Autumn Down Under

We’ve had a very warm, sunny, dry summer here in Wanganui and the delphiniums are now enjoying some welcome cooler days. Actually, it’s the cooler nights that really do the job and temperatures are now getting down to 15degC or so. Couple that with a few cloudy, cool days and some rain and the delphiniums love it. Yellowing leaves green up, new growth races away and the plants shout out a thank you audible for miles (if you’re in tune to the plant frequencies).

If anyone reading this has trouble with their delphiniums in the hotter months, take heart. If your summers are hot then enjoy the early summer flush and, as soon as this is finished, try cutting them down, mulch them and keeping them quite dry. You shouldn’t overdo this but keeping them checked for a few weeks while they have little top growth seems to help them through the hottest weather. Just watch out for powdery mildew though.

The summer here is now almost over and we’re hopeful of a good autumn flush of flowers for late pollination. We need it. Local farmers are almost happy too and that’s about as good as it gets for a farmer it seems. Most have harvested all their grain and the new grass growth is going to flush the dried off dairy cows for early calving.

We’ve just about cleaned all the first seed crop and will be sending out notification of fresh seed to our customers next week. We have a new line of seeds that produce mottled purple/pink florets with picotee edges we think will be a hit. We’ll see.

Judging by the infrequency of these blogs, despite my resolutions to do better, it’s something that clearly needs a higher priority. Does anyone have any higher priority to spare?

Cheers

Terry

In Limbo

Today has been hot. By world standards maybe not so hot but by Wanganui standards, very hot, especially when the humidity must have been in the 90%s range. For one of the most temperate climates in the world, 30DegC is out of the ordinary. It is bloody hot!

But now it is evening. The 5:30am start, to get work done before we wilted, has paid off. We did of course continue working all day and achieved a lot. They thermometer is falling, not because it was knocked off the wall by the near gale blowing through the open windows, but because the temperature is actually dropping. Life is good again.

At times like this it is difficult to keep plants watered well enough. Something has to go and that something is usually the garden, and it is this time too. I’ve kept the vege garden wet and even watered the horizontal elm, which has suffered from attacks by leaf minor in the past and needs mollycoddling ,but the flower gardens are looking a little dehydrated. The hot, windy weather is the result of a tropical cyclone heading south from Fiji. It was expected to bring much needed rain but instead just gave a little drizzle and dried the landscape further. With no, or little rain in sight for at least a week and strong, warm winds forecast it looks like we’ll be watering like crazy to keep the delph alive. Farmers will start to feel the pinch soon too.

You may recall that we’re in the throes of having a new plastic growing house constructed. One of the lesser endearing quirks of the New Zealand way of life is that just about the whole country closes down over the Christmas/New year period. For some it extends to an enormously long holiday – and bugger the client. I am of course referring to the builders who left on Dec 18^th and are still yet to return. This is truly 3^rd world status mentality and possibly one of the reasons why we have extremely unaffordable housing too. With delphiniums waiting to occupy the plastic house and contribute to the seed harvest I’m a tad frustrated...make that two tads...ok THREE!

On a more positive note things generally are growing well, Janice and I are extremely happy and although we work fairly hard we also have lots of time off, when we want it – mostly – like last weekend. Every year a group of nutcases go canoeing down the Whanganui River. This is a river of the movies, featured in “The River Queen” and “Lord of the Rings” (not that you’d recognise it). The Whanganui River is quite narrow but has good fall and much water – so there are plenty of rapids and gorges.

The canoe trip is from Taumaranui to Pipiriki, (look it up on a map, or, even better, Google Earth) encompasses the very best of the river and takes a week. I’ve only done this once but last weekend assisted with the transport of canoes, the pre trip conviviality, and the “sending off”. There are a few images of this annual pilgrimage (some have logged up over 30 annual trips – yeah, they truly are nutters!) scattered throughout this blog.

Next week I hope to report on progress on the growing house, the installation of a new irrigation system – and the return of the Whanganui River Rats.

Cheers

Terry

New Year's Eve 2007

This blog just has to be about a wonderful summer (so far), what happens when pollination coincides with Christmas and why our country closes down for two weeks at this time of year.

Although summer in New Zealand officially starts at the beginning of December it is rare for us to enjoy, warm, settled weather before the end of the first week in January. People however, always forget and complain bitterly when their Christmas barbecue is hijacked by totally normal, cool, breezy weather. Not so this year, at least not in Wanganui. Since the second week in November we’ve been basking in 20DegC+ weather with only the odd day of rain and cooler temperatures.We’ve had more summer before the end of December than we often enjoy all year. Next week looks like more of the same ....25DegC, sunny and dry. I'll have to water the garden to keep it looking like this...

