flower image : Gardens of Christchurch

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

© 1996-1999 L.R. Fortney