Festive Colour

Pōhutukawa

The festive season heralds the vibrant colour of pōhutukawa, famous around the World as the “New Zealand Christmas tree”. Its stunning red flowers are a feature of our coastline in mid-summer and are a rich source of nectar for bees and native birds.

Pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsea) can be started from seed and will eventually grow to around 5 – 8 m tall when mature. There are also new dwarf varieties that grow to a much more compact 1 – 3 m and can be planted into containers or grown as a dense hedge. They’re hardy plants, tolerating dry, coastal and full sun conditions.

Native plants like Pōhutukawa will benefit from being fed each spring and autumn with Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food. It’s a pelletised blend of composted chicken manure, blood & bone, fishmeal and seaweed and releases organic nutrients slowly to gently feed plants.

Regular applications of Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food will help to improve the levels of organic matter in the soil, which encourages earthworms and beneficial soil microorganisms as well as promoting improved soil moisture and nutrient storage.

After the floral frenzy of spring, it’s fantastic to be able to include summer flowering plants like Pohutukawa in your garden, to help ensure an ongoing supply of food for birds, bees and other beneficial insects.

Summer Stunners

Dahlias are one of the ultimate summer floral statements, with showy flowers in absolutely beautiful colours. They're such a visual treat, you won't even notice your spring flowers have faded away.

Dahlias are most often planted as tubers during spring, but if you didn’t get around to planting some, there’s no need to miss out on this spectacular flower; with potted dahlias are available in garden centres during summer.

Dahlias create a stunning display in garden beds and pots, where they’re perfect for a brightening up a patio or veranda. They like a warm, sunny spot. To keep dahlias looking their best, keep the soil or potting mix moist and remove spent flowers to promote repeat flowering. They’ll also appreciate a regular feed with a high potassium plant food like Yates Thrive Roses Flowers Liquid Plant Food, which will encourage healthy leaf growth and lots of gorgeous flowers.

Festive Potted Palettes

Whether your Christmas colour theme is purest snowy white, sparkly silver and purple or the traditional green, gold and red, you can coordinate your decorations with some gorgeous pots of flowers to brighten up your Christmas dinner table. A bonus is that your floral creation can last for months!

Here’s some inspiration:

• Crisp white lobelias, alyssum and geraniums combined with trailing Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’.
• Hanging baskets filled with vibrant red calibrachoas and cascading white lobelia.
• A planter bowl with a showy red geranium in the centre surrounded by a halo of white alyssum.
• Purple and white petunias and grey leafed cineraria ‘Silver Dust’ planted together in a decorative trough.
• A bright red, soft pink or snowy white poinsettia in a matching pretty pot.
• For sheltered and shady spots, a combination of eye-catching red and white impatiens.

To promote lots of healthy growth and festive flowers, keep the pots well-watered and feed each week with Yates Thrive Roses Flowers Liquid Plant Food. It’s a complete plant food that’s boosted with additional flower-promoting potassium. Regularly trim off any dead flowers to help keep the plants looking tidy.

Festive touches – before guests arrive you can add some final pizzazz to the pots such as ribbons, baubles, sprigs of holly and tinsel or even magical fairy lights.

What's the Story with Poinsettias?

Vibrant red poinsettias are a Christmas tradition in the Northern Hemisphere. Their chilly Christmas weather naturally coincides with when poinsettias naturally flower and produce their distinctive, colourful bracts.

Kiwis still get to enjoy these traditional favourites during our hot summer holiday season, due to some very clever light-control by plant nurseries.

Growers create an artificially short 10-hour day in special greenhouses, for around 2 months, to convince the poinsettias that it’s no longer summer, so it's time for them to start flowering!

Gorgeous white and pink poinsettias are also available, to provide some festive colour-contrast to traditional red poinsettias. A white poinsettia planted into a decorative pot and teamed up with gift ribbon makes a gorgeous Christmas table centrepiece, for those who want to celebrate in Old-World style.

Secretly, we prefer the pink poinsettias - they're just so pretty. Having said that, any poinsettia is going to look great with your Xmas decorations, so you can't really go wrong.

Growing Tips:

• Position potted poinsettias in a warm brightly lit room, protected from harsh direct sunlight.
• Keep the pot moist and feed each week with Yates Thrive Roses Flowers Liquid Plant Food. It’s a complete plant food that’s boosted with additional flower-promoting potassium.
• After the flowers (bracts) have faded, prune the plant back by around 30%. This will help keep the poinsettia compact and tidy.

You can also repot the poinsettia into a slightly larger pot, using a good quality potting mix like Yates Premium Potting Mix, or plant it out into the garden in a sheltered spot with well-drained soil.

It's Crepe Myrtle Season

Summer is when Crepe Myrtles (AKA Lagerstroemia) start their fabulous show, with trees being smothered in vibrant flowers for weeks on end. Available in a range of flower colours, from white through to light or dark pink, lavender and almost red, crepe myrtles also produce fabulous autumn foliage colours; even their bark is attractive.

There are crepe myrtles to suit both large and small gardens, with tall varieties like crimson ‘Saint Emilion’ reaching 4m and pink flowered ‘Little Chief’ being a more compact 1.5m tall.

After flowering has finished, where possible trim off the spent flower heads to help keep the crepe myrtle tidy and spread Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food around the root zone to encourage new growth and improved soil health.