Two short weeks done and dusted  and we were  lucky enough to have one of them off and away in the stunning city of Sydney visiting our bestest friends who live in Bondi Beach no less. The occasion was their eldest sons engagement dinner whom I have known since he was a small lad so it was so neat to be invited and to be able to go.  

Such a fab event with drinks on a balcony overlooking some water at a spot called The spit. A stunning sit down dinner for all the guests was  followed by dessert  back out on the balcony. A pretty cool night to catch up with those that we hadn't seen for many years and to meet the fiancee's  family.

The trip back to where we were staying was pretty memorable when we encountered cars with their hazard lights on, enabling two sweet little possums get across the busy road, the cars started to move off  and then the possums changed their minds, halting all the traffic again.....  next we see someone out directing the traffic so that these dear creatures can get back across the road safely.... I wont write what we said but use your imagination as to what three kiwis sitting in the back seat watching this performance could only say!!!  

Whilst over there in Aussie, you couldn't miss all the beautiful Crepe Myrtles that are out in flower right now.... it seemed that every third place had a multi stemmed tree of these. Ours here may not be quite so advanced and perhaps yet to be in full flower though they are definitely on the way.

Not only do they have pretty flowers, but these bloom in the heat of summer which is quite unusual for a tree as most flower in the spring. As their common name  crepe myrtle suggests, the blooms are like masses of crepe paper or like crinkled tissues in a colour array of whites through to the pinks.

Lagerstroemias  can come as large bushy shrubs of approx 2m in stature or there is the tree form which will tend to multi trunk unless you work at making them have a single leader and reach 5 to 6 metres. Crepe myrtles have amazing stems  of a pretty cinnamon colour which is very smooth and you just want to touch it to feel that silkiness.  Finally here in the Waikato they also give some pretty good Autumn colours of oranges and reds.

          

Theres a new buzz out there in the plant world and its all about the new proven winners brand. Now not just anyone is allowed to produce these and we are lucky enough here in NZ to have this new plant brand being produced by just 4 growers, two in the south island and 2 in the north island

So you ask what is this about 

Proven winners has been around for approx the last 15 years over in the states and in Europe so its an internationally recognized plant brand and now we have their expertise in NZ.

Proven winners  is the work of a global network of breeders, growers and propagators, trialing elite material and only the only the top 3 % of plants submitted are accepted for release and into production.

Now this  new Lavender Platinum Blonde   is pretty neat and I have never seen a variegated lavender before and the plants that we have here are very good and robust. Has typical grey blue English style lavender flowers.

Veronica Hocus pocus and Lullaby are both new to us too and always good value robust perennials.. usually flower several times a season if the spent flowers are removed.  Lullaby with baby pink flowers and a delightful compact habit. Hocus pocus has long wands of violet purple and intense in colour.

       

Ang  found three new Tangors up for offer the other day when she decided that we needed some more citrus, so with her order she included these three new to us Tangors. I had to go to google to sort exactly what a Tangor is?  well I kinda new but have to explain it,  so a double check. A Tangor is a cross between a mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata) and a sweet orange  (Citrus sinensis).. The name Tangor is the formation from the name of Tangerine (Tang) and the (or) from the name Orange. Follow the links below to take you directly to the description of these fruit that tend to have that sweet but tart? but full flavoured fruit.

A more commonly known Tangor would be the Ugli fruit  that was actually named because the fruit have an ugly skin but obviously delicious inside. Another perhaps lesser known Tangor that we have always had in stock is one called Dweet and these have a very distinctive form or neck where the fruit joins the tree. Another very nice citrus.

The other bonus of citrus I always feel is that they make for very nice but smaller evergreen trees, complete with fragrant blossoms and then also ornamental but edible fruit.  

Kiyomi                   Murcott                Afourer             Callicarpa Dichotoma

            

        

Its been such a hot dry summer here and perfect for mites to infest your roses. Mite live on the underside of your rose leaves... well other plants too and they suck the chlorophyll out making the leaf look a faded yellowish green.  If you have younger than my eyes you can actually look on the underside of the leaf and see these little blighters running around and they even make a webbing like spiders though technically they are not spiders. Normal rose spray won't control these pests. I have always used pour on Cattle drench at the rate of 1m per litre of water but you may have to spray a couple of time to control them. Though once the leaf is damaged  it stays damaged but nothing a good cut back  won't fix as the rose will just reflush. Spraying oil is also an option  though you will have to do several applications and ensure that you get under the leaves as oil works by coating the bug. For a small number of plants hosing the leaves will even work as mites don't like being wet, believe it or not, but you will have to wet the undersides every day.

We have cut all our roses back in the nursery to bring them on for another flowering so my guess is that in approx another 10 days they will have flushed with new growth and be in flower in approx 6 weeks again.. Dont forget that they are all with 25% off now!!! 

If we don't have what you are after in stock now then feel free to order for the next season though we can't hold this seasons until next season.

 Azaleas ...Heat tolerant Azaleas...  This encore range of Azaleas were new to us last year and are quite a good hardy range of Azaleas in variety of colours.

Chinese Beauty Berry  a goodie for those that like floral work

Our weekend has kicked off with the Pokai happening next door at the Marae after borrowing of some plants to dress the marquees up. Its looking like another scorcher and going to hit the 30 s mark... but hey its the summer we all want.  We have a lovely big Claret Ash in the nursery providing us some shade if you happen to be out here.

Have a great weekend  and have fun'