What to do in your garden this week
Christchurch's first Ellerslie International Flower Show is off to a promising start, weeks before the show opens. Gillian Vine reports.
The Dunedin Dahlia Circle will celebrate 25 years when it hosts the South Island National Dahlia Show in Dunedin this weekend.
Anthea Doherty is more worried about possums than finding entries for the Outram Garden Club's show next Friday.
"Loving and caring" is the theme for the 42nd Ecumenical Festival of Flowers in Praise, which will be held in St Paul's Cathedral from February 14 to 17.
"New Zealand plants are beautiful. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise," Dennis Greville says.
Lilies are one of the world's most popular cut flowers, vying with roses for the No 1 slot. The public have the chance to see why they are so popular at this weekend's Otago Lily Society show, in Dunedin, as Gillian Vine reports.
A classy South Otago garden is the setting for a fundraising garden party next month. Gillian Vine reports.
Ten years ago, Helen and Peter Gilder moved to Waitapeka Farm, 11km from Balclutha, but it was to be another three years before Helen started landscaping around the house and a further three years before planting was completed.
Vegetables Keeping the soil hoed at this time of year not only keeps down weed seedlings but also gives vegetables an effective mulch of broken soil that prevents loss of moisture lower down in the ground.
Otago's 2008 Gardener of the Year Midge Ruka was a late starter, she tells Gillian Vine.
Make it a green Christmas. Gillian Vine has some gift suggestions for garden-lovers.
Unique in New Zealand gardening history, The Star Garden Book has been produced in Dunedin for almost 100 years. Gillian Vine, writer-editor of the centennial edition, just published, looks at the life of the first writer, Harry Clarke.
An old beared iris, Graccus was bred in 1884.
A couple of decades ago, Otago and Southland were dotted with dozens of cottage-garden nurseries. Many have gone, but among the survivors is one in Clinton.
Fifteen years ago when small, garden-gate plant stalls were starting to disappear, Jenny Ritchie bucked the trend and opened a nursery in Clinton.
You don't have to be a Sam McGredy to breed your own roses, Gillian Vine learns.
You don't have to be scientific about crosses to start with, George and Dawn Agnew say.
Looking for inspiration, Gillian Vine examines the new crop of gardening books.
"People in Dunedin are only starting to realise native plants exist and can be used in the garden," Fiona Eadie says.
One of Dunedin's most attractive old villas, Magnolia House is complemented by its lovely garden, as Gillian Vine finds.
Even the steepest section has possibilities for a keen Dunedin gardener, as Gillian Vine finds.
Some plants just love being together. Gillian Vine finds out about some symbiotic relationships in the garden.