Hello and welcome to our new Website and our 2011 catalogue.
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| To download and view 2011 Catalogue click on the cover above - PDF reader required. |
Last year at the South Island National Show at Te Anau, we achieved our first champion bloom at a national show.
The flower was a 3 Y-R seedling, bred by Colin, and shown as CC 35-06. This flower has since been registered as “High Regard”. Congratulations to Colin, whose many years of hybridizing, is producing flowers that are world class.
As I write this, we are experiencing a very mild winter, with only a skiff of snow on our hills, and very few serious frosts.
Autumn was also very mild, with plenty of growth and good rainfall. Many of our early Tazettas are in full bloom, which is at least 6 weeks earlier than we would expect. Hopefully the weather will cool down soon and slow things down a bit.
Many of our customers like to pot some of the bulbs they get from us. This is fine, so long as you look after them a bit more. Because the pot or tub is above ground, they tend to dry out a lot faster. Most commercial potting mixes don’t hold water very well. At Pleasant Valley, we make up our own mixture, which is 1/3 top soil, 1/3 compost and 1/3 fine shingle and sand. This works well for us, but we only pot bulbs for 1 year.
Bulbs in pots won’t do as well in the long term, as bulbs planted in the ground. Avoid a hot sunny position and move the pot to a shady area once it has finished flowering. Water regularly throughout its growth cycle.
We hope you enjoy our selection of new introductions. As always, lots of colour for the garden, and some nice show blooms from here and from growers worldwide.
For those who have trouble finding us, we now have signs at Speechley’s Bridge, on the Geraldine to Fairlie Highway. We are open to the public, 7 days a week from early September to Mid October. Visitors are welcome to stroll around over two hectares of blooms, or view them in our large indoor display.
We would like to thank all our regular customers for their continued support, and welcome to our new customers.
Thank you and Happy Gardening.
Gordon and Cindy Coombes
