Author: Jackie Hamilton

1st of June today, start of Winter for those that don’t know the truth of seasons, last gasps of Autumn for those that do. True Winter starts at the Winter Solstice . June 21/22. I’ve postponed the Open Nursery to that long weekend, as King’s Birthday (this weekend) I suddenly realised was too close to the last (very quiet) day we had. It’s a while since we’ve done an Open Weekend, but it makes for a relaxed time and gives people a choice of when to show, especially if the weather is changeable.

In the meantime things have been carrying on as before. Maybe weatherwise its started to tip into BAD, but that is to be expected at this time of year! We had a couple of light frosts in May, but we have now returned to global warming type temperatures since then. I can’t stop myself lighting the fire tho, it’s an obsession! Once I start I can’t stop! They’re so cosy…I’ve always been a bit of a pyromaniac!

My gardening pursuits have stayed the same, getting some things in the ground and making more cuttings. I’m getting thru my rose list, definitely well past half way. Of course some from the start (made Jan-April) have already died! and will need retrying. A miraculous few have grown also and they need potting up. And so it goes on.

Another week has passed now and the weather has further declined…days and nights of warm heavy rain have absolutely saturated everything and it is obvious our recalcitrant logging crew are never going to get the rest of the logs out till the end of the year. The farm is an absolute mess where they smashed out every fence in sight and besides the piles of logs everywhere waiting to go to market, there are also random trees still standing they haven’t got around to cutting down. What a disaster! We had to ship all the cattle out in early May and can’t bring any back to eat the crazy autumn grass until they get their giant machines back out the gate so we can get the fences repaired. A farmer’s life is never dull…

Back to gardening, which this is meant to be about..

The Glory of the Tea Roses…these pics are from the archives, so taken at different times of year and season, but nearly all of these Teas will produce some (or many) gorgeous blooms like these during the depths of Winter  (click to enlange).

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As we head into real Winter there are still some lovely blooms opening on the almost bare branches of the roses. The Teas of course, are for the most part in full swing, with full accompaniment of leaves and flowers. What an amazing class they are. The fact that the world stopped hybridising them in favour of the infinitely inferior Hybrid Teas is a fact I find hard to get my head around. Not only did that happen by the turn of the 20th century, but it has continued to happen to the present day. Luckily some visionaries like David Austin started to produce some beautious old fashioned type roses in the mid century to give rose lovers something new on the shopping list that wasn’t a hideous sticky bush with over sized, under scented flowers, but as Tea roses don’t thrive in England, no “Tea types” were on the menu. What a shame, but luckily many have survived the couple of hundred years since they were “invented”, and being a very enduring class of rose, many, albeit wrongly labelled, continue to thrive in modern gardens around the world. The nomenclature is a real sticking point for many and the truth is, it is very hard to know for sure whether indeed any of them really are what the label says they are!

This doesn’t detract from the beauty of the roses, but does mean one might reasonably often buy an old rose of a different name which turns out to be one you’ve already got in the garden. This problem is by no means exclusive to Tea roses, but seems particularly rife in this class and the same rose can have a raft of different names in different countries! I think part of the problem with Teas is that they are, by nature, very changeable. The same bush can produce very different coloured flowers at different times of year and the same rose can grow very differently in different climates.

If you’re in the business of selling roses, as I am, it makes it very hard for customers if you keep changing names as new information comes forward. I usually put inverted commas around names which are probably wrong, but leave the rose called what people expect it to be.

If only I was more successful at growing these beauties from cuttings, I think there would be a big market for them amongst people of taste in our gentle climate… Whilst I have pretty good success getting the cuttings to make roots, I seem to fail at the next step and a high proportion fail to grow on. Therefore I am always running out of them all well before Winter (now) when many people feel it is the right time to buy roses. Because I sell own root roses, rather than grafted ones, I have the first of the new cuttings out in the nursery by Spring and many of the Tea roses sell there before they ever make it onto the website as “ready to post”. I shall endeavour to double up on my Tea cuttings this Winter and see if I can have more on offer for next season.

