Delphiniums Down Under

Breeding Season

2010-12-10T14:30:00.002+13:00

Yahoo! the delphinium seed trials have begun to flower and it looks like we are in for a very exciting season.

First up are some trials for shorter flowering delphiniums. For height reference bear in mind that I'm all of 5'5" tall. In shoes.

I'm really pleased with these as we have several colours showing good compact and even growth. All without any growth regulators

And a view along the house

Contrast these with some cut flower trials where the delph are taller

Then there are the general trials outside which are just begging to flower. Here we have a good contrast between the tall and the short.

Heres a very deep pink we are using, catching the morning sun.

All in all a good start

Spring in the Nursery

2010-08-29T21:42:00.003+12:00

Right, the nursery and nursery business is what's been keeping me from working in the garden as much as I'd like but boy, is there a lot to do in the nursery. Growth is very fast right now and plants are racing out. Here's Debbie and Edita doing the job.

But we have another job too. When we built our new growing house in 2007/8 I put white weed matting on the floor to reflect light. This weed matting was laid over black weed matting which in turn was laid over something we call crushed shell rock (hard stuff). We did this because it worked so well in the old house when installed a few years before. Well it worked well in the new house too, until it began to break down last summer. It turned out that the manufacturer had neglected to put the UV treatment into this batch. The suppliers in New Zealand replaced the material but we have, of course, had to lay it again.

To lay the weed matting we had to first remove corrugated iron troughs that we stand our plants on and then remove the old matting - above. This done the installation was be a piece of cake, or would have been but for the support posts for the wire netting that in turn supports the delphiniums. Argh, all those posts!

The posts were hammered into the shell rock (hard stuff, remember) after the original matting was laid. Well, there was no way I was going to remove those so we had to work round them and fortunately modern sealing materials have made a reasonably tidy job possible. It all took time but is now three quarters complete.

And a quarter to go.

This week will be the big plant send out. These plants are just about ready to go. We try to make most of our sales while the plants are small because that is by far the best time for planting. Unfortunately many gardeners like to see them in flower before they buy. We leave that market to someone else!

And below are some plugs waiting for planting in the trial grounds. Each year we plant five to ten thousand plants for evaluation and breeding purposes.

The trial grounds are not quite ready yet though. The ground is tilled and we're simply waiting for dry weather to cap it with compost which we will plant directly into, then mulch with wood shavings.

And here are some of last season's trial beds waiting for new plants. The plants in the foreground are daylilies

Spring!

2010-08-17T08:45:00.000+12:00

It is clearly spring now. These delphiniums will soon be jumping out of the pots, which is just as well as we're scheduled to begin shipping them to our mail order plant customers next week.

And the new season's plugs are going crazy too:

And the early planted pots as well!

But while its spring in Wanganui its Fall in Colorado, and what a sight our delphiniums make in Ruda's garden

More Time in the Garden

2010-07-25T20:38:00.000+12:00

Janice had a quilting workshop this weekend so I took the opportunity to attack the garden again.
The hard frosts last weekend dealt to a lot of plants that normally over-winter well and I was particularly disappointed to see the thumbergia (Black-Eyed-Susan) completely collapsed, having only planted it a few months ago. It was doing very nicely too. Likewise a poinsettia that I finally got around to planting just a few weeks ago received similar treatment. Both plants were protected by trees but unfortunately the air temperature fell to -2C so that was that.
We only have killing frosts every several years so we get away with growing many tender plants. I just chose the wrong year to get them established.
Some things are growing though. Like these sweet peas:

Of course there is an good side to frosts as soft weeds and nasturtiums (that were rampant) get zapped too. So do some of the lazier insect pests. Perhaps we'll have fewer paper wasps this summer. I doubt if I've ever seen the gardens looking so bare and it sure makes tidying up easy. Frosted nasturtiums make good mulch too!
Talking of paper wasps, a considerable number had buried themselves beneath the bark of some dry eucalyptus logs that I had piled up for firewood this winter. I had taken to bringing the wood inside and stacking it close to the fire so that it was nice and handy but quickly had to revise the plan as the wasps were thawing out and having a go at the kind people who had warmed them up. That's fixed now. I leave the wood in the cold porch until it's time to stoke the fire. No more wasps. No more stings.

Delphiniums will reflower again, again and again

2010-07-19T18:05:00.001+12:00

As a breeder of delphiniums and producer of seed I often receive mail either directly or via mail lists, groups etc; from people wanting advice on aspects of growing these wonderful flowers. By way of making this blog a little more interesting, perhaps helping a few folk out and (no doubt at all) causing a little controversy from time to time, I will post some of this advice herein. If you disagree I invite you to post a comment about it. Disagreement promotes discovery!

And yes, I do grow delphiniums in my garden.

And no, you can't see any right now.

The last rose

There have been a couple of questions in the past few days about how to get delphiniums to flower a second time in the season. I referred to this briefly on our Dowdeswell's Delphiniums Facebook page and am posting a fuller comment below:

The Question

ok so now that my delphiniums are done blooming and have seedpods on them should i cut them down to a couple inches above soil level to let them regrow and bloom again in the fall
should i fertilize them with dried cow poop also to get them growing again

any advice would be helpful.

Just a lonely little mammilaria in an alyssum patch

The Answer

The most reliable way to get a second flowering from you delphiniums, provided you are not bothered about saving seed, is to cut them back early, say just after the best of the flowering is passed. The key is to get more light into the base of the plant and to remove the older stalks and leaves which are taking energy from new growth (rather than sustaining it). This is fully understood by delphinium cut flower growers who cut the stems right back to the ground as they harvest the half open flower spikes. It really works.

Another good thing you can do is to commence feeding again as the flowers pass their best. This also promotes new growth. The combination of extra feed and more light boosts the growth of new stems tremendously. I strongly suggest feeding well and cutting right down to the ground asap.

Naturally, where you are in the world also influences how many flushes of flower spikes your beautiful delphiniums will produce for you. Here in New Zealand I can confidently expect three flushes if I use the method outline above.

You will find much more information on growing delphiniums here http://www.delphinium.co.nz/DelphiniumInformation.htm

Why not become a follower of our Facebook page about delphiniums?

Yes, Alcea in mid-winter

Gumboot and petals

2010-07-18T18:22:00.002+12:00

It's been a great week or so with plenty done in the garden and a good amount of real work done too.

One of the most interesting things for me was seeing how the trials we are conducting to test our breeding for short delphiniums are looking. These trials were planted in the autumn. It is unusual for autumn planted delphiniums to flower during the winter but that is what a number of them are doing, showing that as well as being likely to be very short (judging by growth so far with one flowering at under 30cm tall) they are also likely to be very fast from seed to flower. This is very encouraging as the market for these plants will demand both of those criteria. We hope to have a range of good cultivars for pot production by the end of this summer.

The image above shows two short delphiniums from the same cross. The image below shows the same short delphinium with a taller one (test for cut flowers - yet to flower) in the background left. The gumboot is 29cm tall.

We have more trials than usual under-way this coming season so will have some really interesting looking fields of delphiniums this summer. We're looking for the short delphiniums mentioned and also to trials of several cut flower varieties too as well as more varieties for the home garden. There is one other category of delphinium attributes we are testing but we're saying nothing about that until we have something really special to announce....or not.

Watch this space over summer!

Cheers

Terry

Facebook for Dowdeswell"s Delphiniums

2010-07-14T21:52:00.000+12:00

Janice has constructed a Facebook identity for our Dowdeswell's Delphiniums business and we're in the process of attracting followers. The page will be a place where we can showcase our delphiniums, offer seasonally timed growing tips etc. and keep in touch with our customers and friends.

See Dowdeswell's Delphiniums

Come and join the fun. Click on "like" beside our name on the Facebook page to become a follower.

Cheers

Terry

Frosty Mornings

2010-07-14T09:24:00.001+12:00

Another frosty morning in Wanganui, that's four in succession, with beautiful, sunny and unusually warm days to follow.

While the staff are on holiday this week I'm having a good look around the nursery in the quiet and catching up on a few odd jobs....after the frost has gone of course. And while I'm waiting there are seed orders to get out.

But the frost soon goes so I have to too.

Cheers

Terry

Clean up time in the Nursery

2010-07-13T21:57:00.001+12:00

We've had a few mornings of hard frosts followed by warm days so today I sprayed the weeds on our delphinium trial grounds and spent some time inspecting the potted plants on the holding pad for growth. These plants are mostly dormant now(see image with small pots below..not the still green plants in the seedling trays) but the weed seedlings are not so I will spray them off and put a pre-merge weed killer on to keep new weeds from germinating until the delphinium plants are filling the pots and ready to ship out - so the theory goes. Hopefully I'll have enough time to do that tomorrow. We''ll see.

Help in the Garden

2010-07-10T17:33:00.008+12:00

Like delphiniums in New Zealand, orchard trees don't get a lot of rest either.

It is now getting on for Mid July (equivalent northern hemisphere January) and the last leaves have only just left the apple trees. They in their turn only beat the plums, peaches and nectarines by a couple of weeks or so. I know, I've been waiting for them to fall so I can get on with pruning, which I started a few days ago.

Yesterday and again today I had the help of a really enthusiastic granddaughter Jessica (age 5 1/2). So far she is the only one of my natural offspring to show even the faintest interest in gardening. Our adopted daughter Nadeeka, who recently started an organic garden on her section in Cherrybrook, Sydney, much to my considerable delight, is still ahead on points though, but only just. Watch out Nadeeka! Jessica is coming!

As can be seen from the images, Jessica's help was indeed both real and very useful. She clipped branches, helped me saw large branches off and painted the wounds on the pruned branches. She then helped cart the prunings off.

Of course, to do the job properly you have to be dressed right. The fancy shirt is one of my work shirts. A really big thank you Jessica!

Winter here. Spring here too!

2010-07-09T21:28:00.006+12:00

ne of the great things about growing delphiniums in New Zealand is that by the time they die back for winter they are ready to shoot up again for spring.

In the nursery last season's plants are looking quite dormant but the seedlings sown in April are potted up and powering into spring. Also, close inspection of last season's apparent dormant plants outside reveals tiny new leaves starting to break from the crowns too.

We are now past the shortest day by over two weeks and sunset is 10 minutes later than June 21st. Cool! I swear the quality of light is different too and I'm loving being out in it, pruning our fruit trees.

Tomorrow is Saturday and we will take our granddaughters out for morning tea at a garden centre, maybe bring my mother home for lunch (or include her in the morning tea) have our kids arrive (parents of our grandchildren come to collect them after a week) and enjoy what promises to be a sunny day.

Gotta get the winter oil on the fruit trees.

Cheers

Terry

School Holidays

2010-07-07T20:11:00.014+12:00

We are looking after our grandchildren thisweekand today Janice and I took them to Kowhai Park which is simply the best kids playground in the country with lots of lovingly made items for children to play on and climb over.

We also walked to the top of the tower on Durrie Hill and took this image.

Delphinium Trial

2010-07-05T22:50:00.003+12:00

Towards the end of May we had a few trials of crosses for short varieties begin to flower. These have since died down for winter but below is one that shows much promise as this, the first flowering was very fast from seed and already there is new growth beginning to come from the base.

It will be interesting to see how well it regrows in a few weeks time.

Mid Winter Christmas and other madness

2010-07-05T22:15:00.007+12:00

Last Thursday night Janice and I, Robert and Jeniffer and a few others went to the Waverley Aotea Rotary Changeover function. Janice as a Christmas Tree and me as an elf.

The weekend before it was our own club's annual change of officers night too. Here are Robert and Jennifer, Janice and I being Bigger, Better, Bolder and Blue.....Bugger!

And Another Day

2010-06-23T21:58:00.003+12:00

Last Saturday Janice and I, Robert and Jennifer drove to Napier to stay with Jan and David Brock and see Brocky perform in a professional production of Roger Hall's new play "Four Flat Whites in Italy". True to expectations it was a great laugh and a wonderfult study in human relations - as stressed by travelling together. Brocky was magnificent.

After the show we were given the tour of the theatre and joined the party back stage. It was all a great experience. Unfortunately we weren't able to watch more than the first half of the recorded rugby match between NZ and Wales before falling asleep. The morning told us the inevitable result as NZ won by a landslide.

Sunday was a leisurely day....after spending a couple of hours helping the production team "Pack Out" of the theatre (this wasn't in the contract Brocky). After a great lunch out we drove sedately home to Wanganui via a tree nursery and coffee shop.

Of course after all the indolence of the weekend I just had to have a run on Monday and after all the careful build up of the past three weeks a calf muscle just had to decide to give up the ghost after about 4k, in the rain, leaving me to walk, nay, hobble home. Arrrggghhh!!!!!!!!!

That was two days ago. Back to biking tomorrow I think.

Bugger

Lots of good thinking and planning work done today. Plus I bought a great blue spiky wig for a Rotary changeover party. Cool.

Cheers

Terry

What a difference a day makes

2010-06-17T21:26:00.004+12:00

Yesterday was one of those days where almost everything went wrong. Today was one of those days where almost everything went right. No, I'm not going to speculate about tomorrow.

Because things have gone well there isn't much to blog about as I've spent most of the day in front of my pc writing strategic plans and project management type stuff for the business - all deadly boring unless you are involved, when it becomes extremely exciting.

