The Sweet Pea Project: Building a Trellis for My Growing Sweet Peas
Hello friends,
It's been over a month since my sweet peas were sowed, and the ones that germinated are growing strong, so strong that building a trellis for them became an urgent priority.
On the same day that we set up the trellis for the grapevine, we also made the trellis for the new sweet pea space. We had about 4 metres of wire netting left over, so we stretched it out over the left side backyard fence as far as it could go.
With that job done it was time to plant out the sweet peas that had germinated. Unfortunately a lot of the older sweet pea varieties didn't germinate, so there were only about 50 sweet pea plants to plant out.
With the plants all set out along the garden fence, they had only taken up 1.5 metres of the garden fence, which left a huge gap of the fence line bare. Luckily my seed sowing space in the glasshouse was now set up for spring seed sowing, so I pulled out some long trays, and sowed another 100 sweet peas.
I sowed the following varieties:
- Sapphire
- Burlesque
- Blue Butterflies
- Blue Reflections
- Brilliant Fragrance
- Spanish Dancer (new variety from Egmont seed order)
- Appalachia (new variety from Egmont seed order)
- Nimbus
- Swan Lake
- Original
I really hope that all these varieties germinate well, so I can get them out into the garden as soon as possible. If there is still a large space remaining in the sweet pea trellis, I'll direct sow more sweet peas in about a month. The bonus of this is that the sweet pea harvests will be staggered in spring and summer.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
If you'd like to continue the conversation, you can find me on Instagram, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Facebook.
White Daffodil Project : Planting My Collection
Hello friends,
I've become completely obsessed with white daffodils, also known as white narcissus, and it all began with a single observation.
While taking the Floret Flower Farm Workshop last summer, I came across a comment from Erin Benzakein during the daffodil section of the course. She explained that at her flower farm, traditional yellow daffodils didn't sell nearly as well as the white varieties. She suggested that white daffodils have an elegance that appeals to many people. They are also so much harder to find than the traditional yellow varieties, making them feel a little more unusual and distinctive.
The more I thought about her observations, the more I realised I agreed with her. I already had a few white daffodil varieties growing in my garden, but I'd never really paid much attention to them. Once I started researching the different varieties available in New Zealand, I discovered an incredible diversity of flower forms, colours, and fragrances. Before long, I wanted to see whether my own experience with white daffodils would support Erin's observations, and that curiosity soon grew into a project of its own.
I've included some photos of white daffodils already growing in my garden. I no longer remember the names of these varieties, but they've given me a starting point for what I hope will become a much larger collection over the coming years.
When spring bulb pre-orders opened on the NZ Bulbs and Bulbs Direct websites this past summer, I bought the following white narcissus varieties for my garden:
- Annalise
- Bridal Crown
- Cheerfulness
- Earlicheer
- Ice Follies
- Mint Julep
- Pure White
- Thalia
- Watch Up
Together they represent a mix of single and double flowers, pure white and cream-toned varieties, a range of sizes, and varying flowering forms. I'm looking forward to watching them grow over the coming months, observing their characteristics, and discovering which ones become my favourites.
With the daffodils chosen and delivered to my doorstep, it was finally time to plant them. Wanting to compare the different varieties side by side as they emerged and flowered, I planted them together in one of the empty dahlia seedling beds in early winter (yes, I was a little late!).
I planted the bulbs according to their mature height, with the tallest varieties at the back of the bed and the shortest at the front. My trusty bulb planter made quick work of digging the planting holes before each bulb was safely tucked into place.
It's now been about a month since I planted the daffodil bulbs, and some of the varieties have already begun emerging through the soil. It's always exciting to see those first green shoots appear, knowing the flowers won't be too far behind.
I'm looking forward to discovering the unique character of each white daffodil variety, seeing how they perform in my garden, and finding out whether my own experience supports Erin's observations as my white daffodil project unfolds over this gardening season.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
If you'd like to continue the conversation, you can find me on Instagram, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Facebook.
I'd love to hear if you grow white daffodils, or if you have a favourite variety that I should add to my collection in the future.
My Floret Zinnias This Past Summer
Hello friends,
Last spring I sowed all the remaining Floret Zinnia seeds I had in storage, which I had bought from Emerden in 2024. The Floret Previous Metals, Dawn Creek Blush, and Unicorn zinnia varieties were sown into seed raising mix, grown on until they had two sets of true leaves, and then they were potted up into bigger containers with potting mix until I was sure the risk of frost was over.
