Tulip Time

 Hoorah

Light bulb moments are when the tulips come out!

Although I thought I planted 10 and only 9 came up. Hmm. Snapped with my phone...they are growing through the yarrow. Also mum's eerlicheers have come up so picked them for the vase to scent the living room, and it's not far off for the freesias.

To report on our garden trip - this time we went on a trek to BeachHaven to an artist couple's beachside home with a view. As with a lot of homes on the North Shore, the view comes at a steep gradient, the south facing garden faces the harbour and has numerous paths down to the water.  We felt like Jolly Rogers and had a bout of ukelele sing along as well. They were very hospitable and had the best cream and jam scones. On their travels they had looked after grand home which had a formal garden complete with parterre, fountain, espalier and topiaries. Very posh! But back on Kiwi soil they were a lot more laid back growing everything that can survive on a steep south facing slope. 

At our garden club meeting we all became armchair travelers as President Brigit regaled us with tales and pictures from her Scandinavian summer journey, the grandiose sights of Versailles, and the somewhat smaller palace of William the Orange. She also stood on the ancient ruins of Pompeii, which could be our fate one day if those supposedly dormant volcanoes decide to erupt...

Over at Epsom mum is having a tidy up of the twin's garden that hasn't really been touched in how many years?! So she and I together have  pulled out tonnes of ladder fern, a few dead trees, overgrown daphne, crowded clivias and dietes. Enough room for alpine strawberries? I now have visions of hellebores, more bulbs under the trees, gladioli in the sun and maybe louisiana irises by the driveway, if Vincent doesn't' plant all his citrus first. Well he can't as he's swanned off to Australia again, this time to Melbourne.  Mum said she planted the yacon, but I think she planted them in the shade, when she should have planted them in the vege patch. Oh well at least my extra mondo grass now has a home. Vincents tulips are only just behind mine and I'm sure they'll be blooming by next week next to his new matching bay tree that has been clipped into a standard ball.

Cousin Winnie's tulips were the first to show though but now she's moved house, she's got a whole lot of taro and wood ear ---which the aunties were super excited about. Her bunnies have an entire flat to themselves though...and they certainly have a big backyard to jump around in. We'll see if Winnie starts growing a green thumb now she's a landlady/home owner.  

New growth

 Last Saturday Karyn called for help in planting her weeping cherry tree in her front yard. Poor hubby Pierre was off sick and needed rest, but the cherry tree needed to get in the ground, lest it blow over in the grow bag and break another branch. 

Karyn technically doesn't actually have a front yard at all just a driveway (and two garages) with a tiny triangle of planting ground near the stairs that lead up to her front door. She had already pulled out the immense spiky yucca that was there before, but some of its roots had been left behind, which were as tough as cable wire. 

We dug and cut everything out, chucked in scoria, a whole sack of gypsum, compost, sand, planted the tree and then scattered bark mulch on top. It was already 2 metres high and weeping though bare, and although it looked like a skeleton of a tree I could see it had 'good bones'. Pierre's special tree. Karyn said he chose it himself and he will do the underplanting. 

My good deed done, I returned back to my garden this week to divide my houseplants ...now I have several peace lilies, calatheas, and african violets more than I had before. 

My other Karen friend from garden club decided on an impromptu day trip down to Wairere Nursery in Gordonton to buy some replacement roses  - 'Hayley Westenra'. Jane, Sid's widow tagged along with us. She said Sid grew up in Taranaki and that is where he wants to be buried with his family in one of the beautiful garden cemeteries there. I thought of the  Taranaki garden festival I still have not seen in October.  Will I get to go this year? It's a five hour drive...

Wairere Nursery seems to have everything for a large scale country garden - and also boasts a show garden you can walk around in, featuring cloud topiary, a meandering stream, slopes of hellebores, and clipped citrus. I think it will be gorgeous in spring when everything is in full bloom. Woodland Estate nearby is also worth having a wander round in. It boasts 100 year old oaks, plane trees, wisteria, a cricket oval, a cafe, another stream with arched bridges, and thousands upon thousands of spring bulbs and hellebores, peeking underneath magnolia, dogwoods and camellias.  Very 'English' looking woodland. It was the former homestead of the founder of Anchor Butter. One can imagine what it was like back in the day when the trees were just saplings and the land stretched as far as the eye could see all to be turned into dairy farm. 

Garden Club trips planned  include one in Beachaven, the Kelston Orchid Show, and maybe the Cambridge Garden Festival. Unfortunately, going to Waiheke for the Jassy Dean Garden Safari seems out of the question, considering the cost of hiring transport, the ferry, motel stay and tickets to enter all the gardens. You'd think it would be actually cheaper since its on our doorstep but no. 

Today I emptied one compost bin to mulch my tiger lilies, and harvested some more yacon. I also cleared a weedy patch in the corner near the old chicken coop. The eerlicheer are coming out, and the freesias are budding. It's going to be a glorious spring, only a few more weeks!