Garden Life

A riddle: What is the most copious type of plant at Dunedin Botanic Garden, the most frequently visited but least noticed? Answer: Grass.

The Latin word rugosa means "wrinkled" and the leaves on rugosa roses certainly live up to their name.

Rotoroa is the Dunedin Botanic Garden’s resident cheeky male kea. He arrived in 1981 and has been living here since then.

At Dunedin Botanic Garden there are flowing groups of Dicentra formosa halfway down the west side of the Cherry Walk in the Rhododendron Dell. Soft mounds of light green ferny foliage rise up to...

After a 10 year gap, the majestic plant Furcraea parmentieri is again flowering in the Mexican borders of Dunedin Botanic Garden’s geographic collection.

In a native garden bed next to the upper Botanic Garden car park, there’s a striking group of plants that wouldn’t look out of place in a Dr Seuss book.

Pulsatilla are adorable. There’s simply no other word for it.

Now is the time to complete spring tasks from the “to do” list. Days are getting longer, the soil and weather conditions are warming up and the garden is enticing us out.

Plant common names can be amusing or sometimes quite rude. Some are just confusing, as the plant either shares the same common name with others or has many different common names.

Camellias are flowering and now is the perfect chance to have a go at identifying your unnamed favourites.

The old saying "that nice things come in small parcels" applies to violets.

Known by its Maori name of kakariki, meaning green, this small parakeet is native to New Zealand.

It would take about four hours to walk every track in the Dunedin Botanic Garden. Although that sounds like a make-the-best activity for locals in lockdown, on the other hand, why not at any time?

Good gardening is not only about creating. It’s also about editing. Renewal and replacement of plantings is an essential part of garden maintenance.

You are at a plant sale and you spy a plant that you have been on the hunt for. It is not an option to leave without it.

The 700 camellias in the lower botanic garden camellia collection are all regularly checked and evaluated. This helps staff make choices for the future, culling underperforming plants and noting...