31-07-2025
Making the cut for colourful growth
Garden staff member Tom Myers looks at Cotinus Coggygria 'Royal Purple' at the Dunedin Botanic Garden. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH
In the thematic area that runs along the boundary of Great King St we have changed the bark pathway to a hard surface as it can get quite boggy, especially in the winter months which made it difficult for wheelchairs/mobility scooters. At the same time, we narrowed the path in some areas to create more garden border which is noticeable with the extension to the autumn theme area which opens an opportunity to bring in new plants, so watch this space.
You will notice there has been a lot of pruning in the past month. In the colour/variegated foliage theme, several shrubs have been pruned very hard, such as the Berberis thunbergii 'Aurea', B. thunbergii 'Rose Glow' and Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple' has been pollarded back to the main framework. This technique will also be used on some of the shrubs in the autumn theme, especially the Cornus species that are grown for their coloured stems.
The main principal behind this is to encourage a lot of new growth in spring that intensifies the colour of the shrubs by creating a large amount of foliage in a smaller area. The same has happened to Philadelphus coronarius 'Aureus' and Weigela 'Florida Variegata' where we sacrificed the flowering to gain the leaf colour intensity of the shrubs.
The next area for an uplift will be the area of the fragrant/scented theme on either side of the pedestrian walkway off Great King St where several plants have seen better days.
As collection curators we are always mindful plant borders/collections are the botanic garden's shop windows, so they do need changing or rearranging to keep luring people back.
Next time you're visiting, head to the themes collection to see what changes you can spot.
David Askin is the themes collection curator at Dunedin Botanic Garden.
