January 2026
Dear Gardening Friends,
I hope that you are enjoying being in your gardens after the Christmas festivities. For some of you there’s a chance to visit gardens in other regions if you’re away on holiday. We get many travelling visitors in the new year.
Now that our unseasonal rainy season has finished we’re cutting back perennials so that there will be an abundant and non-leggy second flowering in March. Last week we watered the whole garden, which is nearly all mulched with our compost.
An exciting time is the flowering of annuals that were grown from seed in the new shade house. One of the highlights for me is the zinnias. What cheerful plants they are and they are great to have in a vase when we pick the initial single flowers so that the plant can bush up, which they are now doing.
We’ve also grown a range of perennials which are great for bulk plantings in the garden. I am looking forward to planting out a mass of Francoa ramosa ‘ Bridal Wreath’ in one of the woodland areas.
My mind has fluctuated so many times about the future of the side pond. Initially I was going to replace it with a dry sunken garden. Plans were well underway, with plantings decided and reconstruction organised, when I realised that it would be too busy on the eye, considering the attractive garden that we have created behind the pond. I then decided that we would remove the pond and replace it with lawn. Then, as I looked at our dear goldfish enjoying themselves at the water’s surface, the blue dragonflies and other creatures spending time in the sun by the pond, I started to think again. Now that we have removed a lot of bulky and tall- growing plants from the edges, including masses of gunnera, the pool is looking more natural with small ferns growing at the edges; thus giving cover from shags. So the thinking is to simplify the plantings around the edges, keeping them very low, so that the views of other gardens aren’t blocked out. I hope that you can follow this ramble. I’ll try and remember to take photos for the next newsletter.
Photo 1: New Zealand garlic drying out before it is plaited. Last year the first-year crop didn’t produce much, but this year I am very happy!
Photo 2: My first zinnias. Also a very early memory from childhood.
Photo 3: The front pond is one of our favourite areas for sitting and relaxing. It provides welcome shade in the summer. The bare trunks of the Philadelphus ‘Virginal’ that can be seen growing inside the box plants on either side of the pond were felled as I’d limbed them up too high and the enjoyment of the fragrant flowers couldn’t be appreciated. They are now sprouting away from the base in leaps so the flowers will be enjoyed next summer. In the terra cotta pots in the foreground I had set pots of ‘Snow in Summer’, or Cerastium tomentosum and after many years decided to have a change, so we now have white-flowering pratia.
Photo 4: An upstairs view from my study window. On the far right is Cornus alternifolia ‘Argentea’, in the centre Pin oak trees, to the far left is the top of an Emmenopterys henryi tree, and towering above everything, the majestic macrocarpas.
Photo 5: We’ve found the ideal spot to grow Kirengeshoma palmata. This photo was taken two years ago and now we have the seven plants thriving and some are about to flower again.
We have a range of plants for sale for all growing conditions, which can be seen growing in the garden. Apart from plant sales we are going to be donating a lot of plant material to the Friends of the Christchurch Botanic Gardens propagating team who will prepare them for sale at their plant stall in the Gardens.
Very best wishes to you all,
Margaret