Actually it became so exciting that I completely forgot about an important Rotary meeting I should have attended tonight and by the time I rang they were well into business and it was too late for me to promote some things I needed to, but there will be time later, hopefully. Whoops.

Of course by 3pm today I was ready for a break so I did another bike ride round my 40 minute circuit and was delighted to find that, even though it was a good training run, I was absolutely not puffed at the end and felt like I could do it again, but was a good boy and returned for more work.

Oh, the ploughing did get done yesterday and very well too.

Enough for today

Cheers

Terry

One of Those Days

2010-06-16T21:09:00.002+12:00

Today was always going to be something of a washout as far as work was concerned but I really did want to get at least half a day of useful work done. Ha!

After a dentist appointment at 8:30am I had about an hour down time in town before a massage at 10. Nothing much I could do about that as I needed the dental check-up and wanted the massage. And a cup of coffee in between and an errand or two needed doing as well. Back home by 11:15 and at 11:30 I hear sounds up at the nursery (all staff away today) so I investigate and find my neighbour has been to do a ploughing job but has broken the plough (well, a bolt anyway) and had to go back for a repair job.

Back home I tidy emails etc until lunchtime after which I can get on with writing some business strategy stuff and check up on how we are doing against "The Plan" This will take me until 3pm and time for a run - I wish! The only problem with this strategy was that after assembling all the hard documents I needed and moving to the computer files I find that they are now archived. That's ok. No it isn't. I can't access the exterior hard drive for the backup - neither can Janice on her pc.

Much gnashing of teeth. I decide to go for a run.

The run was good.

The hard drive is still inaccessible.

I putter around while Janice addresses the computer problem and finds that the back-up drive is accessible from the laptop. Phew!

For various reasons (other symptoms too) we reach the conclusion that Janice's pc, now ageing but virus free, just isn't coping any more. The back-up drive is also ageing so we decide to back up some files from the backup drive to the laptop. I decide to call work off for the day and get dinner ready. I can hear a tractor ploughing.

We decide to investigate a new pc for Janice.

Dinner was nice but the pantry is bare so J and I have a quiet shop for groceries in town, come home, read and hope that tomorrow delivers what today did not.

I'll let you know.

Items achieved: dental check up; massage; ploughing (not yet checked); a few Emails answered; mail and business housekeeping dealt with: some advertising sorted; 5.5krun; grocery shopping; blog

In The Long Run

2010-06-14T20:34:00.003+12:00

Sorry no pics, just links, try following them.

A few years ago I kept fit by working outside in our delphinium nursery but since then, due to allergy and the commitments of an expanding business, I've gradually reduced my time in the nursery until it is now virtually nil and my fitness has suffered.

I first started riding in 2007 and continued this sporadically until March 2009 when I eased off and then stopped.

On 7th April this year I decided that I had to start getting fit again. That meant getting on my bike, which I enjoy, doing some hard pedalling, which I enjoy and learning to take it slowly, which I do not enjoy. As part of the reason I stopped before was because of continued small injuries I was, and am still, really determined to ease back in to this gradually and properly.

So, from April 7th when I began with really slow paced riding over just 9k until May 18th, I gradually built up to 15k at a moderate, but definitely not speedy pace. It was more difficult than I imagined. I must be getting older than I realise although at 62 surely I should not be significantly slower than at 58? Then, maybe I was really unfit at the start. Whatever the reason, it was hard work.

The period from May 18th to June 3rd Janice and I were away from home, first visiting relations in Auckland and then our grandchildren in Sydney, Australia. It was while we were away in Sydney that I became even more determined to crack this fitness thing and started walking very briskly for 6 to 10k each day. It worked and by June 3rd I needed to jog a little to work up any sweat at all.

Now, I've never really jogged before, not for any length of time. The reason for this is that whenever I reached about my 4th run I would pull a calf muscle - always, no exceptions. So this time I was very cautious and took advice from my daughter Sarah, who runs, and my physio, who has had a career running. Well, the gist is that I'd been starting off too quickly and expecting to, as they say, run before I could walk. So I tried again.

This is my route so far MapMyRun.com | View To Lillybank Road And Back To Ngaturi Then Home in Wanganui, New Zealand .It is a loop, out and back.

It is now June 14th and I've had six runs and two bike rides in the last ten days and am now able to jog 7k without even a twinge from legs. Please let this continue. Please let me be patient and not run too quickly or to far.

The goal is to run with Sarah in the Wanganui half marathon in December, and in the process, get fit. Wish me luck!

This is the goal for about another month http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/new-zealand/wanganui/588127650517557274

I've no idea if you will be able to see this but it does seem to work.

Let me know!

Cheers

Terry

Back to it

2010-06-13T13:38:00.003+12:00

A couple of weeks ago Janice and I visited our daughter, Nadeeka, in Sydney, where she lives with David and their three young boys. We visited them too! We had a wonderfully relaxing time, enjoyed everyone's company, renewed friendships we made last year and generally enjoyed the opportunity to see this particular section of our family and enjoy an almost totally peaceful week....well, they do have 3 boys you know. You can meet Nadeeka and family here http://sigiriya103.blogspot.com/

The week before this we had spent time in Auckland visiting Janice's family, burying Janice's mother's ashes and saying goodbye to her parent's home which was being sold as Jim is moving into a managed apartment. Thus, the week in Sydney reconnecting with a younger end of our family was well timed too.

It was a real joy to see that Nadeeka, having made the decision to give up paid work in favour of running the household and always being home for the kids, was spending some of her "free time" (ha!) making a magnificent fist of growing her own vegetables, and on so small an area too. She is using organic principles and producing a wide variety of vegetables and herbs which she uses in her cooking. She is using every available space too. I was hugely impressed. So impressed that now I'm home I'm determined to make much more use of our own garden. Sure, I grow quite a few veges and we have fruit from the house orchard, but I've never really "done it properly", at least not in the past couple of decades or so.

So yesterday I made a start by digging trenches, burying compost and planting a few plants. The dog got a couple but that's another story. See below.

And the garden is growing. Below are paperwhites bursting into flower and some fungi that Jennifer gave me for my birthday last month!

Being away also helped my fitness. Some weeks ago I'd resurrected my bike and started riding again but, having decided not to take that to Sydney, had to walk for exercise, which I did every day, and not just to the shops either. By the end of the week I was briskly walking about 8k around the rolling Cherrybrook suburbs and finding that I needed to run to work up any sort of a sweat. So now I'm doing something I've never done before. I'm running. Furthermore I have a target, having promised our daughter Sarah that I'll run a half marathon with her....just as soon as I'm able. Year Right! Whew!

So, before this gets too long I think I'll go and have a rest.

Cheers

Terry

Day Off

2010-03-29T21:04:00.003+13:00

We had a day off today.

Family

After dinner last night I suggested to Janice that we play hooky today. She agreed. We did. Instead of doing any work we just went out and enjoyed ourselves. First we both went into Wanganui to my Rotary club (well, not all mine) for breakfast at 7am, listened to the speaker telling us about best practice in hospital management systems, had a chat to our mates and then just set off, away, gone!

Hey! Where'd Janice go?

It was a fine, sunny day (except for Stratford which is always cloudy even when its sunny) and we simply drove up the west coast stopping at a couple of beaches we hadn't visited before, looking at a few shops, some scenery and stopping for morning tea and lunch on the way.

Mt Taranaki, a dormant volcano of around 2000 metres high, is a great sight to see when snow capped and without cloud. Unfortunately lack of cloud cover is something the mountain does not suffer from so we hardly saw it at all and even when we did it was not snow capped as this is the end of summer. we settled for looking at a lake and the beaches instead and went for a short walk.

After all that strenuous exercise we drove slowly back to Wanganui where we just had to check out the progress on the refurbishment of a restaurant in town. This restaurant has already had three incarnations since we've been here (ten years) and is now almost ready for a new life as an Italian restaurant. The new owner was out painting the entrance and window sills as was delighted to know he would have some customers once it opened, which he thinks will be in about 2 weeks (depending on a liquor licence and final decorative effects) . It certainly helps that he is Italian himself. It may be good.

I checked on the nursery while Janice rustled up some delicious dinner and we've had a lazy evening too.

Work

Nothing to report

Other

Nothing to report

And now - The diary Format

2010-03-26T21:40:00.007+13:00

This is the new diary format, the latest ruse to get me into the blog again.

Nursery

This week we’ve been concentrating on setting up some trials under lights to see how our varieties respond to night-break lighting over winter. We have a number of good cut flower varieties and also some promising pot plant varieties that we want to evaluate. Our background in growing chrysanthemums many years ago means we still have the equipment to do this and some experience to draw on. We’ll also be conducting a small trial under lights with a heating regime.

The week has also seen the start of some major planning for next season.

Garden

Nothing much has happened this week as we’ve been busy on the nursery front. Janice has however completed her “French Rooster” quilt and the cleaning up work I did in the garden last week still looks good. I’ve still not pruned the Wedding Day rose. The grapes and apples are ready but the tomatoes won’t last long as they have the start of blight and I don’t want to spray them.

Family

Janice is well and very beautiful. I am well and as handsome as ever. Sarah is back into running, Emma had a hard week but is on the up and John is somewhere in Auckland.

Other

It looks like the barbeque I was planning for Sunday will be an indoor job as it may be cool and rainy with a breeze blowing in our faces – not a good look.

Images

I'm having problems moving images so I'll work on that next time

Back to the Blog

2010-03-17T21:46:00.002+13:00

I've been doing a little gardening lately. Don't worry northern hemisphere folk, you'll get out there soon!

At the weekend I tidied, weeded etc all the area visible from the dining room, then swept the courtyard, pruned Cecil Brunner and the rampant weeping elm tree that was preventing us using our entrance gate, and then had a rest. In the evenings this week I've pruned the Westland(?) rambler over the woodshed and weeded the gardens near there, removed the peeling blue gate and generally tidied the area, then had a rest. Tonight I removed a few wheelbarrows full of soggy clay from around the back of the house and cleaned up the mess that the builders had made over a year ago. Then had a rest. Tomorrow evening I'll tidy up the area around the ferns near our water tank. Friday evening I'll just rest.

The Wedding Day rose which is now threatening to strangle the new porch is in line for a prune next weekend.

Janice has a broken tooth and needs a crown on it. She is booked in for next Tuesday. She'll get lots of sympathy from me of course, but I'll probably be quite busy gardening.

Could be I'll add a photo or two tomorrow.

Cheers

Terry

A day in the office

2010-01-21T22:39:00.002+13:00

Not a lot happened today. Some work in the nursery in the morning but otherwise a day spent in the office looking after mum and dad's affairs. This doesn't seem that much but when there are powers of attorney shared over two parents between two brothers, one in Invercargill and the other in Wanganui, it makes simple things much more difficult. Then of course there is always the counter intuitive web sites that have to be visited while attending to these affairs and, well, the day went.

Today was however saved somewhat in the evening when an old friend of Janice's (mine too) called in for dinner and a chat and I got to forget about a Rotary committee meeting. Life has its compensations!

Thanks Carmel

A lovely time of year

2010-01-19T21:05:00.005+13:00

The images below have been taken over the last few days while I've been a tad busy with delphiniums, delphiniums, delphiniums and delphiniums and the occasional dahlia.

but mostly delphiniums

There are trials to pollinate.

There are gardens to visit to check on our delphiniums.

There is breeding work to do.

Bad Habits

2010-01-11T19:39:00.002+13:00

It looks like I'm slipping into bad habits. Actually, it only looks that way. I'm really slipping out of bad habits. Farmville was the trigger for reminding me about blogging but lately I've been giving Farmville the cold shoulder as other pressing business has been, well, pressing. So you see I'm giving up the bad habit of Farmville but now have to find another one to remind me about my good habit of blogging. Any recommendations?

The weather is cool and showery and ideal for growing, especially weeds.

I've been inside doing book work all day.

I want to be outside pollinating my experimental crosses.

The new crop of flowering delphinium trials have produced some fantastic plants but they are under wraps until later as they are very significant and I need to evaluate them thoroughly before possible release. Yeah I know, that's mean!

I'm busy.

Cheers

Terry

Birds,electrical work, garden and back to work,

2010-01-05T21:46:00.012+13:00

Wow! Time has flown again and I have a few things to catch up on.

Sunday Jan 3rd.

Robert, seen in the image below screwing up a lighting system, picked me up at 6am and carted me to a place at the back of beyond. We arrived at the back of beyond at around 9am and by 9:20 were starting on a job wiring the implement shed and workshop of a local farmer at Whakahoro (a good place for you to search for on Google maps).

We had no trouble communicating with the male members of the Steele family as they were all Richards. Richard - the 1st, 2nd and 3rd (Grandad, dad and his son) and we just loved the spread put on for lunch too.
Well, we toiled all day until about 4pm when the job was declared done, helped Richard 1st, who obviously wanted a hand with some Scotch (Thanks Richard) and toddled back home. By the way, the homestead had beautiful views of the Wahnganui River and national park but I forgot to take a picture.

Monday Jan 4th

This was a lovely day spent gardening, doing a little work, walking around a lake with my lovely Janice, having mum visit, visiting dad and otherwise relaxing and enjoying a national holiday.

