Geranium traversii

Native, Chatham Islands. Pink to white flowers. usually white in the wild but shades of pink are common in the cultivated forms. A hairy, fleshy leaved plant, seeds readily to make happy offspring. It makes a lovely addition to borders and can be mass planted to great effect. A little part shade seems to be fine here but sun preferred, moist soil. In heavy winters they may pass away, mine don’t and we get heavy frosts as we are not in Christchurch but further up the plains. Hardy. 12cmH x 40cmW

Small, but they grow fast once released from their pots.

Northern

hemisphere

gardeners

hybridised it with the Pyrenean C. endressii to create several good and hardier garden plants, of which the best known is

the long-flowering, magentared

'Russell Pritchard'. The Chathems geranium is slightly sensitive to frost and sometimes flakes out during the winter, but self-sown seedlings usually appear in spring, and flower in their first season.

New Zealand has a numberof trees and shrubs with shory flowers, of which the kowhal is certainly the best known. Amo, the hardiest and most attracti are the lacebarks, Hoheria lyel