Botanic gardens can benefit us all

Press, 25 August 1988, Page 16

Botanic gardens can benefit us all

Your Garden

Thelma Strongman

Whether you take photographs or not ...

Today Thelma Strongman begins her latest series on people and gardens with some observations on botanic gardens.

Exchange of information with botanical centres world wide is important work

All gardeners seem to have their own personal sign that spring has arrived. Some know it as a definite change in weather patterns, almost feeling with some sixth sense the potential for growth. With others, it is the appearance of snowdrops, the greening of willows, or the flowering of a favourite camellia. These are signs which are often accompanied by an urge to discover more, to go out and seek interesting plants in the local garden centre, or better still, to see what is unfolding in the Botanic Gardens.

Just now, one of the sights are the beautiful Magnolia soulangiana hybrids near the tennis court and croquet-ground bridge. Their bright, waxy pink or white flowers burst open early in the season from large, furry, elegantly pointed buds. Perhaps it is the strong contrast between the sumptuous blooms and the stark tracery of the branches which gives these trees such incredible beauty.

Also worth rediscovering in the Gardens, under the maples near the far end of the herbaceous border, are the hellebores, useful both as ground cover in shade and also as foliage plants

of strong character. There must be a corner of the garden which would greatly benefit from the introduction of some of the members of this plant family. Broadly speaking, H.

corsicus has evergreen spiny leaves arid greenycream cup shaped flowers borne on longish trusses. H. niger has saucer shaped white flowers and leathery leaves which are toothed on the edges.

These were said to have been planted by cottagers as protection against spells, which isn’t surprising as the plant is poisonous.

Later still comes H. orientalis, which has mainly maroon coloured flowers. Our Botanic Garden in Christchurch is an excellent reference point for gardeners, and has the distinction of being the only botanic garden in New Zealand to feature overseas in Edward Hyams’ important book “Great Botanical Gardens of the World.”

We probably owe the status of our botanical gardens to Sir Julius von Haast, Who was one of the founders, and to J. B. Armstrong, son of the curator, who together botanised Canterbury in the early days. Von Haast corresponded for some time with Sir Joseph Hooker, at Kew.

Botanical gardens have a long history, which some garden historians consider have their origins in the gardens of

medieval monasteries. Here the herbs (most of which were used for medicinal purposes) and the vegetables were apparently grown in a series of parallel, rectangular shaped beds which were raised and framed by narrow wooden boards. Sometimes the beds were square in shape, and together resembled a che-

querboard pattern. Today, this type of garden layout could form an excellent plan for the plantswoman/man’s garden, who has an interest in collecting plants for their botanical value and likes to keep an eye on each individual plant. Gardeners who garden primarily for the plants themselves tend to mass

their plants together in the shapeless form which they call a “natural” garden, and the result is anything other than a natural result. Much better would be to give the garden a unity which has a formal overall plan, and to co-ordi-nate the vistas and garden

features within this structure.

The Victorians were great plant collectors. It is probably due to them, and to the establishment of botanic gardens throughout the British Empire that there are more than 500 botanical gardens listed in the world today.

They were essentially established as centres of scientific learning. For instance, Singapore Botanical Gardens produced work which established the rubber industiy in Malaysia. Today it is concerned with the hybridisation of orchids as a locally based industry.

The serious work of botanical gardens as a scientific base associated with the local vegetation of the region is a function of botanic gardens which the general public rarely consider. Most people see botanic gardens as a public park, but behind the

scenes the interchange of information, seeds, etc., with botanical centres in other parts of the world is an important aspect of the work. Also there are the factors of conservation of native plants and the importance of botanical gardens as a living museum

for rare and endangered plants, the provision of plants to dress up local civic events, and the assistance of ordinaiy members of the public with their gardening problems. Our local Botanic Gardens attempts to do all this and to meet its obligations with other botanic gardens throughout the world on a budget provided by Christchurch ratepayers. The central Government, ratepayers in Waimairi, Riccarton, Heathcote, and Paparua contribute nothing to its upkeep. There is little wonder, therefore, that the authorities at the Botanic Gardens are trying (initially a little ungraciously perhaps) to improve their revenue by giving it a broader financial basis on which to carry out the very useful and successful work from which we all benefit.