Landscape Designer Blog New Zealand

Amaryllis belladonna flowering. Long lasting flowers with bright luminance.

Amaryllis belladonna in leaf.

Amaryllis belladonna can be seen to shoot up flowers seemingly out of nowhere, surprising most gardeners with its scented flowers on tall stems in late summer, Amaryllis belladonna also has an attractive deciduous leaf that grows after flowering. Strap like glossy leaves die down in summer to feed the bulbs. There are also white and darker pink flowering varieties.

Morris & James Pottery and Tileworks. Some of the amazing products available from Morris & James.

An amazing collection of hand crafted pottery for sale. Pots, including the stunning new Graffio collection, unique wall art, funky serving platters, excellent range of tiles, NZ wall plaques, stylish water features and much more! The cafe ,workshop and showroom are situated at 48 Tongue Farm Road, Matakana, ( just after the bridge ), North Island, New Zealand. There you can enjoy a browse through the showroom and visit the Cafe for a taste of local produce and wine. To view the Morris and James website please follow the link: www.morrisandjames.co.nz

The New Zealand Gardens Trust has a very useful website for people visiting or living in New Zealand, gardeners, garden enthusiasts and landscape designers wanting to locate and visit outstanding New Zealand gardens. Using the search options to find New Zealand gardens in the location nearest to you, this attractive, easy to use website with details on 158 Gardens to visit in New Zealand will suit garden enthusiasts and landscape designers alike. http://www.gardens.org.nz/

Evergreen ground cover plants are most often low growing plants with a trailing or clump forming habit. Ground cover plants are one of the best ways to cover an area of garden that may be requiring greenery, is weed infested, a particularly difficult area of the garden to get into to cultivate or hard to maintain area. Evergreen ground cover plants are an excellent natural way to suppress weed growth in your garden, as well as adding to the soils ability to retain water in dry weather, reduce soil cooling and deter rain compaction to soil during wet / cold weather. Evergreen ground cover plants will also help in the prevention of soil erosion on banks / sloped areas where soil requires stability. Evergreen ground cover plants generally have fast root and leaf growth, along with many species that grow underground stems, or clump forming varieties that also give fast soil stability. Planting your ground cover plants according to the soil situation is important to gain good plan...

Perspective sketch. Pheonix Palm underplantings. Titirangi residence. Auckland, New Zealand.

Pheonix palm gardens before photo. Used by the landscape designer to help create perspective landscape concept sketches. NZLANDSCAPES.COM.

Agave showing strong, bold form with fleshy smooth textured leaves, lime/grey green colours of this Agave variety allows it to blend gracefully into any landscaped garden. NZLANDSCAPES.COM Landscape design Auckland. New Zealand.

Variagated Succulent. Flowering with bright tubular flashes of colour. NZ landscape design ideas New Zealand.

Rock Lillies and Orchids show spectacular blooms. NZLANDSCAPES. Plant photos. NZ landscaping plannts and ideas.

Bright flowers and strong foliage plants in landscape design. Auckland New Zealand Landscaping ideas NZ.

Succulents growing well in dry soil situations. Perfect for under large Palms and tropical style rock gardens. Able to withstand dry zones, succulents will prevail where other plants would struggle to survive.

Vibrant plant foliage will brighten any garden situation. Requiring little or no soil some succulent varieties will thrive in harsh conditions.

Photo of Yucca aloifolia. Suggested landscaping planting ideas for under large Pheonix Palms. Another option Cordyline 'Emerald Goddess' preferably a fairly compact growing variety.

Many landscapers and gardeners prefer to plant trees and shrubs during the late autumn and winter months. This is the time where most trees are dormant, or if they are deciduous, have dropped their leaves, and are in an almost suspended stage of growth. Late autumn and winter is the time of year where transplanting a plant within the garden, planting a nursery stock plant, or planting a tree or shrub into the garden from a container will cause the least amount of stress on the plants. Provided the soil is not frozen your plants can be placed in the ground and will give the plants plenty of time to establish themselves into their new environment during the winter months and prepare them to sprout and blossom successfully in the spring season. Given enough time to develop new roots and ease the plant slowly into the soil structure and surrounding environmental conditions, the plants have a much higher success rate than if they were transplanted or planted out in the early sp...

Phormium 'Surfer' is one of the phormium family that has unique, striking, olive green foliage with bronze/black edged leaves. The twisted leaves form fairly fast growing clumps up to 75cm tall. The foliage colours lend to many planting styles and can be seen being used in commercial as well as residential landscape design planting schemes. Carex 'Frosted Curls' is an outstanding New Zealand native grass, it is hardy in most soil situations, best grown where the soil is not too water logged. The light green/silver foliage is soft on the eye, blends well into most landscape design situations, has beautiful foliage movement in the wind. A definite favourite plant for any silver/white garden lover.

At rear: Phormium'Surfer'. At front of photo: Carex'Frosted Curls', both New Zealand native grasses. Plants and landscaping ideas NZ.

Lifestyle Block Master Plan. Hamilton, North Island, New Zealand. All plans drawn by NZLANDSCAPES are able to be viewed in both Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop with layers added for guide lines and plant information. Available to clients of NZLANDSCAPES.COM.

Mid winter-early spring is the perfect time to set up an area in the garden for propagating seeds and growing seedlings. To be ready for spring planting of annuals and vegetables, find a place in the garden that gets all day sun and use a plastic growing tunnel, wooden boxes or polystyrene crates with glass lids (cold frame) to grow your seedlings under. The growing containers will require some ventilation during warmer winter days.

Enjoy an early harvest of seasonal vegetables as well as prepare your garden for stunning displays of annual flowers by protecting young plants and seedlings in a cold frame or growing tunnel. How do Cold frames work? A cold frame is a smaller version of a green house. They collect solar heat, keeping temperatures warm at night, thus protecting from frost or damage from cold weather. Where some gardens are not large enough for a structure like a green house the problem can be solved by using a cold frame. Placed directly over plants in the place where the plants will stay positioned right through the season or with a base on the frame for seedlings in trays. What is a cold frame? A cold frame is generally made from wooden, plastic or lightweight metal sides, creating a frame with an adjustable glass or clear polythene lid. Preferably attach the lid on a slanted angle to allow moisture drainage, with a hinge for ease of opening. When to use a cold frame / g...

Choosing the appropriate container for your plants will promote good plant health and attractive displays within your garden or home. What Plant container to choose? With almost an endless range of plant pots and containers on the market it can sometimes be difficult to know what container will suit a certain situation. Sizes and materials used as containers for a particular landscaping situation will depend on what effect you are trying to achieve. Traditionally terracotta pots, window planters and wooden wine barrels blend well into any cottage garden or pottager style garden, wooden tubs that can be constructed to suit any size plant are more suited to larger gardens with a more colonial, country style. Large earthen, glazed, copper, or hypertufa pots are found to be used in most modern landscape design situations as garden features. Large urns create beautiful water features, Bold glazed pots are perfect for accentuating borders or as a way to emphasis or direct foc...