Le Printemps est Arrive…Spring is here!

rosa fortuniana looking fabulous in September

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.

Irish Rich Marbled

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!!!

August-ultimate Winter or Harbinger of Spring?

August-ultimate Winter or Harbinger of Spring?

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.

Cora tasting roses
Milkmaid mid August

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!

Black Magic with associated geranium Incanum…
My fave winter shrub filling the bottom corner of the garden with its delicious scent

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!!

Jolly July

Jolly July
actual ice

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!

frosty world

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!!!

 

Mixed Blessings coming from the Heavens

Mixed Blessings coming from the Heavens

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!

 

Marvelous May

Marvelous May

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.

Hydrangea "Aubergine" lives up to its name, both flowers and leaves have turned dark purple this season
Hydrangea “Aubergine” lives up to its name, both flowers and leaves have turned dark purple this season

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!

 

 

April…just.

Uh oh, only a couple of months in and I’ve nearly broken my monthly blog-pledge already. Having just read last month’s, before starting this, I can see it was obviously expected. That April Birthday thing happened and a delightful array of friends and family arrived to stay and make merry. But not make cuttings . So now I’m alone again but waaaaaay behind on everything.

Another slightly time consuming thing has been our April Famosity, which occurred due to an embarrassingly OTT article about us in the NZGardener. Including getting on the cover! So there have been texts, calls and emails coming in which need reading and replying to. Some include orders, so all good.

It tends to be pretty busy at this time of year anyway, so I’m preparing myself for taking lots of antiflams and pain killers to keep up!!!

As it is already the last day of April, and I’ve already lit the fire and poured the wine, it is highly unlikely that this blog will be published in April. However, I need you all to know that the intent is there and I have at least started it within the parameters of the month. If it just had 31 days like most, I would be away laughing.

April has been pretty cool as Aprils go. There was a period there in the middle, where it rained every day and I thought the Indian Summer had deserted us, but it came right in time for Open Days, visitors and Big Parties. As indicated earlier I have not kept up with my cuttings regime, which is make 20 pots a day, I’m about 200 behind so have some catching up to do…

Weeell it seems to have become May 5th now. I’ve come in from some very hard out amending in the jungle otherwise known as the Species garden. Within this “border” are various thugs not allowed in the main gardens, like salvia Uliginosa, scrambling Ageratum, Japanese Anemones, Soapwort, to name but a few. Needless to  say, after a very productive year of complete abandonment, the perennials have taken over a bit, subsuming roses as they go. I’ve hardly made a dent, but at least I’ve made cuttings or dug suckers of most of the Species roses for sale next season. Preparation of family Sunday roast needs to begin soon, so I’ve dragged myself away to take some drugs to allow this to happen!

Currently the weather continues on it’s near perfect way, with sunny days interspersed with some rainy ones to negate the need to water the nursery. Life is good, especially if you’re a weed…

After much procrastination a long planned structure has appeared in the garden, the long awaited rose arbour. This magnificent beast has added to the workload somewhat. Whilst our elusive (but magnificent) farm fencers constructed it, there were many roses to be severely amended or indeed removed to allow it to happen. I’ve now got the job of training existing and planting new, specimens to start their journey up and over the wires. Next summer will be a starting point, the following one will hopefully be vision apparent! It’s all quite a mission, but, fingers crossed, all worth it in the end.

I have ordered a large quantity of roses from Tasman Bay this year, as it sounds like there will be none available for a couple of years or so, as new owner, James, takes over the reins in a new location. I’m hoping they arrive in time for our next Open Day, which we’re planning as a Winter Solstice event on June 23rd. All going according to plan we will offer these that day, bare root, for those interested in getting grafted roses at a slightly better price. I’m afraid they’ll be dearer again this year as the wholesale price continues to climb.  It’s totally understandable as everything to do with horticulture is escalating along with pretty much everything else. I buy in cultivars which I have trouble getting to take on their own roots so customers have a better choice.

At this stage my home grown roses are remaining at $15-$20.

I think I need to close up now and check the roast. Promise I’ll write again for May!

March-the beginning of my favourite season.

March-the beginning of my favourite season.

I love Autumn. Obviously Spring is great in its abundance, but its very …busy. Autumn is much more peaceful, especially if the weather acts like it’s supposed to! Summer is altogether too hot for me, it’s my least favoured  season. Winter has high points like fires at night (or indeed all day) and hotties in bed, but the weather can get a bit intrepid for gardening. Autumn is obviously perfect, so long as you receive some Autumn rains, which we have.  The watering travail is hugely lessened and one can start planting some of the things that have been sitting around drooping in their pots all summer.

