Gardening in North Otago November 11 2009

Still a chill in the air and a little rain on Friday morning, it would be perfect growing weather without the dreaded wind drying things out so much
I have spent a lot of time watering this week, some of the rhododendrons were drooping they are the first to let me know the ground is dry because they are so shallow rooted. If the leaves are drooping they need a really good soak and the some mulch around the roots to keep the moisture there.

My roses started to flower this week, they are at their best right now with fresh new leaves. To keep them like this they need to be healthy and sprayed every 10 days. Keeping them healthy means keeping the food up to them at the roots and folia feeding.
I always add liquid fertiliser when I spray for bugs and fungus.
Most years I use only fish emulation but have noticed a few green fly and the changable weather is also hard on new growth so I have decided to use shield to give them a good start into what I feel will be a hot dry season.
Always spray on an overcast day, the hot sun can magnify through droplets and burn fresh new leaves. No problem to spray on brighter days once the leaves have toughened up. Remember not to let wet leaves go into the night, this will encourage mildew.
Deep watering around the roots in the early evening is fine.

French and Italian lavenders have finished their first flowering now so cut off the spent flowers to encourage new buds and feed with liquid fertiliser or liquid manure. The French and the Italian lavenders are the ones with flowers like a bumble bee. The English lavenders are not ready to flower just yet. All lavenders like lime.

The Peony roses are stunning right now in bud and flower, it pays to put supports under them to hold up the heavy flowers and because they are growing so fast, I have tall wire supports shaped like a u that are pushed into the ground with the rounded top in place to let them flop over and stay in place. They need lots of water and some liquid fertiliser. I have heaps of lovely fat buds ready to open on my larger bushes. I also have some crowns that were planted last season so I have let only one flower develop to see what it is like and removed any others. I will cut the one blooming flower off before it makes seed pods. The clump will form much faster if you do not let it flower for the first two years.
Peony roses need full sun and do not like to be smothered by other plants.


Some hybrid clematis are looking beautiful right now, you have to be quick to train them where you want them to go because they grow so fast from now on. Direct them while the trailers are still soft, they too like a lot of feeding to take them to great heights.
Manure is great for them, they can't get enough of it. Don't worry if you have one with no buds just yet they all have different flowering times, If you have just put one in this year, let it flower then cut it to the ground this will make it put up more shoots and you will have a much bushier and stronger climber.
If your hybrid is showing leaf then it is sure to flower but if you have one that looks dead with the ends wilting I am afraid it has the wilt and should be cut off at the ground. Don't remove it because I have known some to shoot away again the following year.
climatic also like lime.


I have been filling the gaps in the flower garden with old fashioned cottage flowers like cosmos, love in the mist, salvia blue bidder
clary sage, and lavatera. These are all taller flowering annuals so put a lot in close together so they hold each other up. The more plants I put in the less weeds will grow is the plan and all the plants I mentioned will be flowering at Christmas, and then for weeks after that.

The nor westers arrived and blew my board bean down stakes and all.... I should have been firmer with the stakes, I lost quite a few stalks. I notice that they have no rust this year, could it be the pinch of potash I put in with them when I planted them? or just a lot more sun this growing season than the last few.

keep planting veg seeds and plants, a few at a time so you can have the continuous thing happening. If you put too many in at one time they will all bolt at this time off the year if they are not used.

Our garden is open from now on through until winter, it is full and lush with fresh growth, a really lovely time before things start to look a little tired from the wind and hot days to come. We are getting lots of visitors, some bring a picnic and some just like to wander around and relax, plenty of tables, seating and toilets and a donation box as you walk into the round garden.