What do you do when you have an hour or so available? Go to the Botanic Gardens of course! Well that's what I did today.
I was up early dropping teenagers to their bus and took the opportunity to travel onwards and see what's growing.
Well, with the recent cold spell of weather, there was no surprise to see little movement of plants growing outdoors.
There was some colour, but I took the decision to visit some of houses instead.
First up was the alpine house, where there was a range of plants in pots. This is a very cool spot, with no heat, and when I was there the doors were wide open so the place was very cool indeed. There was a nice selection bulbs flowering, which really caught my eye, and the most vivid of which was a variety of Iris called 'George' with lovely purple petals and a yellow tongue. There was some Crocus in pots, a collection of Galanthus (snowdrops) and some early Narcissus too.
I was curious to see how many varieties of Galanthus there was as there was a collection of eight to ten pots. However, some of these varieties were a repeat of one another so in reality there was only three or four varieties in total.
Overall, I do enjoy visiting this house on occasion, as the plants are normally well displayed, labelled and colourful. I'm sure there is a stock further back in the nursery part of the gardens that the display plants are drawn from, and would love at some point to have the opportunity to explore there.
Next stop was the Teak House. There was a display here of indoor-type plants including Cyclamen and Poinsettia, which although were colourful, I associate with the the Autumn and Christmas periods respectively, so I didn't linger too long here.
There was some other foliage plans with the sprinkling of flower colour.
I'll revisit here at a later stage in the Spring and see what's cooking ...
Next stop was the Curvilinear Range, and this really was a treat, not only for the plants, but the fact it was warm too was a great attraction where the outdoor temperature was probably somewhere between three and five degrees Celsius.
And the scent ...
There was a beautiful scent permeating through most of the house, which I traced back to a large Jasminum (probably the variety 'polyanthum') which was 10 to 12 feet in height and was covered in flowers on the upper quarter of it.
Now I have one of these guys in my cool greenhouse that I'll check in on soon. Even if it has only quarter of the scent of this, it will be something to behold.
There was plenty of other interest here too, including beds that had a range of Rhododendrons in flower, and plants categorized by the regions of the world they come from.
There was too many different varieties to focus on in just one hour, so I got busy snapping with my iPhone and I'll definitely be back to visit again.
I think the area as a whole is worth visiting to take in colour that we simply would need particular conditions to have in our own houses. Maybe a conservatory, purpose built, would do ... put this on a wish list ...
In the meantime, here's a sample of the colour and variety to enliven the senses, my favourite of which was the mauve Tibouchina urvilleana, which not only looks amazing, but has particular sentimentality to me, which maybe I'll explain another time.
Happy gardening.
I was up early dropping teenagers to their bus and took the opportunity to travel onwards and see what's growing. Well, with the recent cold spell of weather, there was no surprise to see little movement of plants growing outdoors.
There was some colour, but I took the decision to visit some of houses instead.
First up was the alpine house, where there was a range of plants in pots. This is a very cool spot, with no heat, and when I was there the doors were wide open so the place was very cool indeed. There was a nice selection bulbs flowering, which really caught my eye, and the most vivid of which was a variety of Iris called 'George' with lovely purple petals and a yellow tongue. There was some Crocus in pots, a collection of Galanthus (snowdrops) and some early Narcissus too. 
I was curious to see how many varieties of Galanthus there was as there was a collection of eight to ten pots. However, some of these varieties were a repeat of one another so in reality there was only three or four varieties in total.
Overall, I do enjoy visiting this house on occasion, as the plants are normally well displayed, labelled and colourful. I'm sure there is a stock further back in the nursery part of the gardens that the display plants are drawn from, and would love at some point to have the opportunity to explore there.
Next stop was the Teak House. There was a display here of indoor-type plants including Cyclamen and Poinsettia, which although were colourful, I associate with the the Autumn and Christmas periods respectively, so I didn't linger too long here. 
There was some other foliage plans with the sprinkling of flower colour.
I'll revisit here at a later stage in the Spring and see what's cooking ...
Next stop was the Curvilinear Range, and this really was a treat, not only for the plants, but the fact it was warm too was a great attraction where the outdoor temperature was probably somewhere between three and five degrees Celsius.
And the scent ...There was a beautiful scent permeating through most of the house, which I traced back to a large Jasminum (probably the variety 'polyanthum') which was 10 to 12 feet in height and was covered in flowers on the upper quarter of it.
Now I have one of these guys in my cool greenhouse that I'll check in on soon. Even if it has only quarter of the scent of this, it will be something to behold.
There was plenty of other interest here too, including beds that had a range of Rhododendrons in flower, and plants categorized by the regions of the world they come from. There was too many different varieties to focus on in just one hour, so I got busy snapping with my iPhone and I'll definitely be back to visit again.
I think the area as a whole is worth visiting to take in colour that we simply would need particular conditions to have in our own houses. Maybe a conservatory, purpose built, would do ... put this on a wish list ... In the meantime, here's a sample of the colour and variety to enliven the senses, my favourite of which was the mauve Tibouchina urvilleana, which not only looks amazing, but has particular sentimentality to me, which maybe I'll explain another time.
Happy gardening.
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