Few things beat escaping to the blissful warmth of a heated greenhouse on a cold, wet, windy day.
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As the Land of the Long White Cloud was living up to expectations during a recent visit - freezing wind, horizontal rain - I was thrilled to discover a magnificent greenhouse complex with a heated tropical house in central Auckland.
Auckland Domain Wintergarden is in a large park on the site of what I sincerely hoped was an extinct volcano. The Art Deco style glasshouses were built in the early 1920s and have recently re-opened after a two-year renovation and restoration.
The Wintergarden was originally funded by the proceeds of an Agricultural, Industrial and Mining Exhibition, held in the Domain from December 1913 to April 1914, which attracted an astonishing 870,000 visitors. Auckland's population was then just over 100,000 and New Zealand's had passed 1 million only 5 years earlier.
The complex is made up of two elegant glasshouses, the Cool House, built in 1921, and the Tropical House, completed in 1929. They are linked by a paved courtyard with a sunken central pool, with a fernery and wisteria draped arbours on either side. The fernery was formerly a quarry which provided scoria for the paths of the 1913/14 exhibition.
During the recent renovations the two steel and glass, barrel-vaulted greenhouses were strengthened with extra steel ties and cleats, a sensible precaution in an earthquake-prone environment. New glazing bars were added and clear glass roofing was re-introduced, allowing the plants to benefit from maximum daylight on dull, cloudy days.
Each glasshouse renovation took about a year to complete and looking after a large number of tropical plants, including many rare botanical treasures, during the renovation was a huge horticultural challenge for the gardeners.
Smaller plants and potted trees were temporarily housed in nursery greenhouses and a program of propagating replacements of all the in-ground plants was undertaken to ensure survival.
The tropical house in early April was filled with colour and scent. Pink flowers of giant waterlily Victoria amazonica floated in a central pool, surround by massed displays of variegated begonias and arums and groups of palms underplanted with flowering gingers.
Near the entrance I found a small gravel garden containing a group of nearly leafless succulents from Madagascar, all xerophytes, plants adapted to life in a dry habitat.
Among them was a spiky Euphorbia platycada, aka Dead Plant because of its leafless stems. There was a Stick Plant (Alluaudia dumosa) a shrub or small tree harvested for its wood, and Decaryia madagascarensis, a spiny small tree whose leafless limbs grow in a zig zag pattern.
Spending time in a beautiful, interestingly planted and well-managed greenhouse is inspirational and Auckland's Wintergarden was no exception. Apart from anything else it was a reminder of the value of even a small greenhouse to gardeners who like to propagate as much as possible to conserve and share plants.
We can be grateful to Auckland's early 20th century Council for hosting the successful 1913/14 exhibition and for putting the proceeds to such imaginative and splendid use, of value for generations to come.
Auckland Domain Wintergarden, Park Road, Parnell, is a short bus ride from the city. Entry is free.