What rain we have had has been plentiful and warm, cementing a beaming smile onto the faces of local farmers who’ve just learned that their dairy payout rate for the year will be, yet again, a record. This means more money per kilogram of milk solids and more production too.

What a Christmas! Farmers are smiling. Unprecedented!

Christmas has however taken its toll. I’m feeling lazy. We’ve had our children and grandchildren to visit for a week, Caroline and Bruno, (some dear, young friends from Angers, France) on holiday in NZ and calling in to see us and friends generally, making our life a really nice one....But it’s time to start work again. - for Janice and I at least. The tradesmen taking a four week break in the middle of building our new plastic house have other ideas, likewise the council who are dragging the chain with a building consent for our house extension. For the exalted, things are different.

For our pollinating staff, things are different too. Our delphiniums choose to flower at their fullest right on Christmas and the New Year. This is normal for them and a pain for the pollinators. I wonder if it would be worth investigating supplementary lighting to force them (the delphiniums, not the pollinators) to flower a week earlier.

By and large however, unless you are a farmer or employed in retail, health and other essential government services (such as police) the period from December 25^th until January 6^th or 7^th represents holiday time. This is because the kids are off school, no-one wants to work between Christmas and the New Year, the do-it-yourselfers want to use their new hand tools they got for Christmas and the weather is starting to settle. The fact that half the population is on holiday too, all the beaches are packed, the roads are chocker, tempers are frayed,the hole in the ozone layer is peaking the money is spent and the settled weather is likely to be punctuated with tropical downpours does nothing to dampen this unbridled enthusiasm for torment and tan. We NZers are gluttons for punishment.....which is why I took a jet boat ride up the Whanganui River with Caroline and Bruno, to see the “Bridge to Nowhere”. The image on the right is taken from the bridge looking down into the Maungaparoa stream - quite a way below. To the left are Caroline and Bruno.

Today is New Year’s Eve. Janice and I and some friends will be taking a midnight cruise on the paddle steamer “Waimarie”. We’ll have a great time, relax and be happy. Tomorrow, well, just about time to get back to work again. Ok, just one more day off!

Raising the roof

Ok, I’ll start this blog by answering a delphinium question then get on to telling you what’s

happening at our place.

The image to the right is "Juanita" blooming in our garden.

When is the best time to sow delphinium seed in Alberta?

I really love questions like this as there are so many right answers. Just how long is that piece of string? The best I can do is to suggest what I know some people do find successful.

The best time to sow seed in Alberta will depend on the method you use. If you have Gro Lights and can keep your greenhouse free of frost then November or December is a popular time to sow. Sow in a flat and prick out into small (3 inch) pots You would then have good plants to plant out at snow melt. If you can't do this then sowing in flats in February will be the way to go. Some folk sow in late summer, just as the heat is coming off, and have plants large enough to overwinter under a good layer of mulch.
Whichever method you use, remember that seed should be stored in the frig until you need to sow it. Never buy delphinium seed that may have been sitting on a garden centre shelf for a while, especially during, or just after summer (like just when you need to buy it). Delphinium seed loses viability very quickly at room temperature so unless it is stored in the frig at the garden centre, you are unlikely to get good results.

Good results on the right..........................................................

We sell properly stored seed and culture notes come with the seed we sell. This information and much more, is available free from the information pages on our web site : http://www.delphinium.co.nz/DelphiniumInformation.htm

Right, what’s happening here?

The new growing house continues to grow. The frame is up and the builders are waiting for a nice calm morning to put the roof on. I hope this comes soon as we’re paying for their accommodation! They’ve already missed a couple of good “skinning” opportunities by not knowing the local weather and, I presume, trusting the advice of their boss in Christchurch (several hundred kilometres away) rather than consulting with me. Hey, I only live here and follow the weather with a passion! No! I’m not angry and frustrated!

Having a plastic growing house built (as opposed to building it yourself – I’ve done both) can be frustrating on other counts too. Firstly, haven taken care to ensure that the builders know my requirement for the house to be either level (which the site is), or sloping slightly to the south. They have managed to construct is sloping to the north. This means that the rainwater water from the roof runs to the wrong end of the house and now has to be piped an extra 45 metres back to holding tanks. It’s a good job that I have acknowledgement of my requirements in writing - thank goodness for email!

Pollination is in full swing and we are employing eight people now. This will continue until early January when the work will lessen and we can return to two or three staff. I’m not doing much really, just keeping my head low and all the balls in the air – so don’t distract me - Ow, my foot!

