Auckland Garden Newsletter of the Auckland Botanic Gardens and Friends the March 2019 Contents
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Auckland Garden Newsletter of the Auckland Botanic Gardens and Friends The March 2019 Contents GARDENS NEWS 3 Jack’s update 5 Visitor Services update 6 Volunteer update 7 Renovating our Native Plant Ideas garden room 9 Translocation Plant Conference 3 FRIENDS & VOLUNTEERS 10 From the President 11 Introducing some of the Friends Committee 15 Botanical Art Worldwide 17 Volunteer corner 18 Growing Friends 19 Friends autumn bus trip 20 Painting Group - February 2019 5 AN IN-DEPTH LOOK 22 Autumn seasonal activities 23 Match-making for Pennantia corymbosa 25 Davidia involucrata 28 Captain Cook and others - New books in the Library 30 A visit to the tundra Front cover image: Eucomis Photo: Jack Hobbs © Material in this Newsletter is copyright. Please refer to the Friends’ website www.friendsabg. co.nz for the full Copyright Statement. Individual 25 items may be reproduced provided that the source The is acknowledged and the author’s permission is Auckland Garden obtained. Contributions are welcome and material Auckland for the June 2019 issue should be submitted by 3 is the quarterly Botanic Gardens p.m. Friday 17 May 2019 to the Editor ross.ferguson@ newsletter of the 102 Hill Road plantandfood.co.nz. Botanic Gardens staff should Manurewa send their contributions to Jack Hobbs. Auckland Botanic Auckland 2105 Gardens and Friends Jack’s update It has been an interesting start to the The idea was sparked when Julia year, with heavy sustained rainfall Watson attended the American late last year followed by dry hot Public Garden Association (APGA) weather. Weeds did get away on us conference in Canada as the for a while, but the staff have done Buchanan Award recipient 2017. a great job lately getting them under Julia noticed a presentation on space control. travel attracted the attention of young people, and thought it might The Pacific Pathway is progressing work well at the Gardens. well, with many of the concrete paths laid and boulders placed in If you have not yet checked it out there the nodes. Works have recently is still time as it runs until 10 March. extended into the Perennial Apart from the visitor centre displays Garden, further inconveniencing our it is also worth taking the solar visitors. We remain optimistic that system walk to the Potter Children’s everything will be completed and Garden where a space-themed gardens restored before the opening edible garden has been installed. of Sculpture in the Gardens in early To access more information, check November. I know our Wiri Rambler our website or load the STQRY app volunteers are keen to get underway which includes lots of interesting again. stories on Gardeners of the Galaxy and the sculpture collection. Our current educational exhibition entitled Gardeners of the Galaxy The display gardens around the is attracting much interest. It is visitor centre Huakaiwaka have been based on NASA research that found attracting much attention over the humans cannot exist in space for summer. Although not everyone long periods without plants. The likes it, the novel ornamental millet visitor centre Huakaiwaka features Pennisetum glaucum ‘Purple Baron’ a crashed rocket which challenges has certainly been a talking point. visitors to work out how to survive. It provides stark contrast of colour, Key partners in the display are the texture and form intermingled Manukau Beautification Charitable with Gaura lindheimeri ‘So White’. Trust, MOTAT, the Stardome Begonia ‘Dragon Wing Red’ Observatory & Planetarium, the completes a striking trifecta. The Auckland Astronomical Society and artistic Pippa Lucas devised the Hyalite who installed the hydroponic plantings. The Gaura are the same system. plants on display last summer, 3 cleverly cut back in autumn then hidden by winter bedding until they regrew in spring. All Pippa had to do was trim them lightly when about 30 cm tall and they have flowered almost ever since. I regard Eucomis as highly valuable but underutilised bulbs. They naturalise readily in Auckland, tolerate our typically heavy soils better than most, and provide prolonged displays without any fuss. The summer displays in our African Garden are always eye-catching. The extensive Eucomis breeding programme undertaken by Eddie Welsh in Palmerston North utilised seed collected from our plants many years ago. During a recent visit to Joy Nurseries I was very impressed with ‘Victoria Joy’, a new Eucomis hybrid bred by Terry and Lindsay Hatch. Early this year we welcomed our as she wanted a new challenge and new apprentice Rosie Rolls to the thinks the Gardens will a great place Gardens team. Rosie made the to pursue her love of learning new interesting switch from zoo keeper at things. Auckland Zoo to a horticultural