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Thursday 17th March, 2016
Hi
Easter... a cracking good time!
Friday week is Good Friday.... so you may just have time to decorate your own eggs.....in Ukrainian style or Pysanky. It may be just a fun thing to try with the kids over the long weekend or you may even get serious and try your hand at some of the intricate patterns. I have never tried this art myself but I was awed by the stunning pics sent to me by one of Wairere's clients. Now I imagine that Lewis is no novice at this work judging by the very beautiful pics that he sent me.
I get the impression that its like batik work on cloth but you are using egg shell as the media and it would seem that white egg shells of the very best quality are the best to use but on saying that starting out on what you have in the cupboard would be a way to go. Well until you have the hang of the art. Goose and Duck eggs if you have them may give you a bigger canvas to work on.
Lewis writes "Glad you like the Easter eggs - they're fun to make [when I can get white eggs!] You take the egg shell through a series of dye baths, lightest to darkest and at each new colour you draw with hot wax wherever you want that colour to remain as it is... Last of all you dye the dark background colour then melt off all the wax masking to see if the design worked.. Google 'Pysanky' or Ukrainian Easter Eggs and you'll see more examples"
Lewis kindly gave me the sites to have look at if you are keen to know more detail or just look at more examples of this amazing work
https://pysanky.info/PYSANKY/Pysanka_Home.html or check out this one https://pysanky.info/Around_the_World/New_Zealand.html
Michelias are Magnolias
Its so hard to change ones thinking but Michelias have been regrouped/renamed Magnolias; but what's going to happen to all the data in everyone's systems.. I suppose that this change will take a few more years to drift through to being accepted. I will say that it means that the range of evergreen Magnolias has increased hugely in that we now include all the Michelias.
We were honoured to be offered a new Michelia that was found growing on a suppliers compost pile. We have been allowed to name this seedling which we believe may be a Maudaie/Gracipes cross. It has a sweet wee flower that is abundant throughout the bush and as you would imagine sweetly fragrant. This is being offered exclusively through us, there are limited numbers and is not to be offered again. We have named it in hononour of our mums hence the name 'My Mum'
A few years back it would seem, that all there was out there on the market was the good ole Port wine Magnolia (Michelia figo) or its other common name, if your smell/taste buds prefer aka juicy fruit plant. Then there is Michelia doltsopa, and particularly Silver cloud (grafted clone of doltsopa), that dropped out of circulation for a few years but we have had back in stock for the last couple of years.
The Michelias tend to have quite limey green leaves and smaller flowers than their, now closer, cousins the evergreen magnolias. Michelia carry their flowers along the stems or amongst the leaves rather than singly at the end of the stem like Magnolias which would indicate that they are much more floriferous.
I would suggest that some of them can get just as large as Magnolia grandiflora.
The flowers on the whole of this family are fragrant, and deliciously so, and will scent quite strongly an entire area. Star bright is another really cool cousin that has quite a star shaped fragrant flower. Another one that I haven't had many dealings with is called Lemon Fragrant and apparently quite a strong lemon fragrance. Below are pics of a lovely range of the deciduous Magnolias and there are also some nice plants of the evergreen Mags in the nursery at the moment.
Rose watch .... what happening with these now
If your roses are looking scruffy then you may just have time to get one more flush in. If you cut them back now, like a winter style prune, then your roses will be in full flower again at approximately the end of April which is around 7 weeks away. Now I reckon that we have a short window to do this final flush but if you leave it too much longer then they will be flowering in the winter which isn't what you want. On that point, somewhere around the beginning of April you will want to cease all pruning and even dead heading to leave the final rose flowers to complete the cycle to setting hips or seed. This will mean they will look scruffy for a while but resist the temptation to tidy them back because doing so, in our temperate climate, will just give them the message to grow again.. The mantra is once you have stopped pruning or dead-heading you should't prune them until the weather is cold enough so that they don't re-grow.
Often in the Autumn roses will grow long shoots that don't terminate in flowers and these are called water shoots and they are worth looking after so don't just go cutting them off. They can be a tad soft until they harden off so protect them from the wind by tying them to a stake or fence. These water shoots are great for creating new frame work and so can replace old frame work branches in the winter. An old frame work cane will have flowered for (I would imagine) at least 5 to 10 years. you know the story nothing like something fresh to produce the most flowers...
At this time of year the cool moist nights are perfect for growing disease and black spot and downy could be hovering around so if you think there could be a problem. give them a couple of sprays, one or two days apart of super shield.