The rain has finally stopped here, so I’m going to publish this messy beast and go and make some more cuttings!

December is even more crazy than usual this year, as the weather has continued to smile on us and we’ve had regular bouts of just the right amount of rain. We’re only a week away from the Summer Solstice, thus the longest day, so with the lovely mix of sunshine (some a bit too lovely to be enjoyed outside…) and moisture, all the plants are CRAZY!!!

First up the grass in the paddocks (and lawns) We made baleage at the farm down the road and got double the amount o3 bales as last year in pretty much the same paddocks. The horses are all off their faces and the cows get moved for a change of scenery rather than because they need more grass.

In the garden everything is also crazed. The repeat flowering roses, having opened so early , are already on their second flush. Some of the once flowerers are still having some flowers! It has to be the longest once flowering period I have ever known. All the perennials are also on the early side and having super-sized flowers. I’ve noticed especially amongst the penstemons, but the asters look to be following suit. The hollyhocks are well over 2m tall, waving around like madmen up in the skies. The salvias also seem very happy, extra bright and bold flowers. I noticed Iodantha, the very tall cerise winter flowering species has put on masses of new growth and started a bigger and better summer flowering!

The fruit all seems to be having a bumper year too. My first stone fruit to ripen is the early apricot, Santa Rosa, which is always ripe well before Christmas. The size of the crop varies immensely from basically none, to ridiculous quantities. This year the huge tree was simply laden and I luckily got about 30kg of the earliest ones as following that pick we had a big rain and the entire crop got brown rot instantly. The fruit were anything but perfect, and most not ripe enough to eat, but I made 3 huge batches of jam and pureed the rest.

Oops, December has slipped by, as is her want. The end of 2024 approaches and the month has passed in more wonderful growing weather. A heinous gale blew all day yesterday, which means I need to hasten to the nursery and start picking up fallen plants and watering their battered selves.

There are a few tragedies in the garden too- my unstaked hollyhocks, well over 2 m tall, all decided to lie down under the strain. Some I went out and hacked off with loppers yesterday evening as they were crushing too many wildflowers. They will come up again, and should have more intelligent sized flower stems second time around!

All the roses and indeed everything has been early this year, so the ramblers and polyanthas which usually make their big show in December were already flowering with everything else in November. Some of the ramblers have kept on starring, I thought Blushing Lucy was particularly lovely in her understated way

Christmas has been and gone, very quietly for me. No going away, or people coming involved, just taking it easier than usual amongst the farm, garden and nursery. The weather gods gave me several small watering breaks as well, which is always welcome.

Our next Open Day isn’t happening till Feb, so as I’m not going anywhere, the nursery will be available for shopping in anytime by appointment. Maybe there are people up for the holidays who couldn’t usually come? I’ve already had a couple of South Islanders drop in for orders to save on postage. A boon for me, as I stopped posting in December to avoid Christmas rush delays and have now got a fair backlog of orders waiting to be posted in January.

Well that’s probably it for 2024…it’s been a good one at my place. Roll on 2025, lets hope it brings similar bounty.

Yes indeed it is, and the time seems bigger and better than it has in a while. Having suffered several years of drought, followed by 2 years of flood, 2024 has got it just right.

The water tables are nice and high, so there’s plenty of deep moisture and the sun has been shining plenty all year. The most significant fact about the roses this year is how early they are. Definitely about 2 weeks ahead of schedule. They’re shooting basally and loaded with flowers, so very happy all round.

This time last year young Seth had just been born, well overdue, and we were trying to keep the gardens in order for a photo shoot for The NZ Gardener. We managed, or else Sally was good at trick photography! and the article duly appeared in the magazine. This has caused a lot of interest and an increased number of garden group visits.

We’ve always hosted the odd bus and lots of smaller groups of visitors, but we’re currently very busy with groups from all around the place.

