There's More To The Prunus'es Thans Fruits LOL

Hi

The Tui Cherries

There is more to the Prunus'es than plums, peaches nectarines and almonds and it would be remiss of me to skip out on the flowering cherries. I think that there has been more than a little hanky panky going on in this group of trees over the years as there are quite a few of them and many different cultivars.
Quite a popular one would have to be the Tui cherry or even known as the Taiwanese cherry but properly known as Prunus Campanulata. I always think of this one as being the first cherry in spring to flower with its brightly coloured bell shaped flowers.  Superba has clear pink flowers and Felix Jury has bright cerise pink blooms and the Tui's just go crazy getting the nectar.

The Yedoensis Cherries

                     

Now I'm no expert in this matter of who flowers when but Awanui must be next on the list with it's very attractive, single, light pink flowers. Now this form belongs to the species yedoensis.  Absolutely awesome sight in full bloom! There is a new cross out called Mountain ice and it's a yedoensis cross, imagine one like Awanui but in white!!

Now I have to throw in here Prunus Accolade. Its has different parents to the others but is a very pretty cherry with quite bright pink, semi double flowers. we have a row of them running through the garden centre as well as Awanui's and they look awesome in flower!

The Serrulata Cherries

Flowering next will be the icy white Shirotae Mt Fuji. This one belongs to the species serrulata along with the bright pink Kanzan,  white Tai Haku, greenish Ukon and a few others. Now most of these cherries make a vase shaped tree but Amanogawa has a columnar form like a poplar and would make a cool tree for an avenue
One of the last of this group to flower is the utra pretty and ultra double blooms of Shimidsu sakura, You just want to stand underneath this tree in full flower and look up through to the sky. Pink buds open to the frilliest most double cherry flower I think I know!

Extra on the flowering Cherries

Most of the cherries above are vase shaped trees or even quite umbrella shaped so are quite suitable as small shade trees except for Amanogawa which grows quite upright. There are aslo weeping cherries whose growth is downwards and they weep to the ground.  Well they kinda grow up and over and hence can still grow quite large but if you want to see underneath them you have to prune away the trailing growths whilst they are young.

Techno stuff

Cherries come  what we call either high worked or low worked. Many cherries are high worked meaning that they have been grafted on the roostock at an appropriate height like 1.2,1.5 and 1.75m. These effectively means that they have a clear trunk to their grafted height already. If you grab a low worked one then you will need to limb it up (remove lower branches) as it grow to the height that you want its trunk to be.

WHAT'S NEW !

 Silver Birches  Its bad news when you own a plant nursery and have a plant fetish. You just can't help yourself and buy in all these new and or different plants.
First time that I have ever had are these selected forms of silver birch grown for the whitest bark ever Betula Silver shadow and Silver spire. Ive seen the magazine pics and these do look pretty cool mass planted and underplanted.

Yellow Daphne I think that these are neat too with their typical Daphne like flowers that are yellow shading across to white centres. They look quite spacey with these flowers happening on the ends of branches that have no leaves.  Strappy leaves appear after the flowers creating a shrub to approx 1m high.

Downy Mildew eye watch

The weather has been pretty miserable with all these sporadic cold showers, ideal for conditions for all sorts of fungal infections. Keep an eye out for downy mildew on any new roses. You probably won't see any symptoms other than the new leaves falling off. Spray with Bravo if unsure and do two or three sprays close togather.

Magnolia Grandiflora Saint Mary  We sold out last week but have another 50 on hand so be in quick!!!!!   These are the most amazing buy!!   Huge plants over two metres high and large bushy heads $49.99 just $24.99. Dont  just bring a car for these beauties, bring a trailer!

Stawberries   I know that the weather hasn't been that great for any sort of gardening but there will be a break sometime soon LOL! well I hope so as you need to get your stawbs in. If you haven't been contacted and want these then please get in touch. Asparagus crowns have arrived in yesterday!

No matter the weather have a great weekend

Cheers,

Lloyd and Harry

Make it a Wairere weekend where gardenings not a drag!!!!!