Soaking up garden inspiration
NZ Gardens Trust Conference 2024
It’s refreshing to step away from the drawing board now and then to seek new ideas and gain inspiration. Recently the Botanic team did exactly that, heading up to the Sauvignon Blanc clad valleys of Marlborough for the 2024 New Zealand Gardens Trust Conference.
Joining over 120 gardeners, horticulturalists and designers, Adrian and I toured some fantastic and diverse gardens, chatted with like-minded colleagues, imbibed some of the local vino, and listened closely to knowledgeable speakers.
The rain fell persistently while we were out looking at gardens but that did not dampen the spirits, and the local gardeners, farmers and growers were gratefully banking the moisture in the ground after several months of dry.
From gardens visited to lessons gleaned from the speakers, here is a quick snapshot of the NZGT conference - the best of the best.
Moritaki
Garden fusion
The garden that generated the most excitement for both Adrian and I! Mortiaki - owned and gardened by Andrea and Pete Forrest - is a large suburban garden on the fringe of Blenheim. Starting out over 20 years ago, Andrea and Pete engaged Japanese garden designer Hiro Yoshida to help create a slice of Japan in Blenheim using only NZ native plants.
The resulting garden is a lush, green and peaceful oasis. The Japanese style is clear in the structure, shapes and details within the garden. A meandering stream flows from boulders (metaphorical mountains) through to a large pond which is criss-crossed by a simple timber plank bridge. Curving gravel paths bleed into a larger ‘sea’ of raked gravel which is softened beautifully by massed native ground covers including Leptinella, Pimelia and Coprosma. Native trees including Carpodetus serratus (putaputaweta, marbleleaf), Kunzea ericoides (kānuka), Sophora spp. (kōwhai) are limbed up creating a canopy above and space below for native shrubs, ferns and more groundcovers.
A noticeable feature of Moritaki is the feeling of space. Plants with sculptural qualities such as Astelia and Carmichaelia (nz broom) are given room to show off their striking forms. Where plants are positioned closely, they merge with each other seamlessly creating woven tapestries of green. Divaricating twiggy species including Corokia cotoneaster, Coprosma virescens amd Sophora prostrata are combined and contrasted with the likes of Euphorbia glauca and the native hibiscus Hibiscus trionum.
Moritaki is an outstanding garden that clearly shows the years of care and curation it has been given as the planting has matured. A must see!
Moritaki: sweeping curves created by gravel paths and groundcovers | divaricating natives combined with contrasting foliage plants
Winterhome
Formal and fabulous
Winterhome is a large rural garden on the Kēkerengū coast north of Kaikoura. Established in 1939 by the Macfarlane family and then significantly developed from the 1980’s onwards, the garden is structured around a series of formal axes and a sequence of open and enclosed spaces. Clipped hedging and topiary are contrasted and softened by drifts of native shrubs, ground covers and flowering perennials. Roses, ponds, swing bridges, sculpture, avocado groves and citrus plantings are revealed as you explore the gardens.
A magical place, we loved the use of Piper excelsum (kawakawa) as clipped hedging and the lush feel of the place despite the coastal setting.
Winterhome has been assessed as a 5 star garden by the NZ Gardens Trust
Winterhome: citrus within a buxus frame | clipped kawakawa under mature trees
Puro NZ
Growing medicinal cannabis
A fascinating side trip to our tour was a visit to Puro New Zealand’s main hub of operation - growing and processing organic medicinal cannabis in Kēkerengū for export worldwide. Set up by the Macfarlane family (of Winterhome), Puro has been busy working away over the last few years developing their business and are continually researching new and better ways to make the most of this exciting new horiticultural industry for Marlborough and for New Zealand.
It’s good to see this botanical wonder plant becoming more readily available for medicinal use - and it looks great too!
Puro NZ: the processed product | medicinal cannabis
Paripuma
A coastal haven
Established over 20 years ago by Rosa Davison and husband Michael, Paripuma is another coastal garden on a grand scale. Starting out with a barren and windswept paddock right at the beachfront, a framework of native trees - in particular Myoporum laetum (ngaio) - were established to create shelter and set up a bold formal vista from the house through the garden to the sea.
With the shelter in place, Rosa and Michael have been developing more intimate gardens including a beautiful garden of ornamental grasses and flowering perennials to attract butterflies and other wildflife. Asclepias spp. (swan plants) are used in swathes combined with drifts of perennials including asters, sedums, heleniums, verbena and grasses including Stipa gigantea and Calamagrostis x acutifolia ‘Karl Foerster’. We caught this part of the garden at the end of the flowering season but still enjoyed the forms and autumnal tones evident. The very large and healthy looking native climber Tecomanthe speciosa (akapukaea, Three Kings vine) was another highlight, growing vigorously up at the house.
Paripuma has been assessed as a 5 star garden by the NZ Gardens Trust.
Paripuma: Tecomanthe speciosa growing vigorously at the house | at the beach looking back down the central axis to the house - in the rain!
Eliza’s Garden Cottage
A plant person’s paradise
A quick dash around Eliza’s Garden at dusk in Grovetown, Blenheim was another highlight. Designed, owned and gardened by brother and sister team Wendy and Ross Palmer, Eliza’s has an exuberant and highly diverse planting scheme mixing natives and exotics, succulents, perennials, grasses and bulbs. The combinations were superb. A meandering walk through a shady woodland area opens up to a large lawn and sunny perennial and grass border with views across to the adjacent vineyard. Ross has an obvious talent in hunting down rare and hard to find plant species - the garden is a real treasure trove to be explored. We will be back.
Eliza’s has been assessed as a 5 star garden by the NZ Gardens Trust.
https://elizasgardencottage.nz/gallery/
PS. Just a few hundred metres away is sister garden Welton House. We unfortunately didn’t get a chance to take a good look - but this garden is also most definitely a must see as well. Next time!
Eliza’s: casual seating area tucked into planting | creative plant combinations
Conference speakers - gardening dry
The conference featured several speakers on topics ranging from food security through to growing NZ’s best pine nuts. However, the speakers that grabbed our attention the most both spoke to the topic of creating climate resilient gardens. With increasing temperatures and drought becoming more common, this gardening approach is both a sustainable way forward and it can look amazing!
Jo Wakelin has been creating her Lake Dunstan garden near Cromwell since 2005 and has curated a fantastic collection of dry tolerant plant species - both native and exotic that thrive without supplementary water.
Jenny Cooper has been developing her ‘Blue House’ garden in Amberley for the last 11 years and through trial and error has come to grips with the plants that suit the baking hot summers and fierce winds without needing to roll out the hose.
Both speakers had common themes, including:
working with the soil that exists on site, not improving the soil, rather choosing the right plants to suit it.
selecting plants - native and exotic - that naturally grow in a similar climate zone to their gardens.
combining plants of this type works well with a naturalistic style - the aesthetic created is very appealing and feels ‘right’ for the place.
The importance of thick mulches (gravel / woodchip) to surpress weeds and keep moisture in the soil.
There is so much more for Botanic to learn and explore on this topic and we are keen to utilise this approach in our own gardens and design work for clients.
Find out more about Jo and Jenny’s gardens here:
https://www.bluehouseamberley.nz/
https://www.studiohome.co.nz/studio-home-blog/climate-resilient-gardens
Photo credit: Jenny Cooper - Blue House Garden
Until next time…
It was an inspiring few days. There were many more great gardens seen, and lots of fascinating people met. Roll on next years conference!
For more information on the NZ Gardens Trust and gardens to visit check out: https://www.gardens.org.nz/
Moritaki: Pachystegia insignis and Muehlenbeckia astonii
