February 2012 Newsletter
by Clare Scott, Nichols InvercargillIN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN should be a picture of abundance as it reaches its peak. Savour the flavour of fresh peas, salad crops, new potatoes, as well as a colourful bounty of yellow and green courgettes, beetroot, baby carrots, straw-berries, raspberries and red and blackcurrants.
This is your very last chance to plant winter greens here in the south. It would be wise to plant only earlier maturing varieties of drumhead cabbages, such as ‘little sweetie’ or coleslaw varieties, and an early cauliflower. Late varieties such as Savoy cabbage and late cauliflower will not have enough growing time to form before growth stops.
In order to avoid the dreadful club-root disease it is most important to remember not to plant cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts or broccoli into ground which has previously grown any of the cabbage or turnip family (Click here for more information about club-root disease).
However, it is easy to forget where the cabbages were planted last year so if you are doubtful simply plant our ‘success’ range of cabbages and cauliflowers that have been proven to resist club-root. As an extra precaution against club-root in my vegetable patch, I hoe a trench which I fill with Tui Organic Compost and then plant my brassicas.
Use Yates Derris Dust every ten days or so to control white butterfly and don’t forget to reapply after heavy rain. If diamond back moth are infesting the leaves with masses of small holes, or droves of grey aphids are settling into your plants, spray with Yates Mavrik.
If you are short of space in the vegetable garden reach for the sky with teepees constructed of willow or bamboo canes. In my garden runner beans and ‘Gem’ squash are growing on tee pees constructed with hazelnut saplings. The big yellow trumpet flowers of the squash followed by cricket ball size fruit looks quite stunning on these teepees.
Scarlet flowers of runner beans announce the beginning of ‘yumptious’ green beans over the next few weeks. It is important to keep picking the beans or they will stop flowering and not produce more pods. The more often they are picked the more flowers produced and the longer the season!
IN THE FLOWER GARDEN potted colour comes into its own, now that some of our summer colour is beginning to fade. Showy pockets planted with potted colour will fill in the gaps in your garden created by tidying. Petunias will put on a lovely show in hot places while begonias make good fillers amongst sun loving plants as they enjoy a bit of their shade. There is quite a repertoire of begonias that include rounded little garden-edgers to some with a bit of height, such as the very colourful non-stop begonias.
What could be nicer than spires of deep blue salvia and nodding white chrysanthemum daisies with cheerful yellow centres (pictured left), as well as a pocket or two of marigolds.
Gorgeous big rounded deep purple and mid blue heads of Agapanthus capture the beauty of late summer and will make thick clumps if left undisturbed. They are reliably hardy in coastal regions. The smaller varieties (that include white flowering varieties) make first class container plants for hot spots as they perform well in full sun.
Japanese Anemones are well worth growing for their long lasting pure white flowers with showy yellow stamens. They are easy to grow and are low maintenance autumn flowers for the sun or 
a shady spot. For a pretty rose pink Japanese anemone, try ‘Pattina’ (pictured right).
High marks must go to the hydrangea tribe for their long flowering season as they always look good from late summer until winter. Then, they can be picked and dried for indoor display which is an added bonus!
It’s hard to believe, but Spring bulbs are arriving in our stores this month. Anemones, Ranunculus (pictured below) and Freesias are the first to appear. 
They are ready to plant now and will reach a good size by the time winter stops growth. Because my garden is still in summer bloom, flouncing and holding hands with the next plant, space to plant bulbs is at a premium, so I plant my anemones into containers and grow them on to a good size ready to transplant into the garden after the big late autumn garden clean-up.
Flower plants to plant into the garden now, for Spring, are pansies, stock, wallflower, poppies and sweet William.
As I write this, we in the south are experiencing the worst ‘big dry’ since records began and long deep watering twice a week is out of the question.
Your best friend in dry weather is your hoe! The very best mulch of all is to hoe and hoe ... and keep on hoeing! Continuous hoeing of your vegetable patch and flower gardens, with your push hoe, will encourage deep moisture to rise and plant roots will grow downwards toward moisture and nutrients.
Happy gardening everyone!
You can’t beat home grown vegetables for real freshness with all their vitamins intact.
And you don’t have to have green fingers to grow tasty vegetables ... simply give the soil a start by lightly forking in some Nichols Compost, a light dusting of fertiliser, remove a few weeds and you are ready to go! Frequent hoeing of the soil allows the sunshine to warm the soil.
Make the most of these sunny days to sow a few spring onions, early carrots, spinach, radish, snowball turnip as well as some early potatoes such as Jersey Benne, Liseta, Swift, or Rocket. Digging the humble spud is part of the magic and mystery of gardening ... it’s like buried treasure!
