August is always a good month because its the last month of Winter.
What a pussycat of a Winter its been, one of the warmest on record.
Have you noticed how the Met office says the same thing every year now. There is no doubt any longer that its getting warmer.
The subtropical garden theme is looking more and more like our future.
This is an important month in Northland gardens.
Right now its pruning time for Hibiscus and other tender plants, just before new growth starts.

Hibiscus are like roses in that they only flower on new growth, so the more old growth you chop off each year, the more flowers you'll get.
But the later you leave the pruning in the Spring, the later your first flowers will appear in the Summer.
I often hear people comment that they don't like Hibiscus because they get so leggy and woody, but if you have big old leggy hibiscus bushes, just chop them down to stumps right now, and in a few months you'll have a beautiful display of dense, lush growth and masses of flowers. You can control the size of Hibiscus to suit yourself.
Hibiscus, like most subtropical plants are best planted in Spring and Summer when soils are warming, not Autumn and Winter when the soil is getting colder. So any time from now on is planting time.
Likewise for passionfruit, bananas, taro and Avocados along with all those tropical edibles like spuds, courgettes, tomatoes and peppers.
Incidentally, for early fruit from tomatoes and capsicums, grow them in good-sized pots under plastic or glass till they're flowering, then plant them out in the garden by late September. That way you're eating your own tomatoes by mid-November and capsicums by December.
If you love fresh ginger like I do, start by sprouting a piece from the supermarket then grow it in potting mix with chicken manure in a tub in a warm corner.. you'll be amazed how much juicy sweet ginger root you'll get in the Autumn when its ready to start harvesting. You can almost eat it fresh like an apple, its so tender and mild.
August is the time to feed plants for their Spring growth burst. Chicken manure gives a huge boost to anything you're growing. Its such magic stuff that we keep our ten year-old chooks as much for the compost they make, as for the eggs.
Every few weeks all the weeds, leaf litter or grass clippings are tipped into the coop and within three or four weeks the poor old dears have turned it into the best compost. They mix it daily with the chicken manure, and they eat all the seeds and bugs out of it, turning it into rich, sweet-smelling compost to go round the citrus trees, veges or wherever its needed most.
As long as you don't have a rooster you can keep chooks in town too.
Speaking of Hibiscus, I have found them difficult to grow well in my clay soil because they, like frangipani and many other subtropicals, don't cope well with soggy cold soil in Winter. The secret is to provide them with loose, well-drained soil so there is always plenty of air round their roots. If you have clay, build the light fluffy topsoil layer up on top of the clay. It only needs to be 150 - 200mm thick and most subtropicals will be much happier through the Winter, and even frangipani might survive.
Another useful trick is to use big hefty rocks in the garden and plant your tender subtropicals close against them. The rocks store heat from the sun during the day and keep the soil warm through the cold weather. The ideal soil texture for subtropical plants is the same as you would prepare for carrots, lettuce or spuds.
August doesn't seem like a Hibiscus time of year but apart from pruning them it’s also really a good time to be preparing to plant them.
I've had a lot of fun collecting Hibiscus over the years. Many of them are such brazen, tarty things, but I can't help liking them anyway. Some would say I'm just that sort of boy.
One of the most beautiful of all is the old favourite, "Golden Belle", with huge, golden flowers on quite a small slender plant, but she's a temperamental beast and only does well if the soil is light, warm and fluffy.
A dark volcanic topsoil mixed with old sawdust, compost and lime is sold locally by the cubic metre as "Garden Mix". It’s the perfect medium for these tender beauties.
An unparalleled drama queen among Hibiscus is the wonderful "Molly Cummings". She is voluptuous, shiny and elegant, with big velvety, blood-red flowers that last for several days when the weather is cooler. She's irresistible.
There is a charming new Hibiscus called "Swan Lake" which has dainty, pure white flowers on long dangly stems in great profusion. It has a remarkable habit of sending out branches with delicate pink satiny blooms on the same bush, and if mass planted they make a most arresting sight like clouds of pink and white butterflies from December to May. The pink mutation is sold separately as "Fantasia", and of course it sends out the occasional branch of white "Swan Lake" flowers! Most odd.
I first saw "Swan Lake" growing as two-metre tall standards in tubs around a hotel pool in Bali, a stunningly lovely sight with their cascades of snowy blooms almost reaching the ground.
In complete contrast, the big brassy blooms of Hibiscus "Tango" are an unusual dark orange which flushes to a glittery metallic bronze as the weather cools in Autumn. These are just a few of my favourites at the moment. Through the Spring and Summer months I'll describe some more of the exciting new varieties I've found. Watch this space.
Hibiscus, as long as they're cut back regularly, are compact shiny-foliaged plants that really give a garden buckets of colour for many months and are a perfect foil to the formal, linear silhouettes of palms and the spiky architecture of Aloes, Dracaenas and Cordylines.
There is a classic beauty to any garden that has achieved a balance between dramatic architectural forms and the softer billowing shapes and textures of other plants, and highlighted by drifts of colour that lead the viewer into the landscape.

By the way, have you noticed yet that your garden is never finished?

It’s the journey that is the point of it all. Enjoy it.

(Copyright Russell Fransham 2003)

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