Friday, December 24, 2010 TARANAKI DAILY NEWS 13

GARDENING www.taranakidailynews.co.nz

2
We were fortunate to be
given a permanent
metal base in the shape
of a cone, but you could
construct your own from
bamboo or a similar
material. It needs to be
fairly stable to work with
easily. You need five or
six vertical struts in
order to achieve a
circular effect. Do not
make it too wide if it
needs to fit through a
conventional door to
get it inside when
finished.

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Inspired by a tree she saw in London, presumably made with pampas plumes, Camilla
fancied trying an alternative to the traditional pine branch or tacky tinsel. As pampas is now
banned in this country, we used toetoe plumes. Gathering the toetoe was the most difficult
part of construction, especially with all the recent rain. You need a lot of them, depending on
the size of your construction.

Lilium regale
Construct your own Christmas tree There seems to be a little confusion as to whether
Lilium regale or Lilium longiflorum is the
with Abbie and Camilla Jury. Christmas lily in New Zealand, but I can’t see that
it matters. My guess is that florists may refer to
the latter as the Christmas lily because it
commonly comes with pure white flowers and is
a reliable standby for picking and much favoured
in floristry. But many gardeners associate the
regal lily with this festive time of year. It, too, has
the wonderfully fragrant white trumpets, but
usually with deep red or purplish markings on
the back of the petals. L. regale comes from the
Szechuan area of China, whereas L. longiflorum
is from Japan.
There is nothing too difficult or rare about
either. L. regale gets to just over a metre tall and
generally we get away without needing to stake it,
especially when it is grown in the rose garden
and has some taller plants around it to prop it up

3
We wove additional if it starts to list too far. If you have both sun and
horizontal supports into good soil, you are fine and it should reward you
the frame at 20cm with eminently pickable flowers to adorn the
intervals using flexible Christmas table. Like most lilies, the bright
lengths of old grapevine pollen falls off rather freely and will stain the
prunings. white damask Christmas tablecloth. Apparently,
you can brush the pollen off the stamens if you
are working in dry conditions. Alternatively, nip
the tops off the stamens, but leave the anthers in
the centre. Don’t harvest the flower stem right
back at bulb level. It needs some length left,
because the stem contains both leaves and flowers
and the bulb needs its energy replenished
through its foliage or it will waste away.
– Abbie Jury

Revolution Yes we
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Starting from the base, tie groups of about three toetoe plumes at a time to the bottom
horizontal support, forming the bottom layer of the skirt. It needs to be sufficiently dense
not to see through. We tied firmly with neutral coloured wool, securing the plumes to the Xmas Gifts
frame and the rings of grapevine.
Poinsettias a
save lovely centre
piece for your
table
time Xmas Lillies
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Layer additional skirts
on top. Trim the
surplus stems of each
layer. It took us four layers
save Pot
Hydrangeas
to reach the top.

fuel Kowhai
Nikau Palms
save Lemon &
Lime Trees
money All Gift
get your
Wrapped
and Ready
newspaper to Go
delivered
We would
to your like to wish
all our
home customers a
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When it came to decorations, we decided
less was more and just adorned our tree
with a Trade Aid angel, the historic Jury 06 759 0800 very happy
family Christmas lights (which need rewiring
each year to work) and the red and silver extn 7410# christmas and
Spotlight reindeer (known here as Kevin and a fantastic
Sharon) at the base.
New Year
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Photos: ABBIE JURY AND MICHAEL JEANS 466 Devon St West
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