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- If you have some garlic, shallots or chives coming along, right now is a
good time to feed them with superphosphate. They need it for their root and
bulb development and it does not leach from the soil in winter, so just
sprinkle it over the plants and no need to dig it in. The closer to the
stems the better as those members of the onion tribe, don’t have a very
broad root run.
- Feed your summer flowering Hippeastrums now also. If you grow yours in
pots, they need dividing every three years, at the stage when they are about
to burst the container open! You haven’t got any? Why not? They are simply
our most spectacular and easiest to grown bulb and the modern cultivars are
stunning. Bulbs are available at present.
- The Lemon Grass has died back rapidly over the past few weeks, but just
leave it alone until at least September, then lift it and cut back long
dried blades of grass to the firm green culms and plant a few individual
culms and leave the bulk of the clump untouched. That way it is protected
from winter frosts and the dried leaves protect the growing shoots at the
base. When they are growing, you can cut all the unsightly dried leaves
away.
- A few of our most common native plants that ought to be in most gardens
are the Correas and Thryptomene cultivars, since they flower in mid winter
and even in shaded spots. Both benefit from being tip pruned while in
flower, to induce laterals that will reward you with a mass of flower later
this season or with masses next year.
- If you heeded my advice about trying to grow your own rose from a rose
hip, it’s now time to take your hip from the crisper and cut it open to
reveal the hard woolly-coated seeds. I found they take too long to dehisce
naturally. Discard the sticky orange hip flesh and extract the plumpest 10
seeds to plant. Push them into a premium seed sowing mixture and top dress
with copra or peat to a depth of 2-3 mm. Then top dress with a big ice
block, 1-3 litres will do and stand back.
- Feed your summer flowering Hippeastrums right now with superphosphate. If
you grow yours in pots, they need dividing every three or four years, at the
stage when they are about to burst the container open! You haven’t got
any? Why not? They are simply our most spectacular and easiest to grown bulb
and the modern cultivars are stunning. Bulbs are available at present.
- There are so many summer flowering bulbs on offer these days and some new
cultivars that thrive in this area. Ask around for the L/A hybrid Liliums.
They are compact large flowering hybrids between Asiatics and Longifoliums.
What a combination! Best news is that they flower leading up to Christmas.
Very hardy and at less than $3.00 a bulb they are good value as each bulb
produces about a multiple cluster of large bright flowers.
- Also in the nursery outlets at present are herbaceous peonies, but unless
you are prepared to go to the trouble of putting a block of ice into their
dormant roots on successive nights, in mid winter for at least a week, opt
for the easier to grow, tree peonies, that don’t need that winter chilling
to flower.
- It’s rhubarb-planting time too. Make sure you get a crown with the
reddest shots you can find, or else you will be disappointed. Rhubarb seldom
colours up later on. It will stay the colour of the shoots that you see when
you buy it. Once planted sprinkle some superphosphate over the area in a
ring no wider than 20cm.
- There are some wonderful deciduous daylilies around this year too. I
stress the deciduous cultivars, because they do so much better in the hills.
You have at least 2 months to source them and plant them and once planted
covert he shoots with plenty of organic pellets and some superphosphate,
then when they are making active growth foliar spray them with a high
potassium fertilizer, water soluble or kelp based. They even thrive on
well-drained, poor soils, providing they get heaps of sunlight.
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