It’s a stunning autumn day here in Wellington, New Zealand. I’m off to the Wellington Botanic Gardens. Do you want to come?
I’m all about roses – you know that! I grow them in my garden (although sometimes not as successfully as I’d like) and I love to look at them. Today, Andy and I are off for a picnic at the rose garden in theBotanic Gardens. It’s one of my most favourite places.
We are going to take the Cable Car from Lambton Quay up to the Kelburn Terminal and walk down to the gardens from there.
Please note that this is not my photo. I forgot to take a photo of the Cable Car this one came from the Wellington Cable Car website.
When you get to the top of the hill, there’s a café and the Cable Car Museum but today we’re not visiting any of those – we are simple here to literally smell the roses.
To get to the rose garden we need to walk down the hill. It’s a beautiful walk. It’s really hot today so I hope you’ve brought your sunhat.
I love this view but it’s hot so I think we should stop under a tree and take a rest.
It looks nice and shady under this tree. Let’s have a seat.
But first, take a look at these beautiful knots on this tree.
Now we’ve rested a bit, we can carry on down the hill to the LadyNorwood Rose Garden.
As we come down the hill, we get the first glance of the rose garden and how it’s laid out. As you can see to the right, we could have just driven our car up and parked here, but it’s so much more fun to take the cable car and walk over the hills.
I probably could have taken a better photo had I climbed the hill on the other side but I didn’t go up that way today. That takes you up to the herb garden – that’s another story and maybe another visit. I found this postcard from Post Art. You can purchase this postcard from their website. (It’s just like going on areal vacation and buying a postcard from the gift shop.)
The garden is laid out in a cross. It has a pond in the centre with a fountain. The ducks love it.
Before we get down to the garden, let’s stop and look at this plant. It’s growing in the shade, just before you get to the rose garden. I just love the structure of it. I don’t have any clue what type of plant it is – if you know, leave me a comment below.
The first thing you notice, as soon as you approach the garden, is the smell. Oh yeah! Breathe it in! Can you smell it?
The roses are so wonderfully pungent.
You will have to forgive me; I was so excited about the roses that Iforgot to take photos of their names. If there’s a rose shown below that you particularly need to know the name of, I’d be happy to go back and find out for you.
I’m not going to say much now, I’m just going to let you enjoy the flowers.
Isn’t this orange just stunning?
And this beautiful Salmon pink is just lovely.
Yellow roses were my Mum’s favourite.
And I absolutely love red roses.
I could go on showing you photos of roses for days but now, it’s time to go inside the Begonia House.
My Mum was an amazing gardener. In her later years she grew begonias. She had her own little hot house full of them. She loved to visit this wonderfuldestination.
The first thing we see when we walk in the door are these wonderful coleuses. I love the contrast of the lime green and the purple – I grew this one in my garden last year.
Who knew that leaves could possibly be this beautiful?
Now, the reason why we are here – the Begonias.
I grew up thinking that these plants were called Busy Lizzies. It wasn’t until I started growing them myself did I realize that they are actually called Impatiens.
These are also very beautiful, but I have no idea what they are. They were just tucked away in the greenery.
There are also a lot of tropical plants in the Begonia House like this one.
And there’s another pond with water lilies.
I could go on and on showing you photos of flowers.
So now, it's time to climb back up the hill and ride down on the cable car again.
But before we do, let's grab a coffee and have a rest and just enjoy the ambience of this beautiful place.
This week was a little different – Andy was on holiday so I had pre-written and scheduled my blog posts so that I could take some time off too.
In New Zealand, it’s autumn (as I said above) but Easter is all about Spring colours so I decided to make this bracelet and call it I Love Spring. Maybe I was just being hopeful that winter will be mild and we’ll get a great Spring in about six month’s time.
It was a fun one to make and it’s really easy to wear.
I also shared 12 tips for buying or modifying a home for wheelchair access.
That’s all for this week. I really hope that you enjoyed our visit to the Wellington Botanic Gardens.
Come back again next week.
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March 27, 2021
Hi, my name is Carol Karl. I live in little old New Zealand. My family and I strive to live the most ‘real’ life we can – by that I mean that we eat real food, we live real lives and just generally be our most authentic selves.
