News
GRISELINIA - BROADWAY MINT SALE OF PB12 GRADE
I have 200 Griselinia Broadway mint for sale at $12 per each (freight may be extra depending on where you are and how many you need) and they are beautifullly grown plants ideal for hedging and at present would be 35-40cm tall - contact Robin or Craig on 07 8230472 or Robin on 027 231 5888.
Todays date is 26th Jan 2010
GROUND FERNS
Ground ferns are many and varied in terms of height/width they grow to, hardiness, colour, evergreen or deciduous, native or exotic so too much to rabbit on about here. Suffice to say ferns are a brilliant plants given the right conditions and care.
Have a look at our "where to plant guide" which will give you some indication as to what you can do and where in your garden, if you need further advice contact us or you local garden centre.
CAN YOU EAT FERNS?
The only edible ground fern we are aware of is the true NZ native Asplenium bulbiferum ("Pikopiko") and it is the tender young shoots that can be picked and blanched - tastes something like Asparagus. Hen and Chicken is the common name for this fern.
Just be careful as there are some hen and chicken cultivars in the garden centres and in fact almost all the hen and chicken you will find in garden centres is a crossed variety and definitely not an edible fern!!
TREE FERNS
To many people one tree fern looks just the same as any other and we are often asked for a "ponga" and the requester expresses surprise that there is more than one variety!!!
In terms of NZ native tree ferns there are about 9 varieties - we stock 6 and they fall into 2 distinct species -
1. Dicksoniaceae (Dicksonia for short) and the two common varieties are the squarrosa and the fibrosa. Species is distinctive due to long woody trunks and crown of fronds on the top.
2. Cyatheaceae (Cyathea for short) - different from the Dicksonia due to scales and hairs on the trunks. medullaris (Mamaku or black tree fern), dealbata (Silver), smithii (soft tree fern) and cunninghamii (Gully tree fern) are the most common.
Tree ferns can augment many a garden but do understand that they are in general shade lovers and they will keel over if you don't attend to their watering needs!!! Wind is also an enemy so find a shaded place - plant and enjoy!!!
MAPLES
Best planting times are when plant is dormant and no leaves on so Winter thru to late Spring is best but they can be planted out from palnter bags at any time of the year. Summer thru to Autumn is the time of year when maples (Acers) are looking great.
Ours have been grown in planter bags and atre established with good root systems so all you need to do is dig the hole (to same depth and slightly wider than the bag they come to allow you room to slide the bag in - slit the sides of the bag before lowering into the hole - throw in a bucket of water - gently ease the bag out and cover in - Easy!!).
We have purple/red maples, lime green/yellow, weeping maples and others various shades of green - some are what is callled "Standards" so they have been grafted at a certain height (1.5m or 1.8m is quite often the case) so the actuall species is the top bit above the graft.
Check our varieties under the product section.
New Website
For those of you who who have accessed our web site previously you will see we have had a makeover done - botox, skin tightening and all!!! We hope you like the new look and easy access. Monthly we intend to have different news items regarding our plants on ferns (and the trees and shrubs we now grow) so we hope it will engender interest and discussion on various plants. More importantly if you are looking for plants we may just have what you are after so contact us.
Please note that with our tree and shrub slection we are only growing these in the larger grade so for small plants sorry we cannot help you.
If you have questions on any of our plants we will try and give you an answer as soon as we can or if you have a view on any of our news items please send us an e-mail.
PRUNUS
There are over 400 genus of Prunus trees so they are a very popular tree. You can get Flowering Cheeries, flowering Apricots, Flowering Peach and also floweing Almonds in the prunus genus. Weeping cherries are a favourite of mine.
Prunus need plenty of light and in good well mulched and good draining soil. Not a bad idea to give them a balanced NPK fertiliser in the early Spring.
Spring is when they flower and so plant, if you want to get the benefit of your first look at the flowers they will provide, by mid winter (Autumn to mid winter is best time for planting).