Apart from a few days, the last 4 weeks have been gloriously warm and quite sunny too. Day temperatures have been several degrees above average and all plants are growing away like they want an early Christmas. I guess the pohutakawa trees will be flowering soon.

Have a Merry Christmas

Cheers

Terry

Progress

Isn’t it great now that summer’s here and we can all relax at the beach? Ha!

It’s all go at the nursery at the moment:

Our open week end was a great success and the weather warm and sunny. Good delphiniums, well grown, are a wonderful sight and the oohs and ahs from the visitors are a treat to hear.

The builders are making excellent progress erecting the new plastic growing house and the pollinators are now well into the swing of things.

We have three builders climbing over steel framing now. After starting with the foundations last Thursday progress has been swift and no-one has fallen off yet. They tell me it will be completed by Dec 18^th and I believe that they believe that. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

The new growing house is 45 metres long x 19 metres wide with three metre high walls - the apex being about 4.5 metres high. The side walls can be rolled up and the roof has ventilators over about 40% of its area. The house should be cool and great for growing and pollinating delphiniums.

Right now I’m trying to sort out the irrigation, floor covering and storm-water. The rain will be collected from the roof and piped into two 25,000 litre tanks, supplementing the metered supply from the local farm water scheme. From there is will be injected with fertiliser and fed, over 10 times a day, to our breeding delphinium stock.

While all this is happening we have half a dozen staff pollinating delphiniums and it also coincides with local contractors spraying weeds in preparation for us planting our steep gullies with native trees and shrubs. I’m really looking forward to returning some of the land to native bush.

This season has seen us producing more plants for sale in New Zealand and although the plant season is coming to an end we still shipped a hundred or so flowering delphinium plants in 8 litre bags today. These plants range in height from 1 to 1.8 metres (up to 6ft).

Life is quite busy right now and I still haven’t got round to sowing the superb hybrid day lily seeds that are waiting patiently in our frig. Tomorrow – well next week anyway.

Open Days

Our annual open week end is this coming December 1^st and 2^nd. We’re open from 9am until 4pm. This is the time of year when most of the delphiniums are in flower and there are always a steady flow of visitors with cameras. Visitors love to see pollination demonstrations but mostly they just ogle the delphiniums and wonder how they can repeat that in their own garden. Simple, buy our plants and seeds and follow the instructions!

I love these open days. They are like an annual validation of the work we do and I just love to see people enjoying the sight.

This year the large paddock of seedlings on trial will not be there as we’re using the land to build another plastic house, which may well be started by then December 1st. There will still be plenty to see however as we have a few hundred flowering plants outside to supply pollen for the seed crossing. The two existing plastic houses (600 square metres total) are loaded with delphiniums in flower too.

Come and enjoy the day with us. If you are unable to make it at the week end then give us a call anyway and we’ll try to arrange a suitable time for you to drop in. We had two travelling couples, a mother and daughter from Canada and a couple from Sweden, call in last week so if you are avaid gardeners touring New Zealand, give us a call, we’ll be happy to arrange a time for you to visit.

More questions answered:

Do we ship plants to the USA?

Many folk ask if we ship plants outside New Zealand. The answer, unfortunately, is no – we only ship seeds. If, however, you would like a plant similar to say, Sarita or Sunrise (for example), then ask and we will suggest the best possible seedline to give you a great chance of producing similar plants.

Dwindles? What are they?

I was recently asked if I get “Dwindles”. At first I thought this may be a personal question that I don’t care to answer but then realised it may be referring to plants that gradually lose vigour and don’t come back the next year. Yes, we do get the occasional dwindle. In seed grown plants there is always a chance of the odd weak one. It is useful to remember that the soil in your garden can vary enormously over very small distances. You may have perfectly healthy soil in one place only to find that a couple of metres away there is either a disease problem, fertiliser imbalance or some physical difference that can have a large impact. Don’t always assume that “dwindles” are the fault of the plant.

How often should I divide my delphiniums?

Unfortunately this is very akin to asking “How long is a piece of string”. It depends on the plant, the climate, the soil and most of all, the personal preference of the gardener. As a general rule I suggest that if your delphiniums are taller than you would like, have thinner stems than ideal, are too crowded for your taste or have a very large crown but send up weak shoots, it may be time to divide. The best time to do this is in the very early spring when the new growth is either just about to start or very shortly afterwards (shoots are only just breaking buds or no more than an inch or so tall). Use whatever method suits you and damages the crown and roots the least.

