Landscaping Tips
Hostas
These perennials come in a great range of colours and sizes, with everything from glaucous blue, to forest green, to yellow tonings and lots of different varigations/leaf markings. Many of the hostas available in our country today have stemmed from the U.S.A. which has a real fascination for the hosta family. Breeders are continually trying to come up with some new hosta leaf shape or foliage colour markings. If you follow a few basic steps,then hostas are one of the easiest perennials to grow.
1. Put slug bait on the soil in close proximity to the plants BEFORE they emerge from the ground.
2. Most varieties prefer to have light shade, especially over the hot summer months,to protect the foliage from sunburn.
3. Keep the soil/roots moist over the Jan/Feb time of year, even a good water once a week would be very beneficial. A good layer of garden mulch over the top of the roots is certainly worthwhile if your soil is subject to drying out.
4. If you haven't already, get out there now and give them a feed of slow release fertiliser - this will help give more vigour to the plant which in turn will give you a better display of foliage and flowers.
Thursday, November 17, 2011 - 05:55
Wistaria (also Wisteria) for a beautiful spring display
This family of climbers certainly sets the scene on a trellis/fence at this time of year. Wistarias are great value. As well as beautiful blooms in spring you also get lush green leaves over the summer months followed by a great display of yellow autumn foliage. Wistaria are mostly used as climbers and also make great container plants. Most of the wistarias fall into 2 categories-
Wistaria sinensis-types : overall smaller flower length-around 30-40cm and come in a range of colours. They flower very early in their life-which is good because you don't have to wait a long time to get a beautiful display.
Wistaria floribunda-types : extremely long flowers, they can even grow up to 1.0 metre long. There are also a good range of colours available with a slightly longer waiting period before you get your first lot of flowering.
Wistarias produce flowers on 2 year old wood, so don't be disappointed if you see your wistaria grow a lot the first year and not give you much flower, in the second year you will start to get a good floral display.
I find that people get themselves into trouble with wistarias in their garden when they don't control growth and just let the plant wander wherever it pleases. Wistaria can grow very rapidly over the warm summer months but regularly snipping the tips of any vigorous new growths between November and March will cause the onset of more side branching and help to keep them under control.
Recently I saw in a clients garden a beautiful standard wisteria with a central stem of about 1 metre in height. It had a lovely full rounded head on top all covered in beautiful white fragrant blooms nearly hanging to the ground. It looked fantastic!!!
Saturday, October 15, 2011 - 08:24
Another outstanding perennial for Waikato gardens - Alstroemeria Inticancha Series
I thoroughly recommend these new dwarf Dutch bred varieties of alstromerias, they won't let you down. They just keep on flowering for 10 months of the year, and that's being very realistic. Previously the old alstroemeria varieties were invasive and overtook the whole garden. They also had very tall, weak stems and by the time the flower had appeared at the end of the stem it had all fallen over onto whatever was growing next to it in the garden. The breeders have overcome these problems and with the Inticancha alstroemerias you get a very compact plant that gives you an awesome display of flowers. I particularly like Inticancha Red - it has the clearest deep red flower, perfect I think for using as flowers on your Christmas dinner table.
The plants like to grow in the full sun and if you want a lot of flowers, they need a lot of sun. They are particularly perfect for pots on the balcony/sun porch where it is hot and dry. Alstroemerias also make great flowers for picking/floral art. One tip - when you pick them don't cut off the stems, instead pull them out from the base to help encourage even more flowering. There is a good choice of colours available in this series, certainly something for every designers colour palette.
These modern dwarf varieties generally only grow to about 30-40cm high even when mature, so they're ideal for the urban city dwelling where there is only room for the smaller growing plants.
Sunday, September 11, 2011 - 17:00
Gerbera Garvinea - An outstanding perennial for Waikato gardens
Plant breeders around the world are now producing some amazing new plant varieties that are going to be readily accepted by gardeners because they have many great characteristics - disease resistance, continuous flowering for most of the year and easy care with little maintenance. Basically these are the factors that I believe all gardeners want from plants in the modern garden of today.
GERBERA GARVINEA SERIES have been available in our gardening market for a couple of years, from my own experience they are tops!!! I have found that all these gerberas want to do is flower and flower, for virtually every month of the year. Gerberas have always been known in past years for getting rust disease and dying easily. These new Garvinea varieties are very good performers with the bad traits bred out of them. This gives an outstanding plant that I recommend.
One important point to remember is that Gerberas don't like continual, wet feet. Gerberas must have good drainage, especially in the winter months. There is a great range of Garvineas available now in plant shops/garden centres - with every colour palette covered. I have found from experience that the results will be far superior if you can use a lot of one colour rather than using many colours. Feed with a slow release fertiliser to get optimum results. The Garvinea gerberas are perfect for a sunny dry border, pots and containers, in fact anywhere that is well drained and gets heaps of sun. Gerberas are fantastic value if you like making floral arrangements or enjoy giving bunches of flowers.
