Charles Heaphy’s 1844 watercolour shows the efforts of a Nelson couple to create an English garden. For many settlers, beauty and a sense of familiarity came from replacing the New Zealand bush with the shrubs and annuals of ‘home’. This display of flowers was only two years after the settlers arrived in Nelson. It is possible that the scene is in Nile Street, not the Maitai Valley.
Using this item
Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference:
A-144-011
Watercolour by Charles Heaphy
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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