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Gardening with Gael - Creativity blooms at New Zealand Flower & Garden Show

 

IMG 8130-616This week I had the great good fortune to represent the Focus at the New Zealand Flower & Garden Show held at The Trust Arena in Henderson. Wearing my media pass I was able to get unobstructed access to every exhibitor. 

Displaying over 22,000 plants, the show features over 100 top local and internationally acclaimed designers. For example, award winning designer Chris Jenkins from Melbourne featured connecting pools and a waterfall to represent his ‘wellness’ garden which he designs for Beyond Blue, an Australian charity which raises awareness of anxiety and depression. His garden featured a stone mosaic of a monarch butterfly.

I’m always delighted to find a garden featuring flowers and the Pollinator Garden did just that. A heady display of gaura, roses, cornflowers, coreopsis, delphinium, echiums, tagetes, cosmos interplanted with cleome [spider flowers] and roses. 

Mitre 10 have sponsored a Garden to Table Programme for schools. Seven schools had gardens at the show and it was great to see so many kids taking part and enjoying the entire process.

I arrived home with pages of notes and have only skimmed the top in this article. I am sure other bits will filter through in future articles.
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Top of my list

Prior to arriving I had made a list of the gardens I was most interested in and to my delight the top of my list was first in the gate. 

TVNZ HOMEmade gardening guru Dan Mackay and his wife Lisa had created a family garden using the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water, each element clearly apparent. The wood was represented in decks, seating, architectural decorative cubes and the frame and base of a swinging queen sized bed. The cubes were artfully placed to contain the wood for the fire pit. A container pool provided the elements of water and metal. Metal was represented in tubs and other cubes. 

Ligularia reniformis, commonly known as tractor seat plant, was teamed with asplenium bulbiferum, or hen and chicken fern, in the shaded area. I’ve never seen a bed swinging in the garden and I thought it a great idea. The container pool looked pretty inviting as well.
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Best in Show

The next garden stopped me in my tracks and I could have happily stayed there all day. The ‘bong’ of a Japanese drum alerted the senses to an exquisitely formed garden created to represent a modern version of a formal Zen garden. 

Every element of a traditional Japanese garden was there from the formal temple structure with beautiful temple bells balanced on the other side with a century old maple tree. How she managed to transport the tree I do not know although she has video footage showing the entire process. The shape and form of this gnarly old tree provided a sense of time and tranquility. I felt I had been transported back to Japan. 

Board walks and stepping stones surrounded by beautifully balanced plantings provided the sense of calm Jules had aimed for. I was pleased to hear she had won Best in Show.

Buxus microphylla Green gem was used in a number of gardens. This type of box hedge is a lighter brighter green with a more rounded leaf than the more common box [buxus sempervirens] and a slightly more open habit. Originating in Asia in Japan and Korea this box has a naturally rounded form and requires less pruning. Jules had a wonderful specimen in her Zen garden. She had encouraged the plant to grow and had stripped the branches of their leaves leaving a ball at the end of each branch. The effect was not unlike the arms of an octopus in an amusement park ride. Inspiring to see the variations each garden could create.
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