An azalea in full bloom at the Chinese garden in Hamilton Gardens. BOP 29aug08 - COLOURFUL PUNCH: This flower-covered azalea heralds the changing of the seasons.PICTURE / 210808SS03BOP NZH 11nov08 -
Spring is a floral spectacular. Enjoy all the flowering delights of spring and plan for beautiful blooms in the coming months. Happy gardening everyone.
SO MANY FLOWERS
As the weather warms up there are so many flowers to grow from seed. Just one packet of seeds can grow dozens or hundrends of plants, so it’s a fantastic (and economical) way to fill entire garden beds and lots of pots with gorgeous colour. Whatever you sow now you’ll be enjoying for many months to come.
• Yates Snapdragon Tom Thumb is a true dwarf variety of snapdragon (only growing to around 20cm tall) in a full range of vibrant colours. Great for a colourful low border planting or in pots.
• Californian Poppy Sunshine Mix is a vivid colour blend of whites, reds, oranges and yellows. They flower profusely on attractive, blue-green ferny foliage.
• Nasturtium Jewel Mixed is an easy to grow, long flowering variety which produces a profusion of crimson, yellow, salmon and rose blooms that rise above the slightly trailing foliage. Ideal for pots and hanging baskets or as a ground cover.
• Carnation Fragrance produces a multitude of large, double fringed blooms in a wide variety of colours. It’s an easy to grow perennial growing to around 45cm high that is great for flower beds and containers.
They are a beautifully fragrant cut flower too.
Snails find young seedlings irrestible, so lightly scatter some Yates Blitzem Snail & Slug Pellets around the soil, which will effectively attract and kill snails. Once the seedlings are established, start feeding them with Thrive Flower & Fruit Soluble Fertiliser, which will encourage both healthy foliage
and lots of gorgeous flowers. Trim off spent blooms regularly to promote more flowers.
Pest control tip: aphids can be common on tender fresh new seedlings. Look out for tiny green, black, brown or grey insects hiding in amongst the leaves. A quick spray with Rose Gun will easily control damaging aphids.
HOW TO GROW AMAZING AZALEAS
An azalea in full flower is a sight to behold. Often you can’t see the leaves for the flowers. which come in almost every shade from white through to bright pink and also yellow, salmon and two toned flowers. Most azaleas are happiest in a spot that receives morning sun and afternoon shade, in moist, organic rich well drained soil that is on the acidic side. Azaleas also grow very well in a pot.
Here are a few simple steps to keeping your azaleas looking fantastic:
• Azaleas can be attacked by thrips, which are tiny sap sucking insect pests that can cause damage to both flowers and foliage. Leaves may become mottled and flower petals deformed. Control thrips with Nature’s Way Pyrethrum & Oil Citrus & Ornamental Insect Gun. Spray lightly, just to the point of run off, including undersides of the foliage, as soon as thrips or their damage appear. Respray each week while thrips are active.
• Azaleas prefer an acidic soil (with a pH of 5.5-6.0) so in areas with alkaline soil, apply some Soil Acidifier Liquid Sulfur to reduce the soil pH.
• To help promote healthy foliage growth and lots of beautiful flowers, feed azaleas with
Thrive Granular Azalea, Camellia & Rhododendron. This is a specially developed fertilisier to feed acid loving plants like camellias. It contains extra potassium to promote lots of flowers as well as nitrogen and phosphorous to encourage healthy leaf and stem growth and a strong root system.
Scatter Thrive Granular Azalea, Camellia & Rhododendron around the root zone of camellias after they’ve finished flowering and water in well after applying.
DREAMING OF FLOWERS
Armerias are gorgeous hardy little flowering perennials that have globe shaped flowers that sit proudly above the foliage. Ten years of clever plant breeding has created a fabulous new collection of low maintenance armerias called Dreameria. Their main flowering flush is during spring, when they’re covered in masses of eye-catching blooms. The Dreameria range have attractive tightly mounded foliage that grows to a compact 20cm tall and they can spread up to 50cm in diameter. Tolerant of frost, windy, coastal and dry conditions once established, they make a perfect edging or border plant in a full or partly shaded spot or can be mass planted as a ground cover or included in rockery gardens. They look particularly pretty when grown in containers.
Dreameria comes in a range of beautiful colours, including vivid pink daydream, coral pink dreamland and soft pink sweet dreams.
To help keep Dreamerias looking their best and to encourage further flowering, trim off spent flowers and feed every eight weeks from spring to autumn with a high potassium fertiliser like Thrive Roses & Flowers Liquid Plant Food, which has been specially developed to feed flowering plants. Although tolerant of dry conditions,
they will appreciate a good watering during hot dry weather.
CHINESE EVERGREEN
If you’re after an indoor plant wih interesting or dramatic foliage colour, then look for Chinese Evergreen in your local nursery. They come in a dazzling range of leaf colours and patterns and create a lovely contrast when grown in amongst dark green indoor plants or make a beautiful statement all on their own. Foliage can be gorgeous mottled pink, red, green, yellow, silver or cream and there’s even a stunning rare vareity which looks like army camouflage. Like other indoor plants, Chinese evergreens can help purify the air, so they’re good for your health as well as looking fantastic.
Here are the steps to help keep your indoor Chinese evergreen flourishing:
• Choose a well-drained pot and use good quality potting mix like Yates Premium Potting Mix.
• Position the pot in a warm, brightly lit room, away from direct sunlight.
• Allow the potting mix to dry out slightly in between watering. These plants don’t like wet feet.
• Chinese evergreen are native to the tropics and so love a humid environment. To help increase humidity levels you can sit the pot on a layer of pebbles in a tray or saucer and regularly add water to the tray so that the pebbles are almost covered but the base of the pot sits above the water.