The Gardens

I woke up early Sunday morning, and felt like I needed to do some exploring. I quickly got dressed, and I was out of Ilam Apartments by 9:30 which is pretty early by college standers, and hoped on my bike who I just recently named "Big Blue."
Christchurch is known as the "Garden City" so I decided a nice walk in the Botanical Gardens was just the place to do some solitary exploring. I've already written about Hagley Park just about 2 mile from campus, but I think I failed to explain how large Hagley Park is. Within the park there are several Rugby fields, a golf course, tennis courts, two ponds and of course the Botanical Gardens. I had already been through the park several times on my ways in and out of town, but I still hadn't found the gardens. So Big Blue and I went on a little quest to find the gardens.
I soon discovered that Blue and I were not going to find them without the assistance of a knowledgeable civilian, so with the help from a nice lady and her large Newfoundland I was able to find the entrance to the gardens. I parked Big Blue and lock him with the other bikes, and had my first tour of the gardens.

True to the form of Hagley, the gardens are also huge with many different sections. The picture above is of the Rose Gardens. They have every color rose you could think of ranging from bight baby pink to a kind of mournful maroon.

The Rose Garden is encircled by green hedge about 8 ft high, and sitting in the center of the Rose Garden is a sundial that tells, not only the New Zealand time, but also the time in New York, Tokyo, and several other major cities in the world.

My favorite part of the garden is the indoor flower room. The entire room was filled with Begonia Tuberhybrida Hybrids also known as Tuberous Begonias.

These particular flowers are from Africa although they've been introduced in Asia and the Americas. The blooms are very large, and about 6 inches across, and come in a variety of colors as you can see. When I was in the green house I stumbled upon one flower that had either fallen or was knocked off by a careless spectator, so I couldn't resist taking a quick photo.

The rest of the greenhouse help all kinds of tropical plants and large trees with lost of alcoves for viney plants. This one I thought was particularly scenic.

The gardens were so spectacular I could go on and on about them and show you all of the 77 pictures I took there, but I think that might get a little repetitive. All I can say is that when I get back to the states my parents can be expecting me to be doing a little bit more gardening than usual.