Fragrant plants improve the ambiance in the garden and invoke memories of other gardens and other times. Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) The flowers are small but the fragrance is powerful In February. Sarcoccoca rusifolia blooms in the winter. Sarcoccoa confusa has black fruit, not red, like S. ruscifolia but still has very fragrant flowers but very…

When I was a kid, my Mother would make me cream of mushroom soup for lunch. The soup was ok but I hated the mushrooms and would always pick them out and not eat them. As I have reached my senior years I still don’t like mushrooms but realize they are very valuable in the…

Since I was in New Zealand for the Dawn Gardens open gardens on November 12, I thought that I might miss most of the fall colors this year. But the following photos and videos show the fall color was still good November 18 – 25. Purple Smoke Tree (Cotinus coggygria ‘Purpureus’) Grace Purple Smoke Tree…

This is a summary of my 4 week tour to see New Zealand gardens. I will list all the sites and gardens visited with a picture or two or three of each and the date it was posted on this blog. NORTH ISLAND New Zealand Garden Tour: (Posted Oct. 20) Orbit Revolving Restaurant: New Zealand…

On our last day of the New Zealand garden tour we saw the Chanticler Garden and A Wild Dream Garden. We drove along Lake Wakatipu and then I rode the Gondola to the top to get sweeping views of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. CHANTICLER GARDEN This garden is about 12 acres on a 40 acre…

No gardens were viewed today but we had a beautiful cruise on Milford Sound. There was a 2 hour drive with many scenic stops before we got on the ship. FARMLAND VIEWS Red Tussock Grass (Carex sp. ) Some brown grasses for the garden: Carex testacea, Carex buchananii, Carex flagellifera, Carex secta. These are Russell…

Today we drove from Dunedin to Te Anau stopping at Wylde Willow Garden and Maple Glen. SCENERY ON THE WAY Highway landscaping Planting of Monterey Pines for lumber. The sign was installed in 1992 when Clinton and Gore were elected in the U. S. The sign reads “Presidential Highway “ Clinton was the name of…

We began the day by visiting the Olveston House in Dunedin. Then we went to the Larnach Castle to eat lunch and tour the garden with beautiful views of Dunedin Bay. At the end of the day we had a guided tour of the Albatross Colony. OLVESTON HOUSE The house and its furnishings, history and…

Today was spent traveling from Oamaru to Dunedin with 4 stops along the way – Old Oamaru, Moeraki Boulders, Fleur’s Place for lunch and Dunedin Botanical Garden. OLD OAMARU We stopped in Old Oamaru to look at an old steam train and old buildings of the last century: These buildings were made from the limestone…