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Saturday 19th July, 2025

Hi

Carpe Diem or Seize the day! Hi, Tracy here with a blast from the past referring to that classic movie: Dead Poet's Society...it's all about seizing the moment at this time of year to make the most of the winter sunshine and turn those garden plans you have been making into action. Having a plan for your orchard is a great starting point, as a bit of planning goes a long way when it comes to fruit trees. 
The sort of planning involved can be helped if you draw yourself some sort of map so that you know which Fruit Tree varieties you have, which you are needing for pollination, and how many you can squeeze onto your bit of dirt. It can help you remember what is what, when the labels have blown away and memories have faded. What's the big deal about pollinators? Well, it can make a huge difference to how productive your trees are.
When planning your orchard you can also try to have fruit for (almost) every season whether its winter Citrus, summer stone fruit like Plums and Peaches, or autumn Apples and Pears followed by Persimmons and Feijoas.
For pollination requirements, Apples are a bit special in that some of them are diploid or triploid. This is just a fancy name to say that they benefit from having other specific apples or Crabapples nearby to cross pollinate and increase the yield of fruit. The catch is that diploid apples can pollinate triploid but not the other way around. This is due to the diploids having two sets of chromosomes per cell (which is pretty normal: humans are diploid too), while the triploids have three (an extra set) and as a consequence, have sterile pollen. This means that a triploid tree cannot pollinate other apples, and needs to receive pollen from two other varieties to produce a lot of apples itself. Sorry if this is all sounding a bit like "blah blah blah" because in fact, you don't need to know all the scientific ins and outs, just which ones will go with which other ones to produce bucketfulls of delicious apples. 
We have captured this info on our website here (click on the word 'here' to see the page). Luckily apples and crabapples are commonly found in many gardens, so if you are lucky the bees will find another variety in the neighbourhood to visit. Keep in mind that while bees can fly up to 8 km, they tend to stay closer to home (within 1.5 to 5 km). So, a neighbour's apple tree 10 km away is no use to you, but unless your own orchard is huge, bees should have no trouble moving pollen around within it.
My husband has plans to plant an espaliered apple in our town section which led to a discussion about what variety to choose. While I do love the sweet flavour of the 'modern' apples i.e. those you can get in the shops like Braeburn, Royal Gala, Pacific Rose and Fuji, I really hate faffing around with spraying and would rather have a variety which doesn't need a lot of care. Having lived next to a commercial orchard for 20 years, I can tell you they do an awful lot of spraying to keep the apples looking their best for export, especially in the Waikato with our humid and wet climate. 
This led to a discussion about some of the other options which include the Heritage varieties of Apples. They have the most fantastic names like Slack Ma Girdle, Peasgood NonsuchWinter Banana and Belle Du Boskoop and more importantly, come in a range of flavours, sizes and uses. 
Apples suitable for cooking, sauces, bottling, cider and of course, just for eating, are covered in the Heritage range Here. In case you were wondering, apple varieties that are suitable for making Cider include: Golden Reinette, Kingston Black, Tom Putt and Mother in Law.
Heritage Fruit Trees
People have been growing and cultivating Fruit trees for thousands of years and many of them have outlived their original owners to flourish for decades or longer. The oldest fruit tree currently recorded is a 400 year old Pear which lives in Danvers, Essex County, Massachusetts. Here in NZ the European settlers wanted to plant food crops which would help feed the growing population. One of Samuel Marsden's pear trees, which was planted near Kerikeri in 1819, is still alive. Some of these old varieties which have been around for generations have survived as desirable plants because in the old days there was no ability to spray and "nurse" plants along. They had to be tough and reliable to survive. Now days there is an increase in interest in these older varieties as people look for a more sustainable and organic way to grow food. There are many great options available in Apples, Pears, Cherries, Peaches and Nectarines
 