I wouldn’t usually expect March to really be Autumnal, it’s usually more like Summer, but this year it seems to have come early. Maybe the seasons heard about Easter being early…We’ve already had some nice chilly nights, the trees are starting to turn and drop their leaves, and the Spring bulbs are starting to appear already. I bought a lot of new ones this season, to fill up an area under the auspices of the Puriri tree. They always sprout quicker out of packets than they do in the ground.

The roses are having a good season. For once we’ve had just the right amount of rain, so they’re still flowering well. The flowers are still more like Summer flowers at this stage, but soon they will start producing their Autumn perfection blooms, which are my favourite. Maybe a bit smaller, but often more intense in colour and form.

The Asters this year have outdone themselves. Not only have they put on a wonderful strong show, but they also seem to have self seeded a lot in last Summer’s crazy rain and I have lots that have come up in new shades, mostly in very inconvenient places!

Whilst we do grow the old fashioned Michaelmas daisy type aster, which run at the root and can be rather a menace, these ones are clumping types that luckily stay in one place (except when they self seed!)

Because it’s feeling Autumnal early, I’ve made a start on cuttings for the season. At this stage I’m concentrating on plants with plenty of spare wood as there’s a high chance most of them will die and I’ll have to try again a bit later in the year. They are such fickle things though, rose cuttings…you never know when they’re going to do it!

I was reading my garden diary from a few years ago recently and was surprised to read I was potting up cuttings I’d made in February! “Wish I’d made more”, I said. You never bloody know what’s gonna work!!!

We are planning another Open Day for April (21st) so I’m also potting up things as I amend the Autumn garden which will provide a few new faces for that. We certainly have plenty of roses for sale too.

Another fun thing about Autumn is the hips on the roses colouring up, there are so many different shapes, sizes, textures and colours. The softer ones. like the Rugosas you have to grab quick before the birds and the mice. The harder ones are much better for a winter show, although eventually they all get eaten. Here is half a bucket I’ve grabbed before other predators to boil up for some rose hip syrup. The vitamin C count is off the register, so very good for fighting off winter ailments…

One last Autumn mention this year are the Dahlias. They’re having a lot of fun with the right amount of water  (a lot but no immersions) and sun (a lot but not too hot…)  Some start quite early in the Summer, others in late Summer /Autumn. If you keep dead heading them, they will keep flowering. If they get out of hand (common in my garden) you can cut them back hard and they will go again (so long as its not too close to Winter) Added bonus, when they resprout you can take these fresh bits for cuttings and they have a good strike rate.

If you aren’t so good at controlling your dahlias, you tend to get a lot of seedlings. Some end up being of note, and worth keeping on and propagating. Some . like this single here, are just pretty in passing…

So that’s it for March, next comes what is usually my fave with Easter time and now my granddaughter’s birthday as well a s my own , it tends to attract family gatherings, always nice!

This is it!!!!!

This is it!!!!!

OK! Third time lucky. This time I am really going to write a Blog and publish it…a year will be too long for a come back, and 2024 is marching on. I will start this blog for February with November’s attempt and carry on at the other end….

The Prodigal Blogger

Well here we are in November and not a word has been uttered for several months. Life got away on me a bit…starting with a chronically overgrown garden and finishing with a string of Open Days and a new baby in the family.

Priorities have had to be made and unfortunately my poor website was the loser!

I am told by “those that know these things” that we are going to have a terrible drought again this Summer, but as it’s still Spring I guess, it’s been raining a fair bit still. On the other hand we’ve had lots of glorious days, including last Sunday for our big November day. Despite the continual inundations for pretty much a whole year, the plants that didn’t die are looking pretty good this season. The soil is rather impacted in places, continuous underwaterness has taken it’s toll, so replanting has involved a lot of extra work. First removing the acres of very happy buttercup, then forking the soil and adding some pumice and sheep manure to try and return the soil to its previous friability. Overall I seem to be winning, and the new plants are going for it.

Gorgeous Centifolia La Rubanee

I have lost a sad amount of roses this last year. Some are old grafted plants and I think all the wet tipped them over. Others have died for no apparent reason. If I have a cutting grown plant well and good, the original is replaced, but unfortunately there are many I have never managed to cajole into growing their own roots, and these may well be lost forever as so many of the old varieties are no longer available.

Glorious rosacious November gardens

It’s not that I haven’t got enough roses…at this time of year, I can look out absolutely every window in the house, big or small and see some rose or many flowering its heart out!

Nevertheless its sad to lose old friends…We live and learn, some of us more slowly than others! The lesson I have learned relatively recently , is to keep a cutting grown plant early on in the proceedings. What appears to be very vigorous and easy to grow can weaken and no longer provide good cutting wood.

Intriguing single Gallica, La Belle Sultane

and so , on with the show…February MUST be published! and every month there-on.

