a Wairere weekend where even
GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag
