Cabbage Trees

Cabbage Tree (Tī rākau or Tī kōuka Cordyline australis with their foaming cascades of flowers)

(Mystery tree growing on the other side of the world in Scotland. Photo sent by Angie.)

In a comment following my last post, Angie asked for help identifying a tree that grew in her part of Scotland that she thought was a New Zealand cabbage tree Cordyline australis.
From Angie's photos and description I think it highly likely that her tree is this wonderful New Zealand tree. Cabbage trees flower in late Spring here, so I was able to rush out yesterday evening and take some photos of the ones we have growing around here complete with their flowers.

We planted most of our cabbage trees between 10 and 18 years ago, and I wasn't able to get very close to the flowers on our trees as most of them are 15 or 20 feet up (my 2001 vintage digital camera also has only a 2x optical zoom). I did contemplate climbing onto our roof and taking a photo from up there, but I think the photos that I took have enough detail to give the idea of what the flowering stems look like.

The hundreds of tiny new flowers look like some sort of huge snowflake on their flowering stem when viewed from this angle.

The stem of the cabbage tree has a distinctive texture. It is rough, fissured, slightly soft and cork-like. I am no botanist, but I seem to recall someone saying that the stem is actually more like the root of a plant rather than a trunk, and that you can plant sections of the trunk and they will grow into a tree.

A Cabbage tree starts life as a little head of spiky green leaves. In the very early stages it looks a bit like young New Zealand flax, phormium tenax, but the leaves are a brighter green and somewhat thinner.

In time the young cabbage tree will grow a trunk. Cabbage trees will tend to hold onto their old leaves, especially in the colder parts of the South Island of New Zealand. The old leaves form a rather decorative skirt around the trunk which helps insulate and protect the tree. We find that birds will often nest in them, as well as in the new leaves.

The top of the tree branches after each flowering. The trees will also grow up multi stemmed if the trunk is damaged. Some of our trees had a bad time with frost when they were young, and some got diseased, these all grew up with several stems.

These trees remind me of dancers grass skirts.

Cabbage trees give a fascinating display of form and texture in the garden. Birds and insects love them. Cabbage tree roots are full of sugar and were a food source for Maori. Cabbage tree leaves burn furiously, but the trunks resist fire. In areas where fire has destroyed forests, cabbage trees are often able to recover quickly.

Something Amazing!
Laura has a Farmer's Magazine of 1836. In it is a lovely picture and article about Cow Cabbage. These were tree cabbages! I imagine that they would have been quite a challenge for garden snails and slugs, but may have been a haven for cabbage white butterflies which would been out of sight of the farmer below!

A new link.
I have put a link on my blog to a blog site that is by Armelle who lives on an Island just off the coast of France. Armelle does really lovely paintings, takes wonderful photos, and is also making a raku kiln. Armelle's site is in French, but she kindly includes an English translation. I really enjoy visiting her site.

Happy Thanksgiving!
This is a day or two late, but happy thanksgiving to those of you in America. I have just started to catch up with some of your thanksgiving blogs, and can see what a special, thoughtful day it is for you. It seems also to be such a family occasion with people getting together for a shared meal. I wish we had a similar day here. A National day of thankfulness seems such a positive thing.

Wind and Flowers. (Vent et fleurs)

Windy day today, our view from the front of the old post office.

Wind rushed and shushed and made shrubs go ratta tat on the window as black night gave way to gray dawn. The cat flap rattled, and the roof creaked. It was hot, we were restless, Ginger wanted breakfast, so we got up. The temperature climbed to 22 degrees Centigrade by mid morning (71.6 F), but plunged to something much lower in the afternoon as a wind change brought cooler air.

Oamaru Victorian Fete, 2007

The thought was that we would go to Oamaru for the day, see mum and dad, and visit the historic area of the town. There is a Victorian Fete in Oamaru this weekend, and all sorts of entertainment and amusement is planned. Penny Farthing races, traditional crafts, street performers, all manner of affordable fun. The good folk that organize the event do a terrific job. We got packed to go, but, in spite of my best attempts to ignore it, a migraine developed and I was not well enough to travel. This was most frustrating, as I was greatly looking forward to a proper day off today and a change of scene. I have been a slave to work for far too long.

A lovely Iris, and some lupins too.

