| We arrived in Christchurch on December 27, 1996, after starting across the Pacific on Christmas day and losing a day at the international date line. It was a couple of weeks later in the season than our previous trip, the gardens were in a more advanced state of bloom, and the weather was considerably warmer (though the temperature still varied from short sleeves to sweaters between midday and evening). |
Christchurch is situated on the east coast about midway down south island. It sits on a curiously flat portion of the Canterbury Plain with mountains to the north and west and some low hills on the southeastern edge of the city. In the vicinity of the city, the plane is crossed by several rivers, one of which is milky blue and serves as a reminder that the glaciers of the Southern Alps are not far away. With a vast stretch of chilly Pacific Ocean to the southeast and the stormy Tasman Sea just over the mountains to the northwest, the weather is variable and strongly dependent on wind direction. The picture shown here is the cathedral and square that is the focal point of the downtown area. |
 One
of the rivers crossing the plane is the Avon. Like most rivers in New Zealand
it runs clear and is almost devoid of life except for insects, ducks, the
occasional eel, and a few trout decended from those transplanted from the
US in the 1800's. The Avon meanders across the plane and through Christchurch,
picking up some litter, but still clean enough to support a few protected
large brown trout that hang out near one of the bridges. Just a few blocks
west of cathedral square, the city gives way to a large green space that
is bounded on two sides by the Avon river. At one point the Avon swings
into the park to form a boot shaped loop. The interior of the loop and
some of its periphery are devoted to the Botanic Gardens. |
 This
punting landing is two blocks east of the park, and one can hire a punt
for a lesiurely ride along the river. The green strip along the river softens
the downtown area which otherwise is fairly typical of a nondescript midwestern
city in the U.S.
The better residental areas differ from those in the U.S. in that flower gardens there take on the importance of lawns here. Part of this no doubt stems from the British influence, and part from a cool ocean moderated climate, but it's also probably encouraged by the relative lack of alternative activities in this sparcely populated region. (It's hard to imagine N.Z. television being the distraction it is in the U.S.) Whatever the cause, one is likely to pass some eye catching private gardens on most any drive around town. Something like every third house had some well grown perennial on display, and about every tenth had a thoughtfully laid out perennial border or cottage garden bursting with bloom. |
 The
gardening highlight of the city is the Botanic Garden of nearly 75 acres,
and in particular the long perennial border on the left of this picture.
The border is on level ground with the plants carefuly arranged to provide
ever increasing height from front to back. At the back is another narrow
path at the edge of plants that are typically head high.
The plants in the border are also chosen so that there is a continuous bloom over a very long season, so it doesn't burst into bloom all at once like a firework, but instead provides continuing interest with anticipation for what might be blooming next week.
At the lower right of the border picture you can just see the edge of a large group of hydranga bushes. These hybrids were blooming in a wide assortment of colors, none of which were the traditional metallic blue or pink normally associated with this plant. This is one of the blueish-pinkish ones. |
 Other
hydranges ranged from a metallic gray the color of steel, to this light
pink that was either fading to or from a creamy white. They were growing
under large trees in the shade and a brisk wind kept the flower heads in
constant motion, so I could not manage particularly good photos of most
of them. |
 If
you turn around from the camera position in the border picture and follow
the path around to the right, you find another smaller, more specialized
border. This photo shows a bed of long established dianthus that were at
the tail end of their bloom. The bit of taller red at the far upper right
is penstemon. |
 Here's
a closer view of the brilliant penstemon bed looking from the other direction.
Most of those that we manage to keep alive in our North Carolina gardens
are decidely puny compared to these three foot tall mounds of glowing flowers
on upright stems. My Husker Red is as healthy, but sadly the red refers
to the dark leaves not to the small white flowers. |
  These
two close-up images of flowers in this bed can be expanded. There was one
label in the area that said Pink Cloud, but I don't think it referred to
either of these flowers. |
 An
even smaller path wound around behind the penstemon bed, but was mostly
planted in shrubery except for a nice clump of Regal Lillies. |
  |
| Around another corner we came upon a broad green lawn flanked by this dahlia border that was just coming into bloom. Most had name labels and I managed to adda number of pictures of individual flowers to my growing collection. Later in our trip we visited the O'tara Birch nursery on North island. Their catalog lists over a thousand varieties, but they were rearranging their planting beds when we arrived and only had a couple of hundred varieties planted with perhaps half of them in bloom! The yellow dahlia is called Gold Crown. |
 Another
path leads to a nice rock garden, part of which can be seen to the left
of the path in this picture. On the right is a mixed planting of ericas
and heathers, and low growing conifers opening onto another lawn. Even
though these were not in bloom, the variation in foliage texture and color
was striking. |
 If
I remember correctly, the rose garden is right behind hedge in back of
the dahlia bed, but you have to follow a path to get to one of the two
entrances. This image shows only a small portion of the rose garden: it's
essentially round and the two people in the distance are near the center.
