Wetlands and native trees - updating my garden blog

Here are some recent pictures of my native tree garden and the accompanying wetlands to give a broader picture of what I am trying to achieve and to give a context to my previous posting today concentrating on some of the spring and summer flowers (please see below and also click on "Older Posts" at the end of this page).

 

 

Spring through summer flowers in the garden

My rather extensive coastal native garden was first formed in 1995 so we have been developing it around and amongst the wetlands for 23 years. It remains very much a work in progress. That is of course part of the pleasure. But we do now have more maturity for many of the thousands of trees we have planted. Almost all of them thankfully survived the severe drought last summer 2017-18.

This posting illustrates among other things the beautiful and colourful native flowers, particularly the flax and all its variants, golden tainui, koromiko, and the kowhai. The reinga reinga arrive a little later in November and the pohutukawas flower around Christmas. For overseas viewers, the crimson flowered  pohutukawas are thought of as the New Zealand Xmas tree, although they can also flower in yellow or orange. The flowering shrubs and trees attract a diverse and wonderful array of native birds, some of which sing their own beautiful Xmas carols. I love watching them and listening to them. We are across the sea from nearby Kapiti Island so we are blessed with a bountiful range of bird life, much of which is native. Kapiti Island is a major New Zealand bird sanctuary.

If you are interested in the progress of my garden over the past two decades it is possible to inspect older posting on this blog by going to the foot of each page and clicking on "older posts". The first posting was in 2006 when the property was mainly paddocks and weed infested wetlands.

A glade of pohutukawa (metrosideros excelsa) trees just starting to flower. The garden has a very large number of  these trees.

More pohutukawas trees with cabbage trees (cordyline) in the foreground, also in flower.

                                 Pohutukawa again.

        One of the large swamps, azolla rubra on the lake

Raupo (typha augustifolia) aplenty in the wetlands

             We have thousands of flax (phorium tenax)

Flax flowers come in red, orange or yellow depending on species

                    Flax flowers, tall and spectacular.

                                   Pohutukawa tree

                                    Hebe speciosa

                              Kowhai in full bloom

                 Bumble bee pollinating a pohutukawa

                        Sunset mid summer, west coast.

                              Reinga reinga in bloom

                          Native flax about to flower

             Native golden tainui (Pomaderris kumeraho)

     Kowhai in spring, we have many of them, beautiful

                          Whau (Entelea arborescens)

                                  Pohutukawa buds

             Nikau palm seeding (Rhopalostylis sapida)

                     Golden tainui again in full bloom

               Kowhai flowers, much loved by the birds

                        Hebe (Hebe speciosa magenta)

                     Cabbage tree flowers (Cordyline)