And so to today the highlight of which was seeing a sparrow feeding off the peanut butter and bird seed pine cones that Aimee and Jessica had made during their Christmas visit. I thought they would have had better things to eat but over the past few days I'd noticed the cones seemed to have much less seed on them, but put that down to rain washing it off. However, this evening a sparrow came right up to the one at the window and helped itself. Janice noticed and I took a few shots to prove it so there you are Aimee and Jessica, your bird feeders worked!!!!!!
And what else today?
A visit to Bristol's place to check up on our delphinium trials (no images, top secret) a couple of hours watering the trees planted a few weeks ago, a few more hours working, a little gardening, a game of Catan with Franziska, the young German woman staying with us at present, and soon, bed.

Cheers

Terry

New Year's Day

2010-01-01T20:47:00.001+13:00

A lazy day in paradise.

Sunny

Warm

Beautiful

New Year's Eve

2009-12-31T18:30:00.003+13:00

The river trip on Monday has given us the impetus to go for a New Year's Eve Cruise. Robert and Jennifer are coming too and we're gonna bring in the New Year playing cribbage. OK, we'll dance a little and maybe sing. All right, have a drink or two as well, if you like. Yes, I will give Janice a kiss, well, maybe two, if I'm allowed.

As we in New Zealand are the first to bring in the New Year we'll have a good look at it and maybe let you know how it's looking. That way you can take it or leave it, it's up to you.

Before the cruise we'll join R and J for Dinner at "The Avenue", one of our favourite Wanganui restaurants. I have to leave in 5 minutes so no time for images...which I don't have anyway.

So, all of you make sure you lay the foundation for a very happy New Year and let your hair down a little.

All the bast

Terry

Christmas

2009-12-29T17:38:00.007+13:00

Christmas has come and gone and so have our family.

We had a tremendous time. Emma came on Friday 18th and left two days later. Sarah, Chris, Aimee and Jessica arrived on Saturday 19th so had some time with Emma (who spent Christmas weekend with her partner Colin, and his family. Sarah and family stayed until 27th and so had time too with John who was with us from Christmas Eve until 27th. Both my parents who are in resthome (mum) and hospitalcare (dad) were with us for an extended Christmas Day lunch.

Janice who organises most social occasions did a remarkable job once again. I hung in for the ride and helped where I could and where I was allowed.

Here are a few images:

A Magical Day on the Whanganui River

2009-12-28T22:23:00.017+13:00

Today was a magical day. The Whanganui river is always beautiful but today it was so fantastically beautiful that being there was a truly moving experience. Even David, the skipper of the MV Wairua, who knows the river like he knows his own hand, was knocked for six by the beauty of reflections from this silent highway of glass. He even found navigation difficult at times, not knowing where reflections ended, where the river became dry land or whether he was standing of falling over.

The Whanganui river between Wanganui and Hipango park (2 hours upstream) is tidal. Leaving the wharf at 7am we were lucky enough to strike a dead calm morning when the tide was full and the river slack. By 8:15am or so, when we had left the town behind and were steaming into the hills the light was perfect, being filtered through a benevolent mist still clinging to the hills. It was one of those rare moments when you wished you had your camera, wished you had time to take some images, wished the river would stay calm for a few more minutes, wished that the shy sun would remain in hiding. It was one of those moments when all your wishes came true. For the last hour of the journey we were treated to the surreal, lost in a wonderland that threatened to turn us on our heads. Had we met Alice no-one would have batted an eyelid and probably not even noticed.

There was a reason to make this trip today. David McDermid, friends and four Wanganui Daybreak Rotarians were out for a working bee at Hipango Park. Today the object was to clear the picnic tables of long grass and mow tracks to the hut and toilets. This is in preparation for further working bees and tours to the park. Evidence of the work can be seen below.

Cheers

Terry

Christmas is coming

2009-12-23T20:47:00.006+13:00

I took time off today to take a few images of happenings in the garden. We've had wonderfully sunny days lately after some good warm rain and the plants are responding with a good show.

There's a hollyhock flowering now and shows great loss of colour over tha past few generations. Starting out as a deep pink several years ago successive seedlings have become paler.

Our hydrangeas are approaching full bloom and this one looks happy draped with a Kowhai (sophera) hybrid

Hostas are also about to bloom.

Although the longest day has passed already we're still planting native trees as I've managed to extend a hose some 250 metres from the pump shed into the valley beneath our house. The view from our dining room window is now almost filled with trees whereas when we arrived some 10 years ago the area was mostly grass. Must look up some comparative shots!

Janice, Sarah, Aimee and I are all tired tonight and waiting for Chris (son in law) and Jessica (grandchild) to return from the hospital where Jessics went for tests after a particularly bad nose bleed that turned several serviettes at the Rutland Arms Hotel (where we went for "Wedges on Wednesday") bright red - quite a show it was but I'll spare you a photo of it.

More later

Cheers

Terry

Bird feeders

2009-12-21T19:25:00.016+13:00

The highlight of today was the making of bird seed cones that our grandchildren had seen on a tv programme and asked me to help them make.

Aimee and Jessica organised the whole thing getting us to buy the peanut butter and birdseed and collecting the pine cones which were nicely open after a spell of dry weather.

I tied the string to the cones, with the girl's help and they coated them with peanut butter. They got their hands very sticky and of course had to lick the peanut butter off.

They then rolled the cones in the bird seed.

After this we hung them up on our trees and from the eaves of the garage.

2009-12-19T22:53:00.004+13:00

Our daughters Emma, Sarah and her husband Chris and their children (our lovely grandkids) arrived Friday and today. Emma stays until tomorrow and the rest until Boxing Day. Christmas has started! I should be relaxing! However, I have to get up early tomorroy (Sunday) to talk to Mike Darcy of KXL radio, Portland, Oregon (kxl.com). This is what Mike says about the show, their time 11am Saturday.

Delphinium Seed Promotion
Last summer at the Farwest Trade Show in Portland, I met Terry Dowdeswell who is a delphinium breeder from New Zealand. His company, Dowdeswell’s Delphiniums has produced a strain of delphiniums called New Millennium, which are from hand crossed seed. I attended a presentation by Terry where he showed photos of these magnificent plants in bloom. Later that week, Terry was a guest on my KXL show.

As I talked about delphiniums with other gardeners, I learned that Portland gardener and Timber Press Editor-in-Chief, Tom Fischer has successfully grown Dowdeswell Delphiniums from seed. I talked with Tom and he told me how easy they were to grow from seed, the high germination he had, the healthy plants and spectacular flowers. Tom’s experience has been that if you sow under lights in January or February and plant the seedlings out in April or May (bait for slugs), you will probably get flowers that first summer.

Hearing the accolades about these delphiniums, I thought it would make for a nice promotion to be able to offer seeds to listeners at a special price and without the hassle of paying shipping costs from New Zealand. I found Terry Dowdeswell very willing to work with me on such a promotion and Tom Fisher was willing to be a guest and talk about his success with growing them from seed.

After talking with Tom Fischer, I knew I had to have some of these delphiniums in my garden and while I am not one to usually grow plants from seeds, I am going to try this and will report my progress. The photo shown is a sampling of the flowers you can expect.

So, as mentioned on my show, I purchased a quantity of these seeds to offer to listeners. Packets contain 50 seeds of mixed colors. The cost is $7.00. Send a check in this amount to Mike Darcy, KXL In the Garden, 0234 SW Bancroft, Portland, OR 97239. You also need to send me a self addressed stamped envelope and I will send you a packet of these seeds along with instructions. I must have your request for seed by January 4, 2010. "

Cheers

Terry

No Time for Christmas

2009-12-17T16:53:00.004+13:00

I protest! The closer it gets to Christmas the faster the days go. This is an interesting phenomenon that most people assume has been around since time immemorial - not so!

Think carefully and you will realise this is so. Do you not remember waiting for Christmas as a child? Did it not seem to take just ages to come? And what about Christmas Eve, the hours just crawled by lying in bed waiting for the eyelids to become tired enough for sleep, or crafty and resolute enough to see dad creeping in with the stocking. No, this is a new phenomenon. Further more it is attached to Global Warming! Yes, it's true.

It's not so noticeable in the northern hemisphere where the winter days are cold but here in summery, warm New Zealand it is obvious that the warmer than usual days around Christmas are actually speeding time up, so any one point in time lasts for less time. A second of warm time actually lasts for less time than a second of cold time. This is because warm time molecules are more active and so get their job done in less time.
From our point of view we therefore seem to have less time the get the Christmas shopping and other arrrangements completed. From our children's point of view they will also have less time to wait for Santa.

I really don't have time for this. Here are a few images from the last couple of days. First Miles Bockett doing some Pirate Ship painting (a Rotary project)

Next, Jason sawing up a tree we had just felled.

Mondayitis

2009-12-14T17:33:00.002+13:00

We had a relaxing weekend.
Saturday included some gardening (hanging hanging baskets) visiting mum and dad, playing Catan, Christmas cards writing, exercises, yellow house cafe and crib and simply dropping out.
On Sunday I visited mum and dad again walked around our hills where trees had been planted two days before, more gardening etc. Cooking for Sunday nights has now become a really must do something special occasion so that took a couple of hours. Janice made some really beautiful cup cakes and I managed a fancy lamb chop with finely chopped bacon, crushed potatoes and ratatouille.
Today, Monday, has been one of those low energy days where the work got done despite everything and what a great time 5pm is.

A few Pics

2009-12-11T21:56:00.007+13:00

Here are three images. One of our delphiniums at the Bason Botanic Gardens in Wanganui, another of a really lovely day lily from Nan Ripley's seed and another of a dwarf runner (?) bean we are growing for Mark Christenson who is collecting and experimenting with "Heritage Plants".

I'll leave you to guess which is which.

More tomorrow when I intend to have some R&R

Cheers

Terry

Application for time to slow down

2009-12-10T10:01:00.004+13:00

Wednesday passed in a flash. Tractor tyre puncture fixed, seed order to mail order seed company in Russia went out. Checked on trials growing at Bristol's and found oxalis rampant, but the delphiniums that are above the oxalis are doing well. Delphiniums flowering at the Bason Botanic Gardens look great. Will add images when I get a chance. Thinking of putting in an application to God, the Prime Minister, Oprah, Tiger Woods or some other authority to request a slow down of the rate that time flows. I'll keep you posted about progress

Thursday. We have an Internet slow down. I hope that is not a result of my "time" application. No - it appears that our carte blanche to our visitors for Internet use has sent us above our limit. Back to normal at lunch time .... hopefully. Only wasted an hour sorting this out.

Off to spread slug pellets at Bristol's after lunch, still have some spraying and pollinating to do first. more email to attend to too. Christmas is certainly coming.

Note for proof reader...Bason is correct, after Mr Bason. Full stops missed through laziness.

Cheers

Terry

Backgammon Christmas Dinner

2009-12-08T22:10:00.004+13:00

Tonight was backgammon night. All members of the backgammon club, plus wives were there for a Christmas Dinner. That made 7 in total.
Janice had to leave a little early because the quilt club had a committee meeting but quilt club meetings are very efficient so she returned before we'd finished desert.

Just for fun, another day lily image:

I didn't bike or walk today and spent it in quite a lazy fashion doing some pollinating and gardening. This was one of my days off in lieu of the open weekend. I'll have another half day off tomorrow.

Cheers

Terry

Open Week End

2009-12-07T19:06:00.005+13:00

Wow, nothing since Thursday. Well, it has been really busy.

Last weekend was our annual open weekend when we throw the nursery open to all comers and show off our delphiniums. Nothing unusual happened except that the weather was fine, just the right temperature and calm, something that is very unusual for this time of year. We were extremely pleased.

Janice did most of the work while I juggled the incidentals - like pollinating some trials, fixing some irrigation and generally hanging around trying to stay out of trouble. The sun brought our lots of customers and lots of lookers and we met up with many old friends. All in all it was a successful weekend.

Saturday evening was the Daybreak Rotary Club Christmas do so we didn't have to cook dinner after the day in the nursery. It was a great evening of boulles "petanque" style and charades with rather nice food too.

Sunday was dinner at the Gaskin's place so we didn't have to cook then either and tomorrow is the backgammon Christmas dinner. All in all some very lazy days not in the kitchen.

The delphiniums are now well into their pollination and the bulk will indeed be mostly finished by Christmas. The new season's trials are not yet flowering but some day lilies I bought from Nan Ripley a couple of years ago are beginning to show off so that's what you see in this blog.

All for now.

Cheers

Terry

In the Kitchen

2009-12-03T20:52:00.008+13:00

Here we go, cooking again.

J cooked rissoles for dinner while N made the salad and now they are making macaroons. I really like these two visitors.

Winter returned again today. Firstly we had a power cut and I was woken by the ups beeping until I got up and closed the computers down. Then, as the day wore on the temperature dropped until now when it must surely resemble a cold winters night in Winnepeg - well, maybe not quite.

Plenty of work was done today however. I spent most of it answering emails and writing up new pages for the web site. These are for North Americans trying to find delphiniums that grow well in their region. We need to be more sophisticated when dealing with the regionalism that now dominnates google searches - probably won't make any difference! I've not updated "Terry Says" for ages and the "What are we doing this week" needed refreshing too.

Jason and Natasha prepared some plants for sale at our open weekend in a couple of days and Edita nad goodness knows how many staff were pollinating.