I planted them in two vegetable garden beds close together, so that I could easily save seed for my own personal stash for the coming years.
And then it was time to wait for them to flower. Due to our horrible summer, which wasn't really a summer, my zinnia plants didn't begin to start flowering until late January, but they were well worth the wait. I had hundreds of flowers in such gorgeous colours ranging from cream, pinks, and orange, all the way to bright red. The range of zinnia flower types flowering varied from singles, to cactus shapes, all the way through to frilly doubles.
Dawns Creek Blush flowers varied from dusky pinks, to pinks, and to purples.
Precious Metals gave me lots of metallics in shades of orange, pinks and purples, and there was even ombré colouring in some of the flowers.
And finally, the Floret Unicorn variety gave me florescent bright pinks and orange and red flowers, with a lot of double flowers amongst them.
I was so happy with my zinnia patch, and I wasn't the only one. Bees and butterflies swarmed over my zinnias all summer and autumn long, and that made it just it that much better in my opinion.
I shared my Floret zinnias on social media, and soon found myself becoming a very small scale flower farmer, as I provided buckets of zinnias to a local flower farmer florist. I very much enjoyed going out into my garden on summer mornings to fill up buckets of zinnias to send away to their new homes.
Unfortunately though thanks to the terrible summer we had, all too soon I had to start seed saving by letting the blooming flowers set seed and turn brown. I managed to save seed from a lot of mature flowers, before the looming threat of a decent frost forced me to save as many older flowers (but not quite mature flowers) in mid-April.
On the 22nd of April we had our first proper frost, and all my lovely zinnias sparkled in the cold autumn sunrise as frost coated them all. By the afternoon the zinnia plants had all turned brown and died.
And so the zinnia season for 2025/2026 has come to an end. I have 5 trays of zinnia flower heads to process over the winter, so I can harvest the seed and store it away until next spring. I am very much looking forward to seeing which zinnia flowers bloom next summer. Zinnias are known to have complex and highly plastic genomes, and have transposons, aka jumping genes, which can lead to unstable genetics, so who knows what I'll end up with. But I'm excited to find out...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky, and now also Facebook.
Our Lilac Tree Died
Hello friends,
Our lilac tree stood in the right hand side of our backyard, a fully grown tree already when we moved into our home in 2019. Each year in spring it would bud out and produce leaves followed by stunning purple scented flowers, but unfortunately this past spring was its last.
In the third week of October in 2025, a large wind storm blew through the South Island of New Zealand, causing wind damage throughout Otago and Southland, and cutting off power to thousands. At the time I thought my only plant casualties were some limbs coming off my quince tree, and my Avalanche camellia bush being snapped off at its base, but unknown to us at the time, my lilac tree had been damaged as well.
A week after the storm I'd noticed that our lilac tree hadn't burst its buds, and when I touched the buds they crumbled, having been turned brown and crispy by the wind storm. The tree had gotten wind blasted to the point that it was in serious trouble. We left it for a while to see if it would bounce back, and eventually a couple of leaf buds on the south side of the tree burst open, showing that at that time the tree was still alive (well only barely).
We left it over the summer to see if it would grow more leaf buds, but it didn't, and then around early February 2026 the few remaining leaves on the plant turned brown and fell off. After carefully checking multiple branches at points around the tree, and the suckers which usually came up from the base of the tree each summer, they were all dead and brown. I also checked with a few knowledgeable plant friends, and they also agreed that our lilac tree had died.
I was really upset over this, but also practical, because sometimes these things just happen. Nature gives and it takes away. The next weekend hubby got out our saw and began cutting down the tree limbs. Our first priority was to remove dead branches that could possibly hit the glasshouse or the fence, and then after that we cut the tree down to the ground. Hubby mulched what tree material he could with our wood chipper, and mulched around that area of the garden to help with weed suppression.
We also dug up the old fern plant beside the tree, as in the past a wasp nest had been buried in there, so I wanted to remove the plant to ensure it wouldn't happen again.
The resulting sunlight in this area of the garden after the tree had been taken down, is just amazing. There is now a lot more sun in the garden bed from early morning until early evening. Dahlia plants that had grown under the tree grew vigorously, and have even flowered.
At the moment in mid-autumn there are dahlias and damask roses still growing in this area. As soon as the first big autumn frost comes, and knocks back the dahlias growing there (after I've finished seed saving from them), I think I will rearrange this whole area of the garden, in preparation for the next growing season. And I already have some ideas on what I could do...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky, and now also Facebook.
Social Media
Archives