"Actively
Promoting Friendship Through Gardens"
WINTER BLUES, PINKS AND PERFUME
Daphne odora will grow in a well-drained soil and provide pink and white flowers with a magical perfume that fills the garden at this time. Blue winter-flowering irises and hebes provide colour. Consider planting Nasturtiums for their sunshine-yellow flowers. A winter flowering garden can be a treat in which to have a coffee during those cold sunny days. Find a sheltered spot to admire your handiwork.
Once we get into July it's the depths of winter with westerly winds and short days. If you live in a frosty area remember to get out the watering can and water your plants before the sun gets on them after a frost. This will save them from a lot of damage - but you have to be really dedicated to get out of a warm snug bed that early!!
There are a lot of winter days that are absolutely beautiful - just right for gardening and pruning the large range of plants that are ready for their annual haircut. Do not prune spring-flowering deciduous shrubs or flowering fruit trees.
Prune the following list:
Cane Begonias | Lagerstroemia |
Caryopteris | Lantana |
Ceratostigma | Luculia (moderately) |
Cestrum | Oleander |
Clematis | Pentas |
Clerodendrum ugandense | Plumbago |
Duranta | Roses |
Heliotrope | Sambucus (Golden Elder) |
Holmskoldia | Wisteria |
Tamarisk (Tamarix tentandra) |
HINTS AND TIPS:
Useful Predators to encourage:
- Mantises may resemble grasshoppers or leaf-eating stick insects, but they are carnivorous, living on other insects. In their young stage they feed mainly on aphis, mealy bugs and other soft bodied insects. When they grow larger they will kill and eat moths, beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets and even other mantises if there is nothing else.
- Ladybeetles are colourful little critters and good friends to us gardeners. They are enemies of aphids, mealy bugs and some types of soft scale. An adult eats approximately 50-60 aphids in a day. Be careful not to destroy their eggs. Ladybeetles lay their eggs below leaves and along young stems near where aphids attack.
For not so useful predators scatter snail pellets round growing plants, seedlings and clumps of Clivea as flowers are developing now. For gardeners who don't like using pesticides: "If it moves slowly enough, step on it. If it doesn't, forget about it - it will probably kill something else...”.
If you have not already pruned your roses, now is the last time in which to get them pruned for a Spring flush. Spray to remove aphids from new shoots and feed to encourage the plants to shoot. Clean up any leaves from the ground to reduce black-spot and mulch the soil.
Late July and early August are usually thought to be the best time to prune roses on the coast. For any members who have moved to the colder tableland areas it is wise to delay pruning until the heaviest frosts have passed.
To begin pruning roses, take off any dead wood and weak spindly growth. Then remove stems which are rubbing against or crossing over others. Ideally remaining stems should be of at least pencil thickness. The tops of water shoots should be only lightly trimmed. This applies to cluster-flowered and hybrid tea bushes reducing the bush by a third to a half. David Austens and Delbard Roses I prune the same.
Miniatures are cut back fairly hard to hopefully encourage new growth from the base of the plant.
With climbers and heritage roses it is more difficult to generalise. Climbers should be untied from their supports but if you find it too tedious, just look carefully, selecting which main canes are to be retained and which appear old and tired to be removed. The flowering spurs which come from the main canes should be cut back to three or four eyes. Remove some of the end of the main canes where growth tapers, then tie the main canes in place.
On all roses prune out dead wood first to allow easier access and see the shape of the bush and so how to attack it.
A note here about Clematis. Prune all large flowered Clematis in the same way. Cut off each stem at about the second lowest set of buds above soil level. During the season after large flowered Clematis have flowered trim them back by about a third taking away all the seed heads and they will immediately form new growth followed by more flowers.
Pruning Clematis before the roses then allows you to pull away the pruned rose branches and the dead leaves, stems and seed heads of the Clematis at the same time without worrying about pulling the Clematis out of the ground accidentally.
After pruning, roses need to be sprayed with either Lime Sulphur (120ml to 10 litres) or Copper Oxychloride (25grms to 10 litres) including the surrounding soil. Mulch heavily, right over the top of the Clematis, being careful with the stems, but not touching the Rose base or stems.
Crepe myrtles can be pruned now if they are to be kept as a small shrub.
Camellias should be in bud or in flower. Regularly provide with a soluble fertiliser but do not wet the blooms to prevent them browning. Always water at ground level. Keep an eye out for aphids, thrips and caterpillers. They love the new growth and can do a lot of damage. Spray if necessary.