One day in October we had 2 buses here! Lots and lots of sharing happening, which is absolutely the best thing about the garden at this time of year.

We had another busyish Open Day in October and are just about to host the November one on Sunday. Hope the weather holds out, it’s been very kind to visitors so far.

As usual I left this missive unfinished…November marches on, it’s the 17th today and I’ve been busy with lots more visitors in the mean time.

The Open Day was great, much garden appreciation happened. I have 3 groups this week and that will finish things off. (Until Dec 8th when we’re having our last Open Day of the year)

There’s nothing like waking up at my place at this time of year! As soon as I open my eyes I’m greeted by so many flowers! and as soon as I open the window the perfume from all the rugosas I’m surrounded by wafts in.

If I look through the other window the view is rather obstructed by the Kalmia in full song.

How very lucky I am to be able to be in this lovely garden and share it with lots of other people. Sometimes my body tells me a smaller garden would possibly be more suitable, but I tell it to get over it and take some pills!

I’ve nearly completed the task of potting up the cuttings I made in the first half of the year. Except, a lot of the True Old Fashioneds are still just thinking about it…they are never in much of a hurry to make roots, and have to be returned to their pots to contemplate making someone happy or not.

Unfortunately I haven’t done any sort of stock take as I went and as  they were put away willy nilly under the shade cloth to live or die post potting, what is there is still for the most part a mystery! I have started the task of pulling out pots which appear to be growing strongly and can now put them out in the sun with the older specimens. Anytime soon I’m going to know what I’ve got available!

Besides the roses being happy this year, so too are the Irises and many other perennials. Everything is happy really…the fruit trees all seem to have set bumper crops, I think I’m going to have my first apricot glut in about 5 years, so that’s pretty exciting!

In their general happiness the once flowering roses are really outdoing themselves.

The Banksias made their first flowers in May!!! and haven’t quite done yet. Mme Gregoire Stachelin and Milkmaid are another 2 that have been flowering like lunatics since August, likewise some of the pimpinellifolias.

It’s pretty exciting to get such a long show from these beauties.

The Noisettes are a very rewarding family in pretty much every way (except most of them are only occasionally willing to grow from cuttings for me. They have a lot of Tea influence and so many of them flower even in the Winter months. They also have lovely fresh green foliage and a beautiful scent. They are mostly small to medium climbers, excepting a few rampant crazies like Milkmaid. I really the love the simple charm of Desprez a Fleurs Jaunes, it is a real toughie and is growing on my chook run fence right outside the nursery shed door. It is often in nearly full shade because of the giant apricot tree beside it, but flowers almost non stop and her beautiful scent greets me when i step out the door.

I could spend many hours describing all the beauties in the garden at the moment, but as I have a garden group coming in the morning, I better go and stake my poor blown over sunflowers! Catch you again before Christmas.

We-ell it feels like Winter this morning, that is for sure…but that’s what Spring is all about. Apparently we’re experiencing a polar vortex…I hope the plants know it’s just for a few days and not to panic…. So other than at this particular moment, we’re definitely springing. Lots of roses leafing and budding up. Some particularly enthusiastic numbers are actually already flowering. Bourbon Queen and Mme Gregoire Stachelin being 2 to mention. In a mere 10 days since I wrote that things have moved on a lot. ie the buds on afore mentioned roses have burst forth into beautiful early blooms. Also fortuniana and Parks Yellow have covered themselves in glory down the front in the Species garden.

What an exciting time of year for gardeners! It is just feeling like a really good rose year to me…not sure what intelligence I base this on, but they just seem extra happy.

I sprayed pretty much the entire garden in August, with a fungicide and eco-0il, but that’s the only spraying I’ve done for almost a year. Strangely enough the continuous wet last year seemed to wash the diseases away…as although the roses weren’t particularly happy living in a permanent swamp, they seemed relatively healthy. Well not the dead ones, they looked well…dead. I lost quite a few to the soil conditions. I think the continuous wet compacted the soil and squeezed all the oxygen out of it….well that’s my theory anyway.

