Garden Centre Visits

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Up early & we headed off towards a rural town called Fielding, a 20 minute drive from us. We stopped at a place called Westcoe Woodland Gardens & intended to have a walk around this big private garden open to the public, but it started raining, so we decided against it. What we saw has made us determined to return to explore further ….. huge native NZ trees towering over us …. with very densely-packed native ferns & small trees, rhododendrons & azaleas & lots of other flowering forms which I did not immediately recognize. Such a shame it rained. But something to look forward to another time. We then drove over to Fielding & spotted a signpost for a GC which we were not familiar with …. The Fragrant Nursery. Had a look through it …. a smallish privately-owned nursery packed with all sorts of wonderful trees & plants of excellent quality. Quite a good selection of NZ native plants too. As the rain seemed to be settling in, we only had a relatively speedy look around, but I still managed to come away with the NZ native clematis paniculata … a really good-sized plant smothered in those beautiful white flowers. I was very pleased with that purchase. We had both fallen in love with a beautiful Golden Elm, already quite tall …. but as it will grow into a large tree, we need to think about that one. We then popped in for a short visit with a friend, & did a quick tour around her garden when it stopped raining, & then after a cuppa & a chat we headed off to the big commerical GC I knew about, but had not visited before. Turned out to be a wonderful place & they were happy to let me take some photos to put up on GoY. Took a real fancy to a new NZ-developed magnolia called Genie (took photo), & came away with one of the lovely NZ native Chatham Island forget-me-nots, with their lovely big glossy leaves & very pretty blue flowers … no flowers on it yet …. & the beautiful climbing rose Gloire De Dijon, an old fashioned rose with apricot buff large quartered blooms. We are going to have a think about the magnolia, & decide where it could go. Ditto the Golden Elm. Found a nice place to have lunch, then headed back home again, leaving the Nikau Hill Nursery for another day, due to the rain. The Forget-me-not is already in the garden. The rose & the clematis will have to wait until another day, when not raining. Planning to have the clematis growing from one end of the fence, at the front corner of the house, & along it, & as this nz native loves climbing up into trees, hoping it will do that too …. with the rose starting at the other end & coming around the corner to meet up with the clematis. Off to dinner with my lovely sister-in-law in Whanganui now, a 35 minute drive away. She has a lovely garden but will be too late in the day to take any pics. A nice start to my annual (sick) leave, & hope to be able to get out into the garden before going into hospital on Wednesday.

• 24 Sep, 2011
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