Ferns at the Waterfall

Gorgeous day at our waterfall on Sunday - doing some release spraying, and planning where to develop with planting this autumn. Under planting is the next target - don't need any more trees! Will be ferns, ferns and more ferns (I have a secret source in the pine forest), plus splitting my Rengarenga lilies, and various groundcovers such as Symphytum, Violets, Hellebores etc - anything to cover the ground layer. Now the main planting has grown up, I have been cutting lower limbs off trees, to allow views beyond. Makes a huge difference to the feeling of space if you can see beyond, rather than a wall of foliage. This creates spaces underneath that can then have the lowest tier of planting added. That is one of my projects this winter. For more detail on the waterfall, click on the heading in the column on the right.

Rengaremga Lily on the left, Kawakawa on the right

Heart shaped leaves of Kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum)

Hebe flowers are still drawing in the bees

I have so many Rimu planted - one of my favourite heritage trees, and they are
visually rewarding from an early stage.

Looking down towards the boardwalk by the fernery

Limbing up the Titoki  and Kowhai allows views through to the main pond

Gorgeous shiny leaves of Titoki (Alectyron excelsa)

Hoheria populnea

Tree ferns transplanted from in the pine tree forest

Bold leaves of Rangiora (Bracyglottis repanda) next to a Ponga/Tree fern by the stream

View from up on the road looking across some of the wetlands. This was a bare paddock in 2009. 

The cabbage trees are particularly gratifying with quick growth, great survival rates, and now they
punctuate the rest of the more bushy planting. 

Clerodendrum trichotomum

This gorgeous small tree flowers for several months in late summer and autumn. The flowers smell a bit like jasmine. The leaves are a deep green with purple tinge. Overall the tree gives an impression of pink when it it flowering, because even though the flowers are white, the bracts are pink. I got given a seedling a few years ago, and that young tree is now producing it's own babies. I plan to mass plant them in an area of the garden that I do not want tall trees to hide the view. This will have my new burgundy/pink perennial planting in front of it, which should set each other off nicely! The berries are also really gorgeous - see photos below.

Berries appear in late May. Really distinctive colours!