Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Planting from now on is becoming a much better idea. The chances of frost have diminished, but there will be still possibilities of “Spring Snow”, if you get my drift.   If you’ve had a look at the plants in your local botanic Garden, you’ll find what will grow well at your place. In many frost-free areas I’m thinking of Ngutu Kaka (Kaka Beak). This is a native plant that will look red and just amazing. It’s one of those plants I have always wanted to grow, simply because it looks stunning with those flowers, and it attracts the nectivorous birds.  As an old Trustee of “Project Crimson” (do you remember that organisation?) I am certainly a proponent of the Genus Metrosideros, which is the group of trees, shrubs and plants related to pohutukawa. Metrosideros carminea is one of those native gems that will wake you up in spring. Just look at that colour!  Just inhale the smell, and look at the insects associated with this native gem.   And then there are the not-so-native Vireya. They are Rh