Wardian case - White Garden - Plant selection

As one of my apprentice projects at Otari I need to select some plants to be displayed in the Wardian case, write some info about the plants, and look after them.

I got my inspration for a white garden from both my recent visit to Sissinghurst, but also from watering the Celmisia collection in the nursery. I initially thought about displaying the celmisia collection until I found out it had already been done.
So I started noticing just how many plants in Otari have silvery foliage or white flowers - a heck of a lot, so I had plenty of choice of plants to create my own White Garden.

After some research and plant identification I selected the plants I wanted from the nursery...

Astelia nervosa. Silvery and stripy. 

Euphorbia glauca. Very pale and interesting.

Hebe albicans. Because I couldn't not use a hebe!

Pimelea prostrata. Low wide spread groundcover. I more I see
this plant, the more I like it.

Pacystegia insignis. Awesome thick dark green leaves with white
 undersides. Only downside is that the center of the flower is yellow
...but I like it soo much, so i'm gonna use it anyway.

My initial collection - still slightly undecided on which climber
I want, and small tree.

Cockayne lawn

Dave went through the 4 stroke mower training competency with me and showed
me how to use it. For my first test I did the Cockayne lawn to get the hang of it.
The first line was a little wonky but once I got into a rhythm I
managed to get some straight lines.

After mowing, I used the edging shears to trim the edges. The lawn is
enclosed by a wooden frame, so I trimmed hard against the frame
which helped give a neat line.

Et voila! One mowed and edged lawn. :)

27 June - Plant of the week

Pittosporum cornifolium!!

Ok, from afar it doesn't look like much, a bit twiggy.

But get closer and there are small buds coming from
 a cluster of three leaves

The bud opens to show three more leaves, and then this
 little spray of peach coloured flowers.
Fairly small and easy to miss though, until you get to...

...the seed pods!!!
Starting as a green pod, it opens to show bright
 red pod lining with a cluster of black seeds
 held in place by bright yellow goo.

Bloody amazing!

Brachyglottis kirkii in pongo logs

Brachyglottis kirkii is an epiphytal plant native to the Wellington region, however it is becoming increasingly rare and none have been spotted growing wild in Otari. So Rewi took some cuttings from 2 or 3 plants in other areas of Wellington in the hopes of reinstating them at Otari.

As B. kirkii would normally grow in a tree we have used hollowed
out ponga log as a planting container. I have made two different
potting mixes to go in the log, one with 25% pumice to soil and
the other 50% pumice. This plant likes very well drained soil,
so the two mixes should be monitored to how well
 they grow in each.

Cross section of a ponga log. Such amazing patterns! The core in the middle is
very soft - a bit firmer than apple flesh, but the black swirls are extremely hard,
making a perfect solid sided pot for planting.

Planting in the Coprosma border

The Coprosma border at the edge of the Ponga lawn was
 looking a bit bare and one or two plants had died
 so we chose a selection of new plants to put in. 

To give the new plants a good start, I sprinkled some
Blood and Bone powder around the new plants

Blood and Bone spread evenly around the plants

We then brought in some wood bark mulch to put on the beds

Finished bed with fresh plants and mulch. Looks nice and neat.

Osmocote

Today is spread some Osmocote on some plants at Te Papa that were starting to look a bit yellow and in need of a feed. Osmocote is a controlled release NPK fertiliser (Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium) that very slowly dissolves over a long period.