Garden Guru: Rely on friends

Clematis Spring Essence won't let you down. Photo / Supplied

Catching up with old friends is an important part of the holiday season. We spent time getting together with a bunch of university pals.

With eight of us and an entourage of 13 assorted kids in one house it was a chaotic but happy reunion.

In the garden, too, I make sure to include a dependable backbone of familiar faces that can be relied on and, more often than not, that means our tough native plants. Natives are like old friends and although it is nice that they don't change radically from year to year life would be dishwater dull if they didn't surprise you now and again with a new variety or different flower.

Esme Dean and her husband Mark have been growing natives for almost 30 years, and the success of their wholesale business Naturally Native is partly credited with the resurgence in interest and pride in our indigenous flora. The Deans started as lifestylers in the hills above Tauranga where the climate is cool enough to grow the fussy Chatham Islands forget-me-not.

Today, they supply plants nationwide, trialling new varieties in three locations and, despite the economy, demand from retailers and habitat restoration projects is looking decidedly healthy. So I asked Esme about old friends and new arrivals at the nursery.

Pseudowintera is an overlooked family of plants, she reckons. Despite not hitting big sales, bright-leaved varieties such as Red Leopard and Red Glow never get too large in the garden, are easy to grow, and are rarely troubled by pests and disease.

Gardeners in general are becoming more attuned to a much wider pallet of natives than was available a decade ago. But the demand for grasses has shrunk, presumably because of their disappointing performance in heavy soils.

In their place people are becoming more interested in native iris (libertia) such as amber-leaved Goldfinger which stands out rather better than some of the more murky brown varieties.

Just a few years back there would be only one native clematis available, our shining white paniculata. But there are seven indigenous species and hybrids between them are appearing all the time. Spring Essence is a naturally occurring cross which, as the name suggests, inherits a rich honey scent from its parent, Clematis foetida, from which it also gets its startling lime-green flowers.

Other countries as passionate about our plants - Britain in particular - turn out their own twists on familiar themes. Black Ice is a good example.It is another clematis, this time bred in Britain with intriguing lacy black leaves that are the perfect foil to its starry white flowers.

Surprisingly, Naturally Native doesn't grow ferns but Esme says her desert island choice would be our stately king fern (Marattia salicina). It is a bit tricky to grow well, demanding deep and well-watered soil in partial shade.

Flaxes will always be an essential part of New Zealand gardens and although they are less tolerant of heavy soils, the mountain flax (Phormium cookianum) is a much better size for town sections. I've always admired the extra dwarf

variety Green Gem with its relaxed foliage - no stiff daggers - and its willingness to produce a profusion of the honey-coloured flowers so beloved by nectar-feeding birds. Moonraker is a sport of this, so retains the useful Lilliputian scale but with chic white streaks for added pizzazz.

Esme says Chocomint is another exciting newcomer with brown and green patterning. As well as being compact it has unusually retained the generous flowering nature of its Green Gem parent.

Purple-leaved plants can seem too sombre and funereal if overdone but Phormium Purple Haze is recent cookianum hybrid with much more ruddy warmth about it than the truly dark and often seen Platts Black which, like many flaxes, can become riddled with mealybug. This pest is notoriously hard to eradicate and, because it will rarely harm your plants, you may wish to turn a blind eye.

Another purple native this year is Coprosma Royale, which possesses the gloss and glamour of existing purple cultivars such as Yvonne or Karo Red. Coprosma Royale is an altogether scaled-down plant with a usefully compact nature.

Coprosmas, like hebes, should never be seen as plants that will last a lifetime. Esme says experienced gardeners know that even with regular clipping they will have a lifespan of only six years - so treat them as fashionable expendables.

Getting out there

* You can never water containers enough but a good test is to tap terracotta pots on the side with a knuckle - hear a ring rather than a dull thud and it's time for action. Mulching the top of pots helps to retain moisture and looks better too.

* Late-flowering perennials will benefit from a quick-acting liquid feed before they finish blooming. Use a high-potash fertiliser such as a rose or tomato feed for a well-earned boost.

* Take cuttings now of tender plants that will not survive winter outside. In coldest areas even penstemons can succumb to a long winter so as insurance take 5-10cm tip cuttings cut just below a leaf node.