Category: Garden Articles

Broadfield Gardens, Christchurch, NZS

In a country where everything grows, a garden showcases native NZ plants.

I’ve just returned from visiting gardens in New Zealand. There are so many shades of green, so many plants it seems everything grows in this country of passionate gardeners. It is a country with a long history of influence by English gardeners, a land of rich soil and favorable climate. There are many wonderful gardens to visit in NZ. The Kiwis (NZ residents) have long embraced importing plants from all over the world though more recent environmental practices have both restricted imports and placed a greater emphasis on native plants in gardens country wide. Broadfields Garden is a garden of NZ plants and a garden of international significance.  Some twenty years ago one man, David Hobbs, decided he wanted to make a garden.  He acquired flat land used as paddocks (pasture)  drew up plans and set to work. Today his ideas and plants have grown into an 8.5 acre garden of NZ plants. His goal is the use of native plants supplemented with only nonnatives hybridized and grown in NZ....   Continue Reading

A Passion for Purple

The Parnell Rose Garden overlooks Mechanics Bay in Auckland, NZ.  Arriving here on a rainy day it seems repetitive to visit another rose garden. Yet here it overlooks the bay, there are sailboats out on the water and a Golden Retriever is sitting on a bench under a tree.  The roses are flowering, slightly beaten down by the rain and the first rose I see is purple.  A true purple floribunda, not a wine color red, nor the lavender rose I’ve seen before.  There wasn’t a label for the color but the deep color petals were purple.  I was quite intrigued by the shade.  But then I’m fond of purple and as I walked about the garden I found more purples to enjoy....   Continue Reading

Te Puna Quarry Park, NZ

Masses of people come to New Zealand to travel the trail of Hobbits and dragons.  Not I.  Arriving at Te Puna Quarry Park I had to will myself out of the car.  I’ve seen so much beautiful and so many gardens how could I be amazed again?  We set out, it was a big car park and we didn’t know which way to go. I headed to a small circle of trees with a lawn and there be a dragon! An enormous dragon, I walked its length and my footsteps measured 90’ long. He guarded the stairs, the huge head on the ground, the three-toed leg hugged the steps. His eyes deep and blue made in slivers of glass. This sculpture by artist Roger Bullot is made of Hinuera stone & concrete. Hinuera stone is a volcanic creation and unique to New Zealand....   Continue Reading

Ohinetahi, Garden, House & Art

We drove to Governor’s Bay, through the harbor town of Lyttleton, the actual epicenter of the 2010-2011 great earthquake which was generally known as the Christchurch quake.  Just beyond the Governor’s Bay Hotel is Ohinetahi.  Can’t figure out how to pronounce that?  Neither could I, however, the resident, creator, architect and gardener Sir Miles Warren told me.  Divide it into five syllables, O-hen-E-Ta-HE.   Sir Miles is a well-known architect, he designed the New Zealand Embassy in Washington, D.C. to note just one of his projects....   Continue Reading

Christchurch Botanic Garden, NZS

We arrived in Christchurch and within 20 minutes of our arrival, I felt the earth move. Sitting in a desk chair, the ground moved me up and down, back and forth and up and down.  Then it stopped. We haven’t felt anything since. So, with a heightened sense of awareness, we arrived at the Botanic Gardens near the CBD (central business district) of Christchurch. This awareness increased as we noted the extensive construction scaffolding around the building’s of Christ College that joins the garden. This is a city still rebuilding and repairing....   Continue Reading

Chantecler, A private garden near Queenstown, NZS

What was originally a small holiday house on 40 acres in the Wakitipu Basin overlooking The Remarkables mountain range is now a grand home surrounded by a glorious garden. While many who travel to New Zealand do so intent on tramping through some of the great walks in this country, I did a different walk beginning near the barn and the lavender field and walked my way up to the Asian Garden at the top and looked out toward The Remarkables mountain range in the distance....   Continue Reading

Taranaki Garden Festival, New Zealand

Mount Taranaki peeks through the clouds above New Plymouth, New Zealand. As I begin to explore the gardens ringing this mountain I realize the pitch of the peak is the landscape gardeners would transform into magical gardens in their own backyard.  The houses may sit on a bit of flat ground but then as you go round back and the gardens descend into terraces and zig zag pathways leading you to a seat with a view of a river or the mountain itself....   Continue Reading

On Location—The Garden Steals The Show

Rippon Lea House & Garden

Elsternwick, Victoria, Australia

My local PBS station is promoting a new Australian series in the fall lineup, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries set in 1920’s Melbourne. Miss Phryne (Fry-nee) Fisher returns from England after serving in the hospital corps in WW1.  Phryne, an independently wealthy, independently spirited, glamorous lady detective speaks multiple languages and seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of everything. I find period dramas remain endlessly fascinating as the characters recreate the dress, manners, and behaviors of another time as the setting reinforces the story....   Continue Reading

Signaling Welcome

“Signs, Signs, everywhere there’s signs,

messin’ up the scenery, breaking’ my mind.”

(The Five Man Electrical Band) 

Public gardens welcome curious visitors from all over the world. They enter eager to learn about the land, plants, trees and rocks of a particular place. Many gardens proudly highlight the entrance with an eye catching sign, often nestled among a beautifully landscaped bed of flowers.  Once inside, posted signs act as the voice speaking directly to visitors. When it comes to signs everywhere, some are creative offenders and a few are just plain offenders.  ...   Continue Reading