CIVIC GARDENS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3768, 1 June 1926, Page 11

CIVIC GARDENS.

AUTUMN ACTIVITIES. Friday was a fine day and the reserves department men, who play such an important pan in making our city beautiful, were able to go ahead again with many activities suspended during the spell of wet weather. Out at Bathgate .Park a good hard surface is being put on a somewhat boggy road to the pavilion there. All the geraniums have been re moved from the beds in the Octagon, and on Friday they were replaced by a supply of wallflower. The Woodhaugh Gardens have always a great natural beauty and unspoilt charm of their own. The children’s playground is most attractive, and is set m surround ings that provide endless delight to the artistic eye. One of the ponds is some what overgrown at present, and the superintendent of reserves (Mr D Tannock) is contemplating solving the problem of cleaning it out by transferring the Cape Barren geese from the Botanical Gardens there for a time. Their fondness for green stuff is expected to lead to a speedy clearance The old pagoda house that was given by the Chinese at the time of the visit of the Prince of Wales has now fully served its term, and it is satisfactory to learn that it is to be replaced shortly by the stand used by Thomson and Co. at the Exhibition.

One of the improvements that strikes the eye of the visitor to the Botanical Gardens is the large number of substantia! garden seats about. There are 100 of these, whieh were given by Messrs H. E. Shaddock and Co. to the Exhibition and afterwards to the Gardens. They are mostly grouped about the bandstand at present, but will by degrees be scattered

about in suitable positions, particularly on the hillside above the stream.

The ponds just now are crowdeu with wild duck, which since the beginning of the shooting season, driven by a mysterious but unerring instinct, have sought their safety in this sanctuary. They disport themselves there boldly in the daytime without a sign of fear, and at nightfall rise and fly away seeking other haunts over the hills. The beds which were so long gay with dahlias and antirrhinums have all been dug over and planted with daffodils, anemones and wallflowers for the spring. Over in the rock garden the cotoneaster, a native of North Western China, is showing bril-

liant autumn tints. The native shrubs at the back of the rock garden have flourished greatly and have now attained considerable size. Workmen are busy on the footpath alongs;de Lindsay’s Creek right to Dundas street

and are giving it a good coating of screenings and putting it in order generally. Up the hill away to the left towards Knox Col-

lege a new curving nath is being opened up that will lead to the vicinity of the Tea Kiosk. The task is in the bands of returned soldiers who are doing very good work. The path will open up many new and most pleasing prospects. On the hillside immediately above the bandstand a certain amount of thinning cut is to be done «o that visitors may watch the band and the crowds gathered below. Quite the least known nart of the Gardens is the extensive arboretum on the hill slope above the Opoho road. The new path will lead right through it. A carriage drive flanked by noble trees was planned here long ago. The trees are thriving and a motor drive may yet be formed along this route. The arboretum will not make a very popular appeal be cause most people know so little of the trees that are there, but when thev have all been clearly named wider public interest may be expected. Merely to name the species gives an idea of the extent and variety of this collection. There are the giant redwoods (sequoia sempervirens) and the sequoia gigantea. trees which grow to be the largest known in the world. One of the sempervirens was cut for the Exhibition and the young shoots have come jaway from the stump with great vigour. There are groves of fine sturdy vellow pines, oaks. gums, hawthorns. Douglas firs. Japanese cryptomeria*. groves of cedars, spruces and nine* in bewildering variety, the thuya orientalis. Canary Island juniper, deodars, manukas, a very fine specimen of picea nectirata nordmanianas. YVidderingtoni Whvtii from Kenya, which flourishes on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, juniper, from Luanda, cupressus. she oak. piftosporum limes, planes, ashes, beeches, birches, a totara grove, Lebanon cedar and many another. One area, high up the hill, is given over to Australian tree 3 and there »rav be found the Tasmanian manuka, a wonderful variety of gums. Banksia, wattles, bottlebrush, the Australian pine (callistris). Tasmanian sassafras and so forth With such a variety of material at hand it is not to be wondered at that one of Mr Tannock’s dreams is to have a timber museum at the Gardens where specimens of all the timbers grown there may be preserved and displayed. On the main path up to the rhododendrons the scarlet berries of the Chinese berberis are making a most brilliant display just now. Belated lupino and antirrhinums still lend their colour to the picture. While the Chinese berberis are red, those from .Nepaul, India, make a sharp contrnst with their deep blue The cotoneasters in the same border make a fine show of autumn colouring. , . , The latest development in the rhododen dron garden is the planting of scarlet oaks in one part and of cherries in another to provide the overgrowth so desirable tor these plants, whose native habitat is high in the mountain -air. The effect of these beautiful trees in combination with the rhododendrons is something to look forward to in the coming spring. The rhododendron beds are being extended in various directions. In the azalea garden the polyanthus are making a wonderfully bright autumn display Roses are not all past yet. and may stni be enjoyed individually, if not *in the mass in their beds on the flat. mums are making their big display in the winter gardens The single varieties banked hack in the house where the iiiy pond was are r'" x, <'ally at their best, and are not. r > behold, but give off a very The great

double bloom wealth of variety are just comma >ection in the greenhouse. Opposite them is a very charming collection of primulas. In the orchid house there are a number of wonderful and quaint blooms to be seen just now, and the cypripedium insigne, or lady’s slipper, have combined to make the finest display of orchid flowers yet seen at the orchid house- The outside chrysanthemum beds near the Ca?tlo street entrance are making a strikingly handsome display of massed colour*.