Oh yes, I went for a 40 minute brisk walk in half a gale

Not much today

2009-12-02T19:25:00.002+13:00

Ah ha,
Sounds like Jason and Natasha have just come in for a game of Catan as I sat down to blog, I'll come back to this.
Jason won, Natasha second.
It's a little late now so that's all you're gonna get today

Cheers

Terry

Pizza for Dinner

2009-12-01T18:05:00.009+13:00

Hi Brenda, Jason's mum. Thanks for leaving the comments. The point about the table at the market is a good one. We will do that next time (which may be spring next year).

Yes, we are really enjoying having Jason and Natasha, they are good company and tonight Jason cooked us a beautiful gluten free pizza dinner, seen here in the oven.

We've found quite a few interests we share, including playing a game called "The Settlers of Catan".

I've been giving Jason "engineering" type jobs such as sharpening the blades on our lawn mower. Natasha and Jason also planted up some hanging baskets.

With any luck we'll be hanging the baskets up at our friends house before our two visitors leave. The baskets are for an electrical engineer and his wife. They get free baskets, we get a free electrician service.

Cheers for now

Terry

A day of rest

2009-11-29T16:22:00.003+13:00

Ah good, a day of rest.

Up at 7 went for a half hour walk with Janice, had breakfast and then finished of the 9 hanging baskets that are for Robert and Jennifer's place in about 3 weeks time. For the past couple of years I've cheated and bought the baskets ready made but this time decided to return to the real thing and made them myself, with the help of Natasha who did two yesterday. They are now sitting in the plastic house waiting for me to remember to water them.

After that a bike ride seemed in order and s there was not too much wind I stayed in the peddles for and hour - a good work out - and that cut out the morning. Next was a quick shower and off to see mum and dad in the rest home. I fed dad lunch in the courtyard and them took mum down to see him. He was very pleased and gave her a beaming smile.

As I needed more plants for our hanging baskets I called at the garden centre on my way home, the intention being to plant up more baskets today...but there's not enough time left now thanks to a cup of tea, a game of crib with Janice, a tour of the nursery with Jason and Natasha and a half hour distraction on the guitar. That's ok. It's now 4:30pm and I have to put the spuds on. R&J on on main (except for spuds). Janice on nibbles and I have J and N to help with desert.

See you tomorrow

Welcome

2009-11-28T22:08:00.009+13:00

Welcome to Jason and Natasha from Manitoba, Canada. They are a young, newly wed couple traveling in New Zealand and have come to stay with us, probably for a few weeks.

Great news - they play Catan. We've had 2 games already.

More great news - they love food and cooking.

We're going to have a really enjoyable time together I'm sure.

I'll tell you much more about them soon.

The garden is looking very colourful. Here's some yellow.

The last few days have been really hectic so the blog has been left and Farmville has had to go on short rations too. For now, just a few images. More tomorrow.

Cheers

Terry

The Visit

2009-11-25T19:55:00.004+13:00

Today started well with a bike ride at 6:30am. I hate riding in the mornings but this morning it was reasonably calm (only a 5-10 knot wind) and forecast of increasing to 15-20kts later in the day, so I opted for the early start. My legs ached but the main problem was the sun in my eyes on the way home. I'd forgotten about that.

After the ride I made a huge list of tasks to be completed today and I'm happy to say, managed to complete them by blog time. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the trip to our nursery that the Home of Compassion organised for 7 people, including my mum (rest home) and dad. Dad is in Hospital care in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease and is only able to visit with special wheel chair transport. They came to see all the delphiniums in flower.

Mum has seen the nursery before and remembers but dad's memory has been so far gone for so long that we wondered if it would register. Dad has been a grower almost all his life, growing tomatoes and chrysanthemums mainly, so being round the nursery would maybe catch his interest we thought. Well, it sure did. He was actually smiling and animated for the first time in ages. Twas a joy to behold! Janice wheeled him round while I helped some of the others then I took over the driving. He loved it. Later, in the packing shed, he ate a great afternoon tea and when I moved outside he made a great lurch to follow, which he could not do of course, so he got another ride out to see more delphiniums. It was real cooooooool.

Another item of note in the day was the White Ribbon March against violence upon women.

A few hundred of us males turned up to march up the central street of Wanganui to raise awareness that violence against our womenfolk will not be tolerated. It may or may not make much difference on its own but combined with growing publicity and awareness of how much family violence there is in our society and that it is not acceptable it will contribute to a change in attitude, we hope. So just remember fellas - cut it out! face the issues, be a man and most of all, love your family, they are the best treasure you will ever have.

So, against those two items the rest of the day pales but between the excitement I sure got a heap of work done too, including checking up on our trial delphiniums at Bristol's place. They are doing fine, just like the weeds.

Now I'm going to play a little guitar and wait for some visitors to arrive.

Cheers

Terry

Bason Botanic Gardens

2009-11-24T21:54:00.003+13:00

Wanganui has a great, young botanic garden, the Bason Botanic Garden, and was I recently asked to join the trust board that works in partnership with the Wanganui District Council to administer the gardens. This afternoon between 4 and 6pm a number of us walked around the gardens discussing new developments.
There is much for me to learn about the plans for the gardens and how they are formulated and administered so this evening's walk around was very useful. Unfortunately there is a pile of work on the delphinium business front at the moment as well as the sale of my parents house this coming weekend. Altogether this leaves little time to blog.

See you tomorrow

Cheers

Terry

Rotary Monday

2009-11-23T19:40:00.007+13:00

On Sunday we normally eat with Robert and Jennifer. This Sunday we had two other people to cook for.....but they didn't come as work intervened...so we got to eat too much very nice food. Such is life, and to top it off I didn't go for a ride either. Such is life. But I did get some good gardening done. Such is life.

Monday at 7am is almost always Rotary time and this Monday was one of those almost always days. I got to listen to a very interesting talk from a prospective new mayor of Wanganui who came along to tell us about himself. Himself is a safety engineer specialising in coal mines, latterly in China. Safety in Chinese mines in improving, it needed to.

There was also a presentation of a $9,500 cheque to Birthright Wanganui. This was the proceeds of the Last Night of the Proms concert our club produced back in August. Hence our club president, Val is decked out in the Union Jack for the occasion.

The rest of the day was spent getting seed orders out, doing organising stuff and pollinating the trials.

Now can I do Farmville please?

Cheers

Terry

Fun by the river

2009-11-21T19:49:00.007+13:00

Friday was a bit of a whirl with pollinating of trial delphiniums to do (see a short white below) as

well as a host of other outside work, a haircut in the late afternoon, fries on Friday at five and a night out at a production of Fawlty Towers (plus meal). The show was great, the meal was very good, the company excellent and the night late. That made getting up at 5:45 this morning to prepare for market a little difficult - but we made it.

Once again there was plenty of entertainment at the market by the Whanganui River and we were especially delighted to see a "happening" develop right behind our stall. A troupe (well maybe half a troupe, what's that, a tro? of musicians, actors, and hangers on started skipping, accompanied by a bongo and a flute. It was a treat to watch them enjoying themselves and inviting the participation of young children and anyone else who wanted to try - no I did not.

Throughout these past few weeks while we have been "doing the market" (my idea) Janice has been a great help doing at least half the work and most of the organising (as always). Thanks Janice, you're wonderful! Only one more to go then we can prepare for our open weekend the following week. Yay!

I think I'll have a lie in in the morning - probably manage to stay in bed till 7am.

More tomorrow I guess as I missed blogging yesterday.

Cheers

Terry

A good day's work

2009-11-19T08:57:00.001+13:00

Today I finished weeding some daylilies, weeded delphiniums in the trial grounds, took photos and sprayed growth retardants on a trial of delphiniums in pots. All fun, all useful and that left no time for anything else.

Ok, while I'm waiting for them to upload I forgot to tell you that I went for my 9th or tenth bike ride of the season today. I'm determined to get fit again and am doing 40 minutes riding (slowly at this stage) every day

Cheers

Terry

Breathe promise of merry sunshine

2009-11-18T21:22:00.006+13:00

And Merry sunshine is sure something we could do with. This spring may have been good for the bloomin' flowers but it sure needs a little more brightness. Below are the first blooms of our Wedding Day rose struggling to find a little sun.

One of the parents of Purple Passion is in flower in the nursery trial garden. There are a few of our cutting grown clones here waiting to be photographed. They have a real narcissus complex but I guess I would too with a name like that.

I just included the next image for something to do. It's a view, well, of part of our garden. I bet you didn't know that eh!

Today was spent doing errands in town and then tripping over to Palmerston North to have the car serviced. This is a pain and happened because the garage in Wanganui, the only one that services European cars, just went broke. We now have an hour's trip for the service. However there are some compensations. I get my glasses frames fixed ( I refuse to buy glasses in Wanganui as they are too dear compared to elsewhere) and Janice and I get to go Christmas shopping. Whoopee, do I love Christmas shopping!! Year right. Got some nice books though and found another cafe not to visit again.

Ok, all for now

Cheers

Terry

The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring Tra La

2009-11-17T21:59:00.007+13:00

For a plant breeder who grows flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la, this sesason is a time of wonder and renewal, of vindication and disappointment. This spring, in New Zealand, has been a wonderful growing season for may flowers and flowering shrubs and trees. Firstly I noticed the Kowhai trees bloomed prolifically and with great colour. This was followed by a procession of other flowering plants.

Right now the roses are absolutely magnificent, lush of growth and festooned with an abundance of large, bright flowers. Not surprising then that he delphiniums should be flowering a couple of weeks early wonderfully well. That in itself is great as it means that the bulk of the pollinating will be over by Christmas. However, it gets better!
Last year I trial flowered a row of a new strain of our dark blue delphiniums we currently call Royal Aspirations. This variety has always been a bit bothersome as the germination rate has been relatively poor (at 67%) and the colour quite variable (giving some mid blues as well as deeper ones). Well, last year's trial was ok but nothing spectacular so I decided to roundup most of the bed and leave only a small patch for some photographs this season. Lucky I did. There, right on the end of the row, was a plant of wonderful deep blue with even, white bees and a great spike form. What really tops it off is that this plant is at least an F5, that is it is a 5th generation of this variety which means it will almost certainly throw offspring that are well on the way to being identical to the parent. To have such strength and vigour coupled with the strong colour at this stage is just a dream come true.

Needless to say we will be breeding from it in real earnest over the next couple of seasons and have something quite fantastic to offer in the near future.

There are some other beauties in the breeding beds and production houses too. I hope you are enjoying the images!

Cheers

Terry

Visitors from Oregon

2009-11-16T09:21:00.005+13:00

We had a visit from Thomas and Kirk yesterday. They have Sebright Gardens at Salem, Oregon and are very passionate about hostas and irises as well as being a couple of nice guys. It was a pleasure to show them around and Janice and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours talking of growing, politics and setting the world to right.
Have a look at their web sites : Mid-America Garden and Sebright Gardens

Today we start pollinating in earnest with three workers starting this morning. There will be another three or four join later, probably next week. As you can see from the photos, there are lots of flowers opening. We'd better get busy.

These are Purple Passion seeds in the making.

Ok, better get on with it!

Cheers

Terry

Market Day

2009-11-14T21:12:00.005+13:00

Another market day and still we have not been blessed with rain on a Saturday morning since we've been doing it - that's 4 weeks. Cool!

After setting up, having delicious market pancakes for breakfast, a cup of coffee and a friand I picked mum up from the rest home and brought her down to join in the fun. It's great to bring her out with us although she always seems to come grudgingly, then perks up wonderfully and thoroughly enjoys it. I had a great time choosing an outfit for her, something that would keep her warm (It was damn cold at the market) and make her look good. An hour is always enough and I returned mum just in time for lunch.

Mum at our stand at the market.

We had a better selling day than last time as we had several potted delphiniums in flower. They punters really like to try before they buy.

Back from market, lunch and before you know it it's 3 o'clock and lawns to mow. I managed to finish at around half past 6 (taking time out to pollinate some test crosses in the middle of lawn mowing) so didn't get a bike ride in today. Must do it tomorrow.

Cheers

Terry

2009-11-13T08:10:00.003+13:00

Here it is, Friday again, always follows Thursday, never late, never early, totally predictable and always appreciated.

If we've done well this week and managed to complete most of the scheduled work then Friday is another good day. If the work has gone badly, there is still lots left and we can't see how on earth we'll manage without working all weekend then a good break on Friday afternoon is essential so however the week has gone - it's Friday and Friday is a good day!

The image is one of an interloper. They just sort of hang around in the greenhouse.

I visited Portland Oregon last August for the Farwest Show (Horticultural expo) and met a few industry folk. One of those, Thomas Johnson, a self confessed plantaholic, will be calling in this Sunday. Meeting people from all over the world is one of the really nice things about this job (we might as well be in tourism) and I love the opportunity to show them round and return a little hospitality. Unfortunately I don't have Thomas's card so have no idea who he is (sorry Thomas). We'll soon find out.

Ok, lots to do this am so must get to it.

Cheers

Terry

Staff Treat

2009-11-12T18:22:00.010+13:00

Today was a good day. I love starting like that. Blogging has made me realise just how many days are in fact good ones...just about all.

Today was also staff treat day. Janice and I shouted Edita and Debbie to lunch in town followed by a jet boat trip with "Spirit of the River" up the Whanganui River to the "Flying Fox" for afternoon tea. Brent is a talented tour operator, always happy and full of information. The Whanganui river has a great history and was one of the most heavily occupied (by the Maori people) areas in New Zealand before the arrival of Europeans.

