Friday 21st November, 2025
Hi
Whew, when you hear terms such as "Atmospheric River" and "Orange Rain Warning" you get the feeling you are in for a bit of a blast. And nature delivered on that promise with a bucket full of rain to drench the Waikato gardens and paddocks this week. Lloyd tells me there was 50 mm in the rain gauge on Wednesday morning, so it was enough for a real soaking. It's come at a time when many of our roses were just finishing their first flush, so we have been left with lots of petals to clean up and much dead-heading and tidying to do at the nursery.
At home I also staked my Little Miss Perfect Patio standard as it was so smothered in flowers that the head was super heavy when saturated with water. I should have done it earlier, so luckily no damage was done there but we have had a couple of customers come in to replace roses which have snapped with the extra weight of water on full flower heads. Staking is something we encourage our customers to do at the time of planting; to ensure that the plant is well supported before the weather hits.
Tracy's Little Miss Perfect Standard Rose in full bloom
There's a few people around the area who will be taking stock after the storm, to check on what's happened in their garden - thank goodness most of the garden rambles and festivals are finished! Now's the perfect time for walking around with a pair of secateurs and tidying up the spent flower heads. Plants' whole purpose in life is to produce flowers (and seeds) so if you thwart them by taking the dead flower off before the seed head forms, they swear a little bit under their breath and go and produce another flower to have another crack at making that seed. Curses for them, Yay for you, with more flowers to enjoy. Many plants enjoy a dead heading blitz -
Roses,
Daisies,
Gaura,
Penstemon,
Lavender,
Daylilies - anything with the potential for reflowering will benefit. Happy snipping!
Roses
Speaking of things which you can do for your
Roses at the moment, it's a great time to spray for black spot - with the increase in humidity and several days of rain the spores will be having a party and 'spreading the love' so to speak. Insects such as aphids love tender new growth, so they also thrive at this time of year. Knock all these blighters on the head with a dose of
Super Shield or
Success two weeks apart to catch the active spores and insects and mop up any which missed the first dose. After you have chopped the flowers off of course. It's a good idea to alternate your sprays so that the insects and diseases are subject to different chemicals and therefore don't build up resistance. A bit like the superbugs at Christchurch Hospital resistant to antibiotics. Let's not go there.
And at the same time you can give them a feed with a
Rose Fertiliser or any
fertiliser which is balanced but has a good percentage of potassium. Potassium, or the K in N:P:K, is the bit which helps the plant in its development of flowers and fruit, so it's crucial to check the bag of whatever fertiliser you are using. The numbers on the bag indicate the percentage of the contents which are attributable to that nutrient e.g. a 10kg bag of rose food with the numbers 8:6:10 has 8% nitrogen, 6% phosphorus and 10% potassium. What's the rest? Basically a filler to carry the nutrients. So look for examples where you have an even spread across the numbers with a bit more at the end (potassium).
Heading into summer mulching is a great idea too. Lock in that ground moisture with a thick layer of your favourite mulch. Mine is the humble wood chip which is cheap and cheerful, doesn't suck to much nitrogen out of the soil as it breaks down like some of the bark mulches around. I would be shot if I didn't mention the
20% off roses which continues at the moment. We have a few too many, so would like to see them in the ground at your place rather than flowering prettily here at the nursery.
You may have attended the Pacific RoseBowl Festival? While we have sold out of
Bee Scene (Best Floribunda) and
Boscobel (Best Shrub Rose), we have VERY small numbers left of
Hokey Pokey (Children's Award) and
Endless summer (Best Hybrid Tea). You can always order any or all of these for next year by popping them onto your waitlist! For these super-popular varieties, waitlisting now for 2026 is a great option as it puts you at the head of the queue to get what you what. Meanwhile, how about supporting the rosarians who develop rose varieties right here in NZ? You can do that by growing some of their creations (examples pictured below):
Planting time
The most common question we get at the nursery (there are a few, LOL), is "is it too late to plant?". There's a misconception that planting is limited to a specific time of the year when the reality is that container grown plants (in pots and bags like at a nursery) can be planted at any time of the year. You will save yourself some watering if you do it at a time when there is good soil moisture HELLO...that is right now! To capitalise on our rain windfall we have an excellent selection of native seedlings in our multibuy range. These are $9.99 each, 10 for $8 or 30 for $7. So, think of us if you need a
Pittosporum hedge, to plant a bank in
Grasses and
Flax or a mixed native border with
Ake Ake,
Wineberry,
Ribbonwood and
Kowhai. Our list of affordable natives is extensive.
New at the Nursery
Senecio Angel Wings: This is a relatively new release and it's certainly a striking example of perennial which is mainly grown for the foliage. Crisp silver stands out beautifully in a border and these guys are compact and easy to grow in hot sunny well-drained spots. The other striking silver senecio we have is
Bella grigio which is great for structural contrast in the perennial border.
Lilies in pots are here too; for an instant table centre for your family gathering. They, of course, will also thrive in the garden, as long as the the soil is fertile and well drained and they get plenty of sun. They are in tight bud at present, but will be out in a few weeks.
Also looking fab in gardens around the city at the moment is
Star Jasmine Trachelospermum jasminoides. It's a versatile plant which can be grown as a climber or ground cover. Check out ours which is planted near our signs.
Star jasmine as a groundcover outside Wairere Nursery
Here's hoping for a sunny and slightly drier weekend to enjoy.
Cheers from Lloyd, Tony and the Wairere team.
