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| Header image: Kowhai flowers (Sophora microphylla) in our nursery mother plants area |
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| News from the nursery and spring outlook |
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| After a fairly unremarkable winter weather-wise, despite a few extreme flooding events in other parts of the country, we’ve had a wet and somewhat cool early spring, with a gusty October finally starting to settle into nice warm weather. Some noteworthy climate events in the Pacific and Southern oceans are combining into what is predicted to continue to be an active October, with November and December weather to be more settled.
The overall climate pattern for this spring in inland Otago is predicted to be near equally likely for average or above average temperatures. There is also predicted near equally likely probability for average to below average rainfall, but soil moisture and river flows are average to above average (source: NIWA).
All in all, it looks like good growing conditions are ahead but the forecast confidence is not high, due to the confluence of different circulation patterns in play. However, the consensus seems to be La Niña conditions will develop and prevail for the rest of the year, combining with warm stratospheric conditions above the south pole to bring reduced rainfall and warmer temperatures to the lower south island. |
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| Above: Various Hebe and other cuttings in our prop house, ready for pricking out |
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| As always in spring, we’re flat out in the nursery, splitting our time between filling orders, potting and propagation. We’re sending out plants all over the Wanaka-Queenstown-Alexandra area, and the rest of the lower South Island. All hands are on deck potting up, turning our small plants into nice big grades for your future garden and landscaping projects. And of course we have to keep up propagation, both seed work and cuttings, to maintain a steady input of new plants for nursery stock and for contract growing projects. |
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| Above: Lavenders in prop grade (5cm) grown from cuttings |
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| We’ve got most of early spring plants available now, with a good selection of hardy native shrubs well suited for the area. Our Olearia are looking particularly good, with Olearia fimbrata, haastii, hectorii, lineata, paniculata and traversii all available in PB6.5.
For hedging plants, we still have some Portuguese laurel left in PB6.5 and PB18 grade, but they are going fast.
We have a lot more plants coming available through November and December, so keep checking back, or if you are after something in particular, please get in touch. |
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| Above: Unloading a truckload of mixed natives for reveg |
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| | Have a look at our two new crias (baby alpacas, juvenile Lama pacos). Le Fox and Downtown are 8 month old black alpaca females, very friendly and adorable. They came from the famous Kepler Mountain View alpaca stud and accommodation in Manapouri, a fantastic place to stay if you are ever in the area. |
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| Having never been shorn, their new fleece is very curly and thick and acts almost like velcro, with all kinds of sticks, seeds and bits of grass getting stuck in it, but they don’t seem to mind. They make good company, but they also have a job to do - keep the grass down so we don’t have to mow around the nursery shelterbelt and outbuildings. |
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| History of the Waitiri water race |
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| We’re often asked, where does your water come from? Being far away from town supply, our water is completely off grid. It’s fed from the western branch of the Gentle Annie creek, known as the Springburn, hence the name of our nursery! The Springburn is a perennial water source that at our take point drains about 10 square kilometres of high country, Waitiri Station. From there it joins the main branch of the Gentle Annie/Waireika, to the Kawarau, to the Clutha/Mata-Au at the junction (Cromwell), and from there to the sea.
Now, the Springburn is many kilometres away from our nursery. Long term residents of central Otago will be familiar with water races, an old fashioned term for channels used to move water. You can see the scars of old water races cris-crossing all over central Otago, just about everywhere the old gold diggers worked. Many of the diggers that flocked here in the first gold rush of the 1860s were veterans of the California rush, where water races were developed for gold sluicing. They transplanted this technology to Otago, and mastered it. |
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| Above: At the end of a head race, diggers could turn the water to water based gold extraction, eg sluicing. This is an original sluice monitor, still in operation, at Goldfields Mining Centre, further down the gorge.
Below: A typical spring view up the Springburn valley, taken from standing on the water race, which is visible as the plateau on the top left, and the natural water course and site of historic digging bottom right. Wild thyme in flower in fore view, all of which is descended from the plants brought by the old diggers to flavour their meals. |
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| Our water race brings the water from the Springburn to the head of the Waitiri peninsula, snaking around the hills for over 7km. It’s over 150 years old, and has had many sets of hands working on it over the generations, ours included.
The water race at Waitiri was built by one William Meanock in 1871. Meanock had likely been working the gold fields in Victoria, perhaps coming there from Britain sometime after the beginning of the Victorian gold rush in 1851, and would have come to Otago with gold fever sometime between 1861-1863. He was living in the Kawarau Gorge prior to 1866, and likely involved with the rush on the Gentle Annie in 1863-1866.
Meanock began the race in March 1871 with a team of 6. He began to appear in the Lake Wakatip Mail, Arrow Observer et al from April 1872 as he became involved in a series of legal disputes around this water race, described as beginning in the "left hand branch of the Gentle Annie Creek" (known today as the Springburn, or Spring Burn) and taking water "a distance of some six or seven miles away". |
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| | Above: Excerpts drawn from Papers Past, a great resource for historical research, where you can do a powerful search of “digitised full-text New Zealand and Pacific newspapers, magazines and journals” |
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| Meanock is then mentioned again in 1875 in the Evening Star as an "enterprising Welshman" who received a special gold claim of 10 acres for bringing the race around "some very rough and precipitous country". It doesn't specify the location of the claim though one assumes it would have included the area where the sluice tailings are found on the peninsula today.
