Saturday 24th May, 2014
Hi
Its been quite a social fortnight, what with our Jaffa friends in Auckland tying the knot and getting married. Quite the occasion and a fabulous evening. Another friend clocked up another year, don't think it was one one of those decade birthdays but celebrated by going to the Phantom of the Opera at the Founders theatre and the performance was quite fabulous. My gappy moment for the week, who Harry has had much glee in telling all and sundry and whoever will listen, was in Morrinsville before the accountants appointment. I had to race in and quickly throw in a banking and get a pin number on my eftpos card. Only to be told by the teller that I was in the wrong bank, to which I had to own up and say well perhaps you could possibly get my banking back, that I have just thrown into their quick deposit slot. My excuse, well I was in a hurry and they both have blue detailing and just happen to be on opposite corners. Normally I would have this out on the Friday evening, usually helped along by a couple of Chardonnays, but last night was the Opera night so here we are with a Saturday version .
Now we have a new Button called
Just Arrived on our web page that saves me writing about all the new plants that have arrived in each week. Harry thought that it would be a good thing to have and so Allan the IT Guru put it up and reported that there were 127 new items for the first week. Next week the roses will start to be potted and I reckon that the
Just arrived will get full quite quickly. Now Allan has been really clever and if you type in the product search it will auto fill and that is pretty cool.
Which one is Which?.... Common names can be confusing....
Lily of the Valley is one of those common names that refer to a couple of different plants and quite often I will hear many customers ask for Lily of the Valley and then qualify their question with 'The real one'. Now I don't know what is the real one other than I guess they are after the perennial form called
Convallaria Majus. Now
Convallaria or probably known more as Lily of the Valley is a woodland perennial that grows from underground stems called rhizomes, which look a little like twitch (for the want of a better expression) and at the end of these stems are little shoots called pips, which are what we pot and have for sale presently. These pips become leafy and flower in the spring.
What family does Lily of the Valley belong to? and I guess its been a tricky one to place( remember that family associations are based on flower structure) and has once belonged to Lilaceae then according to my friend google, in its own family Convallariaceae and now is in Asparagaceae. Get that ! aceae is the end part of family names so if you see this anywhere you can assume that its family ie Roses belong in Rosaceae.......
Now the other
Lily of the valley that I'm on about, is the shrub form and its quite often those that know will add the word shrub and then we all know what is what.
Pieris japonica is the proper name and believe it or not these belong to the family of the
Ericas and if you look at the flower shape they are similar to those of the classic Erica. Other more obscure family members of the Ericaceae are the
blueberries that we eat and I'm sure that there are many more..
With the species name of Japonica its almost safe to assume that its a native of Japan where it grows in mountain thickets. Imagine being in the mountains there and I haven't and being in a thicket of Pieris in full flower.... It would be just gorgeous!
There are quite a few species and cultivars of these very pretty flowers that look similar to the perennial lily of the Valley but that really, is where the similarity stops. Those hanging bell like flowers are usually white but there are some pink forms too. Some of the cultivars also have bright red new foliage which looks pretty cool too and there are some differing heights as some will grow to 1 metre, while others will grow to approx 3m.
Where do lily of the Valley shrubs like to grow? Really in similar position to
Camellias with good loamy soil with mulch or humus layer on top. Dappled light or really just some protection from all of the days sun though like many plants I have seen them tolerating quite full sun just like Camellias.
Check the selection that we have in
Pieris as there are really some quite neat forms. I like the silver leaved ones like Little Heath and Flaming Silver. Purity White cap and white cascade is a nice and tidy compact forms as well.
Not a bad Saturday so far..
We have completed the new drain and relaid all the weed cloth and the back bays are all looking pretty sharp and fresh, ready for plants. Yahoo!! we won't be potting the roses this year knee deep in mud as it always seem to rain when the big pot is on. The area where the roses go is now all clear and ready for the newly potted plants so it will be all go from next week. The pot area has all be re displayed also with new weed cloth and a fresh new gravel path.
The weather out there isn't too bad, just a few quick and light showers so make the most of being outside and enjoy the weekend.
Cheers
Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team
Make it a Wairere weekend where even GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag.
Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, RD 1, Hamilton
07 824 34 30
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