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Friday 7th April, 2017

Hi


Debbie does .... OMG  What lot of water that fell

All of our ponds disappeared into a single flowing entity of water! Its an interesting point but the area behind the nursery was once a Waikato river course. The nursery and office and villa are sitting on one side being the western sand bank and then you look out across the ponds to the eastern sand banks. The ponds in between are basically a peat swamp and a high water table and a small drain called the Kormakorau runs through to Taylor road. The cool thing is that in times of a deluge of water, the Kormakorau become the natural drainage area for the region which is exactly what has happened with Debbie.

                            

I don't think that we have seen it this high for some years now as it was certainly lapping up at the base of the bridge that crosses to the back property. Luckily Harry's cows had the sense to be up high and dry in the top block rather than grazing down in the lowland area. The lowland flood area is the perfect home to the Kahikatea that live there and the Waikato would have been well covered with these handsome trees in times gone. As you look out from the display garden there is such a handsome stand of these beautiful trees sitting in the natural water run off.  Guess that these were saplings that were left when the trees were milled in days for school seats and butter churns. Kahikatea wood is a soft wood and has the the reputation of not tainting and bends well which suited what it was used for.

It doesn't happen very often but we currently have a full team, and it is showing by the amount of work that is getting done around the nursery.  You will have seen some of the pics posted on facebook of the work they have been doing. Now the team is able to focus on some of the projects that will get the nursery ready for the incoming new seasons stock. Shortly we will replace the weed mat in a number of high traffic areas. In particular the rose area is in need of a spruce up. And the weed cloth will be be replaced where the new season standard roses will be going. 


Az-a-lea or A-za-lea 
However you say it this robust and prolific bloomer must surely have earned it's place in the garden must haves.  Azaleas look amazing planted under Japanese Maples or with other acidic loving plants like Camellias, Rhododendrons or Daphne. Commonly found in white, red, mauve and varying shades of pink, these plants provide stunning splashes of colour, whether to brighten a shady spot or to edge a boarder. 

Long gone are the days when you could only plant Azalea in shaded areas. Considerable effort has gone into producing plants that are sun tolerant. The Encore range are an excellent example of sun tolerant plants with the ideal planting environment for these being 4-6 hours of direct sunlight, with some shade during the afternoon heat. Encore azaleas repeat flower usually producing a good flush in Spring, Summer and again in Autumn. These look great as border plants, enmasse or as highlights in the garden.
                    

Azaleas are the go to plant for great colour in shaded areas. Originating from woodland areas in Asia, Europe and South America these plants grow and flower extremely well in filtered light from a tree canopy or in a southern aspect. Indica Azalea are a native of Japan and are named Indica because Asia was once referred to as East Indies. These as a rule flower in spring and prefer filtered light and like all azaleas, whether evergreen or deciduous, like acid soil.  Splendens, Mrs Kint Red and Mrs Kint White all produce single flowers while Aline has crisp white double flowers. Kurume azaleas are also native to Japan but originated in a different area from Indica's and these tend to have more double flower varieties and their colour range is predominately rosy mauve to magenta, but salmon and salmon-red are plentiful; pink, scarlet and crimson and white varieties are not as plentiful.
Both the Indica and Kurume varieties are evergreen Azalea.  The deciduous azalea have flowers, that are close in appearance to their cousins the Rhododendrons, which arrive before their leaves do in spring.  The deciduous azalea colour range predominantly consists of orange, yellow and reds which are simply stunning when in full bloom.  Check out our range of deciduous azaleas and don't forget to keep an eye on our Just Arrived page for the upcoming varieties due to be available soon.
                
Often when you think of camellias you imagine hedges or trees or round clipped shapes but there are many camellias that are medium growing that can live in your garden without needing to see a pair of clippers. Below are some camellias in stock now that only grow to around 1.5m and they take their own sweet time to reach this height. There are also many camellias that average around the 2 meter mark so don't let the thought of having to clip them hold you back from adding camellias to your landscape. 