You can just make out the matching arches at the far end.
Notice the variety of foliage on the large trees in the background. I've concentrated on the flowers, but the Botanic Garden has many other wonders. |
 This
rose is Grand Masterpiece. I didn't do justice to the rose garden here,
partly because I was feeling the effects of a flu bug and partly because
they had been somewhat tatered by several days of high winds: While the
beds were still brilliant, many blossoms did not look all that impressive
in the viewfinder. Fortunately we ran across an even more spectatular rose
garden in Wellington a few weeks later. |
 About
a mile from the Botanic Garden, on the road to the airport, is another
public garden named Mona Vale. This is an estate that was donated to the
city and is being maintained as a public garden. The long driveway from
the main road runs along the Avon river. This image shows one of the well
lanscaped homes on the other side of the river. This side of the river
is generally full of tourists as this garden is a popular stop for the
tour buses. |
 The
drive opens onto a garden area composed of dahlias (not in bloom yet),
lavanders of all descriptions, and of course another rose garden. Again
many of the rose blossoms had been tattered by high winds, but this twelve
foot tall single climber called Eye Paint looked untouched.
Mona Vale is composed of several distinct garden areas, paths, and bordered lawns. On weekdays I believe they serve tea in the main house. We were there on a weekend and only the gardens were open. |
 Off
to one side of the rose bed is a lovely walled English style courtyard.
The flowers making up the yellow and white mounds are single daisy types
and looked to be some type of shasta daisy or chrysanthemum. There are
benches to the left and more of the same type of planting making this a
very inviting rest stop. |
 One
wall of the courtyard opened into this large lath house that was filled
with ferns surrounding a water feature. The wall in the background is that
of the courtyard, and behind me is an arched window opening that looks
out onto the rose garden. |
  |
 A
number of other flowering plants were scattered around. At the top left
standing about six feet tall is what I take to be a Verbascum, and the
spikey thing providing a nice contrast against a brick wall is a Eryngium
(Sea Holly). I did not recognize the 18" tall pink flower when I took
the picture, but I've since discovered it is a Diascia. The books say that
most varieties in this genius are only hardy in zones 8 and 9, but a few
might survive in zone 7. They have recently become available from Heronswood
and Joy Creek nurseries in the Washington and Oregon. |
 On
the walk back to the drive we noticed this nice clump of lilies. When we
plant lilies in our NC garden, we usually just increase the vole population. |
 Way
across town to the southeast, on a hill overlooking the Pacific, is Gethsemane
Garden that's maintained by some kind of religous order. The plantings
were rather repetitive and a bit past their peak when we were there so
there were not many photo opportunities. However, there is also an associated
nursery run by the ladies of the order, and it contains an impressive variety
of perennials. These achillia were still in pots and lots of different
colors were blooming, but the labels were confusing so I'm not sure which
varieties are shown in this picture. It convinced me to try a few new achillia
cultivars this spring. |
 My
tape recorder battery apparently quit while we were photographing here
so my photo records are even worse than usual, but I do know that this
is a Centaurea macrocephala blossom.
We're planning another trip to the Christchurch area, and this time we intend to allocate a little more time so we can visit some of the private gardens and some of the surrounding towns. I hope you've found this short tour interesting, and if you happen to be a flower gardener who's planning to visit a far corner of the world, this one is hard to beat. There's a very informative description of the Botanic Garden and another link to a commercial server with a map and links to several other gardens in the area of Christchurch. Be warned that this last one wants to set lots of cookies which I hate. |
