Red Dragon Nursery in Karoola, Tasmania, Australia | Garden centre

Red Dragon Nursery

Locality: Karoola, Tasmania, Australia

Phone: +61 409 006 962

Address: Brown Mountain Rd 7267 Karoola, TAS, Australia

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25.01.2022 Rhododendron ' Nancy Evans ', a good dwarf plant with deep yellow flowers in a lax truss, much superior in colour to most yellow rhodos, though not always the easiest plant to grow well. Can struggle quite a bit if it drys out in summer, but worth persevering for its deep shade of yellow. Requires excellent drainage, as is the case with all yellow blooming rhododendrons.

25.01.2022 This is rhododendron ' Midnight Mystique ', which features an unusual silvery centre with a purplish red edge. Took a nice bloom of this to Lton Hort. Society rhodo bloom show and got a prize which was nice. Again, an excellent show put on by the stalwart members of the society. ' Midnight Mystique ' blooms heavily, although it tends to be quite straggly in its growth, due to its ' One Thousand Butterflies ' parentage, which is also very open in growth with few branches.

22.01.2022 A lovely form of Viburnum sargentii is ' Onondaga ', an American selection that is a superior plant for specimen use. It features large, showy lace-cap flowers, substantial maple like leaves and a sturdy upright habit. It succeeds best in moist soil, and will repay with lush, vigorous spring growth.

22.01.2022 A newish rhododendron worth cultivating for its flowers is ' Apricot Fantasy ', which is a colour not encountered often in the rhododendron genus. The blooms are rich apricot in bud, open medium apricot, and fade to a biscuit-peach combination with a reddish calyx. Like ' Midnight Mystique ', the plant tends to be sparse in branching, so requires pinch pruning often when young to encourage denser growth. Will be growing this a fair bit in the future, have a few cuttings off this plant coming on.

21.01.2022 Beautiful new growth on the big leaf species,this one being Rhododendron macabeanum. They emerge as silvery candles and as they unfold the red protectant leaf bracts fall away, leaving the newly developed leaves to unfurl. The foliage at this stage is very vulnerable to the elements, particularly late frosts and persistent winds, which mandates a fairly protected garden position with high northerly shade and a wind buffer.

19.01.2022 Another late flowering species is Rhododendron nuttallii, one of two forms of this plant. The one pictured is the plant most often seen in cultivation, with pink tinged frilly funnel shaped white flowers with a sweet scent. The new foliage is green. The other form is rarer, and has reddish mauve new growth, and bigger blooms in white with a rich yellow centre. This latter plant tends to be bigger in all its parts and is also more leggy. Both are excellent, pest free species with peeling brown bark and superior flowers.

19.01.2022 Another shot of ' Midnight Mystique ', a hybrid of ' Midnight '. Hybridised by Frank Fujioka in Oregon, USA.

14.01.2022 Another New Zealand introduction is Acer ' Esk Flamingo ', a semi-weeping Maple in the snakebark group. This tree looks good in both the growing and dormant season's, due to its striking pink and white mottled foliage, and its winter orange red twigs striped white on the second years stems. It prefers plenty of light and takes very hard annual pruning exceedingly well, needing it in most cases to form a dense, symmetrical shape.

11.01.2022 This nice yellow rhododendron was bred locally by Steven Stowe ( recently passed away ) and is named after his daughter, Katherine Louise. It is a much better colour than most of the overseas rhodos passed off as ' yellow ', and is easy to grow. A fine plant to contrast with those mauves or purples.

08.01.2022 The Witch Hazel family, Hamamelidacea, contains some of the best foliage and autumn colouring plants available. Members of this family include, Hamamelis, Disanthus, Parrotia, Corylopsis, Lindera, and ( pictured ) Fothergilla. This form is Fothergilla gardenii, the smaller leaf species, F. major being the largest. Like almost all Witch Hazel members, they have lovely fresh green, heavily veined leaves, a bushy, elegant habit and superb autumn colours, here in orange, red and ...gold. The flowers on Fothergilla gardenii are nice too, being a fluffy white spike shaped bloom that complements the green foliage well. To succeed with this plant, and all Hamamelidacea, it will be necessary to give them acid, moist, well mulched soil to keep their roots cool. Even the toughest member of the family, Parrotia persica, or Persian Ironwood, much prefers to grow in cooler, richer soils for optimum growth and flowering. See more

07.01.2022 There are still quite a few fragrant rhododendron varieties in flower, and a particularly worthy one is ' Floral Dance ', which is richly perfumed in nutmeg and cinnamon at present. This plant also looks good out of bloom, as it has attractive foliage and nice peeling reddish brown bark. Best in light shade, but will bloom really well in a few hours direct sun. One of the Jury hybrids from New Zealand.

03.01.2022 The next fragrant one in bloom now is Rhododendron maddenii, a species from north eastern India. This is a versatile plant that will grow well in sun in cooler areas, and blooms late in the season. The flowers are a thickly textured tubular shaped off white, with a distinct rich lily like scent, and quite different to the preceding plant ' Floral Dance '. The leaves are scaly and of thick texture also. The nursery has a few good plants of this at the moment. Well worth growing.

02.01.2022 New spring growth on one of the dwarf Balsam Firs, Abies balsamea ' Nana ', a nicely compact conifer perfect for a rockery. These are small forms of the Balsam Fir, a large forest tree native to North America, and traditionally used as a cut Christmas tree in the United States. They are noted for their strong balsam scent to the needles, and they like a sunny aspect in moisture retentive soil. The other varieties grown at the nursery are ' Piccolo ' and the ultra-dwarf alpine form ' Cuprona Jewel ' which is a very choice miniature shrub.