While many in the North are having a late season as the long winter hangs on , the first daffs are emerging in a few gardens in our area .”Tahi ” , 8W – WY , with it,s well documented Kiwi – American breeding, is now the established leader for first Autumn flowers.
John Hollever had the first bloom out in his Ohau garden on 1st April ; this bloom was snapped in Kevin Sherlocks garden , between Levin and Otaki, – in my Otaki garden the first blooms are just starting to unfold .
Flowers are about a week away . Tahi is a very strong grower , – thick , strong tall stems and very vigorous foliage for all growers and usually 3 – 6 flowers per stem .
Tahi — number one early tazetta
Kevin is a keen dahlia exhibitor and breeder — the dahlias are still flowering strongly but , with a few heavy morning dews , powdery mildew is starting to appear and will soon end the dahlia season .
Tahi and Dahlias
Summer and Autumn blooms
Big Cones -but not many
Coulters Pine
Big Cone Pine
The elegant conifer behind the dahlias is a fine ” Coulters Pine ” – the big cone pine .
Kevin has planted a lot of different trees here since 1983 ; the Coulters Pine is over 20 years old and has just started to produce big cones .They can be over 12 inches ( 30 cm ) and weigh 2 lb ( a Kilo ) or more , but are rather reluctant to cone up in our low altitude – about 50 metre above sealevel .
We are guessing this is the problem as we could only spot 4 cones on the healthy tree .
Perhaps the Californians can tell us how to grow them as I believe they are native to the higher altitude Californian ranges .