The Garden Taupo

24/12/2023

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

To having a flower filled summer, sun and rain and the right soil and that your heart (and vases) get filled with flowers all season long.

Merry Christmas and Frohe Weihnachten.

31/08/2023

And so the season begins.

It’ll be a slow one in my cut flower garden, other things are taking priority this year, one of them being the pottery over at , another one is the renovations on our house plus the development of the garden around the house.
But the flowers that are growing, especially the dahlias, will of course be picked and most of them delivered to who is, as always, such a gem to work with and grow for.

This bunch of Madame Butterfly snapdragons headed into yesterday and gosh, me heart always skips a beat when I see those frilly double blooms on long stems and glorious colours..

25/05/2023

A cherry tree in our neighbour’s garden.

Unspectacular to my eye for most of the year.

But now that autumn has almost fully passed, the leaves start to turn the most magnificent colours. Makes me think of a Luquidambar.

Not long before the blue sky will be clouded again, the days even shorter and the leaves of the cherry tree fallen to the ground to become soil again.

05/05/2023

04/05/2023

Little balls of bliss.

One of the reminders of my, ongoing, friendship with Rene .

Where do I start?
These Craspedia plants were dug out of Rene’s cut flower garden here in Taupō before she and her family packed up all of their belongings and moved to Australia, more than a year ago now.
The little seedlings, raised by my dear friend, where young and fragile and very very unhappy to be dug out, moved across town, plonked in a waaay too shady spot in my garden over winter while I too packed my house to move to a new home, planning to take the full crate of these plants with me.
It took me another 6 months to plant them, meanwhile many of those poor babies didn’t survive their forced vagabondism.
Finally I managed to find a spare afternoon to plant the last survivors, very scraggly looking silver leaved plant with almost no root balls and they thanked me since with vigorous growth and these precious few stems of yellow balls.
All this to say: Rene, there is another constant reminder of our friendship here. And isn’t it fitting that those seeds you sowed much longer than a year ago have settled now, in a new garden, surrounded by other golden and yellow plants, and grace the perennial border with their eye catching flowers?
I love to look at the plants, see them content in their spot and to think of you, your habe den here and how the love for flowers we share was carried through your own transition to a new country where you too have your hands and heart full of flowers again.
Thinking of you and missing you and smiling in happiness about you working with fresh flowers.

03/05/2023

The joy I felt today when I discovered this pumpkin here in NZ, from a grower based in the Hawkes Bay…
A very common pumpkin back in Germany, many children’s first solid food back at home, it’s almost impossible to find here, especially in supermarkets which seem to become more and more of a disappointment and money pit, I find.
I’ve seen grow a similar variety last year but never got my hands on one of their pumpkins.
So when I saw a handful of crates filled with these pumpkins at (the very best) local market stand for veggies here in Taupō today I grabbed 6 of them and hope they will last me through the winter.
Yes, I couldn’t quite believe it either
when I drove home with six pumpkins and a whole lot of other fresh vegetables….
Plus, I am saving a handful of seeds to keep and give to dear friends, cherishing them for the years so come.

So here is to not only flower content from me but also the joy of good food, fresh vegetables and fruits and the great satisfaction of growing it yourself, especially in times like we go through at the moment.

01/04/2023

Have a beautiful Sunday morning.
Cappuccino rose and living room wall in perfect synchronisation.

26/03/2023

Red Nerines.

Took me a little while to find out they’re not baker Ladies, not spider lilies and not Bella Donnas.

I got given a chunk of them and planted them not long ago in a makeshift bed and those here in a pot to enjoy in the house or on the steps by the front door.
And I do really enjoy them, seeing how they grow, their stems shooting up and if a flower develops that’s the only thing that comes out of the bulb. No leaves appear until the buds open and create this beautiful red show of autumn colour.

I am looking forward to giving the bulbs I got given a proper place in a garden bed where they will be able shine in autumn, maybe planted in between thyme, the foliage of foxgloves or another low growing plant that flowers at a different time of the year.

It’s an unusual time for a bulb to flower and I think this is what pulls me towards their beauty. It’s slightly unusual, rare and therefore desirable for me…

09/02/2023

I love my dahlias dearly..
and can’t wait for next summer when they are all in their colour coordinated perennial borders… 😍💃🏼

13/01/2023

Today was the day I had my first flower delivery to a local florist again, with flowers from my own garden. Such a wonderful feeling to be able to grow where we live, right in the garden, without any sort of commute or drive to go to a patch of leased land.
Enjoying more and more of my dahlia flowers to open, it’s a bit of a surprise where which flower comes up this year. I labeled all of my tubers before last autumn’s first frost and felt so good and proper to get it done on time, only to discover that the pen I used to write on the tags had faded in the sunshine… I ended up storing all the good varieties in one bag and therefore have a bit of a wild dahlia patch with lots of mixed colours thrown in one garden bed, almost looking like this bucket of flowers I picked this morning.

01/01/2023

The happiest new year to all of you, and that it will be just as filled with flowers as you’d wish for.
First plant of the new year is a treasure, a pink double gypsophila, so dainty and glittery it makes my heart jump in delight.

25/12/2022

Wishing you a beautiful day full of laughter, the people you love and fresh flowers picked from your garden.

Merry Christmas to you.

Pictured here are
A Shropshire Lad and
Strawberries And Cream.