Oh dear…it’s happened again…I have failed to blog. It is now October 18th, a whole month has slipped away without me touching the website. Well, not entirely true, I may have done a few rose updates, but fact is, at this time of year the garden is pretty overpowering. So much to see, so much to plant, so many weeds to constantly pull out!

So on we go. The first Open Day in September has been and gone with a hiss and a roar and the 2nd one is here this weekend.

I’ve been busy potting up roses and perennials, some will be ready for this weekend, some will have to wait for the November issue. The Tasman Bay grafted roses are looking stunning in their pots, covered in giant flowers. The first blooms after a hard prune are always (in my opinion) over-sized. This is one of the reasons I prefer not to hard prune my roses. Although they take longer to come into flower, when they do the flowers are more of sensible size, and of course much more of them. Some people think the bigger the better, but I am certainly not one of them… Most old-fashioned roses are “shrub roses” and therefore should make a nice shaped shrub adorned with lovely flowers, not weighed down with over sized dinner plates!  Each to his own.

Since last I wrote the roses have continued to move on, and other early species like the pimpinellifolias have joined the banksias and relatives in early Spring glory. Glory of Edsell is always the first for me, followed by Dunwich, Irish Rich marbled, Single Cherry, with William 111 and Falkland bring up the rear. They are such a delight with very different growth habits and the blooms studded like jewels all over the branches.

Of course they are fleeting, but glorious while it lasts and the bushes I think remain very attractive with their ferny foliage and autumn brings the intriguing black shiny hips and often some good Autumn colour to the leaves before they drop to leave their bare, very prickly stems. The buds are so under-stated you can be quite surprised to suddenly see the flowers all over.

The main event, ie all the other Old Fashioned and David Austin roses are also on the verge of being magnificent. I think they’re going to be early this season, especially the true Old Fashioneds, which usually are a couple of weeks behind the repeat flowerers, as some of them are already covered in buds starting to show colour.

The polyanthas and ramblers bring up the rear, being in full song in December, which is fantastic as a lot of the early flowerers are then taking a break. It is always an exciting time to see your favourites opening again, and in my case there are usually a number of new faces to get excited about!

It is a busy  for us at the nursery as we have loads of garden groups visiting at this time of year (getting famous in the NZ Gardener has added to this) so besides Open Days, there are regular arrivals by bus or car convoy during the week. There is nothing nicer than sharing your garden with other people, makes it all worthwhile.

The Bearded Irises are also starting to bloom. Hopefully this season will be better than the last 2 were for me. My garden is quite soggy in wet conditions, which does not suit Bearded Irises. I nearly lost quite a few, hopefully I saved them all by lifting remaining small pieces and potting them into gritty soil. 2 ridiculously wet summers means we have less than usual different varieties available. I’ve moved a lot to the slopy garden in front of the house which should have better drainage, so hopefully we’ll be back in business for next season.

In general Spring 2024 has been a cracker here in the Upper Waikato. We’ve had a share of wind and rain, but also plenty of lovely sunny days between. Everything seems happy! The Spring bulbs were certainly a bonanza, plus all the Spring flowering shrubs and trees. The blossom on the fruit trees was astronomical and the set of apricots I have growing on is very exciting! Allin all. a magical season! Bring on the roses!!!

After a wet finish to July and early August, it seemed this would be a month of increasing mud and drear…instead we had yet another magnificent bout of true Winter, with cold temperatures, some light frosts and lots of lovely Winter sun. This lovely interlude has passed and we’ve now moved into real Spring weather…lots of horrid westerly gales and squalls, but warmer temperatures.

