Plant Life

Occasional glorious sunny days and temperatures that sometimes reach the early 20s can trick us into thinking winter is over.

Bursts of colour in the midwinter garden are always a welcome boost to morale while spring still seems some way off.

One of the most enjoyable parts of gardening is going out and buying new plants.

Winter is well under way but what a cheering sight it is to see the birds still flitting from tree to tree.

Chionochloa is an Australasian genus with the bulk of species confined to New Zealand.

It's time to start thinking about pruning your roses.

Stangeria eriopus is a cycad that's a little different from most other cycads.

Burrs on trees cause a mix of reactions, as a beech in Dunedin Botanic Garden's camellia collection is demonstrating.

Viburnum is one of the most versatile genera for the woodland garden. Within its ranks it has spring, summer, autumn and winter-flowering species.

Isn't this time of year beautiful? The sun's low light comes to rest on some of the more understated performers of the garden world, bringing out their charms with grace and subtlety.

The more familiar I am with a plant, the easier it is to remember the scientific name as I relate it to the plant's origin, habit or characteristics.

One of the most beautiful small trees has to be Acer griseum, the paperbark maple.

Salvias in Dunedin Botanic Garden's herbaceous borders are phasing us gently into winter, with a final drip-feed of flower colour.

The arrival of autumn in Dunedin Botanic Garden has heralded the emergence of the often overlooked and misunderstood inhabitants of a garden: its mushrooms.

There is a growing public interest in environmentally friendly and sustainable horticulture.

A close neighbour is close to showing us up.

If you love to grow unusual native plants in your garden, you are probably familiar with the fiercely golden foliaged Aciphylla, also known as Spaniard or speargrass.

At first glance the balloon pea flower could be mistaken for New Zealand's native kaka beak.

Amorphophallus titanum has the honour of producing the largest flower-like structure in the plant world.

This plant is not a pineapple or a lily, but ''pineapple lily'' is a good common name to describe the flower of this unusual bulbous perennial.