WE
KNOW WHAT'S GROWING ON...
Your own fruit in your
own garden…
There is nothing more satisfactory than harvesting
your own fresh fruit straight from the tree.
As more and more of you become interested
in planting your own fruit trees we have endeavoured
to select trees for their ability to produce
good crops in our Wellington climate, their
disease resistance characteristics and suitable
size for smaller city spaces. This year’s
collection includes the following varieties
highly recommended for the home gardener:
Apples
‘Maclear’ - Sweet, juicy fruit on
a tree showing good resistance to Codling
Moth & Blackspot
‘Priscilla’- Juicy, dark red fruit
on a blackspot resistant tree.
‘Bolero’- a columnar small tree that
will grow in a pot on a deck or in a courtyard
– yummy fruit, decorative ‘space-saver’ form.
Figs
Yes they do grow well in Wellington and their
great leaf form makes it an excellent feature
tree.
‘French Sugar’ – cropped well in
Heather’s garden this year on a north-facing
warm well – delicious fruit.
‘Robyn’ – Another good cropper on
medium sized tree.
Pears:
‘Doyenne du Comice & Packhams’
– Rolls Royce of pears and an excellent all-purpose
variety that will cross pollinate, reducing
the need to plant 2 trees.
Plums
‘Black Doris & Billington’ –
Double grafted on the one tree – solves space
and pollination issues, giving a long harvesting
season.
‘Reine Claude du Bavay’ – Aristocratic
name for that most superior of plums – the
Greengage. Self-fertile.
Olives
‘Koroneiki’ – self-fertile, lots
of small fruit with high oil content.
Salt wind tolerance makes it ideal for coastal
Wellington gardens. Shrubby form, standardises
easily.
Prunes
‘Stanley’ – for the cooking connisseur,
self-fertile, crops well at an early stage,
firm sweet textured fruit.
Planting your fruit trees
Go that extra mile and purchase good quality
Compost or Garden Mix to plant the trees into.
Throw 2/3 Gro-tabs in the planting hole before
placing the rootball on top.
(If the potting mix around your tree is dry
or it comes bare-root be sure to pop it in
a bucket of water for an hour). Staking is
important in Wellington, as the root-ball
must be firmly anchored and unmoving.
With the possible exception of the olives
choose the sunniest, but most sheltered
area you can for fruit trees.
Spraying fruit trees
Many clients have made the choice to grow
organically and some of our trees will be
fine without spray.
However a spray during dormancy of Copper
and Oil is a good preventative against fungal
diseases and insects for most fruit trees
and a further copper spray at bud swell is
advised.
For advice on spraying over the rest of the
season do ask us and we’ll write you a programme.
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STOP PRESS
Betula utilis
var. ‘Jacquemontii’ is one of
our favourite trees: a silver birch with a
powdery white trunk from an early age. It
has a more upright habit and larger leaves
than the commonly grown Betula pendula.
We have unloaded tall straight trees standing
2metres plus ready for planting now...
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HOT
SHOPPING LIST
New Season’s Roses – we’re
always proud of our interesting selection
and this year is no different: a collection
of classic favourites, some worthy new ones
with excellent performance ratings and what
we consider to be the pick of the David Austins.
Here are the new kids on the block:
- Chartreuse de Parme: rich magenta
pink with a powerful fragrance. 1 metre high.
- Crimson Bouquet: a no spray super
healthy rose.
- Cup Fever: ever tried to grow
the seductive yet disappointing Julias Rose?
Here’s the improved version!
- Lasting Love: dusky red blooms
on a healthy bush – here's the new red Hybrid
Tea in town!
- Serendipity: healthy and vigorous,
this newer rose was included again this year
based on its previous performance.
Square Concrete Planters
– Our biggest selling pot is a very reasonably
priced import with a slightly recessed base
– gives a slightly funky twist to a practical
planter!
Paeonies – Go on: Be a Devil
and shout yourself one – it’s officially cold
enough to grow them even in Wellington – oh
dear we weren’t supposed to talk about the
weather.......
Strawberry Sundae – We did
a taste test of all the varieties we had fruiting
last Christmas and this was the best fruit:
sweetest taste on a healthy plant
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QUESTION CORNER
Q: Where do I plant my hellebore?
A: It does depend on which
variety of hellebore you have as some are
more tolerant of soil conditions than others.
For example H x orientalis types (now undergoing
a reclassification as Helleborus x hybridus)
are the easiest to grow around Wellington.
Tolerant of full sun, as well as quite a
lot of shade, they’ll even grown in our clay
soils as long as they are not waterlogged.
During winter prune back old foliage to ground
level and masses of flowers spring up! In
summer mulch them well and remove spent flowers
that host aphids.
H. foetidus, the “stinking” hellebore with
the beautiful pendulous green bells of flowers
is fussier requiring sun and dry soils.
H. sterni, the red stemmed winter rose with
arguably the most attractive foliage, is the
most sun tolerant and would grow in a very
open sunny border. Do mulch it in summer.
Until next time
Anne
