Ruud Kleinpaste: Choose your plants wisely

Designing your garden can be somewhat troublesome; You can buy all the book in the world (or in New Zealand) and that only helps to give you the idea of what kind of plant, shrub or tree you’d like the look of.

But will they survive, after you’ve planted them?

Do they “cope” with that spot and your local climate?

This week I drove south, along the fabulous spine of the South Island. In Christchurch is was 24 degrees; Geraldine 21 degrees, Burkes Pass 17 and in the Lindis Pass (my Favourite pass of all!) Just 13 degrees.

There were lots of tussocks (the character of that pass) but also lots of smaller Alpine plants.

Imagine you’d like to plant some of those alpines in your garden, much lower to sea-level, you may find them to be pretty frost-tender. In fact, many alpine plants will be killed in a severe Inland Canterbury frost.

Why?

Because in the mountains the temperatures might be reallllly low, but the plants will certainly be protected by the layer of snow on top of them.

Little tricks of the local conditions – something we need to learn.

 

1) Go and visit your local Botanic Gardens and see what survives in your neck of the woods. Honestly, those gardens are your local library for your local meteorological conditions.

2) A walk around your neighbourhood will also give you hints of what grows well

3) Now’s the time to visit the various Garden festivals around new Zealand:

Hurunui 27-30 October Rural open gardens in the coolest foothills

Taranaki 28 Oct to 2 Nov (Fabulous Garden fest with lots of open gardens for a week)

Garden Marlborough (another famous long-lived event) 3-6 November

Wairarapa Garden Tours 5-6 Nov

Waiheke Garden fest 5-6 Nov

Bay of Plenty Garden and Arts Festival – 16-20 Nov… Juuls and I go there every year – just because!

No doubt there will be others - check your local papers!!

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