We very rarely divide ours and don't have a vigour loss problem. I know
many folk do divide the clumps after a couple of years though, with good
results.

The image to the right is of our delphiniums growing in the garden of Anne Cooke of Dawson Creek BC, Canada

Cheers for now

Terry

Any Questions?

Now that autumn (ok, fall) has come to the northern hemisphere, gardeners are turning to bedding down their gardens for winter and planning for the spring. We know this because there has been a flurry of questions and seed orders are picking up again too. As well as answering questions by email I’m posting the information on the blog so that it’s available to all. If you have tips to offer, remedies to share or stories to tell, please feel free to comment or email me directly and so help build this resource. Names may be changed, or items remain anonymous, to protect the innocent.

I’ll try to keep this going every week. So, this week:

Can I grow delphiniums in heavy, water-logged clay?

A couple of years ago Syd, in zone 5 to 6, had trouble growing his plants in soil that “may get water logged from heavy rains, or snowmelt in the winter. It then takes awhile to dry out. If I dig a 12 inch hole and it rains heavily, the hole fills with water and takes days to dry out”. It can be difficult in summer too.

We had a chat about this and I suggest planting the delphiniums in raised beds with
their roots and potting mix only half in the ground. “Then add composted manure
or other light mulch to cover the root ball well. You could do this to the extent
that the planted plant looks like it is on a hole in the mulch. The delph will love the moist
clay but many of the roots will also be growing in the mulch which will be well
drained and full of oxygen and minerals. Once the mulch rots away replace with new. I will lay a pound to a penny that this solves the problem”.

Syd wrote back this week to say that it had, to a large degree, worked. If you have ground prone to water-logging then a similar strategy may help. I discovered this myself when one, very wet winter I simply dug up the delphiniums (loud sucking noise) in a similarly waterlogged garden, left them lying on the ground and promptly forgot about them until the spring, by which time they had grown new roots in the soil beneath and were well on the way to flowering. It worked a treat. Don’t worry about them getting too dry in the winter – they will be dormant and completely unconcerned, growing new roots when they need them.

Take care with insecticides, especially “systemics” on young seedlings.

Clouding the issue with Syd’s delphiniums was the fact that he was battling with compost fly in the propagation house. Not only do the larvae chew on the roots of young seedlings, the flies also spread damping off diseases. Syd had attacked the flies, a little too enthusiastically, with a systemic, granular insecticide. He killed them alright but nearly killed the seedlings too. They were looking pale and disinterested but when planted out recovered quite well.

There are a few issues here. Plants that have fought off damping off, or generally had a difficult start to life, seldom grow away as vigorously as they should. That’s one of the reasons Syd’s original plants didn’t grow well in the garden. Although the batch drenched with insecticide (to stop the compost fly and damping off) almost died, they grew away again when planted out, still free of the damping off pathogens. However, compost fly can be dealt with less severely and more safely. If compost fly is a problem I'd spray or, preferably, drench the soil with Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) at the time of sowing. These bacteria attack the larvae of the compost fly and don’t damage the seedlings.

Once the seedlings are well emerged choose a warm, airy day (if you have any then) and water them again with the BT.

Thuricide, containing BT may also be used to control other caterpillars and it won’t harm beneficial insects. One source of supply is here:

http://www.merrifieldgardencenter.com/products.php?pid=8853&openparent=115

It should be available at most garden centres.

How do I avoid “Damping Off”

This is a regular. Firstly, take care of your hygiene and be mindful of things that may spread disease (like Syd’s compost fly, or excessive water). Avoid overwatering seedlings and don’t water or spray overhead in conditions that will result in the seedlings being damp for more than an hour or so. You can find plenty of information about the control of damping off on our web site, here:

http://www.delphinium.co.nz/DampingOff.html

One of the best strategies is to use seed raising mix that has a trichoderma fungus incorporated. Your garden centres should be able to help with this. It works better than anything else you will find. It isn’t a chemical though and because it is such a cheap and effective control you may not find it promoted well.

If you can’t find this at a garden centre then try your local organic gardening club. I’m trying to find a northern hemisphere source on the Internet, but with little success. Can anyone help?

In New Zealand “Dalton’s” seed raising mix contains trichoderma fungus - and is simply wonderful.

Other stuff

The new plastic house we are building is taking shape. The 45 metre x 20 metre floor is finished, trenches for services dug and the construction team due to arrive in a week or three. We’re hoping to produce a crop of seed from this house in late summer. Don’t worry, we will be pollinating in the old house in just a week or so.

That’s all for now.

Cheers

Terry