Heaven scent

We managed to get through the last couple of weeks of very high winds virtually unscathed, touch wood! At times it wasn't great to watch with the big pines, cupressus and abies really getting a sway on, luckily nothing came down thanks to the marvels of mother natures engineering! Having said that the wind has spoilt the late magnolis although one of the best plants in the garden is still a glorious sight, the Michelia doltsopas, see photo. We have several through the garden, the oldest planted in 1951, one of the earliest in New Zealand and several large ones around the edge of the side lawn. Not only are they a glorious sight but they also have an amazing thick honeyed scent, which when the air is still fills the whole area, mmmmmm! We have also been spoilt by having three kaka with us since May, today they were in the Magnolia Iolanthe on the edge of the side lawn where they were laying waste to the new flower buds! see photo. The bluebells are out and making a great show down the nut walk and off from the side lawn. Amongst the Rhodos and magnolias flowering there are also late cherries, puyas and our daffys are still out, a glorious time of the year. We have also just started to get some leaf burst on the oaks so the greens are also great at this time of the year. The grass is growing so I am busy mowing and weed eating as well as burning the remaining pruning piles. I We are also getting an abandoned angus calf from my parents so have been fencing off an area for it and the pet lambs!

Magnificent Magnolias

I really enjoy this time of the year as we have virtually all the Magnolias out also a lot of the early rhododendrons,especially the reds such as Cornubia, Camelias, Prunus and the large Michelia doltsopas. As some of the Magnolias are quite large they make a spectacular sight as without the leaves on the deciduous trees you can see right through the garden to all of these large flowering trees. Heaps of bird action with tuis especially in flocks in the flowering cherries, sometimes over 20 in one tree. Lately we have had 3 Kakas flying around the garden, screeching and making allsorts of other sounds. Today room 2 from Tikokino school was here filming part of a movie set in the mid to late 1800s with a plot about saving native birds from extinction and the kaka was mentioned in the script and the cool thing was we could actually film it and record its song in the film!