The African Plants Garden is a specialist planting within Auckland Botanic Gardens in The Gardens, Manukau City, Auckland, rated 4.8 from 10 Google reviews; visitors love it for first family photoshoots, unusual plants and 'one very cool tree'. Southern African plants suit Auckland remarkably well — the Cape shares the city's wet-winter, dry-summer rhythm, which is why so many familiar flowers, from proteas and freesias to gladiolus, gerberas and strelitzias, originally come from there. Established plants ask for little beyond a sunny spot and free-draining soil, coping happily without watering or feeding. The clever visitor times repeat visits to the seasons: winter brings the aloes and proteas into flower and the birds with them, spring belongs to the bulbs, and the Cape is the bulb capital of the world. Now over thirty years old, this garden brings a quiet taste of the Cape to Auckland's southern suburbs.