I have recently started reflecting on where the plants in our garden are originally from, because people often ask me the same question about myself. Most of our flowers, fruits, veggies and herbs in the garden are from other countries. I have started writing a series of blog posts to explore some of our favourite flowers and edibles we have grown over the years which are from overseas. In this post, I will focus on some of our favourite plants which come from Mexico. I have never been to Mexico, but the first thing that comes to mind is the fabulous cuisine which is simply bursting with flavour. I love international cuisine and Mexican is one of my favourites, along with Italian and Thai. The high quality of Mexican dishes no doubt relies heavily upon the abundance of fresh local produce, much of which is native to Mexico. Because I like to try and keep my blog posts short as well as quick and easy to read, I will cover our favourite veggies from Mexico that we grow in our potager in a separate post. There are so many, starting with avocados which are of course essential for making guacamole, a favourite Mexican dish of mine. I will focus on my favourite flowers from Mexico in this post, which I also love and includes dahlias and zinnias. Dahlias Since the dahlia is the national flower of Mexico, it makes sense to start here. My interest in dahlias was initially ignited by Kayne from the NZ mail order bulbs supplier Bulbs Direct, who kindly gave me a Café au Lait tuber to plant in the garden a few years ago. I have had a collaboration with Bulbs Direct for a number of years now and he has generously and thoughtfully provided me with many beautiful and interesting flowers to grow in the garden, including the 49 different tulip varieties which were part of a growing trial which I covered in previous blog posts. Kayne’s kind gesture of gifting me a single CAL (as it is abbreviated in dahlia circles) tuber which produced such beautiful flowers in delicate shades of cream, pink and apricot on the same plant prompted me to do some research into dahlias. I discovered an American flower farmer called Erin Benzakein, who lives in the Skagit Valley region of Washington, about an hour out of Seattle and has a flower farm known as Floret. They supply flowers to the upmarket organic grocery chain Whole Foods in the US. After reading her book Discovering Dahlias, I caught the dahlia bug and I’m not the only one. There is a worldwide craze in flower growing circles known as dahlia mania. While dahlias have been around for ages, they have suddenly become incredibly popular and there are so many different varieties on the market these days which were not available in the past, at least not in this country. I do enjoy growing other flowers and edibles, but I have become absolutely fascinated by dahlias and have been adding more varieties to our garden every year. If you would like to see more dahlia pictures from our garden, please have a look at my Instagram account. You might have to scroll back a bit, now that we are in winter in New Zealand. Zinnias Every summer, I look forward to growing zinnias. They are very bright and colourful. Zinnias look great planted en masse. Some gardeners can get away with scattering seeds direct to the ground. That used to work for me many years ago, but in recent years I have found that I have to propagate them from seeds and transplant the seedlings, which requires a lot of work. I start zinnia seedlings on my heat pad in egg trays filled with seed raising mix (I prefer using the lid part) in late November/early December. Once they have grown a bit, I move them to the greenhouse, where they develop leaves. Once they are large enough, I carefully transplant each seedling into an individual cell in a six-cell punnet. As the weather is still quite temperamental in December, I leave the plants in our greenhouse to grow a bit more before moving them to our patio so they can be hardened off and exposed to the outdoors before finally being planted outside in early January, so it’s not such a shock to their system. While I plant zinnias in mid-summer, they tend to start flowering in March, which is the beginning of autumn and the display lasts until May, the end of autumn for us. I have included photos of some formal beds containing zinnias from the summer before last. Unfortunately last year was not a good season for growing zinnias due to the floods and cyclones in Auckland. The best variety for cutting is Benary’s Giant, which is used by commercial flower growers in NZ. It produces high quality flowers on incredibly long stems which are perfect for arrangements. This variety also lasts a long time in a vase. The seeds are quite expensive though compared to other varieties. But as you can see below, cheaper varieties such as the Dahlia Flowered Gold Medal Mix still make a nice, cheerful display. Marigolds I love growing marigolds and have recently written a blog post with some tips for growing them from seed, so I won’t write much about them here. One of our favourite varieties is called Durango Flame, which is a traditional orange-red marigold variety. Gladioli
When I checked where gladioli originates from, I found conflicting information. According to some sources, the gladioli is native to South Africa and I covered them in my previous blog post. But when I was researching flowers native to Mexico (just to check that things were actually where I thought they were from), the gladioli was often listed so I decided to cover it here, too. The gladioli is also known as the sword lily. Last summer, I planted a lot of gladioli bulbs as we didn’t have many in the garden. I am looking forward to them flowering again this summer.