Near the middle of the day, the pills and a sleep had helped, and I determined to at least walk around the garden with the camera.

A young lupin flower, growing like a candle.

We have a fairly wild garden here. Birds, insects, young children, and people who still believe in magic and good faeries, enjoy it. Those who manicure their lawns three times a week, spray everything for disease prevention, and remove daisies and buttercups, and trim all their shrubs to tight round balls, click their teeth and look uncomfortable.

Lupins bending, waving, moving with wind and with sun.

The flowers around the old post office are Laura's great achievement. When we bought this place 20 years ago, there was a car park behind the old post office building that consisted of compacted gravel about a foot thick. Under it was sour solid clay. On each side of the building were two strips of grass. The exciting thing was an area behind the car park where the ground rose up towards our boundary. This area was covered with wild plum trees that looked truly beautiful when covered in blossom.

Where once there was car park, now flowers do grow!

We had almost no money when we came here, so we didn't put in raised beds and buy in topsoil. Laura just set to work with a little hand trowel. She loosened the stones around the car park. When ever we emptied the teapot, the tea leaves went on the garden, and our vegetable peelings too. In between the stones, Laura planted her flowers.

Fragile and purple and dancing in the light!

Many struggled. Some died. Some grew and became beautiful. Few were like the flowers on the seed packets, or the huge well fed ones in the gardens with lots of good soil, but they grew anyway, and gave us pleasure.

Doves-round-a-dish, grannies bonnets, Aquilegia. What lovely names the old flowers have.

A year or two after we bought the place, we had a phone call from a lady who had discovered that she owned a piece of land next door to us. It was a scruffy unimproved half acre of poorly drained boggy ground, with a bit of dry hillside. The lady offered the land to us very cheaply as she had no use for it. I will always appreciate her kindness.

Elderberry flowers.

I wanted to plant New Zealand native trees on the land. I tried, but frost and poor drainage turned most of them to compost.

In pools of sun and damp there are buttercups.

After realizing the folly of my purist approach, we found a nursery where we could buy year old trees by the hundred. In the boggy parts I planted Alders. I had to put down wooden planks to wheel the wheelbarrow out over the saturated land. I slowly dug a shallow drainage ditch, scooping up heavy clods of the clay soil into little islands, and planted the alders into the squishy clay.

Alders. I planted 7 varieties, Grey and Black Alders were the most successful.

The alders took. Most survived, but the frosts hit even them quite badly in those early years. I added many other varieties of deciduous trees too. It was hard to know what would grow and what would sulk. Oak trees have actually done well here, most of them obtained from acorns that my nephew Anthony grew by mistake. He had collected some and put them in his school lunchbox, which he then lost for a while. When it was found, the acorns were discovered to have sprouted. So Uncle Peter gave them a home here. Now, many years on, those oaks have young ones of their own!

The double trunk of a willow. Once a twig picked up on a walk, now a large tree.

Sometimes, when we were out walking, we picked up twigs from willows and poplars, brought them home, and pushed them into the ground. Most of these are big trees now.

Hemlock, farmers don't like it as it is poisonous to livestock, but it is a thing of delicate beauty with its ferny leaves and tiny white flowers.

We planted hundreds of trees in the half acre. It took about six years for the "forest" to grow taller than the long grass and docks and actually look like it might be something intended.

Cordyline australis, cabbage tree. The world's tallest lily.

I have managed to get some Native trees to grow now. It is wonderful what the deciduous trees have done with their leaves and with their roots. We have a layer of rich dark soil now, and the tree roots have helped break up the clay pan and improve the drainage. The trees have brought many more birds to our garden. We also occasionally find huge stick insects too. Wonderful prehistoric looking things.

Kiln chimneys. I rather like the industrial revolution look in the garden!

From time to time we need to take out some of the trees when they die or blow over. I have been able to use them to supplement my firewood that I have to buy to fire my kilns.

It has been a different day than what I had hoped for here, but it was good to walk around the garden. We are very fortunate to have it. It cost us very little in terms of money to plant what we have. It is a friendly place for those who have eyes to see it, and beautiful too.

We can enjoy what is simple.
A little flower.
A young tree.
A windy day.
Sunshine.
These gladden the heart.
These are life.

