- Meet the couple downsizing for the pleasure of plants.

The Andrews are downsizing their garden, but with so many special flowers and shrubs close to their heart, there is much to do.

They bought it in 1998. The soil type is stony, but over the years they have added compost, pea straw and animal manures to grow their prize dahlias and many other treasures they grow in containers on the shadehouse’s benches. Bev started growing dahlias as a youngster as her father was a keen gardener and showed dahlias at local A&P shows. She passed the bug to Garfield after they got married, and the couple entered their first national show in 1998.

They are now both members of many dahlia societies and follow the shows over the summer months.

In time, Garfield starting hybridising dahlias and grew many from seed; he was most successful with many being named. The couple named their property Acacia so many of their dahlias now have that prefix. Their favourite is ‘Acacia Kylie’, which is a mini orange decorative and ‘Acacia Arthur’, a single white orchid. In 2018, they won the Champion Vase at The National Dahlia Show in Blenheim with their ‘Acacia Nymph’.

Garfield was made a New Zealand Dahlia Judge in 2009 and has been past president of the National Dahlia Society Of New Zealand. Bev has served on the board as well.

Garfield has developed some exciting, small flowering dahlia cultivars which are very low growing. They are called micros as they don’t need staking and are ideal for pots, so if you have a small courtyard these are for you. These little gems have small single flowers and flower all summer if you deadhead regularly.

In May, all their hundreds of dahlias are dug and washed then stored in sawdust in trays in the shed. This is time consuming, and keeping varieties separate and named are paramount.

In early October, the tubers start shooting out, and this is when they are carefully divided and put in pots so that they can then be planted out late October or after the frosts.

The ground is fallowed over winter and when they replant, they add compost as well as blood and bone and a little Nitrophoska to each plant. They add a stake too, as each plant needs stringing over the season, and over the next month or two they spray with liquid potash.

When they start flowering, they deadhead the old blooms daily and take some side buds off if they are wanting show blooms. Their garden is a riot of colour from November until the first frosts.

Over the last few years, Garfield has become interested in hostas. He has a collection of more than 350 named sorts, as well as many seedlings and some he still hopes to name.

He grows them in pots so he can shift some around to positions that offer a little more shade as necessary, as some of the gold cultivars burn in the hot summer sun.

Hostas like a lot of water over summer and water is at a premium in his garden, but feeding with sheep pellets and manure improves the water holding capacity of the soil they grow in and keep them healthy.

Narcissi or miniature daffodils are another passion.

He has 500 named cultivars and all are grown in pots on benches. They are grown in a free-draining mix and fed in late winter, or just when the first leaves are appearing, with blood and bone. In pots, they dry out better after flowering and the bulbs dry well over summer. They are also less prone to narcissi fly which lays eggs in the neck of the bulb (and when the larvae hatch they burrow into the bulb and eat it out). Sometimes the pots are covered with a fine mesh to stop the fly getting to the bulbs.

When wandering around this garden, one is attracted to many other special plants. Arisaemas are another gem Garfield grows in pots in his shadehouse. These are usually dug in May and stored in a dry place before replanting in September (if you don’t dig out your arisaemas each year, put the pots on their side in a dry area over winter and bring them out again in September and give them a little fertiliser, to help them on their summer journey of growth).

Succulents are thriving in front of his potting shed which is very hot and dry during summer – an ideal spot for them – and these take little or no care. He also grows trilliums and pleione in pots in his shadehouses. He finds they thrive in their potting mixes that retain moisture.

Both of the couple grow dahlias for their own pleasure as well as for show. So while they are downsizing the garden as age is catching up with them, they now have more time to enjoy them, along with all their other special plants.

Garfield and Beverley Andrew are passionate gardening folk who live on a lifestyle block of 2500 square metres in Seadown, just south of Timaru.