Canoes on the Whanganui River.

As none of the ladies had been on a jet boat before, this was a wonderful experience for them and they loved it - and I just love it anyway. The "Flying Fox" offers retreat accommodation and canoeing and is an ideal place to stay for a totally quiet, romantic, peaceful night or two. Unfortunately we had only an hour. The retreat is called the Flying Fox because of the access which is either by Whanganui river or from the road on the other side of the river. If from the road you park your car and take the flying fox over the Wanganui River (no small river).

So today was indeed a good day

Good Luck?

2009-11-11T16:57:00.010+13:00

Spring in New Zealand is surely a very changeable affair. yesterday we were in glorious sunshine, it was warm and dry. Today is cool, to cold, cloudy and wet. How lucky we did the outside work yesterday. Luck?

Modern communications and the science of weather forecasting have taken much of the luck out of nursery planning. Even for New Zealand, which has a temperate maritime climate that is incredibly variable and unpredictable, forecasts are now pretty well right.

I use the website of Victoria University, Wellington to get my weather information (see http://metvuw.com/forecast/forecast.php?type=rain&region=nzni&noofdays=7) and compare that with the New Zealand Met Service forecasts (http://www.metservice.co.nz/public/ruralWeather/wanganui.html). This gives me enough data to add my own interpretations to and come up with a very reliable forecast that's a great tool for my business.

So yesterday we were able to weed in optimum conditions and today the fertiliser was watered in. Cool!

Cheers

Terry

On being a Good Day

2009-11-10T21:22:00.008+13:00

Today was another good day on a nursery in Wanganui. The sun shone brightly upon the weeds that were hoed up this morning. The wind has added its drying effect to that of the sun and now,
with luck, there will be a little rain tomorrow to wash in the fertiliser that I spread over the newly weeded delphiniums. What more could a grower want? See before and after images.

Last August in New Zealand was a warm and sunny one. Since then although it has been cooler than normal on occasion, many occasions actually, but there has been a great deal of sunshine too. This has resulted in the delphiniums starting to flower about 2 week earlier than normal and it now looks like we'll get all the first flush of pollinating done before Christmas. Yay! We'll see.

One of the jobs I have to do this season is to finally sort out a stable cross for a bright blue with a black bee. We have one that gives blues with black bees but it has too much variety of colour, too many shades of blue. Another cross has a beautiful blue but gives plants that are too weak. This year we will nail it....please. The experimental crosses from last year have only just been planted so we won't know for a couple of months yet, in the mean time I'm making more crosses.

I've really let my fitness slip over the winter and today was the third bike ride of a let's get fit again campaign. I'm not riding far yet (never do) and not quickly either but I reckon that in a couple of weeks I might be ready to time myself without fear of being too embarrassed. We'll see on that score too. Today my legs protested a bit but least I finished without being out of breath.

This evening was an important one. I accompanied a male friend to a Rotary club in town in a bid to encourage participation in a male march against violence towards women. This will be on 25th November - White Ribbon Day. Let's hope we get a good turnout! See http://whiteribbon.org.nz/

Cheers

Terry

On Being Five

2009-11-09T14:01:00.006+13:00

Janice and I spent Friday and Saturday in Wellington with our daughter Sarah and her family. We were there for Jessica's 5th birthday. Jessica is our youngest grandaughter and obviously very full of herself about being FIVE and able to start school - which she did this morning. No reports yet except that she went enthusiastically.

Whenever we have a grandchild reach the age of 5 Janice makes them a quilt to present at their birthday. Last week was rather frantic with all the other work needing to be completed as well as the quilt, but she made it.

We drove home on Sunday morning in bright sunshine and spent the afternoon installing a new tv (Sarah got us a good deal) attending to the nursery and tidying around a little. Oh, then there was the preparing of the cheeseboard (Janice), the cooking of desert (me - slow cooked fresh pears with a caramel sauce and cream) for dinner at the Gaskin's that evening. It turned out to be a great meal with Robert cooking a coconut, banana, capsicum and chili steamed fish, Jennifer the colourful veges and our contribution. Delicious!

This morning Janice and I heard the Mayor of Otorohanga, a small NZ town, speak about how they managed to get the unemployment rate down to zero - real jobs, real opportunity and real commitment to kids.

The delphiniums are charging away now, there's a heap of management stuff to do, pr, writing, staff to hire and .... better get it done.

Cheers

Terry

You can bank on it - maybe!

2009-11-06T22:01:00.003+13:00

I had lots of messages in town this morning, mostly connected with all the things you have to do when your parents get old and need care. The most difficult of these tend to be related to banks or, more specifically, my parents bankers, the ANZ bank or, more specifically, the Internet banking arm of the ANZ which, specifically, is a cripple without a crutch. Further, if it did have a crutch it wouldn't know how to use it or where to put it. I could make a suggestion or two.

For some reason the ANZ have obviously designed their Internet banking site to be a challenge for their clients. I naively believed that once I had registered and obtained a password then I could conduct or access all, or most transaction types on line. However, if you are doing anything for the first time (like making a payment to a third party) you get to go through a few screens and are then directed to ring customer service to set it up - which they do. There are more passwords and pin numbers required than anyone can possibly remember and once you have a drawerful of these - they don't work. Well, not properly and not in Firefox.

I spent the best part of an hour battling with the system yesterday and this morning presented myself, yes physically, at our local branch where they completed the 5 different transactions or so in around 5 minutes. Now, even allowing 25 minutes travel time, I save half an hour. Welcome to Internet banking ANZ style - no thanks!

It has been a wonderfully sunny, warm day today. Tomorrow will be the same. I love fine week ends. I thought you'd like to know that. I just have this hang-up about stupid banks.

Cheers

Terry

Delphiniums trials are growing

2009-11-05T12:57:00.003+13:00

The seedling trials at Bristol's are now starting to grow and strangely, the weeds are too.The top of the soil dries our quickly and a few hours with a hoe should see the weeds gone and a light, fluffy soil mulch in their place, until the next rain. We're due for a week of fine weather though and it should dry the weeds out well and give the delph a chance to outgrow them.

This afternoon is fine and sunny and I should be inside doing more paper pushing but am going to sneak out and do some plant work....which I have now done and this had better close now as Janice and I are off to a movie!

Cheers

Terry

Tomorrow

2009-11-04T20:45:00.005+13:00

Tomorrow is another day - today. I'm fully recovered from the whatever it was that floored me and have enjoyed today from start (answering email at 6:30am) to finish (blogging at 8:30pm) and I still have to tend my farmville farm.

Today the irrigation was still working so I sealed it up, the sun shone, the tempreature was relatively warm and the wind relatively subdued. I spent time making dwarf delphinium crosses and pumping up the tyres of eight pollinating steps (must get a photo) three wheel barrows, a sprayer and a trailer as well as my bicycle. This was quite easy as I've just bought a new foot pump. No, don't ask why I need my foot pumping!

There were lots of other sundry jobs too, some in the office and some out of it (thank goodness). The great thing about these is that they all went well.

At about 3pm I loaded 35 or so delphiniums in 8 litre pots, took them to the Bason Botanic Gardens, 15 minutes out of Wanganui, couldn't find anyone to take delivery so consulted "the plan" and planted them myself. See above. I also admired the first of our delphiniums flowering in the Homestead Garden - see below. We provide all the delphiniums free of charge and are rewarded with some really good warm fuzzies and a beautiful garden to visit.

It was absolute bliss. On returning home at 5:30 I met a prospective worker (I forgot she was coming) that Janice was just showing round and after coming inside cooked a steak dinner for Janice and me followed by baked apple and ice cream.

Ok, can I go now?

Cheers

Terry

One of those days

2009-11-03T20:18:00.003+13:00

Today is one of those days whenI simply didn't want to get up. Surely I'm not too sick to work? Get up, no breakfast because stomach won't like it. Meet someone looking for work, hang aaround and finally fix the irrigation problem that refused to resolve yesterday. Come back to the house around 11am and crash. Wake up at 1:30 pm and take boxes of plants to the courier in town, have a massage (great but achy). Do several messages, pick Janice up from her massage and come home to crash. More people looking for pollinating work so I show them around. It looks like we'll have plenty of motivated staff for this year's pollinating season. Eaten nothing all day so have a small dinner. Now 8:30pm and regretting eating the food. All in all a great day. Year Right!!

Better day tomorrow

Cheers

Terry

Navel Gazing

2009-11-02T19:33:00.004+13:00

Mondays are usually gentle starts to the week which begins with a Rotary meeting at 7am. This morning's meeting was however unusually boring because the club spend all of the time navel gazing - at best uncomfortable and at worst disturbingly ugly and boring. It was an "at worst" gaze this am.

Rotary clubs do from time to time - well every year actually - worry about how their membership is aging and falling. Some of them do constructive things about that, getting out into the community and publicising their efforts to help others. Other clubs navel gaze, write lists of possible members and suggest someone approach them, then go back to navel gazing. I fear we have just done the latter.

Fortunately we had a hugely successful, well publicised project a few months ago which does, and did wonders for recruitment and retention. Some of the team below:-

Please club, leave our navel alone and if you must gaze at navels, please make it someone else's.

The rest of the day has been spent battling with an irrigation system, tidying my desk and doing the Monday chores and other sundry work, and visiting mum and dad.

Right now I'm going off to navel gaze. No, I won't tell you. It's none of your business!

Cheers

Terry

A day of rest

2009-11-01T07:43:00.008+13:00

I'm blogging on a Sunday because yesterday was so good that I didn't have time - or I forgot.

Janice and I spent until 3pm yesterday at the market, grocery shopping, visiting my mother and doing nursery work and quilting. You can work out who did what. After 3pm a couple of our neighbours who we saw at the market came for afternoon tea and we just frittered the rest of the day away. Nice.

This morning I plan to spend time in the garden and will take a few images to show you how, despite the cold, some plants are growing at pace.

The delphiniums are coming into flower too and it looks like we'll need more pollinators in a couple of weeks.

Roses are breaking bud.

And there is a small, summer interloper setting up shop in the greenhouse.

So, a good day in the garden and I finished off the activity with a bike ride, the first for some months. I figure if I can keep up the blogging then I can keep up the riding too.

Cheers

Terry

Home again, Home again, Gigity gig!

2009-10-29T20:18:00.003+13:00

We have arrived home before dark after a successful trip to Auckland.

Today we began by having a puncture fixed (because of a nail in one of the car tyres) and then kept our appointment with the waste bin at my parents old house where we threw out all the remaining rubbish from the garage. The place is now in a good condition to sell and it will be offered for auction on November 28th.

From there we drove south a few ks to Drury to meet another flower breeder, grower and exporter and chew the cud over business possibilities. By the time we left it was 2pm and as Wanganui is a 6 hour drive from there decided to go straight home after stopping for lunch. We later called at the "Persimmon Tree" at Pirongia which is the best cafe/restaurant (real food) on the way home, where Janice had a freshly baked, gluten free friand and I a rhubarb and apple tart. I heartily recommend this place to any traveler - superb food and service at a very reasonable price.

The only stop we made after Pirongia was to collect the weekly box of fresh, organic veges from Robert and Jennifer's place. We have to have it delivered there as they are in town and delivering it to us (out of town) would take another day.

And so to email, blog, farmville and bed.

Cheers

Terry

On Tour

2009-10-28T18:16:00.000+13:00

Janice and I were up at 4;30 this morning getting ready to leave for Auckland, about 500km north of wanaganui. We are visiting a plant and cut flower exporter, sorting out the selling of my father and mother's house and finishing emptying out the garage, still full of my brother's "stuff".
Well, it's 6pm and the house business is almost all done. Colin, our eldest daughter's (Emma's) partner brought his large truck and we filled it to bursting. Colin and emma are storing the gear until Alex, currently in Invercargill, can sort out what he needs. That could take a while.

This evening we are visiting Janice's niece and family (lovely people) and then staying with Janice's sister's place (lovely people too). Tomorrow we drive back home after a business meeting ar 11am.

But what of farmville? We were both reasonably well organised and planted long term crops...I think!

Leaving the nursery at this time of year (when water demand increases rapidly and the plants grow like crazy) is a little scary...but a good test for our manager.

That's all for today. I'm doing this today mainly because I've committed to it, as there's no delphinium talk. More tomorrow.

Cheers

Terry

Excuses!

2009-10-27T17:18:00.003+13:00

Ok, no excuses, I forgot to do it yesterday alright!!!

Excuse 1) Monday was a holiday here in New Zealand so my system was disrupted

Excuse 2) There was a lot of weeding to do in the garden and I got carried away

Excuse 3) It was sunny and warm. This was the first sunny, warm day for a few weeks and it was glorious outside. Who in his right mind would come inside to blog?

Excuse 4) When I finally did get inside there was dinner to eat and work to do

Excuse 5) I was tired after the hard day outside and evening in the office

Ok, so today was wet and cold. What a good job I mowed the lawns yesterday evening

Does it really matter if I don't use full stops?

Today was very productive at work, making up for yesterday off. I fixed a few things, visited our trial patch and tended it, planned the week's work with Edita, visited mum and dad, picked up fertiliser etc. Now it's inside to blog, farmville and get off down to backgammon, pick up the scales I lent to Robert, come home and pack out some seed for an order and post it.

