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Saturday 21st April, 2018
Hi
Have a giggle over those latin names
My first job was with a bank as a lad in ledgers. For those that know no better, customers used to come in and give me their name. You would duly look up their account number, go to the ledgers and look up their bank balance and write it on a slip of paper and hand it to them. My how times have changed!! I was fortunate enough to get an additional weekend job working for a couple that were starting their own business growing a wholesale nursery that specialised in producing old world roses, pip and stone fruit and shelter trees.
I guess that the experience was such that I had found my career niche and to that end left my two year stint with the bank and started working full time in this nursery. As in all things it became apparent that I had to do some study if I wanted to get ahead so embarked on a four year correspondence course being the National certificate of horticulture.
I chose amenity Horticulture as the path to follow... Horticulture is a vast field like most careers ranging from flori culture, turf culture, orcharding just to list a few.
Correspondence seemed to be the best option at the time as I could still earn while working. The interesting thing is all the Latin names and how to pronounce them. At the time I was the only employee and worked by myself and went home and studied alone so I never really heard any one say them, these long Latin names, and I would just say them how I thought. To be fair I didn't meet many that learnt Latin to learn the correct way.
Lately we have been having fun with these Latin names in the Nursery with our clever couple Virginia and Guillermo from Argentina that speak Spanish and of course have quite a different take on the correct pronunciation. Last week we wrote on Azaleas and we Kiwis in the nursery are now well familiar with the pronunciation of Az... aaa.. leaaa. Fuchsia... well this one I will leave to your imagination as Google may ban my email as it could sound like that common F word. There are many more examples and we all have a few laughs over what we now say in our defence... we use the Kiwi pronunciation.
Once you get into these genus and species names, well its not so difficult and everyone is on the same page in terms of what plant you are dealing with.. common names can be so vague. An example is Lily of the valley, it could be the perennial Convallaria or it could be the shrub Pieris.
Just imagine using the Genus names instead of the common name and then it will all become second nature....Prunus for cherries, Ilex for Holly, Malus instead of Apple, Quercus instead of Oak...Hydrangea for Hydrangea is an easy one ... LOL Often the species name which follows the Genus will give more clues about the plant japonicus from Japan, Quercus Ilex ....Oak with holly like leaf... its gives a visual picture and you can guess or assume that this oak is evergreen.
So the moral is .. don't be shy just say it how you see it and we will work it all out.
Garlic... more Latin.... and did you know ????
There are some plants that even those that know all the Latin names just normally call by their common names. A good example here would be Parsley and there was a day that I looked it up and found that it was petroselinium crispum. I still just call it Parsley because if I did use its Latin name everyone would look at me weirdly, though I have found that many Latin plant names make for great passwords for various accounts.
Allium Sativum is the name for Garlic and Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum....is the latin name for the elephant garlic version and its a bit of a tongue twister. So Im going to stick to its common name. Now it will probably be no surprise to know that Garlic belongs to the onions as Allium is the genus name for this group of cousins and include shallots and chive and chinese chives.
Google also says that the genus of alliums or onions belong to the family Amaryllidaceae which was new to me. Plants that belong to Amaryllidaceae also include non eating plants like Autumn crocus or rain lily that is in flower right now and of course others like Nerines.
As usual I learn something when I write these newsletters, for instance Elephant garlic is a perennial plant belonging to the onion genus. It is not a true garlic, but actually a variant of the garden leek which I find interesting.
Probably what most want to know is about cropping this tasty bulb of which we currently have the white usual clove garlic called Printanor and the Elephant version available.
Garlic likes good, rich soil and plenty of moisture as it grows, but not sodden soil. Break the heads into individual cloves each with a bit of the basel plate, where the roots grow from. Plant with the old roots facing downward at around 5 cm deep and centers at 10 to 15 cm apart. I read to cover with a mulch for them to grow through. I imagine something soft like old straw that will suppress the weed and keep the foliage clean.
Plant around the shortest day and harvest around the longest day or when the foliage starts to dry off. If it gets dry whilst they are growing strongly then do water them to keep them going. I made the mistake last year of not recognising when they were going off and didnt harvest and then we got a heap of rain and they started to regrow which wasnt desirable.
Elephant garlic produces large underground bulb that consists of usually 5 cloves. Plant these similar to the smaller Printanor but with perhaps slightly further centres to accomadate the large head of cloves.
Whats Just Arrived in Fresh this week
New in this week are some of the specialty Hellbores that have been bred by that special guy down the South Island. Among some of the hybrids and species are also his orientalis cross range of colours in Picotee, apricot, yellow, burgundy, pink and white hybrids. With these you are getting proven seedlings from these particular colour ranges though as with all seedlings there will be some variance in shades.
