Proteas
Not just any old blossom, protea flowers are blooms with attitude. If you can give them full sun and reasonable drainage, proteas will love you.
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Hellebores (Helleborus spp.), AKA ‘Winter Roses’, provide bewitching colour in a shaded winter garden. They're perennial plants often grown under tree canopies, in pots or in sheltered courtyards where they receive filtered light.
Available in a range of colours from creamy white through to delicate pastel pinks into deep dark gothic crimson, there's certain to be one that'll entice you.
Despite the Winter Rose name, hellebores aren't related to the rose family at all. In fact, they're members of Ranunculaceae, the buttercup family.
Hellebores were associated in Mediaeval folklore with witches; it's easy to see why when you see their mysterious and moody blooms gleaming from the shadows - they're a bewitching display!
They're a delight during the cooler months of the year, putting on a prolific display of large, bell shaped flowers right throughout winter and into early spring.
How to grow hellebores in a garden
- Choose a spot in the garden with semi-shade to full shade and that gets protection from the harsh afternoon sun. Enrich the soil with Yates Thrive Natural Blood & Bone with Seaweed.
- Dig the planting hole twice as wide and to the same depth as the root-ball. Remove the shrub from the container, gently tease the roots.
- Position in hole and backfill with soil, gently firming down. Form a raised or doughnut-shaped ring of soil around the outer edge of the plant's root zone. This helps keep water where it's needed.
- After planting, water in well with diluted Yates Thrive Natural Seaweed Tonic to settle the soil around the roots and help reduce transplant shock.
- Mulch around the base with organic mulch like bark chips, woodchip or pea straw, keeping it away from the main stem.
- Feed with Yates Thrive Rose & Flower Granular Plant Food. TIP: For an added boost apply Yates Thrive Roses & Flower Liquid Plant Food.
How to grow hellebores in a pot
- Choose a pot at least twice the size as the selected plant. Position in semi-shade to full shade and fill with quality potting mix, such as Yates Premium Potting Mix.
- Remove the shrub from the container, gently tease the roots.
- Position in hole and backfill with soil, gently firming down. Water in well with diluted Yates Thrive Natural Seaweed Tonic.
- Mulch around the base with organic mulch like bark chips, woodchip or pea straw, keeping it away from the main stem.
- Feed every 1-2 weeks with Yates Thrive Roses & Flower Liquid Plant Food. TIP: For an added boost apply Yates Thrive Natural Fish & Seaweed+ Plant Food Concentrate.
Growing tips
- Hellebores can be grown from seed and will easily self seed in your garden bed.
- To improve germination if planting out, mix the seeds through some peat moss and leave it in the freezer for a couple of weeks before sowing lightly, covering the seeds, in some Yates Black Magic Seed Raising Mix and water well.
- All parts of the Hellebore plant are poisonous. Take extra precautions if children are in the garden around this plant.
- After flowering, give the bushes a nice prune to encourage new growth.
- Hellebores are great for planting under trees or canopies as they can handle the competition for nutrients.
Azalea
Azaleas vary from small, delicate shrubs that are happy in pots, up to hardy 1.5m shrubs ideal for border planting. Here's how to grow azaleas in your garden.
Lavender
Lavender are hardy perennial plants with silvery-grey, aromatic foliage & dense spike of flowers in shades of purple, blue, pink and white.
Echinacea
Echinacea is a hardy herbaceous perennial with large fragrant pink daisy-like flowers. Used for therapeutic purposes and as a delicious tea.
Recommended products
Yates Thrive Natural Blood & Bone with Seaweed
A certified organic garden input boosted with NZ Seaweed to gently nourish plants, enrich the soil and encourage a strong healthy root system.
Yates Thrive Rose & Flower Granular Plant Food
Specially formulated to grow all types of flowers. With high potassium for large & abundant flowers, added calcium & iron for stronger flowers.
Yates Thrive Roses & Flowers Liquid Plant Food
Provides your flowers & roses with the balanced nutrients they require for healthy growth and flower production.
Yates Premium Potting Mix
A premium potting mix, ideal for all potted plants and shrubs, including ornamentals, fruit trees, vegies and herbs.
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