Revegetation time
Grab your gumboots and get outside to beat the winter blues by getting stuck into planting Natives. Fear the squelch and do it anyway because it's an excellent time of year for getting native trees and shrubs established. Natives are of course perfectly adapted to New Zealand conditions so if you want some plants to fill a bank or gully, screen-out the neighbours, or attract birds and other critters (insects), you can't go wrong. Pittosporums, including Karo/Pittosporum crassifolium, Lemonwood/ Pittosporum eugenoides and Kohuhu/Pittosporum tenuifolium, fit the bill for quick growing screening plants.
You can also chuck in some Akeake/Dodonea for colour and a change of texture. Flaxes (Phormium) look good all year round, are hardy and easy to grow and look especially good when planted en masse Phormium Jack Spratt is a small growing brown leaf variety, Phormium cookianum is the fresh green mountain flax with yellow flowers and Phormium tenax is the large swamp flax with green or purple leaves which can grow up to 2m.  
Proteas
There are few plants as spectacular as Proteas when growing well. South African natives - they LOVE the sun and enjoy baking hot soil that is sandy and porous. The ideal situation for these beauties is a hot dry spot with perfect drainage. In the Waikato we often have a bit much damp weather in the winter (don't we know it) so planting under the eaves of the house or even in a large pot where you can control how much moisture the plant receives is helpful. 
They also are a little fussy when it comes to fertiliser- it's really important NOT to use the common fertiliser which is suitable for most of your garden; instead choose one which is low in phosphate. An example would be fruit and flower booster (Sulphate of Potash) which is high in potassium, an element that plants need for flowering. 
Check out these cool varieties for a bit of garden inspiration. Protea Coronata An erect vigorous growing shrub which produces terminal green flowers with a tuft of white on the tip. Protea Magnifica One of the most spectacular proteas with a rounded growth habit and beautiful large soft to deep pink to red flowers in Spring to Summer. Protea Neriifolia Ruby The most well known Protea noted for its free flowering habit with its red flowers with black tips. Protea Niobe A beautiful upright shrub with stunning silver green flower bracts tipped with a black beard and a black/purplish centre. 
Come and meet the guys from the Waikato Rose Society.. Come armed with all your questions 
We had a great session here Wednesday a week ago with the rose society, with quite a few attending to gain some pointers on growing Roses. There are a couple more happening and these will go ahead rain or shine, hopefully sunshine!
Last Rose Soc. sessions will be on Saturday 19th (1-3 pm) and Sunday 27th (11 am-1 pm). We would love to see you there.
If the weather forecasters have it right then next week should be full of sunshine, well here in the Waikato anyway. This will be a welcome change after several very rainy days. So, if you are planning any pruning, Sunday might be a good time; when the settled, fine weather is due to begin.
Have a great weekend.
Cheers from Lloyd, Tony and the Wairere team.


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2015 Newsletters...

We're back (8th January, 2015)

Settling In (29th January, 2015)

Summer colour (30th January, 2015)

Fabulous Feb (6th February, 2015)

Roses on sale (16th February, 2015)

stevia (20th February, 2015)

Cheeky Climbers (6th March, 2015)

Michelias and Camellias (11th March, 2015)

Living fences (20th March, 2015)

Easter is nearly here (25th March, 2015)

Mourning the end of summer? (2nd April, 2015)

SALE NOW ON!!! (8th April, 2015)

Autumn Harvest (17th April, 2015)

What to do with all those leaves. (22nd April, 2015)

Autumn Flowers (1st May, 2015)

Sunday Mothers Day (8th May, 2015)

Colours of Autumn (15th May, 2015)

Always a project (22nd May, 2015)

Rose potting (23rd May, 2015)

Clip n Snip (4th June, 2015)

Roses Galore (14th June, 2015)

Rose Climbers (19th June, 2015)

Its Time to prune (3rd July, 2015)

Like a candy shop (11th July, 2015)

The pruning session (16th July, 2015)

Red and white stems (24th July, 2015)

Rose pruning Thur and Fri (24th July, 2015)

Winter Colour (31st July, 2015)

Time to feed (9th August, 2015)

Magnolias (20th August, 2015)

Gardeners work is never done (25th August, 2015)

Till the cows come home, or get shoooood away! (28th August, 2015)

Topiary Art (11th September, 2015)

Tosca in spring (19th September, 2015)

An extra hour (25th September, 2015)

The first Friday in October (2nd October, 2015)

Pretties Galore (9th October, 2015)

Frantic Fridays (16th October, 2015)

geraniums are in (20th October, 2015)

November events (31st October, 2015)

Movember (9th November, 2015)

Christmas is coming (20th November, 2015)

Harry was blowing in the wind (26th November, 2015)

December (3rd December, 2015)

Chilli out for Christmas (18th December, 2015)




HL Nurseries Limited t/a Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1, Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: