BEGONIA HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 105, 28 January 1938, Page 3

BEGONIA HOUSE

A Blaze Of Glory LARGER SPACE NEEDED (By H.P.) When one stands as a unit in the queue waiting to have a look at the glorious show O t begonias in the glasshouse provided by the Wellington City Com oil for their protection at the rear of the director’s home in the Botanical Gardens, the realisation is inborne that lin these marvellous exotics lies a I charm. that must compel a form of i appreciation approaching adoration. The delicacy and purity of lexture, the amazing variety and richness of the eolourii g. ami rhe air of gentility tiiac exudes from rhe aristocrats of the flower world, enforce attention. At the present time the begonias are in a T-sli:lped glasshouse that only covers a few . square feet ou I lie high ground in the centre of tli e Botanical Gardens. Possibly the house is some 25 feet bv 10ft. one. way. and slightly less than that the other The whole tiling appears ii makeshift, when one considers the importance of the project from a purely botanical point of view. The place, is not larger than half a hundred privately-owned hoibouses one could see in the Wellington district; yer while the rl’mensioiis of rhe strnc-tni-e are mean, rhe contents arc so beautiful that they leave one breathless. A new begon’a house is needed—one ■nt-least twice the size of the present one. with more space for extension, and . more space for the admiring crowds that throng it at each week-end. Mr. J G t . MacKenzie. the Director of Parks and Reserves, is keenly alive. to the public appreciation of the begonias, which have never been seen to better advartage than this season (now drawing to a close), and would 1 certainly like to see a more commodious hotislx Indeed he thinks that were a fund started for rhe erection of such a house a sum of money might be raised toward the project. He instances the case of one man who. after going ■through the house and admiring jhe blooms, said that he would be prepared to donate £5 to a fund if such were started under authoritative auspices that would ensure some measure of success. Mr. MacKenzie is also frankly of_ the opin’Cn that the present begonia house is not advantageously placed as far as the public is concerned. M'ere a new and larger house provided, be says, the existing house could still serve a useful purpose in connection witb the raising of begonias, but the zig-zag approach, by which people have to -reach the house, is too much for elderly z people. For that reason seats have been placed here and rthere so that those who feel exhausted may rest on the way up. Were a new begonia house provided—and he thinks it must come one day—it should he located somewhere down on the fiat, so that people could visit it without climbing a hill.

In the meantime the begonias are on parade at their best onlv for another week or two. Such beauty is not for .the whole ye.ii through.