The Bold Dry Garden

Lessons From the Ruth Bancroft Garden, Johanna Silver, Photographs by Marion Brenner, Published by Timber Press  2016

Today’s gardeners digging succulents and arid plants will immediately be attracted to the beautiful cover of The Bold Dry Garden.  The surprise in opening the book is that before you learn about arid plants you get a story of Ruth, a curious gardener who loves plants and design. Johanna Silver has written this important story of Ruth Bancroft and her Bold Dry Garden documenting her place in American garden history. Ruth’s succulent and cactus garden in Walnut Creek, CA has been growing since 1972. For over 40 years this garden filled with succulents, cactus, shrubs, and trees from arid lands around the world has been inspiring visitors.This was long before drought conditions introduced gardeners to such interesting plants as Aeonium, Agaves, Aloes, Euphorbias, Sedums and Yuccas....   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

Coastal View

Driving down a coast road I wondered, “What will grow along the sea, with salt air, wind and waves?”  Turns out really quite a lot of wonderful things. I knew immediately a grand gardener lived here as we arrived at a coastal side patch of grass and waves of orange gazanias (daisy style) blooms accented by a rustic bench set to enjoy the views of the rocky beach. Coast Haven garden on the Taranaki Garden Festival tour has been under the care of one gardener for the past 30 years....   Continue Reading

Oh the gardens you will find!

We’ve been traveling in New Zealand for just a week and already I’ve been asked “Do you ever get tired of visiting gardens?” Exploring the world through gardens brought me here.  How can anyone get tired of seeing such incredible beauty, creativity, and passion of gardeners?...   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