I was on my way back from the City going down Hackney Road when I suddenly decided to stop at the Adelaide Botanical Gardens. I mentioned it last when I wrote the post on Adelaide’s Bicentennial Conservatory and I thought, it being a beautiful spring day and all, that I would stop for a little stroll around the beautiful gardens. I was only there for about a half hour or so and I was still able to take some nice photos and I simply have to go back again when I have more time.
Walking through Adelaide’s botanical gardens I couldn’t help but notice all the people quietly strolling by or even sitting on the manicured lawns just 
enjoying the lovely spring day. It’s no wonder that so many who choose to holiday in this beautiful city of ours stop by for a visit.
It was really a pleasure walking through the gardens even for the short period of time that was allowed me. Even though it was getting a little warm in the sunshine it’s amazing how cool it was once I got to Murdoch Avenue and yes it was name after Rupert Murdoch. As you can see from the photo on the left it’s surrounded by huge trees and so you get to walk under a canopy of leaves. The change from coming out of direct sunlight to coolness of the shady 
environment was quite dramatic. I walked down Murdoch Avenue until it exited and there right on the left was something I’ve never seen before, the Amazon Lily Pavilion, an energy efficient glasshouse that was built in 2007! Man, I couldn’t believe it was that long since my last visit.
Amazon Lily Pavilion
The old Victoria house which was built in 1867 used to stand in it’s place and even then it house this remarkable water lily and the guys at the botanical gardens say fit to maintain the tradition. The glasshouse itself looked pretty modern but no where near as 
remarkable as the Bicentennial Conservatory. Being a glasshouse and all I’d expect it to get pretty warm in summer but today it wasn’t all that bad. There are quite a few plants around the perimeter although still inside, of the pavilion itself but I pretty well skipped that because I wanted to see what the lily itself looked like.
The first water lily I saw was beautiful but it wasn’t all that spectacular. It was the Blue Nile Lily also known as Nymphaea Caerulae and was a plant that was sacred to the Egyptians who believed that in the beginning darkness ruled the world and then then this beautiful lily rose from the abyss and when the flower opened it’s 
petals revealed a young sun god sitting in its golden heart who banished the darkness and allowed life to begin. Now that is what I call a dramatic entrance. 
It wasn’t until I gazed to the center of the pond that I saw the center piece of the pavilion, the Victoria Amazonica.
Victoria Amazonica
This flower just happens to be Guyana’s national flower and many say it’s an appropriate choice for a county whose name means “land of many waters. There is a particular story of a girl who fell in love with the moon and one night while gazing at her lovers reflection in a pond she slipped, fell in and drowned. The moon taking pity on her turned her into the Amazon waterlily which only blooms at night when the moon is watching over her. Strange that this particular flower was blooming in the middle of the day.
What was also amazing was the huge lily pads. When I first saw them from a distance I thought that they were fake but upon a closer look they were obviously real. If you want to know more about the botanical gardens you should head over to the Adelaide Botanical Gardens government web page.
The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look and as you can see is great for photo blogs. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! I am so thrilled with this theme that I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze theme today! Make my day and shout me a beer. Tagged with: Adelaide • Garden • Guyana • Victoria Amazonica
Filed under: Adelaide the City • Places To See
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Isn’t amazing how God creates something as clean and white as the lily pads from something as black and dirty as the soil underneath the water ?
Iskandar recently posted..Unless we dream