Kurume azaleas are popular due to their early and heavy bloom and their relatively small plant size, fitting in nicely in many landscape situations calling for dwarf or small sized plants. Brilliant almost black/red blooms. Azalea kurume is not quite as bold and brassy as A. indica and has small rounded leaves and dainty little single blooms. The original bucket of fruit yielded just a litre of juice. Taranaki Rhododendron and Garden Festival. The logical extension of wholesome living seems to be the shunning of synthetic lime juice in plastic bottles, replacing it with our own fruit juices. The Kurume azaleas, underplanted with Cyclamen hederafolium, I have been cleaning out the azaleas. We limb up these azaleas to expose their wonderful trunks highlighted in white by lichens, creating another layer in the garden. The blooms are lightly scented. 40cm The strawberries are planted for spring and the garlic is already above ground. Small lavender and white singal flowers. Wholesale Nursery specialises in rhododendron, pieris, camellia, kalmia, kurume azalea, choisya, michellia, osmanthus, clethra, magnolia, nandina and other exotic varieties. Mark scooped a bucket of passionfruit out. The usual approach is to cut them off close to the ground and let them ‘come again’. Hardiness Zone: 6-9. These ones are planted on the margins of our enormous rimu trees and they catch a fair amount of litter falling from above. This little Kurume Azalea becomes just a mass of peachy pink blooms in late winter early spring. I tracked the blooms and found the latest varieties still with blooms near Christmas and the first ones showing colour in early March this year. The more you clip, the denser the hedge will be but you need to time it right so that you are not cutting off the flower buds. It was only because I had agave nectar in the cupboard (bought when I was test cooking a recipe book sent for review) that I used it as a sugar substitute. And it is not a perennial but a shrub. .6m (Kurume Hybrid Japan) Single bright orange red flowers. The Kurume azaleas are in flower. You can have any colour you like, as long as it is pink, white, red, lilac or coral. Likes acid soil and semi shade. It takes a bit of work. These are evergreen azaleas and they hail from Kurume on the southern isle of Kyushu in Japan. When not flowering, it will look similar to a clipped buxus hedge – from a distance at least. I am reminded of something we once heard Christopher Lloyd say (it must have been on the telly because I can’t find it in print): “People are always looking for low maintenance and easy care gardens. I found homes for about half of them last spring, but there are still 35 sitting out under the shade cloth, looking reproachfully at me and begging to be given permanent homes this winter. I am down to 24 plants looking at me reproachfully in the nursery. But we like to feature the shapes of our mature plants and to use them to create a middle layer in our garden – lower than the trees but well above ground level. White tinted pinkish lavender toward edge. Height: 3 Feet. It is very late in the season for what is presumably an autumn flowering perennial. Pale pink single. Here, it is lime and soda served in a nice glass which holds the memory of gin. Their small flowers are so massed that they make undulating rugs of colour in the garden with no foliage visible at all. The size of the blooms is more than made up for in quantity. He had no English and we have no Japanese, but he managed to convey to us that our Kurumes were simply astounding in their stature and shape but that we needed to take better care of them. * Progress is being made. Mark has been busy in his vegetable gardens. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Yet they are such a forgiving plant, tolerant of a wide range of conditions from full sun to almost full shade – as long as it is high shade. Hose in hose. An evergreen shrub that prefers a semi-shaded position where soils are rich in humus, slightly acidic, moist and free-draining. On the home harvest front, we are now experimenting with homemade juices. Kurume. Finally, if any reader can give us the name of this enormous perennial, we would be most appreciative. Most Kurume hybrids grow from around 80cm to 1m, although some varieties grow a bit larger. The Kurume azaleas are in flower. They can be featured in their own right or they can be a backdrop. Kirin is a Kurume Azalea - a group that gets its name from the town of Kirin in Japan. It must be that ours gets cut back so often by the winter chill that it resembles a huge perennial rather than a shrub. 1.2m. Their small flowers are so massed that they make undulating rugs of colour in the garden with no foliage visible at all. First published in the July issue of New Zealand Gardener and reproduced here with their agreement. Apparently, these are hybrids of two different Japanese species (obtusum and kiusianum) but for local gardeners, their significance is related more to the fact that they are hardier than the southern Indian evergreen azaleas and they are compact growers. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! The flowers come in shades of pink, red, white and mauve. Kurumes have tiny leaves to match their little flowers and can be a viable alternative for buxus hedging as they take clipping and will sprout from bare wood, although they are never as dense as buxus. While it is often recommended that you spray for this – lime sulphur or copper is the usual treatment – it is no mean feat to spray above your head height and we are consciously trying to avoid spraying. Generally regarded as playing second fiddle to their more aristocratic rhododendron family members, they seem to have followed their slide down towards oblivion in recent times. Not that ours are compact and they impressed a visitor from Kyushu a couple of years ago. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Cordyline Red Fountain & other miscellaneous Jury-bred plants. Semi shade moist acid conditions. They do look better for it, but I am grateful that it is only one area that needs this attention. Fortunately, N. bowdenii multiplies up extremely well and is probably the easiest of the nerines we grow. It is a species and we have valued it for being the last of the season to flower without being too excited by it. To extend the season, plant early-, mid-, and late-season bloomers. Kurume. Azaleas are available in two main classes: native azaleas and Asian azaleas. Their small flowers are so massed that they make undulating rugs of colour in the garden with no foliage visible at all. Delicatissima Kurume Azaleas Single. This is a plant family that is particularly revered in their homelands of China and Japan and I could not help but marvel at the bonsai specimen we recently saw in Foshan with a price tag of RMB9800 – which equates to about $2000 in our money! When we decided, in a burst of wholesome living, to manage alcohol consumption by not drinking from Monday to Thursday, we realised that it was in part the ritual of sitting down together with a drink before dinner that we enjoyed. Early to mid season. Abundant coral pink hose-in-hose blooms with darker pink centers and veins make a wonderful spring show. Small-medium rounded evergreen shrub.USE IN: Beautiful in groups as a mass display of flowering colour. There can’t be many more obliging, hard working plants. If you have an Asian azalea shrub, it could be one of two main evergreen varieties: Kurume hybrids are usually bright red and don't tend to grow very large - no more than 3 or 4 feet (0.9 or 1.2 m). It just takes time. The beauty of azaleas for hedging is that they only need clipping once, maybe twice, a year and sprout again from bare wood so can take a hard hack if needed. These are evergreen azaleas and they hail from Kurume on the southern isle of Kyushu in Japan. A full sun location may be ok but not too exposed, hot and dry. The Kurume azaleas are in flower. Of similar stature to a clipped buxus hedge – from a distance at least plants looking at me in! 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