Landscaped Gardens of Hong Kong Disneyland

I have just got back from a visit to Hong Kong and am pleased to feature the Hong Kong Disneyland landscaping style for your viewing pleasure.

Intricately manicured hedges 

I wasn't aware of how much planning had gone into creating the park, but I was struck by the variety of flowering plants and shrubs. The whole park is a vast botanical garden! I found out later that the horticulture teams of Walt Disney Imagineering had spent three years researching and locating suitable trees and shrubs to create the desired look. There were lovely flowerbeds many of which are filled with plants from southern China, Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand.

 Main Street, U.S.A.

The landscaping here around the Plaza and Town Square is said to be typical of municipal parks in small towns in America at the turn of the century.

 A pretty sight

Such a pleasant colour scheme.

Well-kept beds of begonias and coleus

Adventureland


In the rainforest jungles of Adventureland where Tarzan lives, there are tropical shrubs and giant trees beside a man-made river.

A touch of Angkor Wat?

 Yellow flowers from the buttercup tree

You can spot elephants and chimpanzees by the river

Large-leaved flowering shrubs

Topiary Gardens of Fantasy Land

Leafy shrubs are shaped into animals that look like cute unicorns, dancing bears and dinosaurs.

An eye-catching design

Is that a topiary resembling Mickey in the background?

For Glenda, Maia and Laura, here's a macro that I would like to flaunt!

Linking to:

Fertilizer Friday

Macro Friday

Macro Flowers Saturday

Glimpses...of gardens in South Island, New Zealand

This house we drove by on our self-drive holiday down South Island attracted our eager-eagle eyes.We were on the look-out for nice gardens to see how home-owners laid out their gardens.This garden we glimpsed was so pretty, that after we had stopped for tea down the road, we took a leisurely stroll in the direction of all that 'prettiness' we had glimpsed!



There were no heavy gates blocking our view, no walls. There was only a wire netting through which we could clearly take in the beauty of the whole garden.



The owner must  certainly be one who is fond of her garden, but who in New Zealand is not? We saw a lady in coveralls raking the fallen leaves and thinking that she was the owner of the colourful beds and borders, complimented her on her well-planned garden. She was pleased, and invited us to take a closer look.


We were delighted...and what a truly delightful garden it was.

I just love the garden sign. Wish I had one like it.

As we took our leave, we thanked the kind lady who was actually not the owner, but the person who tended this garden! Our hope of a glimpse turned out to be a quick but happy visit to this sunny, pretty garden.

Capricious Anacapri Garden

The best of sea, sky and landscape - that's what you get when you take a bit of time to walk up to the top of the highest point on the island of Capri. Well, you don't really walk all the way from the Marina Grande, the largest harbour in Capri. You could take the funicular. Or just take a cab...the cabs in Capri are all pretty classy, white open-top convertibles.

The public garden at the peak is named the Garden of Augustus, after the Roman emperor. The garden is built on the ruins of ancient Roman structures. It is a fabulous location for a garden. You'll love the terraced nature of the terrain, and when you reach the look-out point, you can't help but gasp at the scene. It is just stunning! You see the azure waters and the famous clear blue Mediterranean sky.Then you get to see Capri's famous landmarks, the massive Faraglioni Rocks jutting 100 metres out of the water.








How is the Garden of Augustus capricious?

In my imagination, there is plenty going on in the garden that points to capricious behaviour. Just look at the two characters in the scene above. Balzac must have read the mind of the Classical Roman in the background who appears to be confounded by the modern-day woman sharing his part of the Garden of Augustus. Is he thinking this as he gazes at her: "Love is the most melodious of all the harmonies, and we have an innate feeling for it. Woman is a delicious instrument of pleasure, but one must know the chords, study the pose of it, the timid keyboard, the changing and capricious fingering." But what is the sculpture of post-modernist dimensions thinking? Could she be mulling over what Sarah Fielding is quoted to have 'pondered'? "I had some short struggle in my mind whether I should resign my lover or my liberty, but this lasted not long. I found myself as free as air and could not bear the thought of putting myself in any man's power for life only for a present capricious inclination." But the last words for these two conflicting characters must surely come from Shakespeare: "If then true lovers have ever been crossed  It stands as an edict in destiny.  Then let us teach our trial patience  Because it is a customary cross,  As due to love and thoughts, and dreams, and sighs,  Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers."
And what about this lone statue with the bath towel? Despite streams of human traffic for company throughout the day, he must be lonely. Eugene Delacroix's words ring true for this character above about the capricious nature of existence: "What torments my soul is its loneliness. The more it expands among friends and the daily habits or pleasures, the more, it seems to me, it flees me and retires into its fortress... .When one yields oneself completely to one's soul, it opens itself to one, and then it is that the capricious thing allows one the greatest of good fortunes...that of sympathising with others..."

In conclusion, Walt Whitman's words seem to be the parting message this garden in Anacapri has for humanity:

"Just as much for us that sobbing dirge of Nature,
 Just as much whence we come that blare of the cloud-trumpets
 We, capricious, brought hither we know not whence, spread out before you,
 You up there walking or sitting,
 Whoever you are, we too lie in drifts at your feet."

Enjoy the beauty this garden has to offer, but also let your imagination run wild... this is the Isle of Capri we are in...the island of romance, where you could find your heart's true love 'in the shade of an old walnut tree'!
Blue Italian skies above (sigh...)but for now, as in the song, we have to say, "twas goodbye...to the Isle...of Capri."

A Tranquil Garden

I am at a loss for words...I really am.  Spring is the time to visit New Zealand! My friends and I ooh-ed and wow-ed and practically swooned at the sight of all the spring bulbs in bloom, the rhododendrons in all their majesty ...oh, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

I shall feature one garden at a time. My favourite, although one can't really have just one favourite really,  is this place we happened upon, in Ashburton. It is a privately owned country garden belonging to Alan & Catherine Trott. This award winning garden is open to the public. I can imagine it being a favourite venue for weddings. As we walked along the woodland garden, the birds were singing more joyfully than I've heard birds chirping elsewhere in the other gardens we've visited. You just cannot help but be happy there. I was telling Alan Trott as we were leaving that I could spend the whole day there just reading or dreaming. It has that kind of peaceful serenity you don't easily get to experience. Idyllic.

I love the woodland garden. Of course I couldn't identify all the plants there; so it was all the more exciting discovering strange " new" species.  Among those which are familiar to me are the rhododendrons and azaleas and maples. The colours were brilliant.

The formal garden is attractive in its own right. I would love to have that blue garden bench between two topiary plants in my own garden! Will be working on making that materialise one day. I wouldn't be able to have a knot garden like Trott's though. It is just too huge a project, need I say more?
My congratulations to the Trotts for producing a living, breathing masterpiece!