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Friday 6th December, 2019
Hi
Is it Blue or is it going to be Pink?
Now I know there is a bit of a fad about creating different ways of disclosing the sex of an expected baby but... this isn't about that... well not really, although it is important to most of us what colour our hydrangea flowers will turn out to be each season. It's an interesting quirk of our beautiful hydrangeas, well the ones of the macrophylla kind at least, in that they change them from pink to blue and potentially from blue to pink... though I think, in NZ soils, most pink hydrangeas will turn blue quite naturally.
Macrophylla hydrangeas are the classic mophead or ball shaped flowers that we often see in floral arrangements. Blue Diamond, Snowball, Bloody Marvellous are good examples, though let's not forget the lacecaps like Strawberries and Cream, Blaumeise or Blue Wave which have pincushion like centres surrounded by an outer row of flowers that are also macrophylla.
The colour has nothing to do with sex in this instance, it's all to do with aluminium ions in the soil which become more freely available to the plants in acidic soils, of which I believe NZ is quite dominant. It's not often that you will see pink flowering hydrangeas here in kiwi land, unless they are in pots.
Virginia, who is from other parts, knows of places that grow fab pink hydrangeas because they are in chalky soils with an absence of aluminium and all this was the topic of discussion the other morn at our staff meeting.
We have had some client feedback regarding these handsome flowers of late in that our current blue varieties, like Blue Diamond, are actually flowering pink. So in this instance it isn't about the wrong plant being supplied as Now this is purely because they are growing in a non soil medium (lol horticultural speak for potting mix). I must have a word to the growers who supply these as they could dress the tops of their potted plants in the winter with aluminium sulfate, like we do, so they at least start out in flower the correct colour.
So to cut to the chase use Bluing Tonic or Alumium Sulphate to enhance blue hydrangeas and lime for pink. If you find it hard to grow pink hydrangeas in the garden, then try them in pots with potting mix. I found an article that explains this all very well so if you are interested in some more info then have a look at this site and I love the pic that they show demonstrating this phenomenon.
Now its supposed to be that the white macrophylla ones don't change but I have seen some white varieties with a faint blue shade and I guess that those aluminum ions have sneaked in somehow. That's the thing with dealing with nature, not everything happens as we always expect and I would suggest lime to help lose the blue tint or Alumium Sulphate to fix a pink tinge... though sometime a pink tinge can be moisture and nothing to do with PH
Now there are other species of Hydrangea that as far as I know don't have this issue with acidic soil and aluminium.
The oak leaved species (Hydrangea Quercifolia) have, not surprisingly, leaves shaped the same as Oak tree leaves and pretty, creamy white, cone shaped flowers. There are a few different ones of these and note Quercifolia is the single almost lace cap bloom while Snowflake is known for its double flowers and then there is Pee Wee with a somewhat smaller stature. These oak leaved species are more tolerant of sun and dry and their leaves do quite good autumn tones of red and purples.
The other main group of these are the Paniculatas and again have pretty cool flowers that are quite cone shaped in form.
Kyushu, Levana and Tardiva, to name a few, are all creamy white but with differing levels of fullness and lace cap looks. Then there are Sundae Fraise, Candlelight and Diamond Rouge which age or antique to pretty shades of pinks and reds.
Douglas Fir, only a few arrived in and these have been clipped to give them that classic Christmas tree look and will suit a reasonable sized pot as the plants are a good size of around 1.6m
Picea Pungens Glauca all sold really quickly and now we have a few more in.. good to grow in a pot or plant out as a feature tree after the big day
Pinus Patula clipped to shape and again good for a pot to grow for next year and keep it clipped of plant out to grow into a pine tree
Pinus Pinea (pinenut Pine) because they are small now and Piunus Mugo because it is a dwarf, both good for table top christmas tree options
Junperus conferta trained up as a standard... Not a Christmas tree shape but pretty cool all the same this ground cover has been trained up a stake to weep downwards... something a bit different for a pot or the garden.
Christmas is not Christmas with out Christmas lilies in our house... called Christmas lilies because they flower at Christmas time. In our picking garden we have a space dedicated to growing this white lily. Last year after they had flowered and finished we lifted all the bulbs and replanted all the largest ones back discarding the small ones just so we would have an amazing crop of flowers this year. Here's hoping it worked, we will find out soon enough.
Roses are still looking stunning although there is quite a bit of dead heading going on here to keep them so.
Hopefully you are all enjoying the posts being put on facebook showing of their best sides. There is always a link added to the posts to make it easy for you to find the roses you are interested in should you wish to purchase any.
Salvias are always good value for rich colour and height in the flower bed, Ange has a superb selection made up of tall and small varieties, lovely rich blues, reds, purples and whites. Great for the bees!
Few...sha like a kiwi or Fook.... sia ... depend on where you are from.
