Friday 19th May, 2017
Hi
If you have been out to the nursery lately you will have seen the large empty space in the middle of the garden centre. We have been getting the space ready again for the new seasons roses, which has involved clearing, or just relocating, all the plants that were there. We have also used this time to replace all the worn weed cloth bays with fresh new weed cloth and so its looking all very smart right now. The whole area then has been sprayed with a disinfectant including all the paths and now we are ready to start filling it up with new seasons roses.
OM Goodness, we have even had time to extend a dry area by putting a temporary tarp roof up making a larger rain free work space ( if that's possible). We moved a little messy area of collectable plants and have now put up a wind break to soften those gusts of wind and we have the best space to work in that we have ever had.
The first of the 13000 odd
roses started to arrive yesterday and so its all on potting and has been for the last two days. It takes a team of 6 or 7 of us to complete the process. It starts with scanning in the varieties so that they appear in stock and online. Next in the chain is the root pruning and labelling. Root pruning is done so that the rose can fit into the pb8 or plastic bag and will also stimulate all those new feeder roots to grow. Two labels for each plant, a descriptive label and a colour label to show the bloom that the rose will have come spring.
Next on the agenda is the actual potting which has to be just right. Bag open, small amount of potting mix, hold the rose in the correct position, fill the bag with potting mix and firm by bouncing on the bench. Sounds easy but does take a tad of technique to get the bags the right firmness with rose graft sitting central and just above the soil level and just a smidgen down from the top of the bag so that the rose bush can collect water.
The guys will do approx 500 units each per day and so you can guess that it will be a few weeks of bagging roses for us. If you are getting new season roses then it is a good idea to familiarise yourself about the care of newly potted roses. Information about this can be viewed on the '
How To' page on our website.
Now it does take a few weeks to get the job done and as orders get completed we will be in contact by email and text. As we get them bagged the roses available should appear online on our
website otherwise their status will stay as still to arrive. If you wish to know more feel free to email us at
backorders@wairere.co.nzTelopea aka Waratah belongs to the Protea family and is native to New South Wales in Australia. As is typical of most Aussie plants and what we know about the Protea family so it will be no surprise that this stunning plant will like a full sun position with sharp drainage. We have a couple in the garden and Harry used to pick these gorgeous blooms and take them into his mother when she was staying in a retirement home. The team there used to put some in the lounge for all to share. They last for absolute weeks in the vase and have long stems so will suit those who love arranging flowers.
As with many of the protaceae family, picking the flowers actually is of benefit to the plant because if you leave them on the bush, they will regrow from the finished flower. This makes the bush too tall. So the moral of the story is to pick all the flowers and if you don't then cut the bush back hard as soon as the flowers are finished but prior to new growth.
Hellebores, Winter roses.
Its a funny thing but we always think of winter as a season when nothing happens but some plants really just start coming into their own in winter and winter roses are just such a plant. Now when Winter roses, which aren't a rose at all, suddenly start to grow its at this point that if you totally remove all their foliage then their flowers which are coming will display to their fullest potential. Once the flowers are almost done then their new set of leaves for the year will take over. Effectively you will have removed all of last years tatty leaves have a great flower display and the new leaves will look nice for the coming year. We have just completed doing this to all the
Hellebores in our garden and been feeding them with a general fertiliser to help push them along.
I just love winter roses especially as a mass planting as they will suppress the weeds look great and are suitable for most positions though preferring dapple light, semi shade or where they will get the morning sun.
Now while on the tasks in the garden, something not to do is to dead head your rose or even cut them back. Don't even take the old flower head off as you want your roses to think that they need to set seed for the year. just leave them to look tatty and loose their leaves.
Now you can help them lose their leaves with a spray of lime sulphur but its still early to do this but if your roses are in the tatty stage, well a spray of this will tidy them up quick as.
I know that some of you will have cut your roses back late and they will be coming into flower again and Lime Sulphur will burn all these leaves off so perhaps leave it until the flowers are finished. Sulphur will burn foliage so make sure that you apply it to just the roses and don't get the spray all over plants and or surfaces as the stuff will stain. Also know that it smells, like well you know, very sulphery, but its the best clean up spray of fungal and rust spores not to mention eggs of aphids scale and all those pests that like to feast on roses. If you are not keen on Lime sulphur then choose a regime of
Copper Oxychloride and conqueror oil but you must do 3 to 4 applications through the winter. I totally recommend what we call a winter clean up spray programme especially if you don't spray through the growing season. This same regime applies to a deciduous fruit trees as well. Click
here to find the winter spray clean up information, look for Winter at the bottom of the page when you follow the link.
Camarosa Strawberries these are going fast and they need to be planted into the ground. Good rich soil
Printanor and Elephant Heart Garlic are still available, we have more Printanor on it's way and
Elephant Heart is still in stock.
Daphne Perfume Princess went into stock yesterday. It has been field grown so they are lovely bushy plants and good value at $29.99 each. These are the toughest Daphne available, they flower up the stems of the plant, not just at the tips, they will take full sun although they prefer dappled light, and their perfume is divine.
Hydrangea
seemanii is one of the few climbing hydrangea varieties available in NZ.
Seemanii is a self supporting climber that will happily cover a section of fencing or wall, you can use to reduce the visual effect of a water tank on the landscape or let it trail up or over a shed or building wall. The evergreen leaves are large, serrated and dark green and just look gorgeous draping a wall.
Paeonies are due to arrive in winter. We have 5 new varieties coming as well as our other favourites. These are excellent bedding plants and so many who grow them cant just stop at one. Order yours now online.
There is a chill in the air and I believe snow is expected in the deep south tonight and over the weekend and apparently the central plateau could be getting a flurry or two tonight as well , drive safe if you are caught in it, stay warm. Throw your winter woolies on and start planning your spring beds by trawling through our website or facebook page.
Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team
Make it a Wairere weekend where even GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag.
