Imagine a field of sunflowers, their bright yellow flowers all turned towards the sun. What a happy place. Get the kids involved in sowing their own little patch of sunshine . . .
Yellow Empress sunflowers can grow stunning yellow flowers up to an impressive 35cm across.
The plants are large, growing up to 1.5m tall, so this is a variety that needs room to grow and may benefit from staking to stop them falling over.
Kids can get involved with measuring how high the plants grow.
Dwarf Sensation has bright yellow flowers on a compact plant that grows to around 40cm tall. This variety can be grown in a pot on a sunny balcony or small spot in a courtyard.
So let the kids find a sunny, sheltered spot and help them sow some sunflowers.
Garden wizardry
Dianthus have been pretty garden favourites for many years and through clever plant breeding there’s now a stunning new dianthus called Pinball Wizard. It’s highly fragrant, unique pink speckled double flowers smother the plant during spring, on stems that are long enough to pick for a vase.
They’re small, neat and compact plants that grow to around 30cm tall and 40cm wide and thrive in an airy spot in either full sun or part shade in both garden beds or pots. They’re ideal for bringing colour and fragrance to an outdoor entertaining area, courtyard or patio.
Dianthus Pinball Wizard is hardy in both hot and cold conditions and is dry tolerant once established, requiring only an occasional deep watering in summer.
When planting a new dianthus in a garden bed, enrich the soil in the planting hole by mixing in some Yates Thrive Natural Blood and Bone. It contains New Zealand seaweed to encourage root growth as well as being a natural source of organic slow release nutrients.
When growing dianthus in a container, choose a pot with good drainage holes and fill with a good quality potting mix like Premium Potting Mix.
Once the plant has established, feed every fortnight with Thrive Roses and Flowers Liquid Plant Food, which is a complete and balanced fertiliser to encourage healthy leaf growth as well as being boosted with additional potassium to promote prolific flowering. To help repeat blooming, trim off the spent flowers.
Cut flower tip: to enjoy the maximum fragrance, pick the flowers when they’re almost fully open.
Perfect palms
If you’re after a tropical look for your garden, then palms are a must and their long arching and graceful foliage helps add a vertical dimension to garden designs or creates a tall lush backdrop for smaller plants. There is a wide variety of palms to choose from, whether you have a large sunny garden or a small shady spot that needs some tropical pizzazz.
Palms for sunny, frost protected garden spots include:
Golden cane palm (Dypsis lutescens)Bangalow palm (Archonontophoenix cunninghamiana)Chinese fan palm (Livistona chinensis)Palms for shaded, frost protected gardens include:
Lady palm (Rhapis excelsa)Cascade palm (Chamaedorea cataractarum)Walking stick palm (Linospadix monostachya)
Here are the key steps to help keep your palms lush and healthy:
Plant into well drained soil or a pot with good drainage holes filled with a good quality potting mix like Premium Potting Mix.When planting a new palm into the garden, enrich the soil first by mixing in some Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food.During the warmer months keep the soil or potting mix moist and feed outdoor palms each fortnight with Thrive All Purpose Liquid Plant Food.Yellowing palm leaves can be a sign of magnesium deficiency. Applied as a foliar spray, Leaf Greener Magnesium Chelate is a fast acting source of magnesium to help green up palm foliage.
Indoor parlour palms
Parlour palms (Chamaedorea elegans) make fantastic indoor plants. Young plants don’t take up too much space and a potted parlour palm is a lovely leafy addition to a work space or humid bathroom.
Multiple plants are often grown together in the one pot and their small fronds are lined with lots of green leaflets, creating a lush miniature rainforest effect.
Parlour palms prefer a moderately to well-lit spot indoors that is protected from direct sunlight. They can grow up to 1.5m tall, though grow slowly and will take several years to reach this height.
Parlour palm tips:
Choose a pot with good drainage holes and use a good quality potting mix like Yates Premium Potting Mix.Don’t disturb the palm’s root system when planting it into a new container.Parlour palms like the potting mix to be kept only slighty moist. They don’t like wet feet. Check the moisture level in the potting mix by gently digging around in the top few centimetres with your finger.To promote lush healthy foliage growth, from spring to autumn feed every month with Thrive Hoseplant Liquid Plant Food.During hot dry weather, to help create a more humid environment, the parlour palm foliage can be misted with water.Remove any dead fronds to keep the palm looking tidy and gently wipe the leaves regularly to remove any dust.
Victory at nationals means place in Team NZ for Hip Hope Unite World Champs.