Re: Some Spring Things (was Fall Bloomers in New Zealand

Tim Dutton wrote:
> 
> Hi Moira
> 
> Good to hear that you seem to be lacking snails in the garden this year,
> although it may mean that Tony has to drink all that beer that you have
> bought "just for snail traps" :)  

Hi Tim
Tony is not the only one in this household who enjoys the odd beer (but
only if it is a larger, mind you)

I didn't know that they attacked
> Arthropodium as well as Hostas, but I guess it figures, as they have very
> juicy looking leaves. 

You should have seen the ones at Govt House  last spring, they were even
worse than mine (and that's saying something!)

We grow a lot of Arthropodium cirrhatum on the > hillside under the
pines, where they seem to thrive in very poor soil, > limited moisture,
little light and a thick mulch of pine needles. Over the > years they
have been self seeding prolifically and we now find them far> afield
from the small clump we started with. 

I am gradually discovering just how obliging they are. Haven't had
seeding so far (my plants haven't flowered yet, probably because I was
too keen to divide them) but even after one year I was able to get lots
of offsets and have been strewing them around. So far I haven't found
any place where they have refused to settle in.
The only reason I didn't take to them years ago was that I thought they
were a bit frost-tender for my patch, but with the climate getting
noticeably milder, (at least in the short term) and now having plenty of
shrubs under which to shelter them, I am no longer worried on this
account.

We have recently purchased > some A. candidum purpureum which we are
trying out in the rock garden to  see how they go. A very pretty little
plant. I hope it self seeds as  readily.

I have just bought a clump too, but this is the second time for me.
Originally I purchased both the purple and the green form of this
species. The green one was put into a bed with some camellias where it
has faithfully covered the ground for many years, but is not exactly
exciting. I don't think it seeds much. It seems to flower very little,
but spreads quite gently by wiry rhizomes.  The purple variety was put
into my rock garden, which is actually a scree bed, which it obvously
found altogether too dry and hot and gradually faded away. The new clump
has gone at the edge of the Camellia bed and if it does well there it
should give me further material to experiment with. I hope I can suit
it, as I do find it attractive. Come to think of it I should probably do
the obvious thing and look up the appropriate books!!! (I have recently
extended my information on growing natives by purchasing both the latest
edition of Metcalf and also The Gardeners Encyclopedia of NZ native
plants, so I am now pretty well equipped.)
> 
> I am sure we used to have a clump of the red Schizostylis coccinea, but
> can't remember where. Perhaps it is mixed in with the pink ones and I have
> missed seeing them flower through working too long on other parts of the
> property. My garden database doesn't tell me, but there are a lot of things
> we have planted or that planted themselves over the years that we have
> never got around to entering in it. I can imagine they would suffer from a
> hot dry summer, and as I said to the List, our clump is in a moist
> semi-shaded spot and has grown well for years, in spite of the higher
> summer daytime temperatures that we can get compared to you in Wainui. It
> will be good to know if those extra large red ones you have found by the
> river do well in garden conditions.

Well they are planted out under a deep mulch, which should shield them
if we get the dry summer which we seem to be heading for. When I think
of it, I no longer seem to have the very large pink form I once got from
the Clairville nursery. Quite possibly the hot dry summer of a couple of
years ago finished it off.
> 
> I love this time of year in the garden, mostly because the new leaves
> appear on all the deciduous trees and the garden takes on many new shades
> of green as a result. Of course there are a lot of things in flower as
> well, but we have tended to concentrate on foliage colour and form and let
> flowers act as the icing on the cake. 

I was just looking out into my little "orchard" which is looking
particularly colourful just now. The apple and pear blossoms are just
over, but beds at their feet are full of all sorts of "tinies" including
quite a wide selection of geraneum species, some artfully mingled by
nature with Heartsease (Johnny Jumpups our American friends would call
them) and punctuated with some cerise Freesias, while the boundary fence
is brilliant with climbing old roses  intermingled with large-flowered
Clematis. And at their feet some of Jack Hobb's Hebes are in full bloom.
I find the Clematis in particular marvellous value. Provided they get a
cool moist rootrun they scarcely pause in their blooming all summer and
only finally fade out in late autumn.

Certainly there have been many plants > that we have bought on sight
without actually knowing what it does in the
> way of flowering. There are a few where I feel inclined to cut off the
> flower stalks before they get too far advanced. A recent acquisition of
> this sort is Armeria 'Variegata', which is a lovely pale green and yellow
> variegated leaf, but unfortunately with the standard Armeria maritima
> bright pink flowers, which really don't go well with the leaves. I used to
> hate the effect when Rhododendron 'President Roosevelt' was in flower as
> well, but luckily it died after a couple of years and I didn't have to go
> to the trouble of digging it out.

I know just what you mean. I have always thought President Roosevelt 
particularly hideous. Somehow the combination of the bright yellow
variegated leaves and that  shade of bluish-red just sets my teeth on
edge.

I am not in fact keen on the majoity of leaf variegations, especially
the bright yellow kinds, though I am attracted to some of the newest
small Coprosmas with the suffusion of pink in their foliage. I also know
a number of creamy or pale yellow forms which can look quite lovely as
they seem to be lit up. I am thinking particularly of Coprosma
williamsii variegata and the cream-variegated form of the Karo
(Pittosporum crassifolium). I have smetimes seen in garden centres a
very nice pale variegated Cabbage tree, but I have an idea it is hard to
raise, unlike its plain green relative.
> 
> Anyway, like you we seem to be finding a lot of weeds are doing well at
> this time of year as well. One broom that managed to creep into the back of
> a shrubbery a few years ago and avoid getting pruned out has now cleverly
> managed to show its worth as an ornamental. It has flowered with just the
> right yellow at just the right time in just the right spot to perfect the
> picture. If we take it out we will need another yellow flowered plant in
> its place. Strange how things can happen when you least expect it. Mind
> you, I haven't yet found any gorse that enhance a part of the garden...

Believe it or not, an very old English book of mine on garden shrubs
(Shrubs in Colour and Cultivation) actually recommends this for for
covering banks on dry sandy soil. and which "will bespangle any open and
dry situation with much fine gold for many a month". Curiously (although
it is native in Britain)  he recommends growing it from cuttings and
doesn't mention seed even as an alternative. I wonder if anybody ever
took up his suggestion.

Moira
-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
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