Saturday 6th June, 2020
Hi
Pot it... park it... pick it... post it!
A few weeks later than normal but we have started the potting seasons and we are now on a roll.. It's so good having a team that know the drill as it just rolls out... and they get the newbies on track!
For those who don't know, the roses all arrive at the nursery bare root and we have a team of about 6 to get them all into bags. Finally we have retired an old tuff book laptop, that kept timing out and was just not easy to use, and have a fancy new scan gun gadget to receive all the roses in. It must be working pretty fine as I haven't had my name called to sort any problems, so far so good LOL. The rose bundles are received and counted and description labels and colour labels are sorted and matched to the plants.
The root pruning team get them next to trim the roots to size so we can get them into the plastic bags or as we call them pb8s which if I recall takes 4 litres of potting mix. Labels are attached ensuring they are pulled through to the lock position and then colours tied on and twisted off properly.
Then it's onto the potters who grab large bundles and bag them up one by one with amazing agility. I'm pretty fussy about the end result and like to see that the rose is central in the bag and it's potted not too soft or the opposite of too hard. Too hard wastes time and too soft the soil level drops in the nursery with the rain....the potting mix does have to sit around 1cm below the top of the bag so it catches the rain or irrigation and the level increases with the size of the bag. It's important to water all new plants in but when they are wet on those big trolleys of ours, well they are almost too heavy to pull so we water once they hit the ground.
A simple task it may seem, but its always a challenge to get them down on the ground in alphabetical order, especially when they don't arrive in any order. A few sums work out how many of each letter and the amount of square metres it will occupy, keeping in mind walking path room and if I have done my measurements right we are right on track.
Just so you know... it will take us about three weeks to get them all done so if you have ordered some new season roses then please be patient, we will email and txt as usual when they are potted and ready for you.
First up are roses from the our local
NZ breeder Rob Somerfield from Glenavon Roses. As usual the plants are large and chunky and just take that extra bit of skill to get them into a bag as they are so well grown.
After the roses are potted it will be on to potting fruit and ornamental trees, these will start rolling in in July although there are some early deliveries coming shortly so do keep an eye on the websites
Just Arrived section.
Winter clean up is sooooo important
We were having a chat at team meet on why I consider winter spray programmes an important thing to do...what sprays to use and when... This all then led to checking out what we have on the web site and I decided that what we had written years ago was a tad out of date... well I guess the info is still relevant but we can no longer supply many of the sprays that we used back then... but winter sprays are still there and the concept is that you use these to kill all the over wintering fungal spore structures, insect eggs and scale etc so they are not there to infect first thing in spring. Makes sense to me. Now the chemicals below have been around forever and are tried and true.
Lime sulphur is perhaps the most effective but does come with the need of some prior knowledge. It smells, quite sulphury, well lime-sulphur, says it all really. It can stain so be careful of structures/walls and it can burn the foliage of evergreen plants. Ensure you rinse out your sparyer well as it is potentially corrosive, but its very effective. It will finish defoliating your roses welll almost overnight which is what tou want.. I alwasy suggest that you do a follow up spray a couple of weeks later as you never get everything in one spary..
Then there is good old
Copper Oxychloride and
Conqueror Oil which does the same job and you definitely need to to at least two or three applications of these. There is a trick to mixing them so add some water to your tank... make a slurry of the copper powder and add to you tank and then continue to partially fill your tank.. dilute the conqueror oil in water and then add to tank with the copper. Continue filling your tank and shake together. The copper component takes care of the fungal spore and the oil addresses the scale and overwintering eggs or any insects that may be lurking.
Some people like to do both, lime sulphur and copper, so know that these two are incompatible, leave a couple of week before switching from lime sulphur to the latter. Spraying before pruning and then again once pruning is completed is always a good practice.
It's my opinion that it's good to try and get your roses to lose all their leaves and cease flowering, don't do any deadheading or tiding of them. Spraying them with Lime Sulphur will make them lose their leaves in a big hurry. In the Waikato it's best to leave pruning as late as possible which is just before bud burst in late July or even August.
Strawberries... we have managed to get some more Camarosa strawberries ready so those of you waiting on notification that your strawberries are ready shouldn't have to wait too much longer, the team will have them topped, tailed and bundled shortly. There are extras available so pop your order in online or buy in store. Quick note freight is $8 for up to 5 bundles if only ordering strawberries.
Peony tubers are now 25% off all tuber dry packs. These have been kept refrigerated so should give great flowering come spring.
Deciduous Azaleas new in. These have some of the gorgeous flamboyant colour range of flowers with hot oranges, yellows and reds and pinks and whites as well.
Olea... Olive trees we currently have a great range to choose from. Olive trees highly ornamental evergreen trees as well as producing fruit. Lovely, slim leaves of grey green can introduce a contrast colour in your landscape scheme.
We seem to have quite a few orders that haven't been collected, if yours is one of them, please help us by collecting your order. It helps us keep organised and minimises mistakes and we need the space in the nursery.
Last season roses are half price still, obviously this doesn't apply to our new season stock which is now filling that space in the centre of the garden centre but there are still plenty to pick over. We have moved them to a space at the back of the garden centre. These are no longer in stock or on the web so you do have to come out and choose for yourself.
The same applies to the sale trees we have down the hill in the sale area. These have all been put to sale codes so you will have to browse them. Bring a trailer as many are over 3m. These are good buying from $20 ea.
Wahoo it looks like we will be making level one next week and that means that we are mostly back to normal.. long may it continue. Roll on the midwinter Christmas parties so that we can start looking to longer days... I was out in the garden with a torch attached to my head and it was only 5.30 pm with luck (and a bit of management) maybe I can get out into my garden this weekend.
Enjoy your gardens, stay well and have a great weekend!
Cheers Lloyd, Tony and the Wairere team..
