New Zealand Tree Ferns
New Zealand Tree Ferns will be arriving at the nursery next spring (2008). Gone are the days when suppliers could cut a container load of tree ferns, load up and have them on the water within days. Because of new DEFRA (formerly MAFF) legislation the harvested tree ferns have to be grown on in a nursery for 6 months to ensure they are free from pests and diseases. The other advantage of this is that the ferns will be rooted. Although bare rooted trunks have never been a problem with the Australian tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica), past experience has taught us that New Zealand ferns resent root disturbance. The upshot of this is we will have a quantity of rooted NZ Tree Ferns in spring, including Cyathea medullaris, Cyathea dealbata, Cyathea smithii, Dicksonia fibrosa, Dicksonia squarrosa – from potters to 6 footers. We will be accepting reservations so email us if you wish to put your name on one in advance.
We have Cyathea medullaris and dealbata in 3 litre pots at the nursery – available now. Please refer to website.

Dicksonia antarctica
A container of Australian tree ferns should be arriving about the same time!

Weather
For anyone obsessed with weather forecasts (and who isn’t this summer?) go to http://www.metcheck.com/. It’s a really useful, informative and sometimes humorous website. Their daily forecasts are spot on and their long-term forecasts (up to 14 days) have been excellent although rather bleak. We’re addicted and regard ourselves somewhat as experts on the Jet Stream, Azores et al.

Acers

We have received the Acers from New Zealand and these should be ready for sale in late autumn.The varieties are Aureum, Baldsmith, Bloodgood, Crimson Queen, Fireglow, Inaba Shidare, Katsura, Koto-No-Ito, Ozakasuki, Pendulum Julian, Pixie, Red Emperor, Sangu Kaku, Seiryu, Shin Deshojo, Shirazz, Skeeters Broom, Sumi Nagashi, Tamuke Yama, Ueno Yama and Viridis. If this doesn’t mean very much to you at the moment we will be adding full descriptions and pictures to the website soon or better still, come and take a look at the nursery. They are leafless at present (it’s still winter in New Zealand) but should begin putting out leaves in a few weeks. Nice, big specimens.

Trachycarpus fortunei

We recently stripped a Trachycarpus fortunei at the nursery and although I know we are not the first to do this, it has generated lots of interest. From the enquiries we have had, I would imagine there are a fair few Trachies being liberated of their woolly coats this year. Stripping this particular palm of its fibrous covering isn’t harmful to the plant and doesn’t affect its ability to withstand frost. The method for stripping is quite simple although a little time consuming. Take a sharp bread knife and begin at the bottom of the trunk. The bottom of the trunk is the toughest and once started you may at first wish you hadn’t, but rest assured, it does get easier the further up the trunk you get. Simply pull, tease and cut the fibres at the base where they are joined at the trunk. The result is a smooth, pale coloured trunk that becomes a rich, glossy mahogany colour in time. Probably not recommended for trunks under 120cm.

The Hospitality Area

The Hospitality Area is complete and many customers have already been enjoying a brew. These days it’s just not enough to offer great plants and service. Nurseries have to be ‘an experience’ and to complete the experience, refreshments and loos are required. We know that some nurseries even have childrens’ adventure play areas. Perhaps this is taking matters a bit too far, or does it make good, economic sense: keep the kids happy while mum and dad shop? Maybe we’ll get round to it one day but the next project has to be updating the Portaloo- now that really is an experience!

We have mentioned
The Exotic Garden in Norwich owned by will Giles before but for those of you who are not already familiar with this extraordinary garden, we would like to tell you a little more about it. Will’s garden has been open to the public for many years now and over the last two or three years he has added additional features such as an amazing waterfall and a Tree House. Over the winter months however, he has surpassed himself by completely revamping a large area of garden behind the house, involving some serious earth excavations, importing massive quantities of flints and mass plantings of yuccas, agaves and cacti. Will describes the process of creating the garden as ‘organic’ ie. He didn’t start out with a definitive plan – he started digging and the garden evolved. It is an incredible achievement and we sincerely urge you to visit (no we’re not on commission). Will’s garden is a short distance from the nursery and is open on Sunday afternoons.
Will’s new book will be published later this year – hopefully in time for Christmas.

The Colocasias and Alocasias mentioned in a previous blog are ready for sale. They took a little longer than usual due to the weather (knew this blog would have to have a reference to the weather somewhere even though we tried our hardest not to do it) but they eventually made it. Please refer to our website for details.
We are awaiting a collection of Acers from New Zealand. These arrive bare-rooted and will be ready this autumn. There will be some beautiful and unusual varieties and this is an area that we will be expanding in future.