It seems I never talk about anything but weather…par for the course for farmers and gardeners alike. I am both, and have to say I’m a little obsessed! Spring certainly seems to be in the air in the garden. Truth be told it’s quite normal for the “Spring bulbs” to be in full song in the Winter, but other plants are also behaving in a very Spring like fashion. One in particular I’ve noticed is the Penstemons. We grow a lot of these stalwart perennials in the garden and I once read the best thing you could do for them was cut them to the ground at the end of August. I have found this tip an excellent one, but this year as I set about this task, I can see it is “too late” as they are already growing like wildfire. I’ve been doing it anyway as they become so big and sprawly as the season goes on, but instead of chopping off straggly tall stems, I’m also cutting back a lot of relatively new growth. It really looks as if everything is going to be early this year.

Re the roses, wait and see, but the Banksias which usually flower in September have broken all records and have been flowering since May!!! We probably won’t get the full glory, but the Luteas have been offering some nice Winter colour in the background. Another strange one is quite a number of the once flowerers have been having the odd flower thru the Winter. I noticed down the front some flowers on Great Maiden’s Blush and the Centifolia Gros choux de Hollande. Likewise, Milkmaid, an Alister Clark Noisette, is putting on a lovely show of large blooms around my chook house. That’s what I call a bonus as August and September are the very lowest flower months for roses. Even the Winter flowering Teas are mostly taking a break in preparation for Spring. One rose that does seem to continue flowering all thru the year, is Souvenir de la Malmaison, the Bourbon. Most of the Bourbons, whether once flowering or repeat flowering, seem to keep having leaves thru the Winter and also make the occasional flower. Mme Isaac Perriere is certainly one to do this. But S de la MM takes the cake, I have both the bush and climbing form down by the nursery and both have continued making lovely blooms all winter. My granddaughter is growing up surrounded by plants, and loves to sniff every leaf and petal. Tell her its edible and she’s in for a try! Here she is munching on Souvenir!

We are working towards our first Open Day of the season. I’ve changed the date from 8th to the 15th September to have an extra week to try and wrest control of the gardens! We have a lot of roses for sale, that is for sure. Lots of last years cuttings growing on well, a good take on new seasons cuttings by the look of it, and still a good selection of grafted plants from Tasman Bay, which are now leafing up and getting ready to dazzle!

In the meantime I’m busy getting things in the ground and admiring the bulbs and winter flowering shrubs. All the magnolias and Michaelias seem to be extra magnificent, along with the Spring bulbs. I have never had so many daffodils of every shape and colour! They seem to have spread about really well during these rainy seasons we have had. While many things rejoiced for the moist Summer and Autumn we had, many others languished. Most of the bearded irises are not happy chappies in my soggy garden. Things are better at Alice’s as she is uphill a bit and much better drained. Lavenders on the whole are also displeased with the new climate. Often self seeded perennials are extra hardy we find. They decided to grow where they did, so grow they do! This lavender is a case in the discussion. It seems to be revelling in the local weather! I have named it Weiti Black Magic and made cuttings so I can spread it around. I find lavenders and modern daisies quite temperamental at growing from cuttings, but the seedling ones which have grown in our own gardens always seem to be ultra reliable at taking and growing.

The calendar is filling with lots of potential Spring and Summer visitors, so here’s hoping the gardens and the weather are in generous moods this season…Bring on the roses!!

We’ve made it to real Winter and are certainly experiencing the best and worst of it. Up until today (15th) we had an unprecedented run of perfect Winter weather, with 8 days of frosty mornings and still sunny days. We’ve already had more frosts this year than any in my immediate memory, with several mornings tipping the scales at 0 deg or less. Good news for destruction of fungus and bug pests, less good news for the many slightly hardy plants we grow, but I’m sure they’ll get over it!

Sadly today has given way to wind and rain and whilst the temperatures are supposedly warmer, they don’t feel warm when you’re out in it, that’s for sure!

Winter projects are under way in both our gardens. My projects mostly involve trying to get control of small parts which have been abandoned to the buttercup all year. Over at Alice’s, she and Aaron have been making new paths and opening outlooks, always improving things… She has sadly decided at this stage of her life (the fecund chapter) she has to give up the herb garden for something a bit more manageable. Maybe when the children have grown up a bit and go to school she’ll be able to re-invent it, but the nature of herbs is very wild and thence the control of them very time consuming!