These are some cool species as well though like Niger White magic which will tolerate quite a dry position.. You must check out one called Sternii Clifton which has the coolest of cool grey foliage.. just gorgeous and probably another for a drier spot rather than wet.
Dont forget to check over the Pieris, Azaleas and Rhododendrons as the range is as good as it gets at this time of the year. All the plants are looking just the best and many of these are already in bud or flower.
Still making room
Dont forget that we still have 30 % of all the pip and stone fruit range, this includes all apples, pears, plums, peaches and the like.
Ornamental trees from 30% of selected trees including Liriodendron Arnold, Fraxinus Green Glow
What about these for a deal, the purple leaved Prunus or flowering Plums. A hardy small to medium sized tree with great plum coloured leaves and pink flowers in the Spring to boot
Prunus Thundercloud 50% off. You can add a nice contrast to the garden with this ornamental flowering plum which has deep smoky purple foliage. In spring pretty single soft pink blossom appears sometimes followed by small, sour inedible red fruits. Deciduous. Est.10yr.growth.
Prunus Blireana 50% off. flowering Plum. A robust and highly decorative small tree with fragrant, double pink blossom that decorates the bare branches in early spring. The summer foliage is an attractive bronze-purple tone that makes a nice contrast to the all that green. Plant in a sunny well drained spot. Deciduous.
Prunus Pissardii Nigra 50% Black wooded with shiny dark purple Copper Beech like foliage. Showy small light pink blossoms in spring. This small tree has open, twiggy branches that are smothered in pale pink flowers. Each single flower has deeper contrasting stamens and the leaves emerge bright ruby red, changing to wine red and finally to deep plum through the summer.
Prunus Mume 30% off. Cultivated in Japan for over 1500 years this tree is highly valued for its ornamental charm. It is in the dark days of winter that this plant exhibits its unique charm when the delicate, single or double, blossoms in shades of white, red or pink, decorate its bare branches and give a delight, rich, spicy fragrance.
While we are on Prunus there are some weeping cherries on special. Pendula rosea and check out Pink Cloud and Accolade on 1.2 Stds we can do these at 30% off as well.
There are some excellent discounts available on a great selection of deciduous trees so if you want to check out all our specials go to the Sales section of the website.
You will also notice we have discounts showing on most of the new season camellias now in stock for purchases over 10 plants. They don't have to be the same variety, just from the same price range. If you are wanting to do hedging there are some great discounts available. Check them out here.
I can't believe how quickly the weekend has rolled around again; one blink and the week has disappeared lol. I have been told that it is because I am so busy I make time speed up, it's like a blur rushing behind me. Hopefully time isn't chasing you and you get to have a happy, safe weekend with plenty of what you like to do included in it.
Have a great weekend.
Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team
Make it a Wairere weekend where even GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag.
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2018 Newsletters...
Feb already (3rd February, 2018)
Gardening friends (9th February, 2018)
fabulous feb (16th February, 2018)
Grapes and Art deco in Napier (2nd March, 2018)
About Ferns (10th March, 2018)
out with willow and in with Camellias (27th March, 2018)
Paddock Trees (25th March, 2018)
Trees for Big Spaces (27th March, 2018)
Sasanquas take 2 (30th March, 2018)
Brrr Autumn is here (14th April, 2018)
..... Garlic and Winter Roses
Friday Again (5th May, 2018)
Espaliered (12th May, 2018)
always a project (18th May, 2018)
Power Outages and Proteas (31st May, 2018)
Rose time again (8th June, 2018)
Aussie Natives (19th June, 2018)
Roses Abounding! (23rd June, 2018)
Ornamentals (7th July, 2018)
High, Low or Cascading (13th July, 2018)
Daphne time (20th July, 2018)
Spring in four days (27th July, 2018)
Let the blossoms begin (3rd August, 2018)
Tamarillos (10th August, 2018)
Magnolias3 (17th August, 2018)
Bloom time not gloom time (28th August, 2018)
Is it September Already? (31st August, 2018)
Nuts abounding (7th September, 2018)
Its all in the name... seriously (14th September, 2018)
Blossom bloom again (21st September, 2018)
Fabulous Friday 28 (28th September, 2018)
Fluffies and Pretties (5th October, 2018)
October rain with 22mm (12th October, 2018)
Blue October (19th October, 2018)
Its all about roses this week (26th October, 2018)
what about this (2nd November, 2018)
Rose show 2018 this weekend (9th November, 2018)
The running of the balls sequel 1 (16th November, 2018)
Orange Kumara 1 (23rd November, 2018)
scones (30th November, 2018)
Hydrangeas (8th December, 2018)
French Tarragon Hmmm (14th December, 2018)
Happy Holidays (21st December, 2018)
Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1, Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: