I recently started reflecting on where plants in our garden are originally from, because people often ask me the same question about myself. It occurred to me that so many of our flowers, fruits, veggies and herbs are from other countries. I thought it might be interesting to take a tour of the world from the comfort of our home in New Zealand and explore some of them. I like to keep my blogs brief and easy to read, so it makes sense to cover this topic in a series of posts. This is not an exhaustive list by any means. The garden has grown so much over the past decade and encompasses so many different flowers and edibles that it is impossible to cover everything. I have had to cherry pick a few countries and favourites for the purpose of these posts. In this post, I will focus on some of our favourite flowers which either come from or are commonly associated with Europe. Irises I have always associated Le Muguet (Lily of the Valley) with France, which is given as a gift to loved ones on the 1st of May, a public holiday. That is what I learnt at school when I studied French (a unit was devoted to the culture). I didn’t realise that the Iris also has national significance in France, despite living there for four years in my 20s. Daffodils I have always associated daffodils with England, after studying the poem I wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth at school. Tulips While not originally from there, tulips come to mind when I think of the Netherlands (as well as windmills, gouda cheese, clogs, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and the ICJ). Ironically I visited Amsterdam while Keukenhof was open but I didn’t think of going out there as I had no interest in gardening whatsoever back then. David Austin roses
I am a huge fan of David Austin, who was English and is the best and most influential rose breeder of all time in my opinion. We have the following Austin rose varieties in our garden. All of them are 80/90cm standard roses, as with all of the roses in our garden.
I have just been advised that Wairere is finally able to supply The Lady Gardener, which I requested and has been on back order for many years due to supply issues. I am very excited that I will be adding this rose to the garden soon and hope to share a photo on social media when it flowers. One of my cousins lives in Telford, which isn’t that far away from David Austin’s gardens in Shropshire. I visited her once, but it never occurred to me to go there. I also had the opportunity to go the Chelsea Flower Show because I lived in London for eighteen months but I didn’t do that either. One year, I was actually in that area while it was on, having lunch at a friend’s house. The streets were packed with cars and she said “all that fuss over a flower show!”. We both laughed. While it might have been funny at the time, it has come back to haunt me now, especially since I steered the garden in the direction of flower farming in recent years and enjoy creating mass displays of flowers like you sometimes see in public gardens.
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A couple of days before we went into lockdown in August last year, I had my laptop sent away for repairs. I only got it back three months later, which meant that I could not write any blog posts. While it is a long time ago now, I would really like to share a report on our spring and early summer garden. Everything went really well. It only went downhill in summer, but that is the subject of another post! Miner's lettuce A firm favourite in our spring garden is miner’s lettuce. In September, I prepare a small area by mixing in a bit of compost and garden fertiliser. I then sprinkle a 10g packet of seeds and cover lightly with soil. At this time of the year, it is not usually necessary for me to keep the area moist as it rains a lot. The leaves are tender and delicious. We harvest them as we need them. At the end of spring, it runs to seed and if left there, the plants will happily self-seed the following season. NZ Spinach Another favourite in our garden is NZ Spinach. I sowed our plants from seed over the summer and planted them out in autumn. NZ Spinach is difficult to get established but once it takes off it spreads and ends up growing in a bit of a bush. We pick the leaves for our daily green smoothies. The leaves can also be steamed as with any other spinach Sprouting broccoli In July, I planted quite a few punnets of mini brassicas that I purchased from Roger’s, including broccoli. After we harvested the main head, I left the plant in the ground and side-shoots began to form. This kept us with a constant supply of broccoli all spring, right up until mid-December when the plants started going to seed and I needed the space for the dahlias. Potatoes Last spring, I grew two varieties. I always grow Liseta, an early variety which matures in 70-80 days. I also grow Summer Delight, a main crop potato which matures in around 120 days and stores very well. We had a really good crop and have been enjoying eating potatoes from our garden right up until February. Broad beans We had an incredibly good crop last year. We ended up freezing lots. To freeze broad beans, shell and blanch them first. Strawberries Awapuni very kindly gave me two mega bundles of strawberries to grow in our garden. There were two varieties, Camarosa and Ventana. Each bundle contained 50 plants. They were honestly the best strawberries that we have ever eaten and I have been growing strawberries for many years now. I highly recommend Awapuni’s plants! Avocados We planted a Cleopatra dwarf avocado tree in 2017 and it cropped for the first time last spring. We harvested about 60 avocados which was a great result. Iceland poppies I grew Iceland poppies for the first time last year in a garden bed alongside our driveway. I was very inspired by the displays that I have seen in council gardens. Ours did not disappoint and we had a beautiful display in spring. Early summer poppies Every year, a number of different kinds of single and peony poppies self-seed merrily in the garden. Last year, we had a spectacular display. Tulips Last year, Bulbs Direct kindly gave me a number of different tulips to grow in our garden. We had the most magnificent display in late winter and early spring. Here are some of my favourites. Roses Our roses always look their best in spring and last year they put on a spectacular display. Here are some of our favourites. Bedding plants
Here are some photos of our bedding plants in early spring |
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