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It has been a shamelessly long time since I have written a blog post and I thought it was about time I resurrected the blog section of my website. Apart from the three month hiatus when my laptop was being repaired during the last lockdown, I have been very diligent at writing my weekly gardening newsletter. I really think that this would benefit from being supplemented by extra gardening tips and news about what is happening at Anita’s Garden. I will try to include the link to my recent blog posts in my newsletter, so readers can stay up to date. It feels like summer is over. Our Naked Ladies have started flowering, which for me is a sign that we have moved into autumn. It has been an interesting season with a mix of successes and failures. I would like to share them with you. Successes
Failures
Zinnias are among my favourite summer flowers and always feature prominently in our summer garden. They are very easy to grow and are a great way to attract bees and butterflies to the garden.
I normally sow zinnia seeds from early November onwards, when the risk of frosts has well and truly passed but the ground is at the same time sufficiently moist to aid germination. In saying that, it does depend on where you live. New Zealand’s climate varies dramatically from region to region and I do have to remember that not all of my audience lives in Auckland or even New Zealand for that matter. My personal gardening experiences are limited to our urban homestead in the Auckland region, so please take this into account when considering my advice. On the same token, what grows well in my environment may not necessarily thrive in your own microclimate. So please don’t blame me if things go wrong and varieties I’ve recommended don’t grow well in your garden! Sowing zinnias from seed It’s really easy to grow zinnias from seed and it allows you to grow unusual varieties which aren’t found in garden centres. It takes about 90 days until maturity, usually around 70 or so days in the case of dwarf varieties. For the best results, sow zinnias seeds directly where you want to grow them. Over the years, I have tried raising zinnias in punnets for transplanting later, but I found that germination rates were very low. If you’ve left it too late or don’t want to start them from seed, look out for zinnia plants in garden centres from October onwards. You can try your local Palmers store. Awapuni also sell a range of zinnia seedlings and deliver direct to your door. Delivery is free if you order seven bundles or more. Zinnia varieties If you’re planning to grow zinnias from seed, you’ll find that they come in an impressive array of colours, sizes and heights. Zinnias come in red, orange, yellow, light pink, cherry pink, peach, white, lime green and purple. Zinnias are either dwarf, medium or tall in height. There are some fantastic varieties of zinnia seeds on the market. Popular dwarf varieties include Fairyland Mix F1 (Egmont Seeds) and Profusion Mix (Egmont Seeds). The Zahara range produces lovely medium sized flowers. Try growing Zahara Double Raspberry Ripple, Zahara Raspberry Lemonade Mix and Zahara Yellow (all from Egmont Seeds). For tall zinnias, you can’t go past Queen Lime (Egmont Seeds). To order seeds from the very extensive Egmont Seeds range, visit http://www.egmontseeds.co.nz/. How to care for zinnia plants Zinnias need at least 6 hours of sunshine per day, so be sure to sow seeds in the sunniest spot in your garden. Before sowing zinnia seeds, take the time to prepare the bed properly so plants receive adequate nutrition. Dig the area over that you wish to plant your seedlings in. Mix plenty of compost and some sheep pellets into the ground. I highly recommend Gardn Gro’s Wonder Nuggets, which are 100% organic and function as an excellent fertiliser. Rake the ground so that it is nice and level before sowing and covering the seeds. Be sure to water plants every day, preferably early in the morning or in the evening. Liquid feed zinnias weekly to encourage the growth of healthy leaves and the formation of flowers. Zinnias are an annual which means that they will grow, set seed and die after one growing season. You will need to re-sow zinnia seeds for next year as in my experience they do not self-seed readily unlike many other annuals. |
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