If you want to visit gardens in NZ, as the locals would say, “Good on ya!” This is a country of gardeners. New Zealand’s soil and climate make for beautiful gardens and everything seems to grow here.
Category: Garden Articles
Peace Flame Garden, Wellington, NZ
Wellington Botanic Garden, NZ
In the capital of New Zealand, Wellington Botanic Garden is a remarkable public space. The beautiful grounds include a significant collection of plants and trees. A small Peace Flame Garden is found just inside the entrance. I found this space emotionally touching. A bronze plaque tells the story, “This Peace Flame is the preserved fire from the atomic holocaust of Hiroshima, 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, 9 August 1945. The Flame calls attention to the indiscriminate and uncontainable nature of nuclear weapons which kill beyond borders and generations. It implores us to honor the Principles espoused in the United Nations Charter of settling all disputes by peaceful means.”
Finding Gardens
If you are ready to travel to gardens here are my go to resources to help you find these amazing places:
The American Horticultural Society http://www.ahs.org/gardening-programs/rap
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.
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.
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.
The Giant’s House, Akaroa, NZS
The Giant’s House in Akaroa is the work of artist Josie Martin. Years ago in an effort to repair a damaged front step, before visitors arrived, she used some broken crockery to repair it in mosaic form. It worked and she liked the effect.
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.
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.
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.