Broccoli is absolutely choc-o-block full of vitamins. And the common cabbage has become a designer plant now with round heads, conical heads, some with puckered leafy heads and purple heads but all are packed with vitamins. Then there are our simply superb club-root resistant ‘Success’ cabbage plants. Our customers are singing the praises of this new discovery.
Don’t forget to lay some slug bait around all your new seedlings because snails love nice tender vegetable plants too, and, believe it or not, they can gobble eight times their body weight in just one night!
TOMATO PLANTING time is here again.
There are an astounding number of varieties in all shapes and sizes – just remember, whatever the variety, always buy sturdy plants that have a short space between leaf joints. Plants that are tall and puny have been grown in overcrowded conditions and will never thrive or fruit well.
Nichols tomato plants are grown here in the south. There are brand new hybrids as well as the old favourites, not to mention my favourite - TastyTom - which is just the perfect ‘snax biscuit’ size and ever so sweet to eat.
The aristocrats of the tomato family are our ’X Generation’ grafted tomato plants which are strong and healthy - and the healthier the plant, the more resistant it is to diseases.
Plant each tomato plant at least 5cm deeper than they were in the punnet into fresh clean soil. And don’t over water in the early stages - small plants don’t need much water and wet cold soil is far too cold for tiny new roots to grow away strongly. Space the plants for good air circulation because planted too closely will result in weak spindly plants.
Tomatoes need tying to a stake, or twined up strong strings hanging from the glasshouse roof, and laterals (these are the side shoots at the junction of leaf and stem) should be pinched out as they appear.
It’s a glorious time of year with warm sunshine turning the garden into green and gold as daffodils shout ‘we are back again’ as they nod their heads in the breeze.
The Primula brigade are starting their spring performance as well. Our garden centres have a wonderful range of Ballerina and Barnhaven double primroses in shades of lilac, plum and pink which are truly irresistible as well as lovely soft colours of lemon, apricot and white.
Look out for the Candelabra Primulas with tiered swirls of flowers carried on long stems, flowering until early summer, in sumptuous tones of crimson with dark eyes of purple or red to softer pink tints.
Boronia Megastigma or Brown Boronia is one of the most loved fragrances of spring and always a winner in our garden centre. Though they have a reputation of being a short lived shrub they are so worthwhile.
And here’s a couple of tips to improve your success ... It’s important to know that the brown boronia are an Australian bog plant and so if planted in a cooler semi-shade position with compost they will grow much better than the hot sunny place most of us choose, where their poor roots frizzle in the heat. The other secret is to cut back the plant by one third, after flowering, then mulch with compost.
Magnolias are among the most glamorous trees or shrubs. They range from deciduous shrubs to magnificent tall evergreen trees. Early magnolias furry buds are now rapidly opening on naked branches so that we can enjoy their lovely goblet blooms. We have a fantastic range now in stock at Nichols, and it’s a fantastic time to plant trees and shrubs, before the heat of late Spring and Summer sets in. (Pictured: Magnolia ‘Ian’s Red’)
Spring suggests blossom and the Crab-apples are charming garden trees that have the prettiest pink and white blossom then later delight us when their autumn fruits appear. Crab apples are the perfect trees for small gardens with their pleasing shapes.
The Clematis tribe arrive this month. If space is at a premium put in a pole or two and this will allow you to grow more than would otherwise be possible as well as adding much more interest to your border. When planting clematis give them a good start in life and dig a decent sized hole, work in some compost and plant so that the stem is at least 10cm deeper than what the base is now.
For a large sunny wall there is nothing more beautiful than Wisteria with long racemes of lilac blo
You can’t beat home grown vegetables for real freshness with all their vitamins intact.
And you don’t have to have green fingers to grow tasty vegetables ... simply give the soil a start by lightly forking in some Nichols Compost, a light dusting of fertiliser, remove a few weeds and you are ready to go! Frequent hoeing of the soil allows the sunshine to warm the soil.
Make the most of these sunny days to sow a few spring onions, early carrots, spinach, radish, snowball turnip as well as some early potatoes such as Jersey Benne, Liseta, Swift, or Rocket. Digging the humble spud is part of the magic and mystery of gardening ... it’s like buried treasure!
Broccoli is absolutely choc-o-block full of vitamins. And the common cabbage has become a designer plant now with round heads, conical heads, some with puckered leafy heads and purple heads but all are packed with vitamins. Then there are our simply superb club-root resistant ‘Success’ cabbage plants. Our customers are singing the praises of this new discovery.
