Tag Archives for abbiejury.co.nz

Abbie Jury | Hedwhig the Morepork

Meet Hedwhig the Morepork

Alas his beautiful big golden eyes are not visible but he was keeping a very close eye on our dogs three metres below him.

Abbie Jury 21/6/2011

Tikorangi Notes: Monday 6 June, 2011

Alas Mark found the first instance of camellia petal blight today – in a japonica. It seems to appear earlier every year. We have never seen it in sasanquas and I was a little surprised this week to hear of claims that in warmer climates, sasanqua camellias are susceptible. We would really like to hear confirmation from anybody who has actually seen it in sasanquas (as opposed to having heard reports of it). We had thought that these Japanese camellias were resistant. Blight has certainly never shown in ours and we are reasonably eagle-eyed on the matter.

Tikorangi The Jury Garden | Abbie Jury

Tikorangi: Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree, Tikorangi, Taranaki, New Zealand

The 2010 Tikorangi / Jury family Christmas tree has been variously described as looking like Cousin It and an Ent. You can read all about its construction here. (Cousin It is much closer to the mark).

Abbie Jury: Ficus antiarus, rare plants

Ficus antiarus, rare plants and why only one plant in our garden is clearly named

It is Ficus antiarus and it is the most asked about plant in our garden. We used to propagate a few but we realised that while everybody wanted to know what it was, nobody wanted to buy it.

Abbie’s column: AbbieJury.co.nz 3/12/2010

Abbie Jury | A hot, dry autumn in Spain and Portugal

Abbie has just returned from a trip through Spain and Portugal.

The olive plantations looked to be corporate farming, much as our dairy farming is headed. The era of the small family farm appeared to be over in much of the countryside that we passed through. Often there were no residences visible for considerable distances and no indications of boundaries to suggest the smaller holdings of old. It was interesting to reflect on the debate at home regarding lifestylers populating our countryside. We had been discussing it before I left and came to the conclusion that, on balance, small holdings and lifestyle blocks add a welcome diversity to the countryside.

The ubiquitous date palm was everywhere in the south of Spain and Portugal Clipping the street plantings of orange trees to lollipops in Cordoba The cordyline australis had seen better days on the Algarve but had done well at some stage to reach this size

Photos: Abbie Jury | read Abbie’s column