GARDENS IN TAUPO

Taupo Times, Volume III, Issue 108, 19 February 1954, Page 8

GARDENS IN TAUPO

NOTES FROM THE PAST

(By

Flora).

Despite the advances of modern science, it must not be thought that all knowledge of gardening matters has been discovered in the last twenty years or so. The lore of the soil and its plants has gradually been collected over the centuries, in early times being passed on from father to son as "the swift seasons'' rolled. Some of the older knowledge has -been recorded and often makes interesting reading. I found an interesting reference to the sweet-scented tobacco plant, Nicotiana affinis, as a cut flower, in "The Garden," dated 1914. This stated that if this beautiful flower is cut in the evening when the bloom is expanded, it does not close again when put in water in the house, and moreover that any flowers that might be in but wiil often open and remain open. Another unusual reference was to cauliflowers, and mentioned an "excellent way to keep them should they all mature at the same time..' The method suggested was to pull the plants, with as much earth as possible and hang them head down in a cool darkened shed and spray them with water every evening, when, it was claimed, "they will keep fresh for quite a long time." N.Z. Flax The forty-years old source mentioned above also contained some notes on flbre from Phorium tenax (our New Zealand Flax), stating that "it is under the name of New Zealand hemp. Unfortunately the process of extracting the flbre from the leaves is rather tiresome and at the present time (1914) the price of labour in this country (Britain) is too expensive to make the cultivation a financial success. The plant can be grown in any of the milder parts of England, Ireland and Western Scotland." In view of the success of the utilisation of flax in New Zealand, where our largest factory is at Foxton, I wonder if the industry has grown in Britain. It was known and grown there a hundred years before 1914, for a Maori named Tupai, visiting England in the time of George III, was amused to see a plant of flax growing in a pot under glass. The species seems to have ben successfully cultivated in the British Isles a little later, and to have ripened seeds as far north as the Orkneys. Our present dry summer reminds one that the flax, though it flourishes in swampy areas, is one of the most suitable New Zealand natives for very dry situations, a quality that makes it suitable for Taupo. While there are two species only of our native flax, namely P. tenax, or harakeke, and the P> Colensoi, or wharariki, the mountain flax, ohere are a great many varieties of these, many ornamental types being cultivated. Ancient Apricot Trees Apricot trees are known to live to a great age, but it is somewhat uncommon to find one very old that produces suceessful crops yearly. In the gardens of the Palace House, Bishop's Waltham, there is a tree said to be 200 years old, and in the gardens of Penrhyn Castle, North Wales, according to the 1914 publication quoted above one eighty years old, variety Moorpark, growing "in healthy condition. - This bears a full crop of fruit yearly."

Another reference gleaned from the same source is to "the beautiful Magnolia stellata. As its name implies it .has star-shaped pure white flowers. Unlike most of its tribe this Magnolia never attains a great size, forming a close spreading bush six feet high." This Magnolia, by the way, appreciates deep cultivation and enriched loamy soil, and does quite well in Taupo gardens