Cheers

Terry

Market Day Again

2009-10-24T21:18:00.005+13:00

Today was Market Day by the river in Wanganui again and the second week in a row we had taken a stall. The day was fine if a little cool and cloudy and, being the first day of a long weekend there were plenty of folk around.

Janice and I are finding we are actually enjoying doing this. Sure, it doesn't pay much be we're having a great time socialising with all the local folk, many of them friends, the time passes quickly and we get to have a great coffee and breakfast without making it. What more could a man want?

Today, Janice bought a stool, mirror, some soap, a Christmas present, breakfast, a coffee and a newspaper while I managed to score some animal manure, apples, straw, coffee, breakfast, 2 gluten free friands and probably other stuff too. We both managed to sell a few delphiniums.

We also had time to relax and watch others relaxing too and fortunately, the smoke from the PSS Waimarie was blowing away from us.

Yes, we have decided to keep going and except for the week after next when we'll be in Wellington for our granddaughter Jessica's 5th birthday, we'll be at the market until the end of November at least. We'll get investigate getting some decent signage done too because although it's only done for fun and pocket money we may as well do it right!

Too busy to blog!

2009-10-23T22:25:00.003+13:00

Today was spent mostly out of the house.

The Pukekos are playing havoc with our trial delphiniums. They need some lead based medicine.

We met our friends in town tonight and had a very pleasant dinner.

The truck is loaded up for market in the morning.

Going to bed now

They're growing

2009-10-22T13:58:00.009+13:00

The delphiniums are now growing very quickly and looking set to give us an early crop. Last year we tried growing plants slowly over winter to see if they would flower early and pollinate well. This year we are repeating the exercise with other varieties. The flowers in this image would normally be at least a month later.

Below, Edita tending the "spare" mothers and plants for sale when they flower.

We are planting five plants of each of our see lines this year in order to produce somefresh images for labels etc. This is one of them newly planted - note the slug pellets and fertiliser to ensure a fast start.

One of our breeding aims is to produce consistent short plants. The image below shows a short plant now in its second year. It is very unusual to have growth this short in a 2nd year plant and we will surely be breeding form it this season. The trial patch at our nursery has been considerably reduced since we erected the new growing house so I have commandeered it for experiments and moved the main trials to a friend's place.

And I'll leave you with a close up of a vibrant light blue that has been giving me grief trying to fix in a good form with good seed quality, maybe this year?

Please note, no sign of sun. This is truly wet, windy spring weather, nothing like the 35 degrees centigrade Nadeeka and family are enjoying in Sydney!

In Brief

2009-10-21T20:44:00.003+13:00

The major achievements of today were:

Planting 5 new plants of each of our 13 varieties of New Millennium Delphinium seed lines. These are for the purpose of providing new images for a revamp of our labels.

Surviving the dentist.

The major achievement of tomorrow will be remembering to take my camera up to the nursery and getting a few images on this blog.

Cheers

Terry

Another busy day.

2009-10-20T19:18:00.005+13:00

Emails to answer at 6:30am, desk-work for a while after breakfast, up to the shed...I need a better name for that. The shed is the covered area between two growing houses that acts as a packing/potting/office/tool and other work area. This type of area is sometimes called a "header house" but that name is oh, so unromantic (so shed is romantic?) and flat and f-f-f-f functional. One growing house is called "Harrod"s" (there's a story there) and the other "The White House". The new growing house is called the "Bee Hive" so what shall I call the shed? Harry? Right. Good idea. Harry it is, after my dear old dad and why not? Mum obviously found him romantic or I wouldn't be here.
So, up to Harry I go to see Edita and Debbie, walk around a little, talk a few things over, walk back down to the house for some tools, back to Harry, do something else and have another chat to the team, walk back to the house, back to Harry, back to the house for more tools - getting the picture? Back to Harry, no, that one was an invention for effect. So was the previous one too, it just felt that way.
Office work until 12:15pm then off to Palmerston North to see people from "Plant and Food" (scientist and business advice stuff). No wait, forgot lunch. Wolf that down then off to P.N to see P&F. Back home by 5:30pm office stuff til 6:30ish, watch Masterchef sans ads do the blog and off to backgammon....which is now - See Ya!

Another Monday

2009-10-19T19:32:00.003+13:00

Sunday was cool and wet but I set the fire on Saturday night so when we got up at around 8am the house was warm and friendly. Played Farmville for a while, attended to a little Email and then drove into Wanganui for coffee and to do a little grocery shopping, stopping off to visit mum and dad at the Aubert Home of Compassion before returning home for lunch.

Dad had just been shaved and generally tidied up for the day when we arrived. He has a lovely room overlooking and atrium with flowering geranium and cineraria and soon to be flowering roses. It's hard to know what's in his mind but I'm sure the flowers would please a lifelong gardener. It was time to move dad into the lounge as we were leaving so I gave him a great ride down the corridors in his chair. He seemed to love it and we didn't knock anyone over!

Mum and dad in happier times:

By mid afternoon the rain eased and I was able to get out into the garden for a few minutes, which of course developed into a few hours, before coming inside for a shower just as Robert and Jennifer were arriving for our usual Sunday dinner date (our place this time). Tonight Janice was on main, Jennifer cooked the veges, Robert brought the ingredients for desert (Janice and Robert prepared it) and I had the real easy job of squeezing the juice out of about 25 oranges. We thoroughly enjoyed our chicken paiella and manzanas asadas.

Today, Monday, saw me into Rotary by 7am, back home and then to Bristol's to check on the newly planted delphinuim trials again. All was well today (3 days since the last visit and 5 days since planting) with only a few plants and labels pulled up. The pukepos are certainly losing interest! Some roots on the delphiniums have now grown from the plug at least an inch into the soil so they will be becoming difficult for the birds to dislodge soon. Then a little weeding of my trial beds at home, some roundup spraying ready for trees, more weeding and before you know it, 5pm and hungry by 6. Right now, a blog, a little more work and Farmville again!

See you tomorrow.

Cheers

Terry

Market Day

2009-10-16T21:10:00.004+13:00

Today was market day in Wanganui and we decided it was about time we participated. The group that run the "markets" are called the River City Traders on account of the market being on the banks of the Whanganui river and stalls are available every Saturday morning, year round. There are about 60 stalls all told with vendors selling all maner of crafts and produce from 9am until 1pm. It's a community occasion, a place where friends meet and share the local gossip as well as making a few bob......... which tends to get spent on other stalls, as one does. Today we sold maybe $250 of delphiniums and bought maybe $75 worth of gooddies.

There's a special atmosphere at the River City Traders. It's a blend of friendly conversation, business like banter and riverboat smoke from the PSS Waimarie as she fires up her boilers to take a load of tourists for a ride. Something all tourists the world over expect and are duly delivered no-matter where they are! You can buy yourself freshly brewed coffee (New Zealanders know how to make real coffee - not like that Starbucks rubbish) and there's a couple af ladies making fresh crepes with gorgeous fillings. Or is that gorgeous crepes with fresh fillings? I'll go no further. For entertainment this morning we had Wanganui river, replete with a fresh of fast flowing, muddy water from recent deluges transporting a hungry seagull, complete with a meal of an unfortunate sheep that recently, but not too recently, must have lost its footing somewhere up stream - gripping stuff!

PSS waimarie catching the early morning sun

Back at home I unload the unsold delphiniums and restore them to the irrigation system and then come inside for a late lunch, planning to return outside to plant a couple of trees and an iris (from the market). Of course, just as I'm changed the visitors that I'd arranged some days earlier turn up and we spend the afternoon talking of cancer fighting apple trees, biodynamic farming (I'm a skeptic), plant breeding and cider tasting.

Now the blog.

Then Farmville!! Actually I cheated and did Farmville first.

What a nice day!!!

Cheers

Terry

Tomorrow Today

2009-10-16T13:27:00.002+13:00

This morning I went to check on the newly planted delphinium trials again to see if the pukekos had wreaked any more havoc....and I'm pleased to say that they had done very little more and that all the labels were where they should be. Could it be that they don't like delphiniums? I really hope so, but won't hold my breath. The rest of the morning was spent preparing sign stands and organising plants for sale at the Wanganui River Traders market tomorrow. This is in effect a PR job as we don't expect to sell much. This is because the delphiniums that we will have for sale in large pots aren't in flower yet and it is the flowers that really bring the customers - instant gratification don't you know?

So, as I'm working tomorrow I'm going to have the afternoon off and wash the dogs, potter around and get myself in the right frame of mind for "Fries on Friday" with Janice and our friends at our favourite watering hole.

I was speaking with Debbie, one of our staff, yesterday and she mentioned that she has a lavender that attracts the bees more than any other. I was interested in this and this morning she brought me one. Isn't she nice!

All for now.

Cheers

Terry

Excuses

2009-10-15T06:20:00.005+13:00

Whoooooops! I forgot yesterday's blog. The road to hell etc..

It was a busy morning yesterday as I had to finish setting up some planting of delphinium trials at a friends place. If you expand the image and look closely you will see several Pukeko grazing close to the newly planted delphiniums. We may well have trouble with these birds as when I checked this am they had pulled up a few plants and seemed to like the labels too. Pukeko are a native NZ bird that love wet areas (the plot is close to the Whanganui River) and do rather like fresh produce!!

After this Janice and Iheadded off to Massey University at Palmerston North (90 minutes away) to attend a presentation given by half a dozen third year horticultural students at 11am.
As part of their degree they had conducted a study on a problem faced in our nursery (re pollination) and yesterday was their report time. Well, as I say, the morning was rushed but Janice and I actually arrived with plenty of time to spare - a full three seconds!

The afternoon was rather more relaxed attending to emails etc and in the evening I went into town to collect a collapsible gazebo for use at the open air markets by the river next Saturday morning. After that I somehow got sucked into more work until 10:30pm. As there was little to do on Farmviille I didn't have my "cue to blog".

Well, that's my excuse.

Cheers

Terry

Tuesday 13th October.

2009-10-13T06:52:00.003+13:00

No, I'm not suspicious so today will be great.

Not being a mathematician I'm starting to lose count of the number of blogs I've written since I started up again. Certainly more than 5!

I'm up nice and early this morning in order to get rid of my farmville duties, do a few exercises for my back and have breakfast before going out to work. I'm having a day outside for the most part and hope to get a good first bike ride of the season in....probably only half an hour as, having had at least 6 months off the bike I'll get a sore bum if I do more.

Yesterday's nursery tour found the first dwarf delphinium ready to pollinate. Being Dwarf and early it was flowering all on its lonesome so I'll just self it and have a good look at its genetic makeup when its progeny flower next year. The main batch of dwarfs for breeding won't flower before Christmas as they are from seed sown this winter. I'm hoping for a few good colours on short plants. Apart from that I'll be going over the plants we have growing outside in 8 litre bags to see which to ready for sale at the local "River Traders" market this week end - not something we normally do but it should be fun if nothing else.

Only one image today, that of a white with a black bee waiting for a pollen parent to open - in vain I'm afraid. Another plant too early for a mate.

Ok, going to get on with it. Breakfast awaits. Cereal I think - I'm uncomfortable in my jeans.

Cheers

Terry

Back to work

2009-10-12T10:12:00.005+13:00

Ok, so I missed Sunday. I'm allowing myself Sundays off. I'm not even going to tell you what happened except the the curry at Robert and Jennifer's place was great and the crème brulée and strawberry coulis very nice too. The steps (the last three of about a dozen) I completed in the garden wore ok too.

Today is, of course, Monday. Not only is it Monday but I've just returned form the dentist. Who in his right mind would schedule a dentist appointment on a Monday morning at 8:30am? Me. It's over and done with and there's all the day left.

This morning is office work stuff for me and the sending out of plant orders for the nursery staff. The afternoon will be taken up walking around the Nursery and planning the week's work with everyone, then starting on it. This week we have to ready some large plants for sale, continue taking cuttings, plant seedling trials at a friend's nursery and, well, we'll see this afternoon.

The steps complete:

In recent times my job has taken me more and more out of the nursery and into the office, or traveling with the result that I get far less exercise and far more opportunity to nibble. It's time to do something about it (right after a crème brulée is always a good time) so before the dentist this morning Janice and I went for a brisk walk. I'll do more this afternoon and as the weather is edging slowly to warmer I'll get the bike out and give it a clean too. I might even take it for a ride......let you know.

Cheers

Terry

Today was a special day.

2009-10-10T19:51:00.007+13:00

Firstly, there was a meeting of the Advisory Board at the Rutland Arms, Wanganui, see below.
This is a group we have set up to help Dowdeswell's Delphiniums Ltd grow the business and achieve greater market recognition and penetration. We want to do this while maintaining the high level of service that has become a cornerstone of our business, and the quality of our product, New Millennium Delphiniums.

The advisory board consists of a professional business consultant with organisational expertise in taking micro businesses such as ours, up a notch or two and two "outsiders" who each have extensive experience at the CEO level, in export orientated, high value, horticultural enterprises and institutions. Janice and I complete the picture. I am mentioning this meeting because I want to emphasise how important it is for a small business like ours to have access to such high calibre people, their knowledge and the many, many connections and networks that they hold the keys to. They have encouraged and mentored us and made us see opportunities we would undoubtedly have overlooked.

Secondly the day was special because I got to see mum and dad. Dad is in hospital care in the late stages of Alzheimer's disease and mum in a rest home facility in the same building. It is only recently that we have been able to arrange for them to be so close to each other, close to us and so well cared for. It is particularly satisfying to see mum so happy and content and once again able to be near her husband of over 60 years.

