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Friday 28th August, 2015

Hi

Till the Cows Come Home... or get SHOOO'd Away!

There have been a few instances lately, and we are talking of the cows who seem to have the characteristics of Houdini. Harry and I were standing at the shop in the garden centre when he obviously spied cows standing in a space that they were not meant to be. Very casually he mentions that he has to be off as he has to attend to something as I look up and see HIS cows standing on the front lawn at home.

Another morn we were all having brekky and the dogs all started to bark but hawkeye Harry had already seen the cows walking past the bathroom window. They had done quite a bit of exploring as their tell tale cow pats down the the driveway left markers of where they had been that night and I might just add that its a lot further than I felt comfortable with.

Strike three was the other night when I was up, half asleep, to have a pee and had returned to bed thinking was that a moo that I just heard?  I tried to put it out of my mind, but in the end had to get up and check, and there, through the bathroom window, was Rosie standing next to the vege garden looking back at me.  No, Rosie is not my next door neighbour, she is one of Harry's cows!

Get up and sort those f......n  cows out.  H mutters "I don't understand how they got there" as he grabs a dressing gown to get up and sort the cows. In the light of the almost full moon he is calling them "Come on Marina, Come on Rosie" almost casually as they begin to walk towards the small garden gate.  In the heat of the moment I hadn't worried about clothes (well! we are in the country with no close neighbours) and I'm sure the cows wondered what's with this mad man shooing them in heat of the moment from behind, distracting them momentarily from Harry trying to get them through the gate, as they both turned their heads back to gaze at me.

I have to say that we have been lucky as usually cows have voracious tongues and huge hooves when it come to garden and plants. but we had no damage in our small orchard  and vege garden. I am working on getting the gate fixed and perhaps a purpose built chook run to keep his other new additions in a confined space. Perhaps Harrys cows  and chooks are spoilt and  too well fed?

                                                                         

September is officially spring and the weather has sure been typical of the Waikato, squally showers, sun and hail we had it all yesterday.  Real downy mildew weather, keep vigilant for it as it is insidious in it's attack.

Michelias are Magnolias..

Did you know that Michelia have been renamed Magnolia?  I guess they really do look like an evergreen version of the deciduous ones and of course they all mostly flower now being late August, early September. The problem is changing from what we are familiar with to the new naming as old habits die hard which also involves changing all the labels..... lol and my mind.. 

The villa is surrounded by all the flowering Magnolias that we planted a few years back and we have a beautiful specimen of Iolanthe in the nursery that the buds have just begun to pop and so in a couple of days now will be a complete picture.  Iolanthe has those really cool cup and saucer style Magnolia flower.  These are on our fb page, and many more, if you want to find out what they are called.

        

What arrived this week

Asparagus... We had sold but we got a new batch in for those that missed out from the first lot. These are awesome plants and the biggest crowns that I have seen, variety is Jersey giant which has those delicious succulent spears in spring. Asparagus is a true perennial and needs a dedicated bed and will give you approx 25 years of cropping. 

 

Delphiniums, Its time to plant these stately perennials. They also are true perennials and will flower again in the Autumn and the following seasons to come. Just make sure that you are out there in the subsequent seasons with the slug bait as its easy to forget that they are coming again and the slugs demolish them.

          

We are just starting to get the spring flowering plants into stock for your flower beds.  Nemesia and daisies always give an extended colour display through spring and summer, especially if you dead head them.

          

          

Had you thought about?

There is nothing worse than finding only half a grub in your delicious home grown apple because you have obviously just eaten the other half. Now with the pending flowering of all our apple trees, give a thought to catching those pesky codling moths so they don't get to lay their eggs on your newly formed apples. Now Im not an expert on the codling moth so of course I asked Uncle Google to get some more info and it seems that its all about keeping the population down and trying to break the cycle. 

The codling moth grubs pupate in the soil and/or under the bark of the apple trees and emerge as a moths in late spring, this does vary throughout NZ.  The moth mates and then lays its eggs at the base of the developing new seasons fruit. Once hatched the grubs burrow into our apples cause the damage and when ready to pupate drop back to the ground again and the cycle starts again.

Now over the years, I have heard of all manner of ways to stop the grubs from burrowing into your apple, from cardboard around the trunk of the tree to hanging red wine or sweet syrup in trap bottles in the tree and of course the pheromone traps which confuse the female moths from finding a real male.  The pheromone attracts the moth to the trap and if they land they can stick to the sticky paper at the bottom of the trap.

You can of course spray for the grubs with a caterpillar spray but timing is everything as you must wait 10 to 14 days from the time that the moth appears as the eggs must hatch for the spray to be effective.

      
Helleborus Winter Sunshine reminds me of antiquity and heritage or at least the colours in it do.  The flowers open cream with a hint of green at their centres and a deliciously rich burgundy red colour washing over the back of the petals then as the flowers age they change to light green and all the while these colours combine on the plant to give a rich colour tapestry.  These would look amazing planted in bulk, a lovely rich, bushy plant.  Of course this isn't the only hellebore we have at present and you can see them all on the website or some gorgeous pics on the facebook page.

          

Delphinium, new varieties arriving soon, watch the just arrived section of the website to see when these are in stock.

          

Fathers day is this weekend       so spoil your dad this Sunday!

Cheers 

Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team

Make it a Wairere weekend w

here even GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag

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2015 Newsletters...

We're back (8th January, 2015)

Settling In (29th January, 2015)

Summer colour (30th January, 2015)

Fabulous Feb (6th February, 2015)

Roses on sale (16th February, 2015)

stevia (20th February, 2015)

Cheeky Climbers (6th March, 2015)

Michelias and Camellias (11th March, 2015)

Living fences (20th March, 2015)

Easter is nearly here (25th March, 2015)

Mourning the end of summer? (2nd April, 2015)

SALE NOW ON!!! (8th April, 2015)

Autumn Harvest (17th April, 2015)

What to do with all those leaves. (22nd April, 2015)

Autumn Flowers (1st May, 2015)

Sunday Mothers Day (8th May, 2015)

Colours of Autumn (15th May, 2015)

Always a project (22nd May, 2015)

Rose potting (23rd May, 2015)

Clip n Snip (4th June, 2015)

Roses Galore (14th June, 2015)

Rose Climbers (19th June, 2015)

Its Time to prune (3rd July, 2015)

Like a candy shop (11th July, 2015)

The pruning session (16th July, 2015)

Red and white stems (24th July, 2015)

Rose pruning Thur and Fri (24th July, 2015)

Winter Colour (31st July, 2015)

Time to feed (9th August, 2015)

Magnolias (20th August, 2015)

Gardeners work is never done (25th August, 2015)

..... Till the cows come home, or get shoooood away!

Topiary Art (11th September, 2015)

Tosca in spring (19th September, 2015)

An extra hour (25th September, 2015)

The first Friday in October (2nd October, 2015)

Pretties Galore (9th October, 2015)

Frantic Fridays (16th October, 2015)

geraniums are in (20th October, 2015)

November events (31st October, 2015)

Movember (9th November, 2015)

Christmas is coming (20th November, 2015)

Harry was blowing in the wind (26th November, 2015)

December (3rd December, 2015)

Chilli out for Christmas (18th December, 2015)

HL Nurseries Limited t/a Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1, Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: