The Wintergarden is a set of three greenhouses (actually, two greenhouses and a fernery) that are in the middle of the Auckland Domain. "Greenhouse," really doesn't do the Wintergarden justice. The large glass and brick structures are as impressive to look at as the plants inside of them. The three structures are connected by a little garden in the middle with fountains and statues.
The first building was filled primarily with eggplant plants. At least ten different varieties of eggplant were mixed with the typical variety of flowers that you would find in a normal cool climate greenhouse. In addition to the unusual eggplant display, there were five or six varieties of pepper plant. Most of the peppers were really small and looked a little fake because of the bright purple, yellow and orange colors. The fact that vegetables were on display in a government owned public greenhouse was interesting to me, but far more interesting was that it was just a eggplant and pepper display (excluding the one lonely citroen plant).
The second greenhouse wasn't quite as interesting. The orchids and water lilies were great, but they didn't have the same grade school teacher at a monster truck show exoticism that the eggplants had.
The Fernery wasn't that interesting either. Filled with ferns, it lived up to it's name and made no effort to achieve anything else. Ferns, just ferns.
Pictures of "The Wintergarden": http://picasaweb.google.com/TrevorCBraun/Wintergarden
No comments:
Post a Comment