Thirdly it is a special day because it is Anne Cooke's birthday and we got to call her. Anne is a great friend from Dawson Creek, BC, Canada and I'd been trying to reach her for the last few days and getting a message that the number was no longer in use. She wasn't answering emails either. Anne is not as young as I and I was becoming worried but finally managed to track her down through one of her friends. It turns out that Anne's finally sold her large house and garden and moved, at extremely short notice, into a smaller house and greatly reduced garden just this week, hence the disconnection of the phone. Her email is down until her daughter's, you know, special relationship, comes this weekend to fix it up again.

That's my day. How was yours?

Incentives!

2009-10-09T08:39:00.003+13:00

Four in a row. I might be able to do this. What has tripped me up in the past has been actually remembering to do the blog and that it is a 'have to do" thing with a high priory rating.
How to remember both of those things at a conscious level and both at the same time? Well, some idiot - Ooops sorry, it would have been either Sarah or Janice. Sarah can take the blame because she would have introduced Janice who introduced me and no way do I want to call Janice an idiot!!!! Hang on, that applies to you too Sarah, stop digging Terry....some fantastic family member introduced me..

Where was I? Yes, Sarah introduced me to Farmville. This is an insidious time wasting addictive Facebook application/game that's all the rage right now and making someone zillions. Basically it's legal pyramid selling using your friends on Facebook. Strong minded, or mean folk can avoid shelling out any cash. Our family must be strong minded. And the game really is great fun and grabs your attention. I love it! So....I now have this contract with myself. Once all the real work is done I can sit in front of the screen and play Farmville, but only after completing my blog for the day. As you can see, so far, it works! My farm below:

Today is going to be wet again and our staff are having a day off as they aren't too keen to work in the wet when they can come in on another day and remain dry. Makes sense to me, so I'll just go up to the nursery and nose around in the quiet and attend to one or two of those jobs that are not entirely necessary in the normal course of events but make a huge difference in the long run.....like noticing that there is a water leak and fixing it or rescuing my pet plant from the factory production section and petting it a little. It's amazing what you can find wandering around the nursery in quiet contemplation. Profit lies lurking for someone with an eye to look for it...he hopes!

So, thanks Sarah for giving me the incentive to keep a blog.

Cheers

Terry

Carrying on carrying on

2009-10-08T14:44:00.004+13:00

Right now I'm busy writing more web pages to tell gardeners what is different about our delphiniums, why they should be growing them and what special cultural requirements are needed in their particular place in the world. This will take more than 5 minutes! But it will be done.

It is also going to take more than 5 minutes to finish the bush planting project I started last spring. There is grass to spray off in the paddock before I can do much more and this wee spell of wet, cold, winter like weather will have to stop before I can do that.

Today is the third day in a row that I've managed to blog. It is not as easy as the first two and as I'm involved in a job promoting our delphiniums and it's hard to avoid keeping that out of the blog, but I will. You don't want to hear me blowing my own trumpet. Actually I don't have a trumpet, just a guitar. Well two actually. It is my dream that one day I'll be able to play - one of them at least!.

Ok, enough of a break from the web page writing. Just a wee blog today. Back to work ok?

Mmmm. Something wrong with the formatting

Cheers

Terry

Understanding (not) how web searches work

2009-10-07T09:48:00.002+13:00

In trying to make our website more visible one of the things to consider is how well we appear on organic, or non-paid searches on engines such as google. You'd think this was easy but hey, to a non techo, it is not. Nor is it easy to understand some of the answers you get from people who you would think should know - like the help desk of your web host.
Just take the question of an ordinary search for delphiniums as an example:
If you are in New Zealand and search for delphiniums you get Dowdeswell's Delphiniums at numbers 1 and 2. If however you are in the USA and do the same search, where are we? Not so easy to answer. A few months ago there was a google tool to allow you to search as if you were in the USA and we came up....nowhere in the first 10. I can't find that tool now and wouldn't you know it, didn't do a search while I was in the USA. Google searches do seem to be more regional though and this is something we have to find more about.
I'm just about to email some friends in the USA and England and getting them to do searches for us. I'll let you know the results.

Of course, if there's anyone out there can help, please drop me a line.

Cheers

Terry

The Days Fly By

2009-10-06T18:43:00.006+13:00

The delphiniums are really starting to take off this spring now. We have started pollinating already - about 6 weeks early! The images throughout this blog are of that spring growth.

Reading my notes from a web seminar I attended in Portland Oregon at the FarWest Show in August I have a note that suggests I should update my blog every day. I actually wrote that. Can you believe it? I wonder if I could, well substantially anyway.

Thinking about it, if I have time to harvest a crop on Farmville then I certainly have time to do a blog.

Below are spring cuttings already rooted.

The thing is, we have decided to expand our delphinium seed hybridising business and are working on ways to increase our visibility on the ether. We breed and sell the best delphiniums in the world - the world needs to know how to find us. They need to know that they need to find us. When Janice first built our web-site in 1996 we would always come up #1 on a search for delphiniums, just about anywhere in the world. Now we are lucky if we are on the first page if searching from the USA and UK. As a business that depends very heavily on customers finding and contacting us via the Internet, that is not good enough!

So, we are going through the execrcise of finding out what we need to do to regain that #1 slot from seaarches instigated from outside New Zealand. Blogging regularly is one of the things that, so it is said, works.

Below right is an early flowering, extremely short delphinium just about to break bloom. The bed is a trial bed, poorly weeded and neglected. The interesting delph is centre stage:

One thing's for sure; if I am going to do this every day then no-way am I writing an epistle. An epistle you will not get.

So there, I did it today. What about tomorrow?

What about Farmville?

On being absent

2009-10-01T12:14:00.007+13:00

Much has happened in family and business since I last wrote including wonderful times with grandchildren, a business trip to western and mid USA and Canada, Europe and Germany and a sweet homecoming to my lovely Janice who kept the business running beautifully on her own - I should go away more often. Ouch Janice,don't throw things!!!

Also at home was a weedy spring garden.

Having a laptop and Skype made being away far more bearable and it was a treat to be able to speak to, and see, Janice, Aimee (6) Jessica (4) Sarah and Chris (our daughter and son in law) and anyone else who has entered the modern communications world.

Visiting our major business clients was a great experience which was undertaken to check out how they were being affected by the "D" word - Shhhh! New Zealand is regarded by North Americans and Europeans as being a long way(s) away and they were all grateful that someone had made the effort to travel so far to see them. This surprised me as I had only traveled for a day or so (including airport down-time) and that is no more than a long car drive. I guess we New Zealanders see travel as something we just do, regardless of distance as all destinations, except for Australia (and who wants to go there?) are "a long way away". It was also timely, as I arrived when I could check out propagation methods and offer a few pointers to enhance production. Well worth while. Please remember to cover delphinium seeds as this prevents drying out of the young root as it emerges!

Time out at the Children's Garden, Frederik Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The most important thing to come out of the overseas excursion was undoubtedly the fact that our communications with clients, prospective clients and the gardening public generally needs to be improved considerably in just about every area I can think of be it via web site, magazine, personal visits, demonstrations, radio talks, displays of plants...whatever! It was therefore great to be able begin work with the VanDusen Botanical Garden (Vancouver) to organize a future display of New Millennium Delphiniums within their bounds. Fantastic.

Another highlight was to see our plants growing in The Butchart Gardens and doing so well that they are removing all their old varieties and replacing them with ours. They are absolutely delighted with the way they perform and who wouldn't be after seeing this photograph of the comparative trial they conducted in their nursery area this year.

New Millenniums are staked and in the background left while the Pacific Giants are in foreground right.

On the home front plant sales this season are going extremely well and seed production stock is so well advanced that we may start almost a month early. Our staff managed excellently in my absence; another reason for me to disappear more often.

Other family matters have been to the fore in recent times too. Janice's mother died a few months ago and we have also needed to organize rest home care in Wanganui for my mother and transfer my father, in the latter stages of Alzheimer's disease from Auckland to Wanganui too. Such is life. I need a rest!

The arrival of Kenza

2009-07-06T09:40:00.006+12:00

Kenza Souni (see left) an horticultural student from Angers, France has come to stay for an 8 week "training period". Two previous students, Caroline (now married) and Mark, were here on similar missions some years ago and we enjoyed their company and friendship so this year, when we received a request from a likely looking Kenza we decided to give it another go.
Kenza has been with us for over week now and is proving to be a very willing, capable, happy and useful addition to the team as well as a lovely person to have around the house and good company for Janice and I.

We had an excellent harvest of good quality seed this year and are looking forward to expanding our markets. There are still many places where our delphiniums are not well known and we're keen to raise our profile in these areas. One of the projects we have in that regard is to convince as many gardens which are "open to public" to grow our delphiniums rather than the older, tired varieties they may be growing at present. If only they knew what they're missing!!
It's very encouraging to receive mail from Victoria, BC, Canada where over 1000 of our seedlings, grown to flowering in one and two gallon pots go on sale this week....and are all booked! Have you got yours?
We're also aiming to sell more plants in New Zealand and our mail order plant business is gearing up for a busy spring...just around the corner.
On the home front the garden is neglected, cold and very damp and last weekend saw the beginning of the big winter clean up. There's nothing quite like tying up extremely vigorous, new shoots of the very prickly climbing rose "Wedding Day" on a cold, rainy Sunday in mid winter I can tell you. This rose was a rampant specimen before we had to cut it down to the ground, this time last year, to make way for an extension to the house. The extension is now complete and the rose has grown to the eaves again. There won't be many flowers this year but by next spring it should cover the roof of the new porch if the autumn growth was any indication.

To the left is a picture of Caroline on her wedding day in 2007. Janice and I were lucky enough to attend the wedding in Montbrisson which we found a wonderful occasion in an extremely beautiful part of France.

More at last

2009-02-02T21:08:00.012+13:00

About time we had some more I think.

This is for Anne.

On Jan 12 I bought some real cheap roses from the bargain bin of my local garden centre. They looked like this:

Three weeks later they now look like this:

Since the last post, August wasn't it? lots has happened. So much that I wont even start to tell you.

Ah well, ok. Just some.

We had a great black current crop from our three bushes.

We've almost completed extending the house (well, the builders have). Just paint and tiles to go. See Janice's blog for details.

The delphinium crop has flowered well and been pollinated successfully.

Father Christmas came.

The new dog ate Janice's shoes.

The new plastic house finally got completed.

Anne Cooke from Dawson Creek visited.

We arranged to have a French Horticulture student come next June to August.

The grandkids had chicken pox.

The garden grew and expanded.

The orchard produced plums and nectarines.

The weather has become warm.

It rained some.

I may even post more stuff on the blog soon.

Creme Brulee

2008-08-10T21:33:00.003+12:00

Janice wants to get me back into blogging again so she has posted details of a dinner we had tonight with our friends and said that I cooked desert and would tell you about it.
Well, Janice's dinner was delicious and you will have to see her blog for the details.

For my bit I had great fun making my first creme brulee. The fun actually began yesterday when I bought a chef's torch. There's nothing like a blow torch for adding fun to cooking!

The recipe was simple and started with separating the yolks from eight eggs. The first one was tentative but by the time I'd done four or so it was fun and fast. Nothing beats blow-torching your desert in front of guests though.
The practice run yesterday went like clockwork but I decided I wanted a thicker brulee so added more castor sugar - not a good move as the top burned before the sugar caramalised right through. Undetered I simply tipped off the excess sugar on the others and all was well - there was a beautiful, real custard (no custard powder, just eggs, sugar and cream) capped with crispy caramelised sugar, plus plenty of drama!

The recipe can be found here:

Motorway to the washing line

2008-07-06T21:31:00.005+12:00

So, we have the line up and an explanation of why it is where it is but you haven't been told how we'll get to where it is from where we are. After much thought we decided on a path. No, don't scoff, we ruled out the flying fox on the grounds that Occupational Safety and Health would probably object to having it fly over a rose bush - far too dangerous - a helicopter would cost too much and a lift was just too darned impractical. Yes, a path, or rather a motorway, it would be.
This job was going to take an afternoon but CIS (Creeping Improvement Syndrome) reared it's ugly head and so far it's taken three days, on and off. There's still a good day's worth of work to finish it off but hey, it's operational. If you look closely at the lower image you can see a seat at the end of the lower wall on the left, which just happens to be right beneath a tree house in the cherry tree to the right. The tree house was a project of a couple or three years ago and was built for our grandchildren who love to climb up and have Janice and I sit below while they tell us stories, made up on the spur of the moment. The seat will facilitate easy listening. Don't forget to call back for the next exciting installment in the saga of the washing line.....washing actually hanging on it!

Brrrrrrrrrrr !!!

2008-07-05T22:25:00.007+12:00

Wanganui doesn’t get too many cold winter days but this is sure one of them. We woke up to hail and went to bed to the sound of hail too. I have yet to see snow settle on the ground here but this may well be the year.

Cold and rain notwithstanding, it’s been a good week. At the nursery we’re right into tidying up for the next season and at home I’m enjoying having more spare time to get into the garden. The clothes line that I made while Janice was in Wellington a couple of weeks ago was a real hit (all we need now is some fine weather) and right now I’m building a pathway (more like a motorway really) from the back door to the said line. Janice is really over the moon and I’m loving adding to the garden.

