Native Flower.....

Driving from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast into the centre of Christchurch yesterday, I had no problem parking (not that there ever is, actually), as the car was being serviced.   My friend and I walked through part of the Gardens, which are looking very very pretty with the Rhododendrons, Camellias, Michelias, flowering, among the exotics, and in the Leonard Cockayne Garden in the Native Section, there was Cleanthus, amongst others.  It is called Kaka beak locally, because the flower is supposed to look like the beak of a New Zealand Parrot.     Sir Joseph Banks and Captain Cook saw it flowering in Maori gardens in the 18th Century.

I love the New Zealand Native flowers, because most of them are dainty and elegant, and quite shy on the whole - not overly dramatic.