| Greetings!
What a month July was - snow and rain and of course more rain pretty much sums it up. After speaking to a number of garden centres and people, the general concensus is that the sun will have to shine some day soon and guess what it has and our gardens are certainly reaping the benefits. Make sure you look out for our new releases Hot 'n' Dry Solutionz - Lavender 'Hidcote Blue' and Lavender 'Bee Brilliant' which will be hitting the garden centres soon!
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Plant Of The Month
Libertia 'Taupo Blaze'
With its vibrant, rich, flame-red autumn and winter foliage and tidy garden habit, Libertia 'Taupo Blaze' is quickly hitting headline status.
This libertia is reliable, tough, versatile and doesn't complain. Its colour intensifies as temperatures cool. The plant's structured look adds a wow factor and it is quickly becoming a favourite for people who want a plant with strong foliage lines and good colour year round. Its fresh, green new foliage in spring is accompanied by pretty pure-white star-shaped flowers, which are followed in autumn by sweet orange-red berries. Libertia 'Taupo Blaze' is suited to native plantings, driveway edges, coastal gardens, planting under trees and container planting. It looks great planted en masse, in combined borders or used as a contrast plant alongside silver, yellow, black or lime-green foliage. It does best in moist, fertile soil. We have just seen it planted out with Phormium 'Black Rage' and Euphorbia 'Kea' - wow what a stunning combination!
This Structured Solutionz is available now in garden centres. For more information on Libertia 'Taupo Blaze' and planting ideas click here.
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What's Happening At The Nursery!
It's the time of year where our business transforms from being a hibernating hermit (much like a ski field in summer) to what could be compared to a hospital ward after 9/11. Only so far the weather is having a huge bearing on when the buildings will collapse. As it is, in our business we have been growing and nurturing many of our plants since August of 2007. In order for us to supply a beautiful, full and healthy plant for spring of 2009, they need to be potted now. The plants to be potted are already anything from six months to a year old. From early spring through until December 2008 we will have potted around 200,000 plants and completely turned our Nursery space over at least once.
  
With potting such a large number we would be absolutely lost without the use of our potting machine. Imported from Germany our Mayer potting machine can pot up to 2,000 plants per hour, but does however require up to ten staff to achieve such a result. This type of machinery is very modular up to the point, in Europe they operate as a fully robotic system with no staff whatsoever.
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Out And About 
As Canterbury Champion Award finalists we have received a wonderous amount of great publicity from all local media. On Thursday 11th September we attended the prize giving evening held at the Christchurch Convention Centre. This was a very prestigious night where approximately 1,000 guests from the Canterbury business sector came together to celebrate and acknowledge some of the finest businesses Canterbury has to offer. It was a wonderful evening of glitz and glamour and the Prime Minister Helen Clark was there to present some of the awards. Although on the night we were not winners in our cateogory, just being a finalist has made us feel pretty proud!
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Lavenders - A Lasting Favourite
Lavender was amongst the earliest plants introduced to New Zealand by Europeans and it's still an aromatic garden favourite. Here at Gardening Solutionz we grow:
One of our Gardening Solutionz favourites is Lavender 'stoechas Major'. Originating from the western Mediterranean this variety is one of New Zealand gardeners' most successful and rewarding plants. Its silvery grey foliage and prolific rich dark purple flowers put on a real show from early spring into summer. Our cold winters adeptly test its endurance, but it deservedly should be presented with a medal for its flowering capabilities and showmanship. Performing best in full sun, this scented beauty is a wonderful choice for low hedging, in mass plantings, potagers, for topiary or quite simply placed in large terracotta pots (see them in our photo above) or in a courtyard for that Mediterranean look. Planted alongside roses, it offers a delightful combination of scent and colour. Or for real definition in the garden try planting it with combinations of the silvery green leaf of Convolvulus 'Cneorum' and the stunning lime green flowers of Euphorbia 'Kea'. |
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Winner From Our Previous Newsletter
The winner from last months newsletter was Sandy Rodwell from Christchurch, who won a Gardening Solutionz Hebe 'Emerald Gem'.
Our NZ Gardener readers who also won a Hebe 'Emerald Gem' last month were Mary White, Maureen Skillander, A Burrell, Judith Livingstone and S Allan.
This month we have a Libertia 'Taupo Blaze' to give away so remember to click on the competition section of this newsletter. It could be you winning this wonderful plant. | |
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Next time - its all about Hot 'n' Dry Solutionz in your garden, some new releases, plus the chance to win bags of the new Tui Super Sheep Pellets. |
From the team at Gardening Solutionz
www.gardeningsolutionz.co.nz
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Competition!
If you would like to win a Libertia 'Taupo Blaze' - Simply enter here to go in the draw TO WIN
(Terms and Conditions apply) |
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Gardening
'Solutionz'
If you have any gardening questions you would like answered - please contact us. This weeks question is:
Question: Hi,
Scleranthus Biflorus: I have some of these in my garden and most of them are looking very healthy. However one is looking almost dead; the greenery has turned brown and it has lost it 'bushy appearance'. I would like to know what has likely caused this and if possible a cure.
Thanks David Thank you Patricia
Answer: Hi David,
Scleranthus Biflorus likes to be kept quite moist, so check that it is getting enough water. It sounds like yours could respond to some liquid feed or fertilizer, we recommend the Tui range of products so visit www.tuigarden.co.nz for more information. Alternatively, sometimes the browning can mean a fungal disease, your local garden centre should be able to assist you with a tonic for this. From the team at gardeningsolutionz.co.nz |
For care of your Gardening Solutionz plants we recommend Tui garden care products. For more information click here
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