Finally Autumn is the second main season to feed your roses to bring that final flowering to a stunning display though your should re feed roses every time after pruning to bring on the next flush. As i always say its a bit like cropping cabbages, once the cabbage has been harvested then you need to feed and condition the soil again before you plant the next crop. Rose flushes are a bit like cropping cabbages.
Rhodos are in the Nursery now and the biggest range ever!!!
OMG what a week its been Rhodos and Camellias for Africa. They are mostly in the garden centre now though not all in quite in the correct place. They are mostly sitting some where 'ish' in alphabetical order. I believe we would have to have the biggest range of these beautiful flowering plants around.
Cinnamomum Camphora I forgot to mention these last week and this is a tree that we haven't had before. I remember it from my early experiences in garden centres that it is a larger growing evergreen tree with attractive bright green leaves and flowers with masses of small white flowers. As it name suggests, all parts of the plant smell of Camphor. If I remember correctly in years gone past I was told that the wood was used for creating those old fashioned glory boxes or camphor chests. I imagine that the smell of camphor kept moths out of the linen..... think I may have just dated myself in that knowledge LOL
Just arrived in this week are some really nice smaller grade Daphne of the classic bush form (odora leucanthe) both in pink and white.. If you are keen on Daphne remember that it likes a position that gets the morning sun and not the hot afternoon sun... Classic Daphne is a bit fussy and doesn't like a position that is too wet or too dry but lol just right, but the fragrance is so delicious and well worth the effort.
Trees from $20..... need to move some of these
I have started to move some trees into a sales area to move them along for the year and because these are no longer inventoried, it means that you have to come on out and check them out for yourself.
All the remaining Peaches, Necatrines and Apricots are now reduced from $34.99 to $20.00 so bring a trailer.
The weeping flowering cherry Prunus avium pendula and Yedoensis perpendens are reduced from $59.99 to $30 Large grade Pecan Illinoinensis from $59.99 to $30. Unfortunately these are not available by mail order as they either are too large and also no longer in inventory.
Roses still 25% off so if you are after a few more for the garden come and check these out!
Autumn is a beautiful season, I think that its my favourite and the best for planting. Don't forget that now we are getting some rain that its also time to feed the garden again. Rain washes the fertiliser in so that it is available to the plants and they should be in a growth phase now. Feed all your fruit trees, roses and garden shrubs so that they keep making good root development. Remember a balance is also always good so blood and bone, sheep pellets or Bioboost are excellent organic materials.
Well my resolution to get this out earlier in the week hasn't happened this week and my excuse... its been a full on week! Had the arborist in to limb up some trees to make for some more light in the nursery, remove some trees that had become too big for the garden and some others that had past there use by date. That is the neat thing about gardening in that its all about a living canvas that you are creating.
Enjoy the remainder of the weekend
cheers
Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team
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2016 Newsletters...
Picnic....ing in the shade (28th January, 2016)
Wairere Newsletter 5th feb (3rd February, 2016)
To Run or Not to Run... (19th February, 2016)
Wairere Newsletter 02 Mar (1st March, 2016)
Camellia time (11th March, 2016)
..... Magnolia or Michelia
Easter weekend (24th March, 2016)
HW or LW Trees (3rd April, 2016)
Evergreen Trees (13th May, 2016)
All about shrubs (20th May, 2016)
Rose Time (27th May, 2016)
Frosty Friday (3rd June, 2016)
Tiny Camellias (9th June, 2016)
Gorgeous Trees (24th June, 2016)
wet wet wet (1st July, 2016)
Burgundy foliage (8th July, 2016)
Fruit trees abound (15th July, 2016)
Fruit Tree Pruning and Flowering Cherries (21st July, 2016)
Cider apples (29th July, 2016)
August already (4th August, 2016)
wood pigeons (7th August, 2016)
Feed Time (19th August, 2016)
Magnolia's and Cider Apples (20th August, 2016)
its Official (2nd September, 2016)
Spring shrubs (7th September, 2016)
Spring Shrubs2 (7th September, 2016)
Spring Shrubs 2 (7th September, 2016)
Tricky Tasks (16th September, 2016)
climbers (23rd September, 2016)
Wairere Newsletter 23 Sep (23rd September, 2016)
Beards are in vogue (23rd September, 2016)
Gin Oclock (14th October, 2016)
????Kumaras are in (20th October, 2016)
summer is coming (27th October, 2016)
Plants for eating (2nd November, 2016)
November 11 (10th November, 2016)
Hamilton Gardens (17th November, 2016)
Xmas Trees (22nd November, 2016)
Holly (2nd December, 2016)
Xmas Brekkie (9th December, 2016)
Merry Xmas (16th December, 2016)
HL Nurseries Limited t/a Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1, Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: