Friday 15th May, 2020
Hi
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls...It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola... The Kinks
I often use the phrase you are dealing with nature and often there are no rules... well there sort of are, but often things are not black and white, but rather shades of grey.
I was having this learning curve conversation with a customer and her iPhone and discovered that iPhone cameras recognise QR codes ... all that is by the by and we will deal a bit more with that later.
The conversation turned to our beautiful wonder trees (Idesia polycarpa) in the carpark and apparently her sisters specimen didn't have any berries this year. Typically Idesias are separate male and female trees and whilst this isn't the usual norm in the tree and plant world... it isn't uncommon either. For example many hollies or Ilex are single sex trees. I could have guessed the next question. "How do I know what sex my sisters tree is?" and I laughed and said the girl tree flowers have an ovary attached.
We were both gazing up at the trees and admiring the berries and I then pointed out the male tree which obviously has no berries... but no... I was totally gobsmacked to see, that in fact, there were a few bunches!!! You had to look quite closely to actually see them, but there they were! That tree has been there some 20 odd years, and I swear, I have never seen any berries on this male before. I was so stunned to see the berries that i just had to point them out to the others in the team. Virginia knew that this could be the case so I have to conclude that our male tree is not quite as masculine as I thought he was LOL
Whats new in ... catching up from Aprils missed deliveries.. there are so many plants and too many to list here.
New seasons citrus...I just love citrus and I don't get why people don't plant the likes of an orange as a small to medium ornamental tree. Not only do citrus have stunning evergreen green leaves they have beautiful fragrant white flowers and the bonus of delicious edible fruit... whether you eat them or not they look cool on the tree. As far as I'm concerned it's a win win all around. Now in stock are
lemons,
grapefruit,
oranges,
manadrins,
limes and heaps more.
Wisteria Gorgeous racemes of pea like, fragrant flowers, a tough hardy climber. I have mine trained as trees in the garden but equally as cool along a fence line or the veranda of a villa ... You don't have to let these beauties control you, but perhaps can perform better if kept in a more submissive role!
Winter roses... these little beauties, of the buttercup family, never fail to delight and I see that Ang has a nice selection of these perennials just starting to arrive in... all well worthy of a good look.
Plants of note
Kolkwitzia amabilis Pink Cloud or beauty bush... If you have never seen this in full flower then you need one to see... just stunning in full bloom soft pink flowers that just smother this bush... I have one in the garden at home and it is just amazing.. Not something that you would see around often either.
Symphoricarpus x doorenbosii... too much of a mouthful for for me but commonly known as snowberry or mother of pearl. This shrubs claim to fame are it's berries that are quite often sought after by those that like to do floral work. The marble patterned berries are so prolific they weigh down the branches from autumn to winter.
Smoke bush or
Cotinus coggyria another species name that I have to imagine to say but another cool shrub for the garden. I was out and about and these have the most amazing autumn colours. They are renown for their plume or clouds of 'smoke like' flowers... but wait there is more.. not only is there the main species with green leaves but there are other leaf colour choices like Golden spirit with golden colour leaves. Red spirit with purplish red leaves in summer and Grace whose spring crimson leaves change to a bluish green.
Level two
WOW WEE what a day yesterday was... it was so good, after nearly two whole months with the place to myself and then the last two weeks with the team, and finally we had customers again. The last week has been frantic with getting new seasons plants in place, unloading messy trolleys and barrows and tiding up those corners that haven't seen hands for the past two months and on the whole the place looks fab. Didn't quite get the new fountain finished but it won't be far off now. Tony's off getting some pavers to help level and centre it and I've told Cathie when it's filled and running there are to be no fish!
At last we have an area in the middle of the garden centre in readiness for the potting period and the imminent new seasons roses. There is no normal this year and so I haven't any dates when this might all happen but we will just roll with how events unfold. Hopefully the blanks for the labels show up in time, what with the delivery hold ups, we are rural too of course so we have a 14 day, wait for deliveries to us, as well.
Dispatch is quietly catching up with urban deliveries from the backlog of lockdown orders, they are all picked and waiting on courier pick up. We have updated our system to send an email with tracking details to the recipient as soon as the courier scans it for pick up. However, we are still not sending any rural deliveries due to the current 10-14 day wait for RD deliveries. We are waiting on advice from the courier company as to when they can deliver our plants to you in a respectable time. If you would prefer to have them delivered to an urban address then let us know via email at backorders@wairere.co.nz Please make it easier for us, as staff are already very busy with email and phone enquiries, by quoting the order number and putting URBAN ADDRESS in the subject line if sending by email. Of course we are now open under level 2 restrictions for you to come for a drive and pick them up if you prefer and are able.
Customers in store
I know that nobody will have escaped hearing of the covid 19 rules and regulations that are constantly being rolled out on TV and I am asking that all our in store clients help us implement a safe return to our normal. I ask this in the most sincere sense, as a small business owner, because the only alert level I ever want to go to is level one!
We have all being told to track our movements when we leave our homes and head out into the wonderful world of retail therapy so Cathie has spent a bit of time researching ways to make this easy, safe and time efficient, for when you come to shop here at Warere, and has found a secure way of delivering your details via a QR code that will report your arrival and departure times. All you have to do is scan the fancy bar code, known as QR code, and input your details to check in at Wairere when you arrive... if you leave the page open you can then check out as you leave by ticking the check out box and resubmitting your details ... no paper or pen handling required, your data is only accessible by the health department for tracing if need be and you can use the scanner at many different outlets once you have it. You will possibly need to download a QR scanner app to your mobile if you don't already have one but there are many good free ones available and they only take a min to download.
Why I bring this up here is that I am of the generation who can't do these new
techno tasks on the hop no matter how simple they are, preferring to sort it at home before I use it in front of others. I am guessing here, but imagine this may be our new normal for a while and many others will be offering similar systems.
It is very easy and I have learnt that iPhone and some androids scan with their camera function, automatically recognising the QR code and just take you to the page you need to go to... staff are here to help...( as best as we can knowing I'm in the same generation) but it certainly shortcuts a lot of paper work... here's the code so you can have a go at home first or get someone young and fresh to help you.
Please be patient with us as nothing is as it usually is in our nursery. There are a large number of orders that are on hold for dispatch and many waiting for collection by their new owners so the time at check out may be slower than usual while we find your order, process your payments and check you out.
I hope that everyone is enjoying their return to freedom, albeit with some boundaries and social rules... please mind them as we definitely don't want to go backwards in levels.
Have a great weekend, Cheers Lloyd, Tony and the Wairere team.
