FERNERY IMPROVED

Taranaki Daily News, 24 November 1934, Page 9

FERNERY IMPROVED

IMPRESSIONS OF A VISITOR. SUGGESTIONS FOR PUKEKURA PARK Improvement in the fernery at Pukekura Park had impressed him particularly, said a South Island visitor yesterday who lived at New Plymouth about four years ago. “When I left the town,” he remarked, “there was a good deal of excitement about the fernery, but when I went to see it I found it a hot and stuffy place, mostly bare clay walls.” The change was considerable now, he added. It had always been obvious that there was scope for a really fine fernery at the park but the beginnings had been negligible. Even now it was not exploited to the utmost. He considered that the use of ponga dust on the floor was a successful innovation because it was suitable to the surroundings and lent an atmosphere of coolness. He saw the clay banks had been carved out into ■ rugged outlines in some places giving them an appearance of a rock face which was convincing and original. Moss was growing well everywhere and the bareness was obscured, while the Maori heads carved from pongas and a useful scheme for Suspending patted fems on the banks were effective ideas.

There was much still to be done, continued the visitor, however. There was far too little use made of running water, the sound and sight of which in a fernery created the right atmosphere immediately, apart from keeping air moist. Some rare ferns were not prominently displayed and there Was a tendency to bunch many specimens together, the full beauty of each thus being lost. The show of primulas and cyclamen was not impressive, though probably this was a branch of file work not yet fully developed. The hanging baskets were the worst he had seen in a fernery of such size in New Zealand and he thought an immense improvement would be made if more labour and thought was spent in growing and arranging these.