CITY'S ORCHIDS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 180, 1 August 1944, Page 2

CITY'S ORCHIDS

DOMAIN COLLECTION BROUGHT FROM MANY LANDS The winter gardens in the Domain have lost a good deal of their popularity since the petrol restrictions made it more difficult for people to go there, with the result that many of the beauties of the gardens pass with little notice. The display in both the big plant palaces at present is one which citizens should be willing to go far to see. In the tropical house orchids blend with the richly-ornamental foliage of crotons and other decorative plants, under graceful ferns trailing from hanging baskets, while in the cool house cyclamens and primulas vie with one another for pride of place. Tjacly's Slipper Orchids Probably the show in both houses will be at its best during the next few weeks, although the orchids in the City Council's nurseries, from which the winter gardens are supplied, are from so many different countries that there is scarcely a month of the year without its special feature. In the winter gardens and the nurseries, as season follows season, are seen the well-known lady's slipper orchids from Northern India, tropical orchids from the jungles of Venezuela and Brazil, smaller and less showy varieties from Burma, Siam and the Malay States, hardy rock lily orchids from New South Wales, and specimens from other places, including the diminutive New Zealand variety. India's great range of temperatures, from freezing point at night to tropic heat at midday, and its phenomenal rainfall have combined to produce orchids with flowers of strange pouch-like formation, in numerous sizes and colours, of which Auckland secured a fine collection some thirty years ago. Under the skilled care of gardeners in the Domain nurseries this collection annually reproduces its colourful charm.

Among the tropical orchids from the Amazon region of South America is to be seen probably the mostprized specimen in Auckland, seven years of age, which produces a light> mauve flower with a remarkable fringed lip. Other varieties, from widely separated countries, though less showy than this queen of the orchid world, have their own peculiar artistic qualities, and a select few possess a delicate perfume.

To maintain the conditions under which these hundreds of orchids, all carefully tended in pots, thrive in the mild Auckland climate is one of the trials of the nurseryman. In this part of the Dominion plants of all kinds develop rapidly and reach an early maturity. They also tend to degenerate quickly. Inspired Indian Architecture Apart from the flowers, the quaint formation of the stems is a characteristic of some orchids. For instance, those from India often suggest by the novelty of their stems some of the outstanding features of Indian architecture. Also strangely typical of their source of origin are the bamboo orchids, which bear their flowers at the tips of the stems. Reminiscent of the Spaniards' campaign df conquest in South America is the "eucharist lily" orchid, native of the Amazon Valley, so named because of its rare purity of whiteness.

In contrast with the orchids are the Domain displays of cyclamens and primulas, with red and pink tints predominant. Features of the collection in the nurseries are the delicately scented star primulas, and the Chinese primulas, with their Einks, mauves and pure white, varied y a number of indefinable shades. Altogether the collections are a feast of colour and floral charm.