Southern Surprises

Southern surprises “The Chatham Islands off the coast of New Zealand offer a unique ecology rich with opportunities to discover plants and birds that live nowhere else,” American horticulturist Daniel Hinkley writes for the Seattle Times after a 21 winter visit. “Evolved to withstand a persistent, yet temperate Antarctic power wash, this region’s climactic conditions correlate to ours in the Pacific Northwest. Yet I had not come on this trip to collect seeds to test in my Indianola garden, but simply to witness in their rightful places many plants I have long encountered as a horticulturist many thousands of miles removed.” Hinkley observes the Myosotidium hortensia or Chatham Island Forget-me-Not; the Geranium traversii, found in colonies in the island’s sand dunes; and “the most southerly occurring palm species in the world … essentially an evergreen daisy”, the Olearia traversii.