town-squares
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The Local Arboretum: An introduction
By definition an arboretum is a specific place where trees of the world or of a specific country are collected for public viewing. Adding local seems to complicate that understanding. There is good reason for it though: the premise here is that even a single tree, looked at in-situ, can open up the same interests…
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Monumental: A Phoenix Palm Gallery
In the last post we got acquainted with the ‘colonnade effect’ of rows or double avenues of Phoenix palms. I quickly moved to look at a case study of the redevelopment of Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery, and glossed over the history of the Phoenix palm in New Zealand, partly because I’ve already written several blogs and…
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The Colonnade Effect: Rows and Double Avenues of Phoenix Palms
We’ve come across a few Phoenix palms (Phoenix canariensis) in previous posts and I promised to write more on them. The use of the palm in New Zealand has a long and varied history, so to keep this post short I’ll refer readers to some earlier posts on the topic (in another blog), and to…
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‘Heavy-shouldered children of the wind’: Shaping Macrocarpa
In ‘Photogenic ‘beat-up macs‘ I quoted this line from Jeffers’ poem Granite and Cypress: ‘White-maned, wide-throated, the heavy-shouldered children of the wind leap at the sea-cliff’ (1925, quoted by Weick). This powerful expression needs contextualising: the poet is celebrating the tree in Monterey Peninsula, a landscape different to where most macrocarpa are found in New…
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The Monkey Puzzler
In the course of searching for historical information on the Norfolk Island Pines of Patea Cemetery (see the previous post) I came across an article discussing ‘the shelter problem’ in the Patea region. The anonymous author uses phrases like ‘salt-storms’ and ‘southerly busters’ to convey a serious wind problem. After suggesting that ‘it behoves. all…
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Patea Cemetery Trees: A circa story
I made a quick trip to Hamilton in the last week and on the return to Wellington made a point of calling into Patea Cemetery. This wasn’t because I have relatives buried there, rather it stemmed from Google maps showing two Phoenix palms in the cemetery. I have been researching the possible use of the…
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Forty two percent of Wellington’s Street Trees, or The Legacy of ‘Pohutukawa Mac’
In the ‘Pohutukawa Town‘ post I mentioned a man nicknamed ‘Pohutukawa Mac’. I suggested he deserved a post of his own given his role in promoting pohutukawa in Wellington. Recent reportage on the removal of some pohutukawa has convinced me to do this sooner rather than later. A Dominion Post article, ‘Pohutukawa felling causes concern‘…
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Photogenic ‘Beat-Up Macs’
In an unplanned manner, previous posts have often featured what New Zealanders know as ‘macrocarpa’, or as they are called elsewhere, ‘Monterey Cypress’.The latter name is because it is Monterey, California, where the cypress has the smallest extant range of any North American conifer. Included in that small area is the Lone Cypress of Carmel…
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Pinus moribundus and the porcini
During Covid lockdown my elder daughter moved back into the family home to stay until things returned to something approaching normal. It was acceptable to go out for short walks during the lockdown, as long as you followed social distancing rules. When my daughter went for her walks, often in the close-by Wellington Botanic Gardens,…
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Off the Road in Manakau
Recently I spent two days in Manakau helping a friend with plum picking. This small country town is about halfway between Otaki and Levin, with the main highway going through its middle. The bulk of houses are placed to the east on a gentle slope towards some foothills, giving it a distinct microclimate. If you…
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In Pohutukawa Town
I’ve lived in Wellington for 30 years now, and when I moved up from Christchurch, fairly claimed to be a ‘garden city’, I was a bit startled by the relative lack of tree planting in the central city. An exception though is the number of pohutukawa you can find either as street trees or planted…
The Local Arboretum: Noticeable trees and their stories 