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Friday 25th September, 2015
Hi
An extra hour
OMG... Remember the old saying 'Spring forward, fall back', well its that time again. We can roll those clocks forward another hour and get that extra hour of daylight after work. I know that it doesn't suit everyone but I have to say that I just love the long evenings that we get.
We have another garden that needs to be knocked into shape and the longer evenings means that there is daylight to get this one on a roll. There is Ivy and Agapanthus that need to be removed to make way for beautiful Rhododendrons, Camellias and Ilam Azaleas. The garden is shaded by some now partially mature trees and will create a pretty woodland garden with shade loving plants. We will replace the ivy with mass plantings of winter roses or Hellebores which will look way more attractive and of course not require the maintenance that Ivy does. Its a bit of a project but the garden will look stunning for the revamp.
I did manage to organise to have our cloud trees on the roadside clipped into shape again and they are looking fabulous.
Now don't forget to move those clocks forward on Saturday night and wake up in the dark on Sunday morn but just think of that lovely long Sunday evening. Aahhh!
That sneaky rose disease...
The other day I was chatting to a customer in the garden centre from Taupo who gets our regular email and she had read the piece about downy mildew and had always wondered why her favourite rose lost all of its leaves in spring. Once the weather warmed up and became more settled it regrew its leaves and then was good for the rest of the session. She followed the advice here and sprayed only a couple of times and the rose managed to keep all of it leaves through the spring.
It was great to have such feedback as downy mildew really is that sneaky. The other day we had a real thundery day. This huge black sky opened to a deluge of hail and them followed up with torrential rain. Luckily for me I had sprayed the roses against downy mildew and then the very next day I sprayed again and they are on the whole all still looking fabulous. This year I have been adding Raingard to the brew and we reckon that it has really helped with making the spray stick particularly with all the spring squalls.
I have had several emails and pics from customers lately of roses that are doing poorly so to recap on the symptoms of Downy mildew. Leaves that don't open but rather just fall from the rose bush or just don't appear. Then you may see new growth appear during fine spells that starts from lower down in the bush, well until the next rain anyway. Occasionally you may see purplish marks on the leaves or stems but this isn't often the case and usually appears in bad cases.
Its the rain that spreads the spores by splashing them up from the ground onto the leaves so the secret recipe is to spray prior to the rain to get a protectant film over the leaves and again after the rain. Spray every time that its about to rain and straight away afterwards. It really works !! Make sure that you have fed your roses as a healthy rose is more able to tolerate and ward of the fungal infections of the spring.
My last point here is that clients often compare roses with roses and they wonder why one has disease problems while others do not and the answer is simply that they are all different. In the spring we see it easily in the nursery and its the same old roses that get downy mildew at the drop of a hat. Once they get it then we are in the position that it could spread to the others. I can liken it to a cold, where people have different susceptibilities to infection. Some people can be in a room with someone with a cold and not get it while others seem to get the cold more easily.
So on that note, there are many roses that are not as susceptible to downy mildew and others that get it really easily and so today's rose breeders try to produce roses that are very hardy. Harry and I have been discussing that maybe its time to look at some of those old varieties and perhaps not have the ones that are not so hardy as there are some really good new ones that are very tolerant.
For instance Serendipity is just the healthiest yellow floribunda. Love Me Do is a new hybrid tea in an ivory cream colour and fragrant to boot, Lasting Love is a healthy red rose (to name drop a few) and when I say healthy I mean they are so much less susceptible to fungal infection of all types.
Clouds of marshmallow pink around the Waikato
If you are wondering what the gorgeous trees are that are currently out in full blossom then I have to tell you that they are the flowering cherry Prunus Awanui. You see them all around the Waikato, lining driveways, or fence lines, or often as specimen trees, just looking totally pink and of course very beautiful and such a perfect tree to style up your entrance. Now I will just add in quickly here (even though its spring) that the flowering cherries also have quite nice Autumn colours in shades of yellowy oranges.
Now when it comes to getting a flowering cherry you find that you can get different styles of the same tree. These are denoted as H/W or L/W which stands for grafted - high or low worked. The H/W trees are grafted at a set height, usually either 1.2 1.5 or 1.8 m and this will be the height of the trunk that these will have. Hith worked trees look way more established than their low worked counter parts. If a low worked tree grabs your attention then you will need to limb it up or remove the lower branches until you get a trunk that suits your desired intentions.
If you prefer the white cherries then check out Tai haku and Shirotae Mt Fuji and there are many more to see on our web site of the different flowering cherries.
Plants of interest
Aussie Tea trees with their big flowers a bee could almost get lost well not quite
.
Pimelea Deep Dream is a spectacular small shrub that produces masses of deep pink to purplish pink flowers which are displayed at the branch tips during winter and spring. This is an excellent rockery or container plant and just loves a sunny position and will delight you with it's extended flowering season.
Hakea Laurina This is an interesting plant from Aus. that has flowers that are red globe shaped with white styles.
Erica holosericea an attractive delicate erica which pink bloom along it's stems in spring.
Micromyrtus Ciliata is a low growing shrub with arching branches covered in white during spring.
Oldie but a good filler Prostanthera Cuneata or rotundifolia another low spreading ground cover that drapes itself in colour and has a delicious minty fragrance.
There are a few Garden Rambles and events coming up in November... Put them in your gardening calender
Rotorua Festival of gardens Friday 13 November to Sunday 15 November
contact John Rainbow jtrainbow@xtra.co.nz
Friday 13th November 9.30 to 3.30pm
go to finehomestour.co.nz
Sunday 8th November
contact diodayout@gmail.com
Sending out best wishes for the All Blacks in their World Cup matches, we know they will bring the cup home!
A few newsletters ago I mentioned about the Topp Twins latest series that is airing on Sunday nights at 8pm called Topp Country. Well we are all excited to see the outcome of our awesome day with these lovely ladies and see how we look on air. If you have been loving this series then you may get to see us after this weeks episode The love of Bread. View Love of the Backyard Top Country with the Top Twins and Wairere Nursery 4th October. Find out more here.
A fine weekend forecast, clocks to move the time forward meaning extra time to have a wine(not a whine) in the garden on Sunday arvo and evening what more could we want for the weekend other than a few hours in the garden. Have an awesome weekend!!!
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! (28th August, 2015)
Topiary Art (11th September, 2015)
Tosca in spring (19th September, 2015)
..... An extra hour
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: