Kapiti Coast
Julian Matthews takes a closer look at cold hardy plants
Neomaricacaerulea is a Brazilian native which grows like a slender, compact flax but has much gentler foliage.
It is nice but unremarkable when not in flower. But for a period of roughly three months, starting in early December, it produces a prodigious crop of beautiful, iris-like, sky blue flowers.
It’s one of the few plants which lures me to look for the emerging flower stems in spring, and to count them, a habit which I usually think of as fanatical, but such is the appeal of this plant, I just can’t help myself.
Each flower lasts just a day, but they keep on coming, an astonishing display of mass flower production from small, flattish buds.
Now to the slightly vague matter of cold hardiness. This is considered a sub-tropical plant, implying it is on the frost tender side, but it grows happily in a few gardens around Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast.
Our plant came through last winter’s harsher-than-usual frosts (which were still light in our mild micro-climate) unscathed, so it will seemingly take a little light frost okay.
Otherwise it can be grown against a wall, or on the edge of overhanging vegetation, which will provide frost protection. Advice from wise garden writers suggests it will grow in light shade, but I haven’t tried this.
Plant availability has often been a problem, but Gus Evans Nursery, 12 Utauta Street, Waikanae had good stocks when I checked recently.
Garden furniture sometimes needs replacing, as we have found lately with our wooden benches which, after a quarter century, began to rot and pose a danger to resting bodies.
The thought of well-padded visitors collapsing in a heap among broken bits of furniture became too much after a while, so we replaced the benches with a couple of Cape Cod chairs made by Canadiana (canadiana.co.nz), just up the line in Levin.
These are the comfy ones with a sloping back and wide arms for resting cups of tea, or stronger drinks if the need arises after a day of garden toil.
You can choose from several colours. We went for yellow, which is nice and cheerful, and makes a bold contrast with the flower borders.
There has been almost universal approval from visitors, although one let out a cry of anguish at such lack of subtlety and poor taste!
There’s lots of interest in palms these days and plenty to choose from in garden centres, and from specialist online nurseries too.
Something that seems to be largely overlooked when choosing a palm is the appearance of the trunk. Some are quite beautiful, while a few are not particularly attractive. We get a lot of pleasure out of the Dypsis
baronii palms here.
They are multi-trunked, have attractive rings and range from dark green old growth to a lime colour on the upper trunks.
These are versatile palms, happy in full sun or dappled shade, and tolerant of light frosts. They are often regarded as slow growing, but food and summer watering will get them moving at a reasonable pace.
Harder to find (unless you’re up north and can call on palm nurseries), is Mt Lewis palm, Archontophoenix purpurea.
We have an established Mt Lewis palm near the house and with maturity the trunk has become ever more beautiful with its arty green and yellow horizontal bands beneath the purplish crown shaft.
The fast growing, off-shore (Kermadec and Norfolk Island) nikau relative
Rhopalostylis bauerii has a striking trunk too, the patterns rather like an artist’s interpretation of palm trunk patterns.
But one problem to bear in mind with these is that the big fronds are heavy to handle when they fall.
Several new non-native variegated carex varieties have become available in garden centres lately.
The newest of these, Carex ‘Feather Falls’, has weeping foliage and is ideal for pots or edging paths. The dense, weed-smothering foliage means it is a good choice for low maintenance, massed ground cover plantings.
These evergreen grasses are cold hardy and tough, able to grow without much need for extra water once established. When in pots, regular watering during dry periods is essential. A bit of sheep manure applied annually in spring will help this and similar ornamental grasses to grow strongly and keep on looking good.