This claim was well deserved when you consider this race was dug all by hand. The cost of the race is mentioned as being £600 in one article and £1000 in another. Some quick research shows the average daily wage of a labourer in the Otago gold fields at the time was in the region of 9 shilling 6 pence, or about £0.5. So the amount of labour involved was considerable, and all other materials were bought by ox cart from the coast. Even basic building materials we take for granted today, like timber and nails, were expensive and in short supply. |
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| Above: An example of sluice tailings on the Waitiri peninsula today. This huge pile of rocks, taken from the sluice channel on the left, were possibly worked by Meanock himself, but either way date to 100-150 years old and provide a nice lizard habitat nowadays. |
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| It seems the digging in the Gentle Annie died down in the late 1870s/1880s (hard to say when the Chinese left as their actions are not recorded in any detail), but not before the diggers had worked both sides of the Kawarau, from the upper terraces down to the riverbanks, using flying foxes and flumes to move themselves and water across the big river. The new Kawarau Gorge Cycle Trail, hotly anticipated and which we are proud to be supplying plants for, will open public viewing access to the old herring bone sluice tailings on the flat across the Kawarau from the Gentle Annie. There are the ruins of old stone buildings in the scrub there that haven’t been touched since they were abandoned in the 1860s or 70s. |
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| | On rabbits, and Euphorbia |
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| It’s no secret that Central Otago has a serious rabbit problem. Its arid sandy and schist soils are ideal rabbit real estate. Combine this with little to no predation, and exponential population growth is the result. With an annual rainfall as low as 400mm, our nursery is well within prime rabbit country and we have been battling since we first built. Five years on the tide has turned and we are getting near eradication. We have learned many things we wished we had known sooner. Here are a few of them:
1. So-called “Rabbit netting” is not rabbit proof. The 40mm hex netting typically sold as rabbit netting will stop adult rabbits but baby rabbits breeze through. Then they grow up inside the "rabbit proof" area and essentially trap them in. If you want to exclude the babies, 25mm or lower is necessary, and even then regular perimeter checks are essential. Similar to rodents, the size of gap a rabbit can squeeze through seems to be limited only by the width and height of it’s skull, which we’ve measured as small as 22 mm on rabbits old enough to move around in the open.
2. Live traps are very effective when put on regular rabbit runs and covered creating a tunnel. They still need to be checked daily. Even though they are live traps, unless baited or on grass, rabbits will starve to death within a day or two, so check them every day. Leg traps also work, though trap aversion develops quicker and rabbits can sometimes escape them.
3. Rabbit guards around plants should be at least 60cm tall, especially if planting on a slope. Most standard rabbit guards are around 40cm. This leads to rabbits topping the plants and restricting growth.
4. Rabbits will eat almost anything, especially at high densities when food is scarce. They particularly like snow tussock, red tussock, Hebe and kowhai, honing in on these plants before anything else. A lot of plants are sold as rabbit proof, but in our experience, some of the only plants rabbits safely do not touch are Euphorbia, daffodils, bearded iris, and Cistus. A larger number of plants are rabbit tolerant only when larger and more established, with rabbits browsing the new foliage but leaving the old foliage. |
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| We currently have a couple of species of Euphorbia in stock: Euphorbia martinii and Euphorbia glauca. Many Euphorbia are invasive but Euphorbia martinii seems not to be and Euphorbia glauca is our only native Euphorbia.
Euphorbia martinii is a tidy evergreen bush growing to a 60cm ball. It is laden with bright yellow flowers from late September to November starting spring with a bang. The leaves are a deep green which contrast attractively with the flowers. In the winter the leaves turn purple, looking particularly fine with emerging flower shoots. Euphorbia martinii is a low maintenance plant as it is frost and drought hardy, and of course, rabbit hardy too! All Euphorbia produce an irritant sap when cut or damaged, which presumably makes them inedible. Wearing gloves when handling is recommended. |
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| | | Euphorbia glauca, the New Zealand Sea Spurge, is an endemic naturally occurring on coasts throughout the country. However, they are nationally declining and at critical levels in Otago. It is a coastal plant found growing in sand dunes and is at home in windy and dry conditions. Its blue grey leaves are highly attractive which contrasts beautifully with its red stems. In spring, small red flowers are produced on the tips of the stems. Grow in full sun, well drained sandy or stony soil is a must. Hardy to frost. |
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| | | | We have a lovely large grade of Vinca minor available. Vinca minor is a useful plant for a tricky spot - an evergreen groundcover perfect for covering dry shady spots underneath thick trees or on a bank. They spread by growing roots from their branches so they can spread into hard to plant areas. The attractive blue flowers are produced throughout spring and summer. Not to be confused with its invasive cousin Vinca major. If it outgrows its area it can be cut back hard in spring. |
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| | Vinca minor 'Blue' PB6.5 $10.50 Common/Maori name(s): Lesser periwinkle Vinca minor is an evergreen groundcover that grows vigorously in almost all situations. It is very useful as a groundcover in tough shady situations, growing where many other plants can't. It grows 20cm high by 50cm. It is handy for banks and hard to reach areas as the branches will root where it touches the ground creating a mat. Avoid growing in extremely dry or swampy areas. Hardy to frosts down to -20C. |
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| | Hebe 'Lewisii' PB6.5 $10.50 An attractive larged leaved Hebe that is adept at coping with wind and coastal conditions. In late spring/early summer it produces a pretty cone of bicoloured flowers that are violet and white. This Hebe will grow 1.2-2.4m. To keep it bushy, trim back after flowering in summer. As this is a large leaved Hebe frost damage may occur in temperatures below -5c. Structures such as buildings and large bodies of water will offer a warmer climate. Plant in full sun to part shade in moist but well drained soil. Adding compost and mulch will help to improve soil. |
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| | As always if you are planning any plantings or big jobs for this spring or next autumn let us know and we will prepare a quote. The more lead time you can give us, the better we can meet your needs.
Check out our Catalogue for more information or feel free to flick us an email or a call.
As always, if you want a quick overview of what we have immediately available in stock, you can check our order page. |
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