Friday flowers

/ Su Leslie
hollyhocks

Auckland Wintergardens. Image: Su Leslie

I’m learning how much I’ve taken for granted in life, and how easy it used to be to follow a whim.

A couple of nights ago I craved fish and chips, but as all our takeaways are closed, I cooked dinner instead. It was tasty, but contained neither fish nor chips.

This morning I woke up and thought how very much I would like to visit the Auckland Wintergardens.

The two glasshouses and surrounding formal gardens opened in 1913 and have provided generations of visitors with a chance to enjoy rare plants, spectacular floral displays and most importantly a calm, beautiful sanctuary in the middle of the city.

In recent years they have also given me a chance to practice my photographic skills and learn about plant care from the incredibly friendly and dedicated staff.

Photo 20-03-19, 12 08 47 PM

Tropical House, Auckland Wintergardens. Image: Su Leslie 2019

But since there is no indication that the Wintergardens will be open in the near future, I’m going to take a virtual stroll through some of my old photos.

I apologise in advance for the lack of species labelling; most of these were taken back in the days when my personal flower taxonomy went something like “roses, orchids, daffodils and tulips, daisy-like things and weird stuff.”

purple flowers

Auckland Wintergardens. Image: Su Leslie

blue flowers

Auckland Wintergardens. Image: Su Leslie

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Auckland Wintergardens. Image: Su Leslie

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Auckland Wintergardens. Image: Su Leslie

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Auckland Wintergardens. Image: Su Leslie

40 thoughts on “Friday flowers”

  5. A good idea. I was having the sane thought about revisiting some of my Cornish gardens from previous years. I still think they could open some of these places to the public and just limit the number of people entering. I’m sure most people are sensible enough to observe social distancing. Love the flowers btw.

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  6. Who care what their official names are? Just call them beautiful and just what the doctor ordered (no masks needed.) We went for takeout just once at a local pizza place that got fantastic reviews. We ordered online, drove 15 minutes to get there, parked in the pickup area…and tried to call in as we were supposed to do. Unfortunately, after 15 minutes, no one had answered the phone, so my husband got in the line (spaced correctly) where people were ordering and finally got our pizza. It was very good, but not worth all the effort!! We may just be eating at home until this is over. I’d love to support local businesses, but not at the price of my sanity and good nature. 😦

    janet

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    • What a shame it was such a miserable experience!

      I’m looking at how I can change my shopping patterns to support small local businesses more when the restrictions here are loosened. Until then, we don’t have much choice but to go to the supermarket.

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  8. What a lovely display of spring flowers to cheer up the mood of the day! There is so much pleasure in posts like this, and there are so many places we can go to find them, without ever leaving home! Thank you!

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  9. Such a beautiful display Su and makes me so want to visit the winter gardens. Hopefully they will be open in all their glory by the next time, whenever that may be, we visit NZ I think we are all going to really appreciate the small things that we now miss, ie takeaways, in our “new normal”

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    • Thank you Pauline. I also hope they will re-open soon, along with other parks and gardens.
      You are so right about the small things. Our local dairy has flour in stock again and I’ve bought a bag for the boy-child’s flat. Such joy!

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      • I have to laugh about the flour. I decided I wanted to bake, so when a neighbor offered to include items for me in her delivery order, I asked for a bag of 5 lbs of flour. She was buying at a store that sells such things in bulk, especially when they run out of packaged goods, and I ended up with five plastic baggies with one pound in each! At least they had flour in bulk, and I had a great time baking last night!

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        • 🙂
          It’s almost been the opposite problem here. I’ve seen 10kg bags of flour in the supermarket but no 1kg bags. Apart from the problem of storing that much flour away from bugs and rodents, many people can’t afford to buy that sort of quantity.

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  11. The photos are stunning! Thank you for this virtual tour. And I so relate to your past plant vocabulary–that’s me now! 🙂 But this gives me hope that over time I’ll learn the names of all these beautiful flowers around me!

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  12. These are gorgeous photos Su.
    I find that I am missing my commute by bus and my two or three times a week half hour in a coffee shop unwinding on my way home from work. It was the only bit of my day that did not feature interruptions to my train of thought.

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  13. Oh Su, I’m still very much in the category of “roses, orchids, daffodils and tulips, daisy-like things and weird stuff.” Except I also have advanced classifications of ‘purple things’, ‘yellow things’, and ‘white things’.

    It’s quite chilly here. There is frost this morning and we’ve had snow flurries the past 2 days. In spite of that, evidence of spring is everywhere with the early flowers peeking out and tiny buds on shrubs and trees. This time of year feels like pure magic. The human race may be in chaos right now but nature is moving along quite nicely without us!

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  14. These are stunning Su! The flowers look absolutely gorgeous. Who knows they are enjoying their quietness in the empty Wintergardens, while fairies and pixies attend to them 🙂

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  20. These are all so pretty, Su! I have the same thing with going to the zoo or museum and was thinking of sharing some pics from the latter even though I didn’t have a very good camera back then. Fortunately I’m not much of a takeaway person – too many bad experiences involving hours spent on the loo afterwards. 😉 But I get the craving and not getting part!😂

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