Nous pouvons apprécier ce qui est simple.
Une petite fleur.
Un jeune arbre.
Un jour venteux.
Soleil.
Ceux-ci réjouissent le coeur.
Ce sont la vie.

Two Shows.., One Weekend. A Big Thank you! Deux expositions un week-end. Un grand vous remercie!

Peter Watson (clay dad!) and Peter Gregory (clay offspring!) (papa d'argile, fils d'argile)

On Saturday we took part in a craft show in our new nearly $5,000,000 town hall (East Otago Events Center). We had a table next to our friend, Peter (also a potter). Peter got me started in working with clay, so you could say that he is my clay dad!

Rather quiet at the Events Center

The stalls were set out around the perimeter of the huge sports hall, and the show not all that well attended, which was sad. On the other side of us was someone who was selling car boot sale type items..., including a small stoneware pottery item for only 50 cents. Needless to say, given few people attending, and competing with 50 cent items, our sales were not that great.

Laura planted up some of my planters and took this photo whilst setting up the display.

Laura looked after our stall for the day whilst I worked on a commission (with a short time frame) back at the studio, and also continued trying to get the place sorted out for our 20th year celebration the next day. Our preparations for the next day continued until late into the evening.

Sometime after 11pm... grumpy old fellow needing his sleep! (Le vieil homme grincheux a besoin de son sommeil!)

Laura baked a really excellent fruit cake that came out the oven about 11.30 at night. Next morning I painted an "open" sign, priced pots and paintings, and updated our business card with our new extended hours.

Just after midday, before our scheduled opening at 1pm, we had our first visitor (a New Zealander who lives in Lebanon) who bought some wood fired bowls. This marked the beginning of what was a busy and successful afternoon. Sometime just before one, I managed to rush up to the Golden Fleece Hotel for the glasses which we had ordered and some wine and fruit juice. Then it was action stations!

Action Stations at the Old Post Office. (Un bon nombre de bons amis.)

Many of our visitors traveled out from Dunedin, and included old friends that we rarely manage to get to see, so it was lovely catching up.

The young chap is sampling Laura's fruit cake (yummy) whilst his mother looks... concerned. And who is that on the left about to sample the wine! One of my abstracts from a few years ago adds a splash of colour top right. (Le jeune homme mange le gâteau, le vieil homme que les boissons wine!)

We were very touched by the gifts of food and wine that some people brought, and for the kindness of those that simply pitched in and helped at times when we were needing a hand.

The perils of strong drink are well illustrated by the paralytic pose of a certain Ginger cat. (les dangers de la boisson forte!)

We would like to thank all of you who made this event such a happy one. We were also most grateful to those of you who couldn't attend, but sent your supportive comments and best wishes, both via the blog and the telephone. It was really special feeling your support of us out there.

It is very hard to estimate numbers at events like this. People generally stayed a long time, and there was lots of happy conversation. We did wash 41 glasses after event, and quite a few people were not drinking, so numbers may have been between 45 and 50, possibly more. These may seem small numbers to some of you who live overseas, but Waikouaiti has a population of just over 1000 people, so this was good for here and sales were good too.

Our extended open hours that we started this month, 1 - 5 pm Wednesday - Friday, and Sunday afternoons, look promising. Wednesday was quiet, but I had about 8 people through on the Friday afternoon which was worth while. I am hoping that the week day numbers will pick up progressively as people become aware of our being open.

At 5pm I awarded a prize of some pottery to Rhonda, who happened to be sitting in the right place at the right time! Sadly no photo of this, but Rhonda was delighted, and it was a really lovely moment for us too.

After the event, Ginger was in some far away place with legs akimbo and twitching as he hunted and bravely fought in the land of sleep. I was nodding off too. (Le petit lion chasse l'antilope, le zèbre, et les cerfs communs dans la terre du sommeil. Je dors également.)

Celebrating 20 Years at the Waikouaiti Old Post Office

We are going to be having a special afternoon this coming Sunday, with a celebration at our studio to mark our having lived and worked here for the last 20 years. There will be a special exhibition of our pottery and paintings, and I hope to be demonstrating at the potter's wheel. We open our studio door at 1pm.

Also on this weekend in Waikouaiti is an exhibition of local crafts at the new Waikouaiti Events Center . This opens at 10.30am on Saturday. We will have a stall there.

Lots of things to do in the run up to these events, so I will keep this short!