The Garden Gurus - Avenue of Gold

Avenue of Gold

Episode: New Zealand Ellerslie International Flower Show

Presenter: Neville Passmore

The avenue of gold is a series of seven gardens that have been created by former gold medal winning designers that have been drawn from 12 years of fantastic Ellerslie Show gardens.

FantasiaGarden

At the top of the street is a garden called Fantasia and this year has picked up a silver medal. It represents plant diversity as well as the ageless cycle of renewal that takes place in the Amazon valley.

The cycle can be seen in vibrant growth and flowers that are ripe for pollinating and going to seed right through the decaying tree trunks being consumed and recycled by fungi.

The acrylic water columns are alive with fish in amongst a profusion of plant life and the insect consuming pitcher plants actually come from South America. The sacred lotus lily is from East Asia mixed among the local ferns. It truly is a garden of eden, full of life.

YatesGarden

The Yates Garden, designed by Norma De Langen, uses bold colours and wooden decking in filled very cleverly with turf to make a cool and relaxing outdoor room and a lovely spot to take in a hot summer day.

ContemporaryKiwiGarden

Ben Hoyle is the designer behind the Kiwi contemporary garden that has picked up a gold medal for this year?s awards. The design is essentially a New Zealand garden with elements that reflect the environment.

The quarry shaped water feature, the ferns and water play a big part of the garden. Even the boardwalks are in a leaf shape reminiscent of a forest floor and it wouldn?t be a Kiwi Garden without Kiwi Plants.

The New Zealand Iris (Libertia ixioides ?Tricolour?) has a colour that is not too bright and is perfect with its green tones and browns to get a combination of colours that worked.

The perfume in the air come from the coco husk, with a wonderful tropical smell through the garden as well as looking great.

Twinings Tea Garden

The charming and colourful English tea garden features a range of herbaceous just like Tropical Impatiens, caladiums ad hydrangeas. The windows and doors in the feature create a frame that invites you in to the square decking area, a lovely place to take a stimulating but calming view of the garden.

Tea plants (Thea sinensis) are included in the design which represents a move back into a more diverse garden with many different plants to yield flowers across the seasons.

The Garden of the People

The Garden of the people represents the cultural diversity of New Zealanders. The plants have been sourced from countries all around the pacific rim as well as Europe. It is a colourful mixture of foliage and flowers, including roses. It is an inspirational garden that can be very easily achieved in a home garden situation.

Auckland Bonsai Society

Takamichi Okabe Sun, the Consul General of Japan in Auckland admires the display put on by the Auckland Bonsai Society. The meaning of Bonsai originally means plants grown inside small pots.

If you look at Japanese Industry products you will realize that the Japanese are fond of creating big ideas in a small space. Bonsai is based on the same concept.

The Garden of Native Plant Ideas

New Zealand in home to a long list of the world?s best foliage feature plants. The garden of native ideas sets out to encourage local gardeners to plant out some the local and outstandingly colourful plants in their own gardens. The featured garden also picked up a gold award this year.

Some of the standouts are the Dwarf Silver Sword (Astelia banksii). When planted on mass it makes a startling ground cover effect. Coprosma (Coprosma cv. ?Karo Red?) is as tough as boot leather and it makes a really showy contrast to other foliage. Then there is the Nikau Palm (Rhopalostylis sapida) which is a gift to the world?s temperate gardens that are looking for a tropical effect. The aged iron water feature mirrors the shape of a palm frond dripping with water.

Designers

Contemporary Kiwi Garden
Ben Hoyle
Blue Gecko Ltd Landscape Design
021 678 689
bluegecko@xtra.co.nz
www.bluegecko.co.nz

Twinings Tea Garden

Lanzpec
09 480 9935
mandb@lanzpec.co.nz

www.twinings.co.nz

The Yates Garden

Norma De Langen

09 846 1083

027 679 0211

j.ndel@xtra.co.nz

www.yates.co.nz

The Garden of Native Plant Ideas