Ok, ok, ok so you think a line is a line is a line. Not so. This one is a four strand line, about twelve metres long (48m of line in total) and will take over three large loads of washing. There is still plenty of space for the air to circulate between strands as they are about 400mm apart.

The next bit is geography, climate and engineering type stuff. Just warning you that’s all.

The land is sloping such that the distance from the ground to the outside line on the upside (where small items are hung) is over half a metre less than the distance to the outside line on the downside (where sheets are hung). What makes it work so very well however, is the actual positioning of the line, the general garden area and indeed the house too, on the side of a deep valley some 10 metres or so below the general lie of the land. Thereafter the valley continues downwards beneath the house and line at an angle of about 45 degrees (and steeper) for another 40 metres.

Ok, more geography. The valley and line are orientated roughly north/south. We have an almost constant prevailing wind from the west. This wind creates a vortex in the valley such that we almost always have a breeze rising from the valley floor (just a gentle breeze) up past the washing line. In fact, no matter what the general wind direction may be we invariably have breeze blowing up the valley towards and through the line, so that on any given day there is always at least a little wind to move the washing and tadah! dry it. Even in winter.... Except when it is raining..... Which is what it’s been doing for the past two weeks, since Janice returned from Wellington..... Except for yesterday, when we dried a whole two week’s worth of washing. This was really useful as we were both getting down to our last few pairs of underpants/knickers and the sheets were getting stiff. Only kidding.

Just in case you can’t visualise all this I’ve inserted a Google shot of our place taken a couple of years ago and indicated where the house and line are. The lower image is of the valley floor.

Storm in a tea cup.

2008-06-21T20:17:00.005+12:00

All the shortest day activity overshadowed the fact that we have a new dog. Friday afternoon was spent preparing the garden to receive a 6 month old Alsatian cross (mongrel) puppy. Well, it's a bit late to for taking outdoor shots now but some of the NANSQ (New Zealand quilting body of which Janice is the newsletter editor) committee members who are also in Wellington for the meeting want to see images of the dog. I'd better get some!

Why have I titled this blog "Storm in a Tea Cup"?

Because the puppy was called Storm but I think it is far too gentle for that name so have instead called it "Tea Cup". It has already been shortened to "T" when training

The Shortest Day

2008-06-21T11:56:00.013+12:00

Today is the 21st June - Winter solstice in New Zealand and Summer Solstice in Canada when Anne Cook carries on her tradition of working all day (about 19 daylight hours) in the garden.

A few years ago Janice and visited Anne on the longest day and helped her with this feat.

Today I'm going to work in sympathy with her, only for me it is the shortest day and only from 7.45am until about 5.15 pm.

Janice is away in Wellington for the week end and I've decided to build a new clothes line. The images are of progress throughout the day. By lunch time I had the posts laid out and ready to place in the hole and ram tight with soil. After lunch I took a trip into Wanganui to buy clothes line chord and hardware.

The posts were then stayed for soil ramming. I'd earlier in the day trimmed a few large branches off the cherry tree to make room for one of the posts

Interruption!! Nick Churton, our neighbour's grandson, has come to dig a pond in our paddock. This will be able to be seen form our dining room. I have to break off from the washing line to supervise.

Ok, too busy to take photos until near dark. Posts are rammed in and lines up.

And that was that. 5:50pm and too dark to continue. Just the tidying up bits and pieces to do in the morning. That's hopeful as there is some heavy rain forecast. With luck it wont arrive until morning tea and I can get some pathways started.

Summer/Winter

2008-06-11T21:41:00.010+12:00

At this time of year, when northern hemisphere gardens have delphiniums either blooming or heading that way gardeners often write with questions about how well, or not, their delphiniums are growing.

Usually they have been growing well but as the flower spikes reach, say a metre tall, we begin to get reports of lower leaves dying, or a paleness of colour in the leaves or maybe short, thin stems. What is causing all this? Is the question, and how do I fix it?

I thought it may be a good idea to run through a few common problems and their cures, for the benefit of any reading this blog who may like to know.

It will help to list those conditions that delphiniums like and to also tell you that they are gross feeders. Not gross feeders as in gluttonous individuals eating a hundred and forty four giantburgers in the minimum time possible and slopping tomato sauce over a “once white” tee shirt t-shirt; no, not at all. There’s a big difference. Delphiniums don’t like hamburgers, or tomato sauce for that matter. What they do like however is plenty of food, particularly when they first begin new growth. They like plenty of NPK. Go more heavily on the nitrogen at the start, gradually easing off and putting more emphasis on the potash as the stems grow tall and the buds begin to form. If you have access to animal manure you probably won’t be able to give them too much no matter how hard you try. If you are relying mainly on chemical fertilisers then using a 12-10-10 fertiliser at rates just as much as you dare will give great results. As a rule of thumb feed delphiniums about 1 ½ times what you would feed your roses.

Be sure your soil ph is above 6 and preferably closer to 7. If not add lime, lots of it.

Delphiniums also like that ideal type of soil that most growing books and planting instructions demand ......well drained, holds lots of moisture, doesn’t dry out too quickly, doesn’t go puggy and get too wet, not too fine, not too course and obviously after all this, it should be covered in at least 2 inches of good, rich, brown, friable organic mulch. If your soil is like this then I’ll send a truck right over. If not then just be sure that the ph is high, the plants don’t get waterlogged and they have plenty of tucker, plenty of tucker, plenty of tucker.

If mulching, make it thick. If mulching with wood products then be sure to add more nitrogen.

Delphiniums like lots of sun so give them plenty of room in a sunny spot.

Delphiniums do not like lots of heat so if your summer temperatures regularly exceed 25 degC then plant them in a position that gets afternoon shade.

Keep them damp, but not wet.

Place slug pellets (or sharp sand or something similar) on the crowns to deter slugs and snails.

Remember, feed them often and well, water them often and well, sing to them often and well and to enjoy them. If you can’t sing well – practice.

Beware of the wind. Delphiniums are a bit like you, they enjoy a good steak and remember, if your delphiniums don't look like these you need to give them more fertiliser. If they still don't perform, buy some of our seed. You will really see the difference.

Take care. Have a great time in the garden.

Falling into Winter

2008-05-11T10:00:00.005+12:00

Hi again,

A whole month has passed in a couple of days again. Where does it go?

Part of it went with a trip to Auckland to see my mum and dad and I was able to be with mum for her birthday and as a bonus see our daughter Emma in Hamilton on the return joureney. Emma works as a software tester for the largest dairy company in the world (Fonterra). As you can see from the foyer of their head office, they have a thing about cows!

The drive was a good one with typical autumn weather – heavy showers and fine spells – and the trees were beginning to put on a great show. All in all it was a good three day break, leaving Wanganui on Wednesday morning and returning by 5pm in time for “Fries on Friday”.

On the nursery we have been finishing off the last of the season’s pollinating, taking a few cuttings and starting to close the delphiniums down for their winter rest. The most exciting and stressful part of this was having the trees trimmed. We’d left it for over three years so there was quite a lot of growth to cut away and I was anxious that no trimmings flew off and punctured the plastic growing houses, especially the new one. However, the contractor, Ron King, knows his job and is a careful dude so there was no damage. All that remains now is for his mate to arrive with a rather fierce mulching machine and drive over the trimmings, reducing them to a fine mulch, we hope.

All the wood is now cut up and either in the wood shed or stacked outside to dry. Of course I was late doing this again so we’ll have to buy some really dry stuff in and save most of ours until late winter or for next year. Now that would save a job!

The garden is a mess so I’ll not show images of that until I’ve tidied it up a little.

I really enjoy the seasons changing and wherever you are, outside the tropics, the seasons will be changing for you too right now so I hope you’re enjoying it too.

Cheers

Terry

The tree fell

2008-04-07T20:20:00.005+12:00

Daylight saving came off yesterday so, naturally I’m up at 5am this morning and what better else to do than catch up on the blog.

The delphiniums continue to display their enjoyment of the cooler conditions (below 24DegC highs and cooler nights) by producing, dark green foliage and strong, new flower spikes. The summer heat seems to have delayed the autumn flowering a little but it looks like the quality will be excellent. This is good news as seed for some of our lines is scarce and we need more to fill orders.

I’m not sure where I left the saga of the new growing house. The situation now is that since being “fixed” it has sprung leaks in both the roof vents, where rain water is somehow seeping between the two layers of the “twin skin” plastic, and in the central gutter from where it pours inside. I’m told that it will be fixed. We await developments in this on-going saga. In the mean time the delphiniums are growing well inside.

The automation of the roof vents is still about two weeks away and that means I have to keep a close eye on weather conditions (wouldn’t want the vents blowing off would I?). To help with this I bought a weather station. The monitoring of this was going to need the cooperation of our computer in the work shed, the LAN cables from the shed to the house and a friendly computer programme to allow me to “see” the station from the pc in the house. Well, this time we have a bonus as the weather station can communicate directly with the house, 140 metres away via radio that is advertised at being good for 100 metres only. This goes to prove that in life there are swings and roundabouts – but sometimes we get to go on the slide!

This last week end was populated by other fortunate events too. I felled the last pine tree destined for late winter firewood. This was fraught with possible calamities as the 25 to 30 metre tree had to fall in exactly the right place in order to avoid ...the garage; the large, decorative oak tree; the young feijoa (really nice fruit); the “Black Boy” peach and the ginkgo. Of course the garage was the most important target for avoidance. Well, the feijoa is mid distance between the oak and the peach, there being about 5 or 6 metres between each one. I figured I couldn’t possible fell the pine with that sort of accuracy so decided to aim straight for the feijoa. Bingo! It landed mid distance between the feijoa and the peach as you can see – what a cunning plot!. I was extremely happy and relieved.

If your week end was half as successful you will have had a great one.

Cheers

Terry

Challenges in the heat

2008-03-31T10:56:00.004+13:00

Rain. First we had drizzle and now we have a light, steady rain, the first in about 3 weeks. It’s still warm however and even with the rain there is a feeling of this long, hot summer continuing.

Growing delphiniums in the plastic house this year been interesting. Summer started with an unusually warm, dry, calm November and has continued, unabated, until now. It will be one of those summers that young people today will remember as the summers that we used to have. It’s one of those summers that I will remember as a challenge.

Wanganui is generally a very temperate place with almost constant, prevailing westerly winds and our greenhouses are designed with that in mind. Long, hot, calm sunny days have therefore taken their toll. Temperatures have often exceeded 35degC in the growing houses. Now delphiniums can handle days like these providing they get some cool weather interludes – we’ve had none; well maybe a week’s worth in 5 months. This has meant we’ve had to battle to keep our plants alive - so we can fill our seed orders. Fortunately we have done that. Fortunately also, the heat is coming off now and there’s a new flush of flowers ready to pollinate.

Of course a difficult year has its advantages and you tend to learn a lot. We’ve learned to modify our growing medium and are also looking at methods of cooling the growing houses. We always knew a hot year would find us struggling and this has certainly been a wake-up call. One real bonus has been the results from a trial of plants grown in straight pumice (see images). This has been an outstanding success and something that will be of use to gardeners trying to grow delphiniums in climates normally too warm for them to survive well. Essentially the lesson is to keep the roots cool by growing them in an airy, white, inert media and supplying a total nutrient (hydroponic) feed at regular intervals. We’ll be doing more work with this to find a system that can be recommended for the home garden.

One problem with the hot weather is that delphiniums become susceptible to Schlrotinia rolfsii (see images below). This is a nasty disease which can fell a plant within days by dehydrating it. There is no cure so it is essential to remove the plant and all, but all, the surrounding soil that may contain fungal growth ... very white filaments). Treating the remaining soil with “Jeys Fluid” may help but solarisation (covering the moist soil with black plastic and leaving it over summer) should sterilise it out. This disease does not affect many plant genera (onions are susceptible also I think) so don’t worry about the rest of your garden plants. Guess why we grow our precious breeding stock in bags?

I’m going outside now to stand in the rain.

Cheers

Terry

Fries on Friday

2008-03-14T08:34:00.005+13:00

About this time of year we start wondering how the delphiniums in the northern hemisphere are coming along. It’s not so difficult to know as many people write from time to time. Right now I can tell you that they are flowering in Los Angeles (as they are in New Zealand), still under the snow in Dawson Creek, (Northern BC) and starting to shoot in Washington State, just as they are in England. Most of you will be looking forward to displays like this one, in a neighbours garden.

For many of you it’s time to make sure the tender shoots aren’t being ravaged by slugs and snails. Keep them off –either by using bait or transferring them to some sacrificial hostas! It’s a good idea to place slug pellets on your delphinium clumps before they even start to shoot, so, for those of you who are waiting for the snow to clear, make sure you’re right there when it’s gone. For those who don’t have to bother with snow (or it’s gone already), get those pellets down now.

It may be spring in the northern hemisphere but it’s Friday in Wanganui. Friday means wrapping up the week’s work and driving on down to the local family type pub for FOF (Fries on Friday) at the end of the day. This Friday it also means packing up camping gear (me only) ready for our Rotary Club’s annual trip into Hipango Park. This is a small, council owned area, set in native bush about two hours ride up the Whanganui River on a nineteenth century river boat. This year we’ll be painting a hut, some barbecue tables and tidying the track a little. We’ll have fine weather too.

Cheers

Terry