Back over my side, I’m as usual waiting for the fencer. This time to move a fence in the carpark which is going to open up an area behind the nursery for necessary rose garden extension…I seem to keep getting more! Whilst I have several spots in the old border where a rose has been moved or sadly one has died, they just don’t seem like spots anymore, with the march of the perennials and the reach of the greedy buxus hedges.

I find if you plant roses and young buxus together they muddle along perfectly fine, the rose gets it’s roots deeper I think, but planting a new rose alongside an established hedge is always going to be a battle for it. The roots of the buxus travel for much further than the height of the hedge, I think because if you’d never trimmed it, it would now be about twice as high, and the roots are like tree roots i.e. comparative in size to the plant. People often don’t realise that left to it’s own devices, box makes a decent sized tree.

So these “ex-spots” are fine for a tough, established once flowerer to be planted, as anything that only has to make one big effort per year can get by with a lot less in  the way of spoiling. Unfortunately most of aforesaid are big and unruly, so no good at the front of the border…hence, these ex spots will be taken over by invasive but beautiful perennials and I have to make a new garden. Sigh.

As you may oy may not know, I have done my usual and let July get away on me without finishing the story. It’s the 29th now, so I better get my skates on and finish this tonight. It is raining a lot, after another lovely fine bout of weather. I think this (so far) has possibly been the best set of seasons I can ever remember. I hope the last month of Winter doesn’t do the dirty on me…

The growth has carried on and the animals are getting by with minimal feed out. The trees seem to think it’s Spring, all my magnolias are in full bloom and the daffodils are crazy. Very happy bulbs about, I think they appreciated all the rain we had since they last flowered, well interspersed with warming sun… I wish the deciduous trees would get their skates on…I always heave a sigh of relief when the willows sart budding up, as I can then be confident the possums will keep away from the roses.

I have another pest problem to add to the present mix, which is a plague of rabbits. They are in some ways more problematic than possums, as they are near impossible to shoot and don’t go in Timm’s traps. They are less “rose leaf” obsessed than possums, and obviously don’t climb, but can be death to basal shoots. Luckily there is one thing they can’t abide and that’s daggy sheeps wool, so the latest job has been the spreading of a tractor trailer load of dags and fleece from the woolshed across the road. It is the best product possible, in that it fertilises, mulches and keeps rabbits away. The down side is it looks pretty mank and can smell a bit at times! You’ve just gotta do what you gotta do.

The days are stretching perceptibly and the chooks are getting into a heavy laying routine, Winter will be a thing of the past in 4 weeks, so it’s full steam ahead for Spring! First Open Day scheduled for September 8th (the nursery will be bursting!) and the countdown to the excitement of seeing lots of new roses for the first time.

Can’t wait!!!

June is possibly the most unreliable month of the year. Some years it can be a beautiful extension of Autumn, almost still Indian Summer. I remember a June (about 30+ years ago) when I had to buy water. I had 2 babies at the time and had to do a lot of washing… I don’t run out of water here, as besides 2 tanks we have 2 lovely bores on the property. beside the point this June as the tanks continue to overflow every time it rains, same as they have been doing for 2 entire years now. This is no joke or exaggeration…the rain came with beautiful regularity all through Summer and Autumn, making it seem the best season ever. But drying out in Summer is the natural way of the world, and prepares the ground to accept winter rains. Our little dam below the house usually shrinks down to a smelly puddle in summer or Autumn. This year it stayed full and overflowed every time we had major rain. Result=trees on the border having very saturated roots…big wind=TIMBER!       Sadly the giant at the other side of the pond is in a similar situation and will crash as soon as the wind direction is right.   

Trees, like the weather are real mixed blessings. When we bought this little farm of ours about 10 years ago, the plethora of trees were a real attractant. Such a beautiful selection of deciduous and ever green, both around and in the paddocks. The house was completely hidden from the road, nestled in a veritable forest.

