A grand day out

Took the day off today (day off listening to machinery that is) and went over to Orton Bradley Park at Charteris Bay. I particularly went to look at the rhododendrons. Orton Bradley holds the Canterbury Rhododendron Society's collection of plants, planted in an ideal site, shaded by conifers to give an acid soil, on sloping gravelly land for perfect drainage with a mill-stream running through it to keep the site cool in the summer (not that we get hot summers any more).

Orange dwarf iris outside the old house

The Society have also underplanted the area with cool-loving perennials - hostas, lily-of-the-valley, forget-me-nots, ferns and the giant Lillium cardiocrinum, so its a good place to go and see what to do if you're thinking of a shade garden.

Morning light catches hosta leaves

The 'pole' at right is the old cardiocrinum stalk

Beautiful 'blue'

Cardiocrinum stalks tower into the "Himalayan mist"

Cardiocrinum seed pod

'Katherine Fortescue' - a delicious lemon sorbet

The light glows through 'Sunspray'

After enjoying the rhododendrons, I walked up to Big Rock, further up the valley.

View of Mt Bradley from lowland

Gnarly old manuka polished by many hands - handhold up on the Big Rock

Panorama from near the Big Rock - stopped to have a breather here.

The original farmhouse - now the Visitor Centre, back down near the entrance