CITY AMENITIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19278, 16 September 1924, Page 3

CITY AMENITIES.

RESERVES DEPARTMENT’S ACTIVITIES.

BEAUTIFUL SCENES AT THE G AUDENS.

Most amateur gardeners very Jicartily welcomed the little shower of ram—about 15 points—that visited the city early on Friday morning. The superintendent of reserves, Mr D. Tamiock, is not worrying about rain at all just now, and says he could get along quite comfortably without it for some time to come yet. Kain in winter time, he says, is just a nuisance and except so far as it maj lie needed for summer storage, the horticulturist is much better without it. Tne present season, therefore, is proving an unusually suitable and encouraging one tor the gardener, and indeed the profusion of spring flowers now to bo seen about tho city and suburbs speaks for itself. A trip round tho reserves on Friday showed as usual, many works m hand foi tho beautifying and permanent improvement of the city. There are a number of streets in Caversham between Cariabrook and the Benevolent Institute that have been made handsome and attractive with borders of trees and grass. This work is always being improved and extended, and at present levelling and grassing is going on in Neville street. At the extensive Caversham playground, which' includes about five acres, preparations are now being made for the laying down of two tennis courts for the Caversham Tennis Club. A third court will probably be required by the club later. At Beaumont road, Bellknowes, some of the residents have combined with tne Amenities Society to defray the cost o planting an unused and neglected strip of the road with shrubs. Workmen are busy at it just now. , Near the Rosiyn and electric tram junction tho Punga Croquet Club’s new, full-sized lawn was sown down just immediately before the heavy rain of last week, so it should have every chance to come away well. Ihe Asvlum ground is looking well, and is unusually dry and firm for this time of year. Clav wickets for the use of the High School boys are at present'being laid down there. On the North Ground the work of the preparation of the wickets is also well iu hand. For this work and also for the top dressing of the University Memorial Walk in Leith street, a gang of returned soldiers are engaged taking rich soil from tho upper side of cemetery road. In the Gardens themselves work goes forward apace with the season. The new glasshouse is now in full use, and is well stocked with hydrangeas and calceolarias, all showing remarkable vigour of growth. Among the many other species being nourished through their infancy here are primulas, rhododendrons, genius, dianthus, saxifrazo, juniper, clematis, heliotrope and a score more whose names are familiar to the expert only. On the sunny grassy slope southward of the big pine trees daffodils are out in flower milking a proud show. The bulbs in this particular patch come originally from Christchurch, and it is a peculiar fact that year after year they bloom earlier than other bulbs similarly situated. An important improvement to tho lay out of this part of the upper Gardens is being planned by Mr Tamiock in the form of a° path to continue in a curve from the end of the path that begins at tho gate at Opoho comer to the azalea gax*don and through it to tho Rhododendron Dell. This will enable visitors to pass continuously from one spot to another, without having their attention diverted by the necessary, but less ornamental potting sheds and work shops, that are at present somewhat conspicuous. A number of tho holly trees in the maze to the northward of tho big pines have not recovered from their recent removal, but on the whole tho holly has stood the ordeal well, and may soon ne expected to be making strong growth. A number of pinus insignis were being removed from the nursoy on Friday for planting near the big new dam at Waipori. They looked splendidly healthy,, and many of them had made as much as 15 inches growth in a, year from a seedling. Tho abundance with which they grow is astonishing to the layman, a rough calculation showing that something like a thousand of these trees can be taken from a square yard of ground. An examination of the roots shows ‘that all bear a white fungus which has a most important part to play in the subsequent history of the tree. It is the action of this "fungus that (enables the tree to thrive in sour ground. Down near the Winter Gardens three water lily ponds are in course of construction. They are being made of rock and puddled clay. The intention is to supply them with the overflow of warmed water from tho lily pond in the glass house, and with this encouragement tile lilies ought to do very well. The Gardens just now are very well worth a visit. Up by the Rhododendron Dell the rhododendrons, daffodils, and primroses are displaying their lovely hues in profusion. Grape hyacinth makes a glory of a long bod in the azalea gardens. In the Winter Gardens primulas, cyclamen and cinerarias in tho pride of their flowering strength make a riot of glorious colour to charm tho imagination and gladden the heart of anyone. Graceful forsythia, pink peach and japonica are among the other flowers that may be enjoyed in their full beauty outside. In this work-a-day world, holding much that is neither pleasant nor beautiful, the Gardens just now offer a refreshment and delight that _ cannot be measured in words.