On 8/2/08 20:13, in article , "John Rye"
wrote:

Hello Sacha

In article ,
Sacha wrote:
For his birthday present Ray is being given two tickets to NZ (and back!)
from my son and his wife. We'll probably go in January of next year, even
though his birthday is next month. I've never been there but Ray went to NZ
about 15 or so years ago but by now there must be other, or more highly
developed, gardens. Has anyone got any particular recommendations? We
won't be seeing gardens only but obviously, those will be a major
attraction for us! We intend to drive ourselves, as and where the whim
takes us but I want to start planning with the aid of online maps, some of
which show specific driving tours. I want, also, to get him some books
appropriate to the gardens of NZ, so again, any suggestions will be most
welcome.

My wife and I had 4 weeks in New Zealand travelling with a mixture of public
transport and 2 car hires one in North Island and one in South Island. We did
not visit any "private" gardens, but quite a lot of public ones. There is
limit to how much guidance we can give, because we went in October ie late
Spring whilst you are planning to go near to mid Summer.

No firm plans yet. We can't go in October because one of the family has a
birthday she wants us for in late October. But we could go in November,
which R did last time. Perhaps it would be a better time to in terms of
plants? If we go in January, is there a risk of things having 'gone over',
perhaps?

One thing we would recommend if you are both fit enough is a conducted walk
up the Hooker valley on the East Side of Mount Cook starting from the
Hermitage Hotel at Mount Cook Village to the glacier lake. The views are
spectacular, and the botany fascinating.

One thing that I think will disappoint you is the number of British wild
flowers that got out to New Zealand with grass seed and are naturalised
there.

I think that came over on Monty Don's programme. He was fascinated by the
abrupt switches between lush English-type landscape and native NZ landscape.
I suppose we'd like to see examples of both but with a definite bias on
native NZ plants. We grow some here and I'm particularly looking forward to
seeing them in their natural state and size. Ray said (having been to NZ
once before) that looking at some plant or other, it took him several
seconds to realise he was looking at something he knew perfectly well but
didn't recognise three times its 'English' size.

If you want thoughts on any of the Botanic gardens just ask.

John

Yes please!


--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'