At the end of winter (August/early Sept) I find that it is beneficial to cut off all of last seasons vegetative leaf growth at about 5cm above ground level. The plant will quickly regrow with a new set of leaves that are clean and fresh before it gets into serious flowering again.
Sunday, September 11, 2011 - 16:45
Moving plants in your garden so they thrive
If you want to move a plant from A to B, then the plant will be happier if you can do it while it's cold as its transpiration process slows down, it needs less moisture and isn’t such a shock when half of its roots suddenly get chopped.
With deciduous trees, you can just dig them straight out of the ground and move them.
With a lot of evergreens, it is advisable to cut the roots on two sides of the plant with a spade, then leave the plant for two weeks and cut the roots on the other two sides. You then let the plant sit there until it gets a few white roots coming through, once they have come through you are pretty safe to lift the plant out of the ground carefully and place it into a new position. Firm the soil around the plant and water it, just to give a bit of readily available moisture. In no time, it will be happy and regrowing as though it was never moved.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - 06:33
Pleached hedges - for when you have something high you want to cover
If you have something high you want to hide or cover e.g. if you want to screen off your neighbour's house (especially if they have a very tall house and you can't legally build a fence as tall), then a pleached hedge is a good option to create the same effect. The pleached olive hedge in the photo is trimmed regularly on the sides and top to keep the clean lines. The lower branches have been trimmed and underplanted with clivias and mondo grass, both good for a shady environment. Other plant options for pleaching are Bay Trees, Camellias, Bay Laurel, Michelias and Totara.
Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 07:49
Structured topiary trees
Many clients like the structured shape of a topiary tree. Our topiary trees at The Homestead – Loropetalum Burgundy – are 2.5 m high and have been shaped into a cone, becoming breathtaking specimens in spring. Due to the time spent shaping a plant they are more expensive than normal and require a little more maintenance to keep them in peak shape. I offer a free lesson on maintaining your plant when you purchase a topiary tree so you can keep them in optimal condition with that perfect structured shape.
Sunday, May 29, 2011 - 07:28
Beautiful camellias
It’s that time of year when the sasanqua types are in their full glory. My favourite I talked about previously - C. SETSUGEKKA; it has the darkest green foliage and offers a really eyecatching display of clear white flowers over the bush. What I like most is that the flowers drop cleanly onto the ground, even while still white, so you are not left with brown mushy blooms on the plant, which was a major "turn-off" of the older varieties from our grandparents’ day.
If your camellias are not looking as green and healthy as they should, give some slow release acid fertiliser and add a layer of mulch around the root area. This will help the ground around the plant to better retain moisture throughout the next summer. From November onwards the camellias like to grow vigorously, this is when you need to trim and shape them. Once you get past January you need to be more careful about attacking your camellias with the hedgeclippers as they won’t be far away from setting flower buds.
Sunday, May 29, 2011 - 07:24
Feed, feed, feed your garden
Feeding your plants is so important. I encourage all of my landscape clients to feed all their gardens in April with a slow release fertiliser. Fertilise everything in your garden, whether they are young or old plants. Just like people, plants benefit from a regular feed. If you do this I guarantee that the health and vigour of your plants will improve, which in turn will make your garden look a real picture. Check out which fertiliser I use and recommend.
To feed my plants and those of my clients I use and recommend Growers Choice Slow Release Fertiliser. For me the proof is in the pudding, I have 2 acres of garden where all the plants look superb. Garden Centres generally only sell short term fertiliser – I liken this to giving your plants a can of ‘V’ – it provides a short term kick. Longer term, you need to feed your plants every day for months to ensure a healthy, beautiful plant. If you want any further information on Growers Choice or to get your hands on some, contact me
Friday, May 13, 2011 - 11:12
Maintaining your NZ Native Cabbage Tree or Cordyline
We all love our NZ native cabbage tree or Cordyline. A common problem is they can get scruffy and the leaves look chewed. To keep your cabbage trees looking great, get a handsaw and cut straight through the trunk, at whatever height you want (see photo). And don’t worry if there is no foliage left on the trunk as it will quickly reshoot causing a branched cabbage tree with a nice set of healthy clean leaves.
I have about 25 red cabbage trees in my garden, called Cordyline Red Sensation, and I cut off the foliage once a year to clean them up. I don’t do them all at the same time aiming instead to do about 1/4 of the total every 4 months. I ensure I always have 3/4 of them in full foliage at any one time - and they always look fantastic. I have also hard pruned the clumping Cordyline Red Fountain and it came back beautifully with new burgundy foliage. If you give them a good feed once you have cut off the foliage then in a very short time (5-6 weeks) they will start refurbishing themselves with new leaves.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - 22:49
