Saturday 24th April, 2021
Hi
Nice and warm in your house
You really know it's Autumn when those tell tale, scratching noises in the ceiling, tell you that every rodent within cooee has decided that the cosiest place to be for winter... is your place! Cecilia heard those very same noises the other day, from our office ceiling, and just above her head which she was very un-impressed with, so I'm putting it out there that it's time to put bait up in your ceilings or garage space.
As it happens Ang has organized a new product range from Kiwi Care which handily happens to have a product called
No Rats and Mice and these tablets can be tucked away in the appropriate places. It's really important here as there are so many places that the little vermin can nest and they can really do so much damage inside, right down to eating the wiring.
I'm sure that we have a resident rat nesting away under a compost bin at home and it must be the size of a cat looking at the size of the exit holes. Don't think for a minute that we haven't done something about it. We have one of those automated rat traps, that do the whole deed, so close to the bin that the inhabitant must almost hit its head when leaving for a forage... and yet we still haven't managed to sort it. But a heads up to get bait out and about.
It's like being in a candy store
We are very proud of our
website,
facebook and
instagram pages, as well as this newsletter and as you can imagine there are some very specific rules around what is posted in regard to content and pictures. You would think that, being the boss, I would have some leeway, however, I think I may have pushed some boundaries today when I asked to see if I could get away with listing the following plants without them having a pic online. It's just that I was excited to be able to have these plants in my nursery and couldn't wait to share them here. So I will take the flack when you follow the links and there aren't any gorgeous pics to see when you arrive but google their names and you will see why I was so excited to have them.
Metrosiderous Robusta or Northern Rata... this interesting plant is related to the Pohutukawa, amongst others, and for all intents has similar red flowers to our coastal iconic tree. The coolest fact is that it usually starts life as, wait for it, a "hemiepiphyte". The seed starts life high in the branches of a host tree or mature forest tree and sends it's roots downwards, girdling and spiralling the host, until they reach the ground, slowly but surely seeing the demise of the host, forming a pseudo hollow trunk. I imagine the plants we have to sell have been produced from cutting material... not strangulation.
Metrosiderous umbellata alba,
a white version of the Southern Rata this is something special as usually these are red flowered. The difference between Southern and Northern Rata is that the South Island version doesn't strangle the host and forms a handsome tree, in it's own right, up to 15 metres or so.
So not only do we have the white Southern Rata but also a couple of selected forms of red being
St Nichol and
Xmas Dream selected for the red flowers which are displayed 'surprise, surprise' at Christmas time.
Lets not even delve into the Rata/Pohutukawa differences as they are, after all, Metrosiderous, but can you tell them apart below?
If you are into berries then these are a must have! Gaultheria. Now we have had
procumbens before with its classic Erica like flowers and stunning red berrries. You will guess from its name that its a prostrate or ground covering form.. but new to me is another species called mucronata, these are shrub like and we have a couple of selected forms of these.
Davies White and the other
Rubies and Pearls.. as I have said, I am skating on thin ice here putting these up without pics but I googled these cultivars and you can see that the berries are to die for!
My last teaser for you to mull over are a small collection of
Eucryphia that have also just arrived. I have a small tree of these in the garden and I love it. When in flower it is a mass of single white cupped flowers which attract the bees, in fact if I remember correctly, Cecilia told me that in Chile they use this for a bee crop like we do with Manuka.
Eucryphia Milliganii,
Eucryphia Wilkei,
Eucryphia Gilt Edge and
Eucryphia NymansayFothergilla major, mountain witch alder is a not so known deciduous shrub that does amazing autumn colours. Flowers are bottle brush like and white. I'd say a must for those like me that just have to have every obscure plant that they can get their hands on.
The Onion family Garlic and Shallots
I know it's early but around this time of year you would plant garlic. Now many would say that the shortest day is the time but any time from now is good. It's a pretty easy crop to grow, although they do like good rich soil to grow a decent head, and I for one, like large cloves to peel. Take a head of garlic and separate the cloves and plant these around 15 to 30 cm apart and about 5 cm deep. Don't be tempted to plant too shallow as they may rise up and not root properly.
In three to four weeks you will see green sprout and from this stage the garlic will benefit from any general NPK fertiliser. During Sept and October the bulbs will begin to fatten and bulk up and so regular liquid feeding will encourage this but stop as you go into November as you want the bulbs just to swell and not put on any more green top growth.
Shallots are pretty similar to grow but plant these with the cloves half in and half out of the soil and about 15 cm apart in rows 30cm apart. These should sprout just like the garlic in three to four weeks. Again, these love good rich soil to develop, decent sized, shallots to use come summer.
Leeks and Beans
Just while we are on onion like plants I made up this dish with leeks last night.. Now it's with dried cannelini beans and I have never cooked these before. A quick google told me to soak them in water for 5 hours prior to cooking which I did. I guess that it's really all about the sauce to make these tasty as I have never been a bean fan.
Two large leeks thinly sliced, crushed garlic and two diced capsicums sautéed off in a large enamel pan, meanwhile I had the soaked beans on simmer in water for around half an hour.
I had some cooked pork sausages from the night before which I sliced and added to the leeks But Imagine that you could do something really tasty with chorizo or bacon and the like. Once the beans were cooked I added these to the leeks then a couple of cans of diced tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste and then simmered the lot for another half hour or so. I was too lazy to get any herbs from the garden but it was tasty enough for dinner and as usual enough for another night.
Peonies... we still have some pre packs of these if you are keen to give them a go.. ideally suited to a cold climate but could be lifted each winter and refrigerated just like you would do with tulip bulbs. Otherwise plant in the coldest spot in your garden and throw ice cubes over them to help chill. Cath tells me she will freeze 2l ice cream containers of water and just up end them over the corm to defrost through the day, gets their chill hours up quite well.
Azaleas make excellent small hedges/borders in the garden, easy to grow and they flower profusely in their season. They are acid soil lovers like rhodo's and magnolias and gardenias so should like our soil. I've posted a few of the ones flowering currently on the
facebook page, just cause I could and of course because they look gorgeous.
Just a thought but with this cool and moist weather, its perfect for the buxus blight to develop on your buxus hedges... a preventative could be to spray
copper oxychloride prior to rain and again after... but the best one to use would be the
buxus blight spray... again before rain and a follow up after.
Don't forget that its Anzac day on Sunday and we will be closed for the morning then opening at 1pm until 5pm. Monday is a stat day and we will be open usual hours of 8.30 to 5pm but with a reduced team so be gentle with us.
Another long weekend... enjoy! Cheers Lloyd, Tony and the Wairere team
