PEACHES

Plum rootstocks are best for heavy clay soils which are very wet in winter; peach rootstocks best for drier lighter boney soils. If your soils are heavy it is often possible to double dig a hole, mix the soil with compost and put a drain out the bottom of the hole so that you can grow a tree on peach stock. All of the following peaches are selected for our northern climate, however peaches need lots of wind movement and if they are too sheltered or if it’s very humid still season they may be affected by brown rot especially the late ripening ones.

Orion       

Very early flowering and ripening peach ripe from late November - early Dec. Small white fleshed peach, red blush, extremely heavy, reliable cropper, fruit often needs thinning to avoid breaking branches, freestone.

Ham’s Special

This peach was given to me many years ago by Ham Worsfold. I couldn’t believe it when it ripened early this year on the very day of his wife’s funeral. We will grow the stones and pass the trees back to their grandchildren! One of the real joys of being a gardener is being able to do such things. Whenever there is a birth or a death I look around to see what is flowering or fruiting to gift or remember that person by… these are the rituals that help bring back the sacred….

Anyway this is an old fashioned thick skinned peach Ham called his Maori peach, and he used to say you had to eat it standing naked in the bath!!?? It looks like an apricot when ripe with an orangey skin and red blush, with very sweet juicy flesh.

River Peach

River Peaches are the ones that set me off on this whole journey. They are disease resistant, easy to grow and grow true to seed They are prolific croppers of sweet medium sized, green skin with a red blush, white fleshed, free stone fruit.

Waiatea

These trees will forever remind me of the stories and the dream of the Kaumatua (Makaera) who welcomed us onto his marae at Waiatea on the Kaipara and told us the story of his grand parent’s garden around the marae on the edge of the Kaipara. Usual thing… large gardens, potato, kumara, kamo kamo, ruruhau, figs peaches citrus apples quinces and plums. His dream is to see the gardens once again around the marae and the Kaipara; my dream too. We rummaged around under the last three remaining peach trees and found a few stones, most of which grew. I haven’t tasted the fruit but they will be a variation on the River peach theme and stand for me as symbols for the dream of replanting the gardens!

Pudge

A peach sent in by a member that has turned out to be beauty.  It looks and tastes a lot like an apricot, with very orange sweet flesh Ripe in early Feb after the River and Christina peaches it’s a beaut for bottling and drying as well as eating.

Blackboy Peach

These are old favourites around the north and are particularly good for drying and bottling because of their flavour and freestone qualities. They are also great as a desert peaches when fully ripe; they have thick furry skins like all old peaches and amazing dark blood red streaky flesh.

Red Leaf Blackboy

Several people have sent us these red leaved peaches in the past few years. They are extremely ornamental and worth growing for the colour of their leaves alone, however they crop well with Blackboy peaches just like the others

Hokianga Golden Queen  

Extremely disease resistant peach, heavy cropper of small very sweet exquisitely flavoured golden fruit They are the prolific old original Golden Queens that grew wild over much of Northland Clingstone ripe March.

Four Winds

This is a peach collected on a trip around the far North with David Austen and over the past 10 years has proved to be a beauty in my orchard. Late ripening, disease resistant, very sweet, firm full of flavour, flesh. Clingstone. Excellent desert peach. Pale skin red blush when ripe.

PEACHERINE

Peacherine Matakohe

An outstanding new addition to our collection. This tree came from an old orchard still being well maintained in the Matakohe area. It’s a sweet melting buttery yellow fleshed fruit, ripe February.

Peacherine Red Bluffs        

Greeny pale yellow furry skin, firm sweet juicy delicious flesh, old fashioned flavour. This is an outstanding very old cultivar from the original Red Bluff’s nursery early in the twentieth century. Because it is late ripening it needs an exposed position to avoid brown rot. Ripe March.