The alleged drought has made for the best Summer garden weather you could ask for. Sure, it’s a drought compared to last year as we’ve had lots of hot (often too hot for me) sunny days, but interspersed with rain events that have kept things growing like bejesus. Hay and baleage production has been unprecedented, all the farmers have grass coming out their ears and like many in the district, the men folk here have spent a lot of time on tractors topping paddocks to try to get some control of them. And the weeds in them!!! Like the gardens, the paddocks got overrun by weeds in the big wet last year.

The gardens have thrived this season past. The roses put on a great show, as well as the Irises. Currently the Hydrangeas are spectacular, although mine are all bluer than ever, even the pink and white ones, which indicates I should spread another dose of lime with the Autumn fertiliser.

My gardening duties are constantly waylaid by events…I broke my foot in the New Year, tripped up the steps in some unsuitable footwear…I currently have a nasty headcold which I caught by foolishly leaving the garden for long enough to go shopping. This has slowed productivity down too.

Speaking of productivity, the vegetable garden is a hive of it this season…currently preserving tomatoes left right and centre. Great potato crop brought in, ditto pumpkins and the cucurbits are waaaay out of control. Thank goodness for non-gardening visitors and hungry chickens!

Other than coping with veg surplus, my present obsession is finding/making places in the garden to plant the odd new rose…Having learnt that Tasman Bay roses, with young James at the helm, is moving, to start afresh nearby, I decided to make a really big order as there will be none available for the next 2-3 years from them. Hence, quite a few new, or replacement roses for me, and a lot of grafted plants available in the nursery this Winter.

The roses and perennials are really going for it this Summer. Lots of new basal shoots at last to boost the older weakening rose bushes, which is very good to see. It bodes well for strong cutting wood in the Autumn. The Salvias have great happiness and along with the Asters are filling the gardens with colour. Over in the “Hot Garden” the late Summer/Autumn perennials and annuals are huge and making a big bright impact. The sunflowers have been particularly impressive.

One side of the Hot Border in December

So that is about what you can get for the first blog in a while. It is imperative that I publish it and not save to complete or it may never happen!!! After a Summer break from full on Open Days, we are planning one for the end of Feb. The nursery is bursting and we have a lot of interesting roses available. Adios

Perennials and Sunflowers reaching for the sky with some old drip spoiling the pic…

 

“The Night Comes Down”

“The Night Comes Down”

I’m pretty sure that’s a title of a Queen song…my dear Cousin, who shares my borderline obsession, says they’re better than Shakespeare for offering suitable sayings! Oh dear, aren’t we sad…

In this case, referring to the approach of the Shortest Day, the Winter Solstice. Climatically this is the start of Winter, despite being nagged by people that Winter starts on 1 June, I find this fact to be the truth. Just as Summer really starts on the longest day in December. It makes Winter so much more bearable, when, as it starts, the damned short days start to stretch imperceptibly on a daily basis.

Obviously our Winter days are incredibly long compared to those in really Northern or Southern locations…for instance the Poles! Northern and Southern Poles that is, although I’m sure the days are also relatively shorter for the people in Poland. Even those friends and family in the South Island of our own country have a shortest day nearly an hour shorter than us. However, ours are short enough for me, especially on a drear day like today.

Still, frosty Winter mornings…the stuff that dreams are made of. Sadly we aren’t having many of these this Winter…

My daughter has just told me I can’t complain about the amount of rain we had in the night, as we’ve just enjoyed an unprecedented 10 fine days! I beg to differ, having just been reminded of what life can be like without non stop rain! Things dried up really well, with some nice frosts to help things along, and gardening suddenly felt like fun again.

Now however we have descended back to the non stop rain and flooding. It doesn’t take much to cause a flood these days, but we’re getting much anyway. Bla bla bla weather!

To be honest there’s not much else to talk about at the moment. We’ve had to start feeding out to the cattle, which causes mind blowingly deep mud with the tractor…the buggies can hardly get around the hills. Garden tasks are carried out in brief finer spells. I bought a ton of lime to dress all the gardens with. I think the constant flooding has leeched all the nutrients and soured our already acidic soil further, giving rise to the buttercup takeover. This isn’t something one can do in the rain as the lime quickly turns to sludge and then concrete! I’m also fertilising all the roses etc with a healthy dollop of sheep manure and chemical fert. Hoping for some early Spring growth to happen, to compensate for the lack of Autumn action.

I recently was reading my garden diary from last year (it’s very hit and miss, but interesting none the less) and at this time complaining of the lack of Autumn basal shoots on the roses…it had been too dry…So that makes 2 seasons running where the roses have not put on any growth in the Autumn. It’s no wonder so many of them are looking “thin”. Here’s hoping for a miraculous Spring!

What Blackboy (climbing Tea rose) looked like in June 2021. NOT what it looks like this June!

I know that some of the roses are usually still making a bit of a show in June, but this year they’re looking pretty over everything! Even the Teas aren’t offering much.