Don’t forget to lay some slug bait around all your new seedlings because snails love nice tender vegetable plants too, and, believe it or not, they can gobble eight times their body weight in just one night!
TOMATO PLANTING time is here again.
There are an astounding number of varieties in all shapes and sizes – just remember, whatever the variety, always buy sturdy plants that have a short space between leaf joints. Plants that are tall and puny have been grown in overcrowded conditions and will never thrive or fruit well.
Nichols tomato plants are grown here in the south. There are brand new hybrids as well as the old favourites, not to mention my favourite - TastyTom - which is just the perfect ‘snax biscuit’ size and ever so sweet to eat.
The aristocrats of the tomato family are our ’X Generation’ grafted tomato plants which are strong and healthy - and the healthier the plant, the more resistant it is to diseases.
Plant each tomato plant at least 5cm deeper than they were in the punnet into fresh clean soil. And don’t over water in the early stages - small plants don’t need much water and wet cold soil is far too cold for tiny new roots to grow away strongly. Space the plants for good air circulation because planted too closely will result in weak spindly plants.
Tomatoes need tying to a stake, or twined up strong strings hanging from the glasshouse roof, and laterals (these are the side shoots at the junction of leaf and stem) should be pinched out as they appear.
It’s a glorious time of year with warm sunshine turning the garden into green and gold as daffodils shout ‘we are back again’ as they nod their heads in the breeze.
The Primula brigade are starting their spring performance as well. Our garden centres have a wonderful range of Ballerina and Barnhaven double primroses in shades of lilac, plum and pink which are truly irresistible as well as lovely soft colours of lemon, apricot and white.
Look out for the Candelabra Primulas with tiered swirls of flowers carried on long stems, flowering until early summer, in sumptuous tones of crimson with dark eyes of purple or red to softer pink tints.
Boronia Megastigma or Brown Boronia is one of the most loved fragrances of spring and always a winner in our garden centre. Though they have a reputation of being a short lived shrub they are so worthwhile.
And here’s a couple of tips to improve your success ... It’s important to know that the brown boronia are an Australian bog plant and so if planted in a cooler semi-shade position with compost they will grow much better than the hot sunny place most of us choose, where their poor roots frizzle in the heat. The other secret is to cut back the plant by one third, after flowering, then mulch with compost.
Magnolias are among the most glamorous trees or shrubs. They range from deciduous shrubs to magnificent tall evergreen trees. Early magnolias furry buds are now rapidly opening on naked branches so that we can enjoy their lovely goblet blooms. We have a fantastic range now in stock at Nichols, and it’s a fantastic time to plant trees and shrubs, before the heat of late Spring and Summer sets in. (Pictured: Magnolia ‘Ian’s Red’)
Spring suggests blossom and the Crab-apples are charming garden trees that have the prettiest pink and white blossom then later delight us when their autumn fruits appear. Crab apples are the perfect trees for small gardens with their pleasing shapes.
The Clematis tribe arrive this month. If space is at a premium put in a pole or two and this will allow you to grow more than would otherwise be possible as well as adding much more interest to your border. When planting clematis give them a good start in life and dig a decent sized hole, work in some compost and plant so that the stem is at least 10cm deeper than what the base is now.
For a large sunny wall there is nothing more beautiful than Wisteria with long racemes of lilac blossom and there are lots of these arriving this month too.
If the scent of Sweet Peas matters to you we have ten different enchanting varieties of Dr. Hammet's sweet pea plants in a whole range of colours from ‘Almost Black’ and navy to pinks through to bright lipstick reds.
A new consignment of Hostas has arrived with their big expanse of leaves that make scintillating focal points in the garden and soothe the eye. They look superb mass planted in a semi-shaded area in your garden.
And lastly, it’s time to plant Dahlias which are a must for pure brilliance of flower colours combined with beautiful shapes, some with interesting purple-black foliage.
by Clare Scott,
Nichol’s Invercargill
ssom and there are lots of these arriving this month too.
If the scent of Sweet Peas matters to you we have ten different enchanting varieties of Dr. Hammet's sweet pea plants in a whole range of colours from ‘Almost Black’ and navy to pinks through to bright lipstick reds.
A new consignment of Hostas has arrived with their big expanse of leaves that make scintillating focal points in the garden and soothe the eye. They look superb mass planted in a semi-shaded area in your garden.
And lastly, it’s time to plant Dahlias which are a must for pure brilliance of flower colours combined with beautiful shapes, some with interesting purple-black foliage.
by Clare Scott,
Nichol’s Invercargill
