New Zealand is full of amazing botanic gardens. I have seen at least one in almost every sizable city that I have been through. Even more impressive is that almost all of them have enough variety in their collections to keep me guessing. I never really know what I’m going to see when I visit a new one. One of the more awesome botanic gardens that I’ve seen here is Hamilton Gardens, in Hamilton of course. The coolest part of the gardens was a small section enclosed in glass… the greenhouse!
Very little in the greenhouse has labels, so you pretty much have to just enjoy it without knowing what you are looking at. Like many good greenhouses, Hamilton Garden’s greenhouse is divided into moist and dry wings. This post is just about the moist, humid and dark wing of the greenhouse. I’ll call it The Jungle. Having been to many jungles, I can confidently say that this wing fits the description perfectly.
Don’t you just hate it when you can see straight to the end of something in the garden? Hamilton Garden greenhouses do a great job of NOT doing that.No idea what it is, but it looks neat!My favorite plant, possibly. Bananas!Little green bananas, probably not very good tasting. Which might be why they are still in the greenhouse within reach.Coffea of some sort. Arabica? Canephora? Who knows.NOID cycad.Where does the pathway lead? El Dorado, or the exit?Curculigo sppLooks like an Anthurium of some sort.Obligatory terrestrial bromeliad planting.Philodendron ‘Burgundy’Old faithful, Philodendron monstera.A sea of Sanseveria trifasciata. Almost a weed here, it pops up all over the greenhouse.ScheffleraSynadenium grantii ‘Rubra’… looking like it has grown up in bright sunlight. Odd, because there is almost no light that gets to where it is growing. Maybe high iron fertilizer?
Next is the dry wing. I’m sure I won’t be amiss if I call it The Desert.
I love a challenge. Whether it is germinating seeds from exciting new plants (at least exciting and new for me), keeping and raising fish, poison dart frogs, and ornamental shrimp, or navigating new areas of the world without maps or guides, I am interested in it. I have lived in the Pacific Northwest most of my life, and I'm still fond of moss and gray skies.
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