The Winter flowering shrubs seem unaffected, the camellias, Micaelyas and Gordonias seem happy enough. I guess they all like rain and acid soil, so there you go! As for the Citrus, they have mega happiness with very large fruit. The early easy peel mandarin had all its fruit rot on the tree tho, before they were quite ripe. Very stinky…

Oh blast, June is well over and this blog is still unfinished. As usual the problem is an IT one which I am always quite unable to fix…for some reason the website is suddenly saying the photos from my iphone are too big to download. They’re just the same as they’ve always been, so who knows? Certainly not me. I’ll just have to put in some old or dumb photos and get this blog published. I urgently need to get on with some “sold out” updates on the roses pages as the orders are coming in thick and fast and I’m selling out of everything!

So that’s it for June! Usually one of my favourite months of the year, but another to be glad to have got through this year! I’m really hoping July is going to be better!

Autumn Joy!

Autumn Joy!

Autumn is shaping up to be a lot more acceptable than Summer…we have had a fair amount of Autumn rain but in acceptable quantities now. It’s quite funny reading last years diaries for Autumn, so excited to get 20 mils of rain at a time to water the parched ground. This year it’s more like “we’ve only had 56 mils of rain in the last week, bonus!”

It has certainly been an interesting 6 months. Watering times have been at a minimum, but the other end of the stick is weeding times… Never, in 40 years of gardening have I battled (and lost) the weed war to such an extent. As I crouched under a rose bush last week, hacking at buttercup roots, my mind was weighing up the pros and cons of country gardening. Country gardening is all I’ve ever done really. I’ve had 2 gardens in my life to date, both encompassed within a farm. There are so many advantages, like having the space to steal another cow/horse paddock when the mood takes you, and the availability of paddocks on the other side of the fence of every garden where weeds can be chucked for the stock to pick over at a later date… However the down side of being surrounded by paddocks is the paddocks encroaching on the gardens in all directions. Buttercup, dock, sheep sorrel and of course, grass are constantly spreading thru the fences and overtaking the gardens.

Alberic Barbier, one of the many generous Wichuriana Ramblers

I do have some experience in “town gardens”, from tending those of family and friends, and whilst any garden anywhere can be full of nasty weeds, I feel the typical paddock weeds can be a lot more over powering. Number one on my hate list this season has to be buttercup…it loves the damp and at this time of year is usually straggly and easy to pull out, if not indeed dead. This season it has taken on new proportions in it’s extreme happiness. Some of the plants are more than 2 feet tall with leaves the size of…something bigger than buttercup! It is also extremely strongly rooted in the ground and very hard on arthritic fingers to dig out.

Buttercup is just one among many that has thrived in this saturated season we have had. I see I ranted about the wet weather for pretty much my whole last blog, so I’ll change the subject to something more interesting…

Hmmm, guess it’s going to be about roses as this is supposedly a rose website. It’s the time of year to be getting heavily into making cuttings. I’ve actually already done quite a large amount in the late Summer and early Autumn as conditions somehow felt right and I was hoping for grand results. Cuttings growing is a great leveller and alas most of them have already died…they die a lot quicker at the growy time of year! However a few always grow and often some of the more recalcitrant numbers.

Speaking of which I’ll elaborate on the different families of roses and which I find easier to grow from cuttings.

5’s. (These are the most reliable rooters. Most will take almost any time of year with pretty high success rates)

Multiflora and crosses, Wichuriana crosses. This encompasses a large proportion of the rambling roses, plus some bushes which are multiflora X like de la Grifferie and The Active

Polyanthas are a very helpful family of roses

4’s (This group is pretty generous at the right time of year and can be successful at the wrong time of year)

Most of the Polyanthas and some of the Chinas

3’s (This group will reliably grow at least one or 2  from a bunch more often than not)

Other Chinas, a lot of the Teas, helpful Rugosas, Gallicas, some of the species’ most of the Hybrid Musks

2’s ( This group is highly unpredictable , no guarantees here)

These are the probably biggest group, including the Hybrid Perpetuals, Damasks, Portlands, recalcitrant Teas and all the Modern Hybrids. This last includes the David Austin hybrids.

Pimpinellifolias, really wild looking roses, but unwilling to ever grow from a cutting

1’s ( skip and dance if one of these takes)

Some roses like pimpinellifo;ias will almost never take from a cutting, even tho they sucker like mad things on their own roots. Albas, Mosses and Bourbons are also very stubborn. There are always exceptions to each group as most roses are multiple crosses. Noisettes are also often seemingly impossible, with a few exceptions which are rampant weeds…

Whilst there are many roses in my garden I have been trying to root for well over 20 years on a regular basis, I shan’t give any an 0, as I live in hope that one day it will happen!!

On that ever hopeful note I will leave you for now. It is currently raining hard and forecast to keep it up for the next 10 days. High temperatures too, so the buttercup will be even happier…