Well that is certainly not my scene…I have always lived on high sites looking out over the world, this, my first try at valley life. Living snug down with trees blocking the light and sun and filling the house with wetas was certainly not an option.

So down came the trees surrounding the house and blocking the view, and down came the trees near the house in areas which became gardens. Trees and roses don’t really mix, unless we’re talking tough ramblers etc.

Around the farm over the last 10 years, probably half the trees have been either cut down or fallen. Quite a few have been planted too, but of different varieties. The huge gums were too much a danger around small paddocks with horses in residence, and had to be felled. The huge macrocarpa windbreak up the hill (a row of 86!) were all slowly dying of the rust so prevalent among them now) and had to be felled. The Liquidambers split and fall everywhere with startling regularity! and the entire beautiful road frontage was growing in the power lines at too great a speed to keep up with trimming. sad but necessary. There are still many trees on our farm which will continue to fall in the storms and the floods. The price you pay for beauty…

The shortest day is approaching, it is currently getting close to 7am and there is only a slight lightening on the periphery of the heavens. Never the less, if you want to get an early start on things, you must be prepared as soon as its light enough to see, so I must pause the narrative and go and get ready to get going outside…

Oh dear, it appears I never came back from that early morning call to arms!  The shortest day is a thing of the past and June has merged into July… I blame winter temperatures for my lack of computer work! I can sit up in bed and do some minor tasks on my small cracked i phone, like answer emails and pay the odd bill, but I’m not up to major tasks like looking at the website or checking facebook… so it’s often already “late” by the time I break free of the cosiness of bed on a winter’s morning and I must hasten immediately outside to start doing stuff…The time available in the long evenings is I’m afraid totally taken up by staying close to the raging fire, so there you go. No time for computers in Winter!

So on with the show, which has fallen sadly behind schedule. As I mentioned, the Winter Solstice has passed, and with it our Winter Open Day, which was extremely successful, thanks to all you attendees. The weather forecast was incredibly bad, but we were smiled on yet again, and it cleared for the most part for the event.

Now I have 2 1/2 months to try and prepare the gardens for next Spring’s show. I have had a tractor trailer load of wool and dags delivered from Emerald Downs across the road. It is the best possible mulch/fertiliser/soil conditioner and erstwhile rabbit/possum deterrent around. All these things are very necessary in my garden at this stage. The deterrent could be the number 1 at this stage. We have a plague of rabbits and possums happening.

I’m busy planting roses and other stuff, the bareroot roses are a bit of a risk in these sodden conditions but one can’t keep everything in a pot forever or the garden would be empty, so some have to take their chances.

We did have some drainage put in behind the main border in the “Summer” which hopefully will keep waterloggedness down to a minimum.

The temperatures have been fluctuating wildly, rather “spring-like” but in general have stayed warm enough to keep things growing. The grass is still going for it and lots of the roses continue to grace with the odd delightful winter bloom. It seems all wrong for a Bourbon like Souvenir de la Malmaison here, to be flowering in Winter, but both the bush and climbing form do just that for us in the Waikato.

I must wrap up this tardy missive and get ready to face the day. Looks like wet weather gear will be the fashion of the day. Today’s mission is cuttings…I got rather behind whilst preparing for the Open Day!

At the halfway point of May, which is today, the marvelous weather has taken a turn for the worst and it’s currently persisting down. Those poor folks in Canterbury would be so jealous, it seems to have forgotten how to rain there. Actually, despite lots of gorgeous fine weather in the last 4 weeks, we really don’t need it. A small shower would have sufficed, this deluge entirely childish on the perpetrator’s part.

