Saturday 15th November, 2025
Hi
Bugs love plants and so do we, so it's a constant battle between 'Us' and 'Them'. Chewing, sucking, biting, burrowing, boring - watch out, they are after you! Whether it's fighting off the slugs on your fresh little lettuce seedlings, battling the aphids on your new rose growth or wrangling the grass grub beetle out of your cherry trees, they want to eat what you want to grow. For them, plants are the entrée, main, dessert and cheeseboard.
For those of you who are battling the dreaded grass grub beetle which swarms into our cherries and other trees at this time of year, and can leave them holey and denuded, fear not. They will grow back. It's not really practical to spray a large tree or trees, and even if you do, the grubs will go and die at your neighbour's house and then your neighbour's ones will come over for a chomp instead. Grit your teeth - it's a short term problem which will resolve in due course 90% of the time.
Luckily, there are other, carnivorous bugs which want to eat the herbivorous insects that attack our plants. During the weekend just gone, my husband and I travelled down to Taranaki for the Centuria garden festival. We had a great time with stunning weather and beautiful gardens and art to enjoy. One of the most interesting gardens we visited was a Permaculture garden where the owner is using the techniques designed to minimize spraying and maximise beneficial insect populations as a way to control pests. Helpful plants to attract beneficial insects, or to repel nasty ones, include fragrant herbs and perennials such as
Lemon balm,
Bergamot,
Comfrey,
Nutmeg geranium and
Mint Basil.
Clever plant placement and choosing the right plant for the right spot is also crucial to ensuring your war against creepy crawlies is more like an arm wrestle. In all your gardening, choosing a plant most suited to the climate, soil and situation that you have will increase your chances of having a garden full of robust and healthy specimens. It's a bit like a chicken and egg joke - if your plant is failing to thrive because it's in the wrong spot then it will be more susceptible to pests and diseases; and if it gets attacked by pests and diseases then it's more likely to struggle in a sub-optimum environment. I often get asked which roses do best in shade, damp or wind... the actual answer is "don't plant your rose there" - choose another plant or another spot. For your rose to thrive it needs full sun in well drained soil that has good nutrient content.
Roses
Climbing roses are not all created equal. By that I mean there is a difference between climbers and ramblers, patio climbers and vigorous 'doers'. The traditional
climbing rose is one which needs the support of a trellis or wires to support what are eventually quite heavy stems. For these the more you can train their growth to be horizontal, the better they will flower. Most end up in a sort of fan shape which will help make pruning a lot easier and keep the flowering buds coming out along the main leaders. Examples include:
Dublin Bay,
Breath of Life,
Casino and
Bantry Bay.
If you want to grow a rose up a small fence or obelisk, I would choose something like a patio climber. The new selection of
Siluetta roses are perfect for this situation. They also make stunning
Weeping standards as they cascade gently to the ground from a 1.8 m stem.
The rambling roses are the ones which make a lovely show sprawling over an old tree which has seen better days, draped over a brick wall or trained into having a trunk (see images below).
Rambling roses behind offices at Wairere
The climbing roses pictured below are also ramblers.
Whatever rose takes your fancy, just remember that our roses are on Sale for a limited time. 20% off all roses currently in stock! So make sure you come and enjoy our beautiful array; even if you only come to wander and enjoy the sights and smells of the queen of the flowers in all her splendour.
Maples
I wrote a bit about
Maples a few weeks ago but thought I would touch on them again as they develop their beautiful summer foliage. Japanese maples, which have very finely divided leaves, do best when protected from wind and harsh midday sun. As with roses, adding a mulch to the soil will help prevent them drying out too much. They are mostly very slow growing and can live for 100 years or more so, dare I say, they will probably outlive the person who plants them. Some fine varieties can get a bit sunburnt in full sun, so the spot they love is dappled light - under larger trees or protected by a wall, fence or building.
New at the Garden Centre
English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) Nothing beats the fragrance of lavender on a hot sunny day. It's a delicious smell due to a compound called linalool which is actually a type of sedative; so it works on your nervous system to calm your mind and help you relax. That's why lavender oil is so great in an evening soak because it gets your body ready to sleep. In the garden lavender loves the sun and, being of a Mediterranean disposition, prefers well drained soil. Sorry Poms, this one is named for you but actually comes from areas such as 'Provence' in France where they have hot dry summers and cold winters. The species name (angustifolia) means narrow leaf and these guys have nice long stems for picking and are rich in oils, giving them that pungent scent. It's also one of the things which could be used in the permaculture garden to repel insects; so plant it next to your roses and other tender plants.
Contrast the long skinny stems of
angustifolia with the shorter, plumper heads and flowers of the
Spanish lavenders. These still have the fragrance but the oil content is generally lower and they tolerate higher temperatures. Sadly, these may not be as long lived as English lavenders.
Alstroemerias. For those who have been waiting for the taller, more pick-able Alstroemerias, we have limited numbers of
Summer Red and
Rock n Roll available now. If you want these beautiful, red-flowered Alstroemerias, you will need to grab them quickly. We also have plenty of smaller Alstroemerias including
Candy, from the Inca series, which has rose-pink flowers with white-flecked inner petals and
Sunstar, which has lovely, dark pink/purple blooms with yellow throats.
Daisies
Marguerite Daisies are the compact pretty bushes which you see often through the summer covered in bright flowers. These are usually in shades of pink, white and occasionally red. They originally came from the Canary Islands where the parent plants grow in poor soil in sunny well drained spots. That's the ideal place for them; where they get all day sun and are protected from frost. You are likely to get many months of flower from each plant and the secret is to cut the dead flowers off as they are finished to initiate some new ones. We have a new release series called
Lollies and if you are a garden freak like me they are a bit of a treat.
Looks like it should be fine on Sunday in Hamilton, which will be good for those who are doing the Round the Bridges Fun Run; and for gardeners of course!
Cheers from Lloyd, Tony and the Wairere team.
.jpg?t=1763075779 "Acer Sango Kaku (Senkaki)")
