Gardening A to Z: N

Useful information for you, brought to you by Garden NZ

Introduction
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Native
Much the same as indigenous; a term denoting the relationship of a plant species to a particular geographical region.

Naturalised (of a plant species)
Behaving like a native plant of a particular geographical region, though originally introduced from a distant region, either as a cultivated plant or accidentally as a weed.

Naturz Gifts
Naturz Gifts enable you to have friendly bugs in your garden. The range includes Bees, Butterflies, Dragonflies, Ladybirds, Frogs, Snails, and all come on a stake. Some have been painted in a "rust" finish. All finishes weather well.

Nectar
The sweet, sugary liquid secreted by glands at the base of the petals of some flowers. Bees gather it and concentrate it into honey.

Needle
A leaf that is needle-like in form – most commonly used for the leaves of pines.

Neutral (of soils)
Neither acid nor alkaline, that is having a pH of 7.

Nitrogen
Nitrogen is important for cell growth and development. Keeps leaves green, promotes rapid vegetative growth.

Node
The point on a stem where a leaf and its axillary bud grows. It is the place to cut when pruning, and also where the base of a cutting should be cut.

Noxious
Used of particular weeds, also animal pests, that are universally disliked for the economic damage they cause, and generally implying the existence of a legal prohibition, or a requirement to take steps to control them.

Nursery – Garden Treasures
Garden Treasures is a small Christchurch nursery with a treasure trove of rockery, alpine and perennial plants from old fashioned favourites to the rare and unusual, including potted bulbs, hostas, and other woodland plants.

Nut
In botany, any fruit that is non-fleshy and does not release its seed or seeds when ripe; in normal use a nut is a dry fruit or seed that contains one or few edible Kernels, or one of those Kernels.

Nutrient
In respect to plant growth, nutrients are the water-soluble substances taken by the roots. The major nutrients, required in high concentration, are the elements Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, while the minor nutrients include the elements Iron, Magnesium, Calcium, Manganese, Zinc, Boron, Sulfur and Molybdenum. These do not actually form the plant ‘food’, which consists of carbohydrates manufactured by photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, using the sun’s energy, but they all have key positions in the protein and enzyme molecules essential to plant growth.

Nutrient Deficiencies
When plants are short of certain types of nutrients their physical appearance often changes. There are a number of ways you can fix these problems.

NZ House and Garden
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