Whilst still  Autumn, we had 3 beauty frosts this last week. Despite a well timed gradual drop in night time temperature leading up to the trio, it still surprised quite a lot of plants which are now looking extremely unattractive! It’s always interesting to observe which of the Salvias are fully frost hardy, (well hardy to the gentle frosts we experience in the upper Waikato). In one group of 3 in my big border, the Leucanthe is hit particularly hard (have now hacked it back to ground level a bit earlier than usual) also Iodantha which has just started it’s epic Winter flowering is looking a bit unhappy. Waverly in the middle is completely unphased. Likewise the giant Confertiflora and Madrensis, which always look almost tropical like with their big fleshy leaves, Looks belie…

The big talking point this Autumn is the deciduous colour. Not only have the trees been magnificent in their hues, but also many perennials and shrubs which I had no idea had it in them. The Gooseneck Lysimachia down amongst the Pimpinellifolias in the Species Garden  is mixing beautifully with the turning roses. Usually it is just the odd few roses that have remarkable Autumn colour here, most especially Nitida, but this year all the “pimps” and indeed the gallicas and other old fashioneds are putting on a colourful show.

Then there was that other Autumn colour on a beautiful crisp starlit night…the magical Aurora Australis captured by Alice on her deck.

I’ve been hard out making cuttings whilst the time seems right. Not that you ever know the “right ” time to make a cutting that might strike…it seems to be entirely up to the plant and allows no kudos to the cutter.

I keep the 10 page document labelled  “Roses we grow” at the shed and try to be meticulous about putting a tick by each name as I make it. I set off from the shed with my cutters with a plan in mind for a number of roses which I store in my head, to collect wood. Invariably I see one that’s not in my head and think I’ll get that while I’m in the district, so to speak. Back to the shed with an armful, or possibly a trolley full of specimens. Then I tick them off…uh oh, I already have a tick by that extra…all good, they all sell by the end of the season! Luckily I almost always am doing this alone, as it’s important to memorise the stems as I go. I spend quite a bit of time deciding which branch (or twig in some cases) to cut from each bush, so can remember when I get back to the shed which came from who. I must be extra careful if I’m harvesting say Teas from the Tea Bank, as their leaves and growth habit can be very similar. Ditto if I’m down the front collecting Wichuriana ramblers. If I’m at all concerned I keep some wrap around labels in my pocket which I can attach as I cut. Having ticked the roses on The List, I write the labels with name and date, then sit down and work my way through the prickly stems putting them in pots of cutting mix. It is a very very prickly job, and somedays I certainly tire of being pricked. The Rugosas are particularly daunting and I have to force myself to do a few every now and then. I then arrange the pots in their types under a shade cloth area and hope for the best. They always seem so viable at the time of making, butalas a very high proportion just go ahead and die en masse.

Over the years I have become very familiar with the families that do or don’t. Having spent many years breeding families of horses, I am a strong believer in genetics…it never ceased to amaze me how many traits were shared with certain families. The same goes for roses. My nemesis are the Noisettes and Bourbons. Certainly 2 of my favourite families, but 2 of the least likely to strike. For me anyway. There are exceptions of course, but I’ll bet my bottom dollar if I knew all their DNA I would find answers for the exceptions!

The David Austins, (and no doubt other modern roses, but I don’t have many of them) are a very interesting lot in this discussion as they are derived from many different old families. Unsurprisingly the ones with Noisette and Bourbon in their heritage are massively less likely to strike than others. Graham Thomas is one of these. I recently dug up a giant plant of him to make way for the new arbour, and moved him to the back fence. I made 3 huge pots of perfect cutting wood from strong growing arms. A mere few weeks later and they’re already all dead! Disheartening but in no way unexpected.

Up until the late 90’s , all the breeding of the new releases was “advertised” in the David Austin books. I found it quite captivating to see how the genetics had come together to produce this wonderful new plant. Sadly this is no longer the case, now it’s all a secret.

Between cutting days I’ve been trying to get some of my gardens in order before our last Open Day on June 23rd. At least now it’s almost winter, the work one does remains looking ok for a time as the march of the eternal weeds slows down. Unfortunately my arthritic hands do not enjoy pulling weeds these days. A few hours weeding and amending equals a few days of extreme pain, so I have to control my urges and do little and often and hope a stronger specimen of person shows up to do some extreme gardening!