career Jack Hobbs 4 Visitor Services updates The visitor centre team will see permanent member for the Project some personnel changes over the Officer role, and hopefully we will next three months, thankfully all for be able to announce the successful good reasons. Some of you will have candidate in the next newsletter. met Natasha Salt (Tash) who worked part time driving digital, display and Another member of the Visitor engagement support and marketing. Services team many of you know She had a beautiful baby boy, Harley, is Nicky Gordon. After seven years and has been on maternity leave for in a permanent position with us a year. During this period Tash and she is retiring in March and then her husband Austin built a house in departing to Europe for two months Mangawhai and have now moved in celebration. We will be holding an there. Commuting is out of the afternoon tea on Friday 29 March. question so sadly she is unable to If any of you would like to join us come back to her role. Kate McGee in celebrating her time here please has been great covering the role contact me so we can organise whilst Tash was away, however she catering. Nicky is interested in is also pregnant and due in April so staying involved with us as she loves is unable to consider a permanent guiding people around the Gardens role. Needless to say I am throwing and we are keen to take her up on out the chair at that desk. Shortly this offer. we will be interviewing for a new Micheline Newton Little Sprouts Join us on the first Wednesday of every month for stories, songs and craft that Wednesday celebrate nature and the seasons, guided walks before you head off to explore the gardens. Every Wednesday at 10.30 a.m. • Usually held in the Library. Follow us for a guided walk • Suitable for children 5 years and under. • Children must be accompanied by of the Gardens. a caregiver at all times. See what is blooming and discover • Sessions start at 10 a.m. and run interesting stories behind the for one hour. plants and collections. Come along with your little ones This free walk leaves from the and let's have fun Visitor Centre every together! 5 Wednesday. Volunteer update The heat has been relentless this Galaxy MOTAT module (see photo), summer and we’d like to thank and adding to the support we’re everyone who has helped with the receiving from regular volunteers weeding and upkeep of the Gardens who are also helping out. during this hot time of year. Site access due to construction has When the Pacific Strip is nearing also been a challenge, and we look completion we’d like to invite all forward to the final product when volunteers to a "sneak preview" to the Pacific Strip project is complete. show the progress of the project – We’ve had some extra help over the watch your inboxes for an invitation. summer holidays with a group of We’re looking forward to a busy year young volunteers joining our team to ahead, especially with Sculpture in run activities in the Gardeners of the the Gardens on the near horizon. Summer has been a great season exhibition runs until 10 March and with visitors of all ages enjoying the we hope you get a chance to see Gardeners of the Galaxy exhibition. it. With the event season upon us, We’ve had over 200 people attend we have Elvis in the Gardens, the evening stargazing events, and a Hospice Sunrise Walk and Eye on jam-packed two-week community Nature all coming up in March. Keep engagement programme all about an eye on the "What’s On" section the importance of plants for life. The of our website for upcoming events. Julia Watson 6 Renovating our Native Plant Ideas garden room Like any house renovation, there is see a bright green Griselinia hedge noise, dust and disruption but the forming a barrier next to the new end result is usually worth it. Our pathway and providing a contrasting major renovation at the moment backdrop against which various is the construction of the Pacific shades of maroon and red-coloured Pathway, and as a consequence flaxes and Coprosma will stand out. one of the “rooms”, the Native Pink-flowering hebe, the distinctive Plant Ideas garden, is being partly red flower of the kakabeak and the redesigned. reddish new growth of the kiokio fern will also be blended through to Native Plant Ideas will be re- form a native perennial border. orientated to provide a new visitor viewing experience. Much of this Once you are enticed into this room, starts with enticing them from the the vista has already been modified Pacific Pathway into this “room”. A so that a visitor can see the length of common garden design technique the garden and orientate themselves. is using plant colour to attract Gone are the pohutukawa hedge and attention, with red in particular being tall clumps of flax blocking the view; a strong colour that catches the eye now the eye is drawn the length and makes distances appear shorter.