Te Puna Quarry Park in Tauranga, New Zealand

[Tecophilaea King]

Te Puna Quarry Park in Tauranga is being developed by a dedicated band of volunteers from a disused quarry into a world class park. This old scar on the hillside has already become a place of special beauty.
Only 5 minutes away by car, I often go there for a walk and admire and photograph many plant in flower at different times of the season.
From the upper levels there is a spectacular panoramic view out over the Bay of Plenty. There are ponds, tree ferns, cymbidium orchids by the thousand, native tree plantings and exotics such as vireya rhododendrons - a wild garden of infinite variety. Special garden areas include irises, cacti and succulents, an Australian area, a native Arboretum, a Bonsai corner, a South African area and a Palm Grove. We now have a butterfly garden where monarchs and admirals happlily fly free.
This picture was taken from the top overlooking the park and the Bay of Plenty province towards Mount Maunganui on the right.
In the next few postings I will show you some of the beautiful plants that grow there.

[Tecophilaea King]

In the park we start of with ferns, they are often the first plant form that comes to mind when New Zealand natives are mentioned; the emerging koru and the silver ferns have become symbolic motifs and tree ferns charicterise the bush.
Many ferns (over 300 species) grow throughout New Zealand and vary from large trees, 15 meters or more, to tiny filmy ferns only 10 mm high.
A number of ferns has proved to be good garden plants, but consider the space you have in your garden before you choose a tree fern, for some, such as the Cyathea medullaris (mamaku), develop into large plants.
The next few pictures are of the Cyathea medullaris or black tree fern in the park
The last picture also shows a Cordyline australis (Cabbage tree) another NZ native.

[Tecophilaea King]

Cyathea dealbata, or the silver tree fern or silver fern (kaponga or ponga in the Māori language), is a species of medium-sized tree fern, endemic to New Zealand.
This fern is known to grow to heights of 10 m or more. The crown is dense, and the fronds tend to be about 4 m long and have a distinctive silver-white colouration on the undersides.
The Silver Ferns are also the national netball team of New Zealand. The team take their name from the Silver Tree Fern (Cyathea dealbata), which is an iconic emblem for many New Zealand sports teams.
The second pictures show the new fronds emerging and the last picture, when you turn the underside of the fronds, explains why this plant is called the Silver Fern  

[Maggi Young]

Bill, this seems worthy of a place in the Travel and Places to visit section.....  ....so I've given you a quick move there!!

[art600]

Maggi

I am glad you did.  New Zealand is definitely on my wish list and ahve added this wonderful park to areas to visit.  And not a bulb in sight!!

Many thanks Bill for posting

[Lesley Cox]

I'll really be in big trouble here as I have a different memory of this place. Beforehand I'd better say that Bill's pics show something infinitely better than when I visited it, with the NZ Iris Soc convention, in 2000. At that time various parts of the area had been allotted to a selection of Tauranga's hort groups and under the pine trees they had planted annuals, assorted dwarf phloxes, dianthus, and heaps of other totally inappropriate plants, even roses, which looked, frankly, ghastly. At the time I did take some pics of the tree ferns and these, in Bill's pics, seem larger and stronger than I remember them so 9 years of growth have helped. I can only hope the plantings are better now, too. I remember thinking that I would never want to go near the place again.

Oddly, just last night as I lay trying to sleep, I was thinking of that very place, and hadn't done so, for several years. Some kind of telepathy working maybe? It could even have been at the same time Bill was posting.

[Lesley Cox]

Now that's odd because the link takes me to the wrong place. Last night on TV there was an item about an English couple living in NZ who had literally photographed the whole country from the air. They used a little plane that looked like a dragonfly, sort of heavy in the chest and slim at the tail. I think it was a Polish plane. The wife was the pilot and the husband the photographer. Their website was given as eyeball.co.nz and everything they had done was available to see, utterly stunning pics of anywhere you wanted. I'll try to access it and report back in due course.

[Tecophilaea King]

I'll really be in big trouble here as I have a different memory of this place. Beforehand I'd better say that Bill's pics show something infinitely better than when I visited it, with the NZ Iris Soc convention, in 2000. At that time various parts of the area had been allotted to a selection of Tauranga's hort groups and under the pine trees they had planted annuals, assorted dwarf phloxes, dianthus, and heaps of other totally inappropriate plants, even roses, which looked, frankly, ghastly. At the time I did take some pics of the tree ferns and these, in Bill's pics, seem larger and stronger than I remember them so 9 years of growth have helped. I can only hope the plantings are better now, too. I remember thinking that I would never want to go near the place again.

Lesley, you certainly know how to dampen and discourage all the efforts, enthusiasm and interest of those hardworking, dedicated volenteers. Shame on you
Dont forget it takes time and a lot of hard work to developed and shape a disused quarry into a world class park, a great deal has been archieved since those early days.
And what's wrong with a planting of beautiful Heritage roses, and other specialised appropriate plant groups, what is so ghastly about that in your personal opinion? I think you should have tempered your early criticism somewhat to more relevant diplomatic comments.
Since then the Te Puna Quarry Park Society has won the Supreme Award at the TrustPower and Western Bay of Plenty Community Awards in 2002 and 2008, and subsequently went on to take out the Supreme National title in 2003 for a well balanced botanical park. Being acknowledged nationally was a great achievement and reward for their hard working volunteers.
We just hope that when you visit this award winning park next time, you will have a better and more positive opinion/understanding of this popular park.

[Tecophilaea King]

In the Te Puna Quarry Park you also find a section of colourful and charming Fuchsia plantings, putting up a beautiful display at the moment.
More pictures later. 

[johnw]

A fantastic display Bill.

Is there a particular F. magellanica that the Scots out there consider to be the toughest?  A few survive - roots only as a rule -  in the mildest areas of Nova Scotia.

johnw

[Tecophilaea King]

Here are a few more closups of the Fuchsia's in the Quarry Park, don't ask me for names, there're so many colourful, beautiful varieties in cultivation nowadays.

[Tecophilaea King]

Maggi, should I also post some of these beautiful pictures in the "November 2009 in the Southern Hemisphere" for other members to look at?
There're many more pictures to come in this beautiful Park.

[Maggi Young]

No need, Bill.... it's just as easy to post just a link there to here and since that already exists, the readers should find it , though I can always put another !

[Lesley Cox]

I bow to your more recent knowledge of the place Bill. The fuchsias are certainly beautiful.

[Maggi Young]

Although we have had some horrible weather lately, including frosts and icy winds, I am surprised to see that quite a number of fuchsias are still putting on a brave display in several local gardens.  I find it fun to see them blooming here and on the other side of the world at the same time.