Long wet winter ends

Ruapehu Bulletin, 10 September 1991, Page 15

Long wet winter ends

by

Bea

Barnes

Now that spring is officially with us we hope it will herald a period of drier sunnier weather to help dry out the excess moisturc in the ground after the long wet winter. So frustrating when there is so much to be done in the the garden after a long wet winter but hopefully, a few dry sunny days will go a long way towards putting matters to rights. Despite the weather their are signs of new life appearing. A bright patch of anemones in flower and the tough little blue crocus popping up here and there. The lovely flowering plum prunus blieriana is just bursting into flower. (There is a new variety of this called Thundercloud' which retains its pale pink blossoms right through the summer), and I noticed this morning that the buds on magnolia soulangiana 'San Jose' are just showing the white tips of the emerging flower. Camellia 'Leonora Novick' is shyly hiding some beautiful blooms among the dark green foliage. Camellia 'Barbara Clark'

now has a number of bright blooms. I do hope the rain doesn't spoil them. Providing the ground isn't too waterlogged this is quite a good time to plant new trees as the cool moist soil conditions will encourage them to put out their roots and the moisture prevents the young trees from drying out. If you are thinking of planting a tree with weeping habit what better than the malus 'wandin glory'? This is a small weeping tree with white blossom in spring followed by a crop of full size brightly coloured sweet apples in February. This grows to 2m with a similar spread so is quite suitable for small gardens. Another small tree with lovely rosy crimson buds opening to carmine pink flowers is malus 'echtermeyer standard'. Quite outstanding in flower, this will grow to 2.5m with a 2m spread. For perfume in the garden try syringa

'joseflexa bellicent' the lovely pink French lilac or 'sensation', the blue one. Rhododendron and azalea are available now and will enjoy the damp cooler conditions. Rhodo 'Lem's monarch' is a good choice blooming in mid season with huge trusses of showy pink flowers. It is a medium to large plant with vigorous upright habit. A smaller plant is rhodo 'Molly Anne' with upright small trusses of rich rose flowers in early to mid season. Quite a dwarf compact plant. For creamy yellow flowers with an apricot centre rhodo 'Ostbo's low yellow' blooms in mid season when hopefully all danger of frost is past. A medium sized plant with beautiful clear ruffled pink flowers in mid season is rhodo 'hurricane'. A kurume azalea hardier than azalea indica is 'bit o sunshine'. Soft red single or hose in hose flowers and very

compact growing. A real beauty is azalea 'southern aurora', a deep apricot and white bicolour. The large double flowers open in the autumn with some flowers through winter to peak blooming in the spring. For profusion of blooms the deciduous Ilam azaleas take some beating. Ilam 'melford salmon' has large frilled florets of deep salmon with an orangC flare blooming mid season and Ilam 'ming' makes a large compact truss of clear tangerine yellow with a golden yellow flare also blooming in mid season. Ilam azaleas are quite hardy and grow well here. Have you seen the new primula 'Wanda' hybrids? Beautiful colours in clear translucent bright red, rich dark red and delicate pink shades. They are blooming now irre- j spective of weather and j at the end of the season will die right down to emerge again in the early spring.