Fuchsia.... where you are from will dictate how you pronounce this Latin and common name of Few... sha like a kiwi or Fook.... sia from those who know best... As long as we all know what we are talking about... Virginia popped her head in and told me that the Fook.... sias were looking fab.
and great colour for those shady spots
Fuchsia Candy Lights Candy Lights is part of a new series of Fuchsia varieties that thrive in full sun and will be a profusion of red and white flowers almost year round, with sensational flower cover in winter. It's upright habit and profuse flowering make it a great option for border hedging. Deciduous
Fuchsia Electric Lights Electric Lights is the result of new breeding which has produced a Fuchsia that thrives in full sun. It flowers profusely almost all year round, with a slight lull in Autumn when seasonal growth takes off. It is an easy care shrub requiring little maintenance other than a light prune. Deciduous
We are celebrating that our facebook page has reached 5K likes making us think we are doing something you all like. Perhaps the radio Xmas Pairs game they are playing on The Breeze, that we have put a $200 voucher up for grabs on, has helped bump us up to it but really it is all the times you have all made comment or liked our posts that gets other people interested in us. Last week I said I thought Cath had set me up about the voice over for the game... well I think she struck again... our voice menu on the phone system got accidentally (???) deleted and I had to re do them all. Anyway if you haven't had a go at the Xmas pairs game, it's just like the memory card game we would play as kids, pick two doors and if their reward is the same you win it, have a listen for the prompt and give them a ring and pick your doors, good luck, we look forward to the lucky winner spending the voucher.
Mail orders and dispatch.
Yesterday started our 12 days of Christmas count down for delivery of plants throughout NZ so in short you now have only 11 days left to get your orders in if you want them delivered in the North Island and 10 days only left for South Island deliveries (and that includes today!)
Tue 17th of December will be our last day dispatching for North Island deliveries for the year and Mon 16th December will be the last day for dispatches to the South Island so have your order in and paid for before that weekend as we will cut off early so all goods to get to their destination.
There will be no dispatch during the short weeks of Christmas and new year and will resume the first full week in January being Monday 6th.
Truck deliveries are generally back on deck the last week of Jan or beginning of Feb.
I have been hearing the petrol hedge trimmer buzzing furiously the whole time I have been writing this... LOL not sure if you have noticed but there are an awful lot of hedges, topiary and cones here at Wairere to keep in shape. Training lessons are being given as the newbies come to grips with motorised trimmers... I would suggest a few muscles that were previously unknown of have been found, just as well those muscles will get used to the work (in time).. I suggested that Alex started the training with the Lonicera hedge as its only about 2 to 3 weeks before the next cut (just in case) and have to say that they have done well on their first go.
It takes a few weeks to get all the hedges sorted before all the annual leave kicks in and the staff level reduces. It's always a great feeling when the bulk of the work gets done before that couple of festive weeks kick in. Then when I am at work I only have the watering to do over the holiday period, we are only closed Christmas day and somebody has to do the watering but really everything looks great esp if you are bringing visitors to look at the garden.
These weekend do roll around and they are just going to get quicker I'm sure as we all run around like headless chooks in our rush to get everything done before Xmas. The longest day is not that far away now and so that means summer in earnest.. keep the sun screen on and the watering done.
Have a great weekend
Cheers
Lloyd, Tony and the Wairere Team
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2019 Newsletters...
Heatwave or just summer (2nd February, 2019)
Harvest time, fruits and veges (8th February, 2019)
Valentines 2019 (15th February, 2019)
Peonies (22nd February, 2019)
Autumn is official (1st March, 2019)
Get harvesting pears (8th March, 2019)
Natures planting time (15th March, 2019)
Peonies Just Arrived (22nd March, 2019)
Azaleas (29th March, 2019)
Aza Ley aa (5th April, 2019)
Broad Beans Peas and Garlic (12th April, 2019)
Easter Brief (18th April, 2019)
Roses abound (26th April, 2019)
Autumn flourish (3rd May, 2019)
Growing spectrum 1 (10th May, 2019)
Proteaceae (17th May, 2019)
Icing sugar bush (24th May, 2019)
Queens birthday (31st May, 2019)
Cathie's turn (7th June, 2019)
Blooming good (14th June, 2019)
Somerfield (21st June, 2019)
Tutti fruity 2 (28th June, 2019)
Power Outage (16th July, 2019)
AWOL (19th July, 2019)
Winter flowering (26th July, 2019)
Quick date pud (2nd August, 2019)
Team update (9th August, 2019)
Bees are humming (15th August, 2019)
History never repeats (23rd August, 2019)
Podocarpus nivalis (30th August, 2019)
Trade day (6th September, 2019)
Pretties and Fluffies (13th September, 2019)
Oranges and Lemons (20th September, 2019)
Lots to ramble about (27th September, 2019)
Fancy clematis (5th October, 2019)
Wet Friday (11th October, 2019)
Pitto Wrinkle Blue (18th October, 2019)
Rhubarb (25th October, 2019)
Baby Bunnies (1st November, 2019)
Fruitier than usual (8th November, 2019)
Chilli (15th November, 2019)
Picea or Pinus ? (22nd November, 2019)
pressies (29th November, 2019)
..... Pink or Blue
The real Black Friday (12th December, 2019)
merry Xmas (20th December, 2019)
Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1, Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: