Planting Out Hardy Annuals and Hostas
Hello friends,
The glasshouse is super full at the moment with all the seedlings growing in preparation for planting out into the garden. I recently began planting out some of the hardier annuals when I ran out of potting containers to grow more seeds.
First up was my collection of different Keith Hammett sweet peas. I basically planted them wherever I found vertical growing space for them.
Next up was to plant out my three Calendula varieties, Calendula officinalis, Calendula Sunset Tones, and Calendula Strawberry Blonde. I already have a lot of Calendula officinalis growing in the front garden, so I planted those out in the back garden that has just been redesigned. I then planted the Sunset Tones and Strawberry Blonde varieties in both the front and back gardens. Eventually they'll all breed with one another and set seed, and I'll have heaps of different coloured Calendula everywhere.
And lastly, I went to a local garden center and bought two hostas that were in the back garden redesign plan. I bought the varieties Purple Heart and Sleeping Beauty for underneath the deciduous magnolia tree.
It's already been a couple of weeks, and both hostas are already growing strongly after some protection from slugs and snails.
We've had a frost already this week, and one more is possible, so the rest of the seedlings will have to wait until next week at least.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Signs of Spring 2024
Hello friends,
Spring is just around the corner, and my garden is showing many signs of spring. I'd thought I'd share with you some photos I've taken recently.
My miniature Irises have already put on a show with their beautiful, dainty flowers.
Crocuses have also been flowering.
As are a lot of my daffodil varieties.
And finally, my deciduous shrubs and trees have started breaking their buds, and there's also blossom appearing on our fruit trees.
Spring is less than a week away, and I'm so excited for warmer and longer days. There's lots to do in the garden now, so it's time to get on with all the things, especially seed sowing.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Floret Flower Farm and Other Seeds from Emerden Flowers
Hello friends,
I was doom scrolling on Instagram a couple of weeks ago, and came across a post by Emerden Flowers announcing they were collaborating with Floret Flower Farm in the USA, and they were bringing Floret and Dawn Creek Zinnias and Dahlias into New Zealand.
Before you could blink an eye, I had zoomed over to Emerden Flowers website, and excitedly perused the pre-order links to the Zinnias and Dahlia seed mixes. I've followed Floret Flower Farm for years, and even have a couple of their books. Their book "Discovering Dahlias" is my bible when it comes to Dahlias. I was so excited, even with the very high prices of the seed packets. Now was my chance to get some seeds, and I wasn't going to miss out. I still had money budgeted for our backyard garden project, and had no problem in justifying buying 3 seed packets to hubby, along with some other seed packets from Emerden Flowers I had been wanting.
First up was choosing a Dahlia seed mix, I finally settled on choosing Floret Original Bee's Choice flower seed packet, as I want to encourage bees into my garden. Choosing two zinnia packets was more fraught with danger. After angsting over it for days leading up to when they went on sale, including spending way too much time on Instagram looking at people's photos of the various zinnia mixes, late on the Saturday night I chose Floret Original Precious Metals zinnias, and also Dawn Creek Blush zinnias, as they are colours that will fit in well in my backyard (as well as my front yard). I had also chosen a bunch of very cool Emerden flower seed packets, as some of them were on my list of plants to get for a while.
On the Sunday morning when the seed packets went on sale, I had all of the internet tabs open on the seeds I wanted, and I'd logged into Emerden Flowers website. In the minutes before 10 am I added all the Emerden Flowers into the web cart, and waited impatiently for 10 am. As soon as it hit 10 am, I reloaded the web pages for the Floret and Dawn Creek varieties I wanted, and added them to the cart. Once I was sure I got everything, I checked out, and bought it with my credit card.
It took a while before I got the confirmation email from Emerden Flowers, and then I started happy dancing.
Within a couple of days my precious seeds were delivered to my door, and it was time to fawn all over my pretty new seed packets.
