Tulips On Display
Hello friends,
Just thought I'd share with you some of the tulips flowering in the garden at the moment. Sorry about all the weeds in the background of the photos, but it's a busy time of the year, and sometimes weeding needs to come second to repotting seedlings, and planting out the last of my dahlias...
First we have the lighter tulip shades, and I'm really loving the double and frilly ones.
Next up are the mid pinks and purples. These ones aren't very tall, maybe I planted the bulbs too low in the ground last autumn.
And lastly are the new dark purple varieties. The frills on the flower edges are just so unusual.
They are all just so pretty, flowering after the daffodils have finished, and already the peonies are above ground and forming flower buds. I can't wait to see my new peony varieties flowering soon, but for now I'm enjoying the tulips.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Dahlia Experiments 2025 - Growing Dahlia Seedlings
Hello friends,
As part of my dahlia growing experiments this year, one of my goals is to grow my own dahlia plants from seed. I have a stash of dahlia seed available, including the Bee's Choice dahlia variety from Floret in the USA (which I bought from Emerden last year), Beeline I and II dahlia seeds from the breeder Doctor Keith Hammett in New Zealand, dahlia seeds from Susie Ripley's garden in Dunedin, and also open pollinated seeds from my own garden.
At the end of August, once I was able to garden again after my second cataract surgery, I sowed my dahlia seeds into two covered seed trays, and sprinkled them with enough seed raising mix to cover them.
With them watered, and kept moist in the trays, the dahlia seeds stayed in our dining room in the warmth while they germinated. To my surprise, most of the dahlia seeds I planted germinated, at a rate of about 95%, which is way more dahlias than I expected to plant in my garden this year.
They grew nice and strong, and soon they were ready to transplant out into bigger pots with potting mix. They've been growing safe and sound in my glasshouse since then, growing bigger each week. My plan is to plant them in the garden after the last frost, but for now I have to figure out where I'm going to put 43 dahlia seedlings...
I can't wait to see what dahlia flowers appear from these seedlings over the summer. My plan is to be quite harsh with them, and I'll pull out any flowering plant that I'm not happy with, to give other dahlias room to grow. I'll give you updates as I go...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Unusual Plants Growing In My Garden
Hello friends,
Today I wanted to share with you some of the more unusual plants growing in my garden. Either they're plants that are on the edge of being able to grow in Dunedin's climate, or they're plants that I want to do experiments with, in terms of harvesting and processing them.
First up is my Camellia sinensis plant, aka my tea plant, which I've already discussed in a previous blog post where I harvested and processed my own white tea.
Next up is the Wasabi plant I recently bought from my local garden center. The plan is to grow my Wasabi plant for three years, and then harvest the root so I can make my own Wasabi for eating with sushi. Wasabi requires full shade and damp conditions, and I have the perfect spot in my garden to give it a home. It is sensitive to frost, so I've been spraying the leaves with liquid frost cloth this Spring for frost protection. It has only been growing for about a month, and it's already growing strong in its shady spot.
I have also been growing my own pomegranate plant for the past year in a large pot in my patio over the summer, and in my glasshouse during the winter. This pomegranate variety, "Wonderful" by Incredible Edibles, is a deciduous variety which can handle up to -6˚C frosts in winter, which makes it perfect for Dunedin's climate. In it's first year growing, last year, it even managed to flower before winter, but unfortunately it didn't set any fruit. Once the frosts are over this spring I plan to plant it in the south side garden alongside my blueberries and tea plant. I can't wait to harvest my own pomegranate fruit for turning into pomegranate juice in the future.
And finally there is my Marshmallow plant, Althea officinalis, which is the ancient source of making the marshmallow confectionery we know today. The marshmallow plant is a perennial which dies back each year over winter, and it grows again to a height of over 1.8 meters in summer, producing long stalks of white and pink flowers (which is where the marshmallow confectionery these days get their colours from). All parts of the marshmallow plant have medicinal uses, and its dried root is the original source of mucus for making marshmallow sweets.
My marshmallow plant is growing in the garden so that I can one day try making my own marshmallow confectionery from scratch, but I forget to dig it up in winter to harvest the roots. If you want to try growing your own Marshmallow plant, Kings Seeds in New Zealand stocks the seed.
Do you have any unusual plants growing in your garden?
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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How To Keep My Outdoor Dahlias Alive During Spring Frosts
Hello friends,
We're at the time of the year when the days are getting longer and warmer, and my dahlias in the ground are starting to wake up and poke their heads above ground. This is a good thing, but it is also very stressful because spring weather in Dunedin can be quite fickle.
It used to be that you could plant temperature sensitive crops of all types in Dunedin at Labour weekend, which is in the third weekend of October. But for the last three years we either have had a snowfall in the last week of October, or we have a very late frost in the first week of November. As this is a death sentence for any dahlia growing in the garden, I've had to come up with a frost protection method which will work for all my dahlia plants.
Over the last couple of years I've tried frost clothing my dahlias, but this method is prone to the wind blowing the frost cloth off overnight before the frost at dawn. So I've had to resort to a more brute force method of protecting my dahlias. After many trials, I finally settled on using a lot of small, cheap buckets, placing them on top of the dahlias on risky nights, and holding them in place with a spare piece of firewood.
It's not a very pretty method, but it does the trick. It does take a lot of work though, going around each night putting buckets on dahlias, and then the next morning removing them when the temperature rises. Larger buckets are needed to protect the dahlias as they get bigger. Then there is the problem of running out of buckets if too many dahlias are above ground, and I'm not proud to admit this, but that's when I resort to raiding the kitchen cupboards for ice cream containers and mixing bowls...
I used to go around with a wheel barrow collecting up all the buckets and firewood each day, and then redepositing them each night, but now I've gotten lazy, and leave them sitting beside each dahlia all the time for easier distribution. It may make the garden ugly looking for about a month, but I can totally live with that.
The whole process is a giant pain in the ass, but it's completely worth it in summer when my garden is filled with flowering dahlias.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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