ARTICLE : Newlands native plant garden – winter and spring 2005

 Newlands native plant garden – winter and spring 2005.

The winter of 2005 was wetter and more mild than is normal for our area, but keeping in mind Robyn Smith’s “half way up Mt Ruapehu” reference in the September Newsletter, the term “mild” is of course relative.   Yearly variations in weather patterns can be clearly observed in both growth and flowering behaviour occurring throughout a wide range of NZ native plants grown in our garden.

The first indication of an early and profuse flowering season was the very early winter appearance of copious numbers of flowers on a small, terrestrial orchid, Nematoceras longipetala, which in our garden flowers late July – mid-August.   This season, flowering began in late June and was finished before the end of July.   Likewise a number of trees, shrubs and climbers not only produced flowers considerably earlier than usual, but the number and quality of the blooms exceeded those of the past few seasons.   Examples were: Clematis paniculata, Macropiper melchior, Metrosideros carminea (a truly dazzling display, in fact the best flowering ever for this forty-year-old liane), some Pittosporum spp, Hebe bollonsii, Hebe adamsii and Pimelea longifolia, to name but a few.

The same phenomenon was observed in the true alpine plants and in many other herbaceous species.   Celmisia species produced striking early displays, as did two species of NZ edelweiss, Leucogenes tarahaoa and L. neglecta.   Myosotis species, including the “difficult” M. pulvinaris also responded with generous displays, although mildew was an ever-present threat.

A number of showy native tussock grasses have also responded to generous rainfall with striking displays from Chionochloa flavicans, C. conspicua, C. beddei, together with the elegant and rare Chatham Island Cortaderia tubaria.

Libertia species are in heavy flower, or have already set good crops of seed capsules.

There are of course negatives to this rosy picture.   Not only did the early appearance of mildew cause concern, but not one of our true alpine Ranunculus species have shown the slightest inclination to flower.   The winter was simply not cold enough for their needs.   Even the application of copious amounts of ice from our fridge could not persuade Ranunculus lyallii, R. nivicola or R. buchananii to produce other than large quantities of rather lush leaves.   However, some of the rather less “alpine” species produced displays of poor, under-sized flowers.

There is, of course, never a “perfect” year for a native plant garden but on present results, the 2005 season promises, in this garden at least, to be one of the better ones.

Arnold and Ruth Dench