The packaging for the Floret Flower Farm part of the order was stunning, and I really loved the included growing guide.
I also bought a range of Emerden flower seed varieties including pansy, larkspur, floxglove, sunflowers, cosmos, calendula, and echinacea.
I am really excited to start planting these seeds in spring, which is less than a couple of weeks away now.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Backyard Plant Removals and Planting Spring Bulbs
Hello friends,
While the garden consultant was designing a plan for our backyard, it was time to start removing plants, and taking all the resulting green waste to the local rubbish tip.
The first plants to go were the rhododendrons, camellia, and the hydrangea taking up space in the back yard. I don't like rhododendons at all, they are poisonous to native bird life who are sugar feeders. As our local area has numerous tui, bell birds, and wax eyes, I wanted all the rhododendrons gone. The camellia in the backyard also got removed because it was squishing my beloved feijoa bushes. A hydrangea was also removed because our home's previous owners planted it in the wrong place.
We were able to remove half the garden shrubs ourselves, but after my shoulder tendonitis flared up from removing shrubs and then digging up their root systems, we ended up getting our local garden contractor (who trims all our hedges) to help remove the remaining shrubs and their green waste.
He also helped us remove an old coal storage concrete bin from our back path, so we had enough space to fit in all the new council rubbish and recycling bins that had just been delivered.
I bought clearance daffodils and tulips from an online store to help fill in the spaces where the rhododendrons and other shrubs had stood. It was late in the season to buy them, so I got them on sale. It didn't take long to plant them into the ground on a warm sunny day.
After all that, the back garden was mostly a blank space, and it was just a matter of waiting for the garden plan to be ready. The garden consultant said it would be done in 2 - 3 weeks, but it ended up taking 6 weeks...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Flower Seed Buying And My Seed Database
Hello friends,
It's that time of the year again in New Zealand, when seed companies send you tempting emails showing you the new flower seeds they have available for sale. This year two of my favorite specialist flower seed companies sent me emails in late May, so I had no choice but to peruse their wares.
The first temptation was from Susie Ripley Gardening, where I purchased Cosmos and Larkspur varieties.
I have a soft spot for cosmos, and really fell in love with the cupcake and fizzy varieties. I can't wait to see them floating in the breeze this coming summer.
I also love how Larkspur brings some height to garden borders, so I got some purple and white varieties of that also.
Next up was Crawford Road Gardens, where I picked up a number of seeds including aster, celosia, stock, larkspur, foxglove, scabiosa, lavender, and strawflower. My plan is to increase my garden borders in the back yard, so I picked colours that matched the seeds I bought from Susie Ripley Gardening.
Once I had the seeds in my hot little hands, it was time to enter them into my seed database. I have a seed database set up on Libre Office, one sheet each for flower, herb, vegetable, and native seeds.
The columns are set up for seed type, supplier, sow by date, whether a seed needs to be stratified, if they've been sowed in the current year, and then which months of the year they can be sowed in.
In the rows, I have sections for each flower type e.g. Allium, Cosmos, and underneath the varieties are in alphabetical order. If the variety is greyed out, it means that I don't have that seed in stock right now. If the row is highlighted in the 2024 column, it means the seed has been sown. Cells marked in green show which months the seed can be sown in.
I really love this set up as it means that I can quickly see which seeds I need to sow, if they are still within their use by date, and if I need to reorder any seeds. I recently updated the seed database for spring 2024, so I can now see which varieties I may need to buy when the Kings Seed catalogue comes out this month. I may decide not to repurchase some seed varieties, but at least I will know which ones I've had in the past.
I have separate sheets set up for all my seed types, and it really makes seed sowing that much easier. It means that I can come up with a plan each month for seed sowing, and it also means I can purchase seed sowing mix ahead of when I need it.
It's so exciting to know that spring will soon be here, I'm already loving the return of daylight earlier and later each day. I can't wait until August when it's time to sow tomatoes and chillies.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
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