A GARDEN GLORY

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 23, 22 October 1942, Page 4

A GARDEN GLORY

Wellington’s Greatest Display NINE THOUSAND TULIPS Bursting into bloo.m five weeks ago, nine thousand tulips, the greatest planting ever seen in a public garden in New Zealand, have been the crowning glory of the Wellington Botanical Gardens" till swept by the heavy wind earlier this week. Though their great open cups have been several}’ buffeted and their long stems have had their stately bearing sadly reduced, they still retain most of their regal appearance, and will delight the eyes of visitors to the gardens for at least another weekend. , Never, it is stated, have there been, so many people in the Gardens as there have this spring, showing that the people of Wellington have a strongly developed sense of civic pride? as well as a keen appreciation of cultural values. For several weekends past there have been some 10,000 visitors to the Gardens ou both Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and they have been amazed at the magnificence of the tulip beds, which in every case have had as a ground base small blue violas or blue myosotis to frame the flaring beauty of the poised cups on stems two feet high in most cases, but often topped by large blooms at three and a half feet. It has been a very remarkable growing season.

Ruby-red, with a black base, the Isis, in a bed of 1000 bulbs, has been one of the favourites. Another tulip greatly admired has been the Bronze Queen, one of the first to unfold its petals and still boldly in bloom. It is pale lemon to bronze in colour, shot with a very light and delicate shade of heliotrope. ' Unique in its exceptionally dark hue, the Sultan has been very attractive. There are nearly 4000 Clara Butts in a beautiful bright pink. Releasing its imprisoned beauty in a glorious yellow, and taking on. with age, a scarlet tinge,, the Ingleseombe Yellow has been prominent in .a colourful cascade of 1000 blooms. Farncornbe Sanders, a cerise pink, has been popular, and Pride of Haarlem, with its huge open cups, has had a very similar colouring. Perhaps most outstanding and causing the passing public to pay an amazed homage, has been a large bed of Princess Elizabeth, in silver pink. The Spring Picture.

However, though the tulips have held pride of place by their dominance, other flowers have not, in the words of the poet, been born to blush unseen. Four large beds of polyanthus are revealing in their colour and range. Azalea mollis have shone in their brilliance from fire to straw shades. Ranunculus has been a graceful harmony of hues. Grouped in solid profusion of blooms, rhododendrons are In full flower from end to end of the Gardens.

That the whole spring picture there is so wonderful is its own tribute to the care bestowed on the flowers and the manner in which the young plants have been nursed by the head foreman, Mr. J. C. Stirling, who has had the disadvantage of a greatly depleted staff. Besides having .to combat natural pests, he has had to deal with another—the person who indiscriminately despoils the beds to steal flowers. This form of thieving has been rampant. Some of the beds are now being removed - to make way for summer planting. Under the Kilgoui- bequest, a suitable piece of statuary has now been ordered for the Gardens, and will be placed, when the sculptured design Is executed, adjacent to the main walk, near the summer-house.