Perennial plants and grasses sitting in black plastic eurocrates on coffee sacks in a home nursery. A sun shower is taking place.

Today's view from the nursery that will soon be replacing our lawn. Glad to have some rain today as hand watering is taking longer and longer the more I propagate. #aonzgardening

Flights may be grounded at Auckland airport, but the back garden looks good in the mist #nzgardens #aonzgardening

Early spring gold What a delight are the dainty narcissi. I see I started photographing them in in mid July so we have had a month of pleasure so far and plenty more to come. When it comes to magnolia flowers, we lean ...

Well, it was a dark and stormy night but this morning's #garden post is about the early spring sunshine of the narcissi - mostly dwarf types that we grow. jury.co.nz/2024/08/18/e... #aonzgardening

The Magnoliafication The Magnoliafication – we made it up. A bit like The Rapture, perhaps, but with its roots firmly in the soil, showier and more socialist in concept so not, in fact, like The Rapture at all. It was the...

The magnoliafication of my local town of Waitara. New #garden post. #aonzgardening jury.co.nz/2024/08/17/t...

Hey Kikorangi hive mind ...

it's coming on to warmer weather and time to be thinking about putting the garden out for the year.. I'll personally have a LOT of seeds and seedlings left over if anyone might be keen on doing a seed swap for the season?

🌱🇳🇿
#aonzgardening #Auckland

In praise of the humble tamarillo A seedling tamarillo that appeared in the Wild North Garden The unsung hero of our winter salads is tamarillo. We eat salads most days all year round and finding mixed contents in the depths of winter...

The low profile tamarillo is very useful as both a fruit and a vegetable if you live in a frost-free area and grow your own. Today's new #garden post. jury.co.nz/2024/08/02/i... #aonzgardening

Snowdrops and narcissi happily settled in meadow conditions. All the white dots in photo 2 are scattered snowdrops. Photo 3 - reflexed petals always make me think of floppy-eared dogs with their heads out the window. #aonzgardening

Flower time!. Two different forms of Magnolia campbellii. #aonzgardening

A blue sky winter in today's new #garden post. #aonzgardening jury.co.nz/2024/07/26/b...

Today's new post, loosely on gardening, is on ideas and observations from my recent jaunt in the south of France. From mini garden fences to mosaic cobbles to how they deal with bloated SUVs. jury.co.nz/2024/07/21/i... #aonzgardening

Camellia yuhsienensis (syn grijsii var grijsii) - truly lovely but probably no longer available commercially because it need to be grafted. And our own Fairy Magnolia White brightening the depts of winter. #aonzgardening

The rhododendron may be magnificent but our ephemeral bulb meadows bring me more joy. Snowdrops in full bloom and little narcissi just opening. Getting them naturalised in meadow conditions has taken maybe 15 years. #aonzgardening

The orchids, however, last for months. Our interest is solely in orchids we can use as garden plants so mostly cymbidiums, dendrobiums, calanthes and pleiones. #aonzgardening

Snowdrop season is fleeting here at best - maybe 10 days to a fortnight - but no less charming for that. We use them both as garden plants and in meadow situations. #aonzgardening

Cork trees, wildflowers and vineyards in charming Occitania Occitania borders Spain and also sits on the Mediterranean with equally glorious sea views and coastline, but is a lot more low-key than the Riviera. It has many local villages which seemed to be full...

Cork trees, wildflowers and vineyards in Occitania. Oh, and dog poo. Today's new #garden post. #aonzgardening jury.co.nz/2024/06/30/c...

Like sunshine on a grey and gloomy winter's day. Red hot pokers without the red - or kniphofia. #aonzgardening

English gardens in Provence The two gardens I enjoyed the most on my recent jaunt around gardens in the French Riviera were the private ones where we were welcomed by the owners. I can relate to the scale, the personal vision an...

More gardens of Provence - the two I enjoyed the most were private gardens created by expat Brits 50 years apart. jury.co.nz/2024/06/16/e... #aonzgardening

Prickly things, fair maidens and views in Èze Conditions are tough – exposed, coastal, precipitous, rocky, windy, very dry and hot in summer. What grows in those conditions? Cacti and succulents. They grow very well. I see a note that in getting ...

While I am not sure that I would describe cacti and succulents as exotic, Le Jardin Exotique d'Eze was pretty amazing. Today's new #garden post. jury.co.nz/2024/06/15/p... #aonzgardening

And the orchids are just starting. Along with the first magnolia bloom. #aonzgardening

Villa et Jardins Ephrussi de Rothschild. Part 2 of Gardens of the French Riviera It is a large villa but also exceptionally pretty in pink and white And so to the pink villa and gardens of Ephrussi de Rothschild at St Jean Cap Ferrat. It was built as a delightful holiday house by ...

Today's new #garden post is on the Ephrussi de Rothschild gardens in Nice and why I dislike rose gardens. Also the disappointment of the so-called International Rose Festival in Grasse. #aonzgardening jury.co.nz/2024/06/09/v...

An hydrangea, believe it or not, but not your normal type. Evergreen, tree-like and with enormous flowers. Also brittle as hell and frost tender so it needs the right spot to grow. #aonzgardening

I never expected to be a fan of kniphofia but these won me over. #AONZgardening

From Hidcote to Serre de la Madone – Lawrence Johnston’s two gardens Did it live up to my expectations? No. Not at all. Was I disappointed? Not really. As I get older, I get more philosophical and even the experience of something falling short can still be interesting.

Have I mentioned I am just back from a trip which included touring gardens of the French Riviera? Todays new post is on the first of those gardens: Lawrence Johnson's (he of Hidcote fame) French indulgence in Menton. https:// #aonzgardening jury.co.nz/2024/06/08/f...

Autumn delight Rockeries lend themselves to highly detailed, high-interest level gardening and I can see I could be quite happy pottering in a rockery – as indeed was Mark’s dad, Felix, in his later years. It is a p...

When high maintenance gardening is rewarding - autumn in the rockery. jury.co.nz/2024/04/28/a... #aonzgardening

The Chelsea Chop The Chelsea chop is a time-honoured British gardening technique. Its name is related to the Chelsea Flower Show towards the end of May each year; that is the recommended time for gardeners to head out...

The Chelsea Chop in today's new #garden post - though carried out in November here. #aonzgardening jury.co.nz/2024/04/14/t...

Seamless transitions – doing away with garden edgings Beth Chatto was planting on an old riverbed in an extremely low rainfall area and she wanted a garden that did not rely on any irrigation at all. Clearly this bears no relationship to our conditions. ...

Doing away with garden edgings for a seamless look - mananged naturalism, perhaps - in today's new #garden post. jury.co.nz/2024/03/24/s... #aonzgardening

Summer gardening Here is a sight to strike terror in many gardeners. Those are gladiolus bulbs, in this case a yellow flowered hybrid. I knew it was a ‘vigorous’ grower, as the euphemism goes. I just didn’t realise qu...

Today's new #garden post is on summer gardens, dangerous gladiolus and what makes a good garden. jury.co.nz/2024/02/18/s... #aonzgardening

#māra #mahimāra #mārakai #putiputi #tipu #nzgardens #nzgardening #gardeningnz #aonzgardening #aotearoagardening #nzgarden

#māra #mahimāra #mārakai #putiputi #tipu #nzgardens #nzgardening #gardeningnz #aonzgardening #aotearoagardening #nzgarden

The calliandra is looking very candyfloss-like at the moment. Not too many summer flowering shrubs - other than hydrangeas - when you think about it. #aonzgardening