Alpen Glo has clusters of single flowers that are blush pink.
Baby Pearl has small white formal double flowers blushed with pink.
Black Tie. Japonica, formal double red.
Buttons 'n Bows lovely perfect shaped formal double flowers that are deep pink on the outer petals fading to almost white on the inner petals.
Nicky Crisp palest pink, semi double blooms with golden anthers.
Nuccios Cameo has beautiful double pink flowers and an upright but slightly spreading habit.
Quintessence flowers are single mainly white with an occasional blush of pink. Long flowering and has a cascading habit.
Scented gem free flowering habit with flowers of fuchsia pink with white central petaloides and fragrant too.
Snowdrop has tiny single white flowers tinged with pink.
Spring Festival has gorgeous new foliage in bronze tones produced after flowering. Flowers are pink semi doubles.
Sugar Dream NZ bred fragrant warm pink blooms with ruffled cream central petaloides.
Transpink has masses of tiny, pink, single, fragrant flowers.
Family Deals
Kunzea Ericoides our native Kanuka. Summer flowering giving a gorgeous display of white. These are currently only $5.99 oro buy 20 or more and get them for $5.00 each. These are fast growing, great for banks, boundaries or woodlots.
Leptospermum Scoparium AKA Manuka. This is also white flowering in summer. The bees love this so lets help our bee's, they need feed throughout the year and these plants offer the bees food when they really need it, on special at $5.99ea or buy 20 or more for $5.00 each.

Just In
Pseudowintera or Pepper trees as many know them are one of the oldest plants on the plant.  Native to NZ these are a wonderful substitute for culinary pepper seasoning.  Usually the leaves are dried and ground to a powder then used wherever black pepper is used, direct on meat, mixed with oils or sprinkled on your salad.  The current collection in stock has a varied range of leaf colour.  Apparently a small amount added to black tea can be quite invigorating.  Plum Wine is the latest addition to this collection.
Daphne we have some lovely Daphne in stock and a standout is Perfume Princess. With the name it has you just know it is going to have exceptional fragrance but this is a unique daphne in that it likes full sun. 
Erica These tough little shrubs just smother themselves in colour just when you need it most in winter. Springwood white, Ruby Shepherd, Kramers Red are just in.
We also have new stock of Viburnum Eve price, Gwenllian  and a new one to us Tinus Anvi
                
Easter Opening Hours
 
This weekend we are open as usual but next weekend it is Easter weekend. We will be shut on Good Friday the 14th of April but will be open our usual hours for the rest of the long weekend...... so Closed  Good Friday but Open 8.30 am to 5.00 pm Saturday, Sunday and Monday 
and of course this will be followed by Anzac Day on which we will be open from 1pm till 5pm.

It looks like it could be good weather for a while so have a great weekend and come and visit us if you have time, keep in mind though that for the moment the paths around the lake will be closed as the flood waters are still receding. 

Cheers 

Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team

Make it a Wairere weekend where even GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag.

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2017 Newsletters...

1st one for 2017 (26th January, 2017)

Grapefruit (2nd February, 2017)

Party time (10th February, 2017)

17 Feb (17th February, 2017)

Asteraceae (24th February, 2017)

Autumn Its Official 03032017 (3rd March, 2017)

The Camellia story (10th March, 2017)

Roses Half Price (16th March, 2017)

Clipped Camellias (23rd March, 2017)

Red and gold (31st March, 2017)

..... Wairere Newsletter 7th April

A wet season indeed (13th April, 2017)

Form and texture (21st April, 2017)

To Bee or not... (28th April, 2017)

Mothers Day (10th May, 2017)

Its Rose time again (19th May, 2017)

Winter colour (24th May, 2017)

Roses blooms (1st June, 2017)

Healthy roses (8th June, 2017)

Birthday brekkie (14th June, 2017)

winter solstice (22nd June, 2017)

Rose Names (29th June, 2017)

Dry July (7th July, 2017)

Dry July nearly half way (13th July, 2017)

school holidays (20th July, 2017)

Tree time (27th July, 2017)

unoffical spring (3rd August, 2017)

Signs of spring (11th August, 2017)

Tui cherries are blooming (18th August, 2017)

Sunshine at last (24th August, 2017)

slugs and snails (1st September, 2017)

Never fail choc cake (7th September, 2017)

Never fail choc cake (8th September, 2017)

sandpaper vine (15th September, 2017)

In the beginning (21st September, 2017)

The Villa (29th September, 2017)

Montanas (6th October, 2017)

Crepe Myrtles (13th October, 2017)

Te Aroha Airport (18th October, 2017)

Kumara plants are in (20th October, 2017)

French Tarragon 2 (27th October, 2017)

Trees (3rd November, 2017)

what happening (15th November, 2017)

Xeronema (17th November, 2017)

Summer Watering (25th November, 2017)

Officially summer 2 (1st December, 2017)

Wairere Newsletter (8th December, 2017)

Xmas Summer Holidays (22nd December, 2017)




Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1, Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: