Kiwi Gardens: Wild and Styled

People who can’t tell a rose from a rhododendron still know that spring means flowers. Down Under in New Zealand, prime bloom time is early November, Kiwi spring, when casual flower fans and expert gardeners alike come out for the most anticipated floral event of the year, the Taranaki Rhododendron Festival.

The festival includes 100 extraordinary gardens (96 privately owned, four public) in New Plymouth, or in nearby small towns that surround Mt. Egmont, also known as Mt. Taranaki, an 8,200-foot dormant volcanic peak in Egmont National Park on the North Island. New Plymouth, the main town in the area, lies on the west coast, a bulge of land that protrudes into the Tasman Sea about halfway between Auckland and Wellington.

Last November was my third trip to New Zealand. I flew to Auckland and drove a rental car south, and several days and about 200 miles later I arrived in New Plymouth, where I heard about the flower festival. I’ve been an avid amateur gardener for years and have traveled to gardens all over the world. In Normandy, France, for example, I have seen magnificant, professionally cultivated gardens. But during this first trip to the Taranaki Festival, I quickly saw that the beauty and quality of these New Zealand gardens were a match for anything I’d seen in France.

What impressed me about the Taranaki gardens is how cleverly the colonists adapted their homeland influences while embracing what they found in their new land. The result is a traditional, controlled English gardening style that works within the New World’s wild native flora. Over and over, I saw breathtaking cultivated plant varieties combined with primeval rain forest, or what the natives call bush.

Taranaki’s annual Rhododendron Festival, which began in 1988, is spread over 10 days and last year drew 84,000 visitors. (This year, it runs from Oct. 30 through Nov. 8.)

Mt. Egmont, it seems, is the reason for the area’s amazing fecundity. It has supplied the surrounding landscape with fertile volcanic soil and provides the ideal amount of rain and a temperate bush climate that has a 12-month growing season.

The first garden I toured is the best known. Pukeiti Rhododendron Gardens, established in 1951, is justly heralded as one of the world’s great rhododendron collections. Half an hour outside New Plymouth, Pukeiti boasts more than 2,000 different varieties of rhododendrons among its 10,000 or so individual plants. Although Pukeiti covers 900 acres, only 50 of those have been developed into gardens; the remaining acreage is free-flowing natural rain forest.

“The fertile volcanic soil is free draining,” Graham Smith, Pukeiti’s director, explained to me. “Pukeiti has a wide range of flowering shrubs because it’s closest to Mt. Taranaki, receiving 12 feet of rain a year.”

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When I visited the gardens, I was amazed at the overwhelming feeling of abundance. The rhododendrons, which are in a variety of colors, showed off their pinks that week. “Nancy Evans,” an American hybrid, was a huge mass of yellow tinged with pink, and “Van Nes Sensation,” a hybrid tree, was masquerading as a pale pink cloud. Nearby bloomed the delicate pink “Morning Magic.” In this environment some rhododendrons become giants, such as the magenta “Sir Robert Peel,” which stands 50 feet tall.

Pukeiti’s layout resembles a park, with swaths of flowing lawn and 12 1/2 miles of paths that allow for easy viewing and, at the same time, afford a great opportunity to get some exercise. Other flowers I found here included camellias, magnolias and hydrangeas. From this sunny floral landscape, I entered the rain forest’s damp, feathery shade for a bush walk. Light filtered through the luxuriant canopy, giving the forest the look of an impressionist painting. On paths among native plants, I admired the fleshy strap-like leaves and white flowers of New Zealand Rengarenga lilies and the bright green hen-and-chickens fern.

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In New Zealand, only two gardens belong to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust Heritage Gardens, an organization that preserves outstanding properties for future generations. Both of these--Hollard Gardens, in Stratford, and Tupare Gardens, in New Plymouth--are overseen by curator-manager Greg Rine. “You name it, we’ve got it,” said Rine of the 500-plus rhododendrons at Hollard Gardens, a place celebrated for its fantastic variety. Rhododendrons bred here include the bold red “Kaponga” and the soft apricot-pink “Milton Hollard,” named after the founding horticulturist.

Rines described Hollard’s old woodland garden as “giving a sense of enclosure and intimacy--yet on a large scale.” These five acres are densely packed with plants. Paths sensuously weave between high flowering azalea hedges, perfect places for lovers to linger awhile.

Hollard, established in 1927, is also famous for its rare and exotic plant collection. Exotics include the ironbark tree from Iran. Among the native plants is the rare white-flowered New Zealand passion vine, which does a contortionist’s act climbing tawa trees in wild profusion. After this woodland area, I was quite surprised to come upon a swamp at Hollard, but here too was a medley of color: the red, apricot, yellow, pink and orange of bog-loving primulas, hostas, lobelias and geums. Farther along was a new area with a main lawn bordered by perennial plantings of penstemon, hydrangea, dahlia and gladiolus.

In native Maori tupare means “garland of flowers,” and Tupare Gardens is famous for its landscape design. The natural topography of its steep slope, dropping down to the Waiwhakaiho River, has been used to advantage. I leisurely walked the winding paths to explore this elegant 12-acre English-style property. Cedars and California redwoods tower above magnolias and lush lawns.

Among the 200 rhododendrons here is a 60-year-old “Ivery’s Scarlet” plant. Masses of Rengarenga lilies provide lush ground cover and a creamy flower display beneath the mature trees, while an avenue of hydrangeas show off their lacy blue petals. And bergamot, not to be outdone, reveals mint-like fragrant blooms that attract bees and butterflies (its leaves provide the scent in Earl Grey tea).

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After a full day of touring, I drove to Kirkstall, a B&B; located a block for the sea in New Plymouth. To my pleasant surprise it turned out to be a character-filled 1920s home that sits within an exquisite terraced cottage garden, one of the 100 garden venues participating in the festival.

The next day I continued to tour more gardens, again seeing plants growing so profusely that it’s easy to get the feeling they need no help from green thumbs. But even though growing conditions are excellent, it still takes aesthetic talent to select the colors, blooms and structures needed to design such garden masterpieces.

Such an artist’s touch is evident in Tikorangi, a private garden owned by Abbie and Mark Jury. They consider it “our own piece of paradise,” and the garden’s sheer range of plants, from alpine to tropical, is amazing. The Jurys told me that their family established the garden in the 1880s, and now the fourth and fifth generations live there.

The family’s garden craftsmanship is apparent in the unique combinations of textures and colors. The hybrid camellias, rhododendrons and magnolias are their pride. It was a treat for me to walk among fragrant rhododendrons and hostas growing under the shelter of enormous native podocarpus, planted in 1880. Huge, long, waxy trumpet rhododendrons displayed their golden throats. Sprawling Rhododendron polyandrum showed creamy flowers with a pink flush. The Jurys’ densely cultivated garden covers more than an acre, and there is also a five-acre park of lawns and trees.

Just south of New Plymouth, much of the charm of a garden called Ngamamaku (“the place of the tree ferns”) stems from its affinity to the bush, since it borders Egmont National Park’s rain forest. Garden owners Tony Barnes and John Sole have created a series of interconnecting formal flower and plant beds that combine bush, exotic and traditional plants.

On the stream walk, mamaku tree ferns, majestic and graceful with their exotic fronds, grow 50 feet high among the native nikau palms. After roaming in this cool place, overshadowed by large serrated leaves, I emerged at a sunny summerhouse rose garden where pink “Enchantment” roses flourished.

All this requires relentless dedication by the owners. Barnes says it has been a major part of his life for the past 12 years. “A casual wander around it in the morning or evening rejuvenates me,” he told me. But “a hard day’s work in it wears me out. I love it. I curse it.” My favorite area was the pond, with maples, hostas, the songs of native tui birds and the tinkle of the natural stream. White magnolias and red and pink camellias flowered next to each other.

Greenhills, another private garden nearby, has sloping banks of azaleas and rhododendrons. Its rock gardens, with little plants peeping up from the rocks, flaunted their tiny treasures: brilliant deep blue gentians, tiny alpine rhododendrons and delicate, nodding snowdrops. Dianthus made splashes of color over lichen-covered rocks.

Wandering along the banks of Greenhills’ stream, a path passes from the formal plantings to the subdued colors of the native bush. Shirley Greenhill, the garden’s owner, said her favorite plants are the carpets of tiny pink and white cyclamen with their mottled leaves. She is also enamored of her blue Himalayan poppy and her roses, the white fruity-fragrant “Class Act” and soft yellow “Golden Wings.”

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One of the best features of touring during the festival was the opportunity to talk to the owners of private gardens. At Ngaere Garden, a 10-acre private property located at nearby Stratford, I met Shirley and Clary Hart. Their garden dates from the 1880s and boasts a stone fountain and an English-style bridge. There are views of Mt. Egmont, and a succession of 100-year-old redwoods, palms and kauri trees. A unique feature of Ngaere is its two large lakes dug in the shape of New Zealand, surrounded by lawns and flowering borders. The sweet-spice scent of Michelia figo (a member of the magnolia family) reminded me of other exotic places I’ve visited.

During the Rhododendron Festival, music performances, luncheons and art and craft exhibits are held in the gardens and towns. Some enthusiastic tourists visit 60 to 80 gardens over the 10 days. I was there for two days and felt in a terrible rush to visit about a dozen gardens, though I would have liked to see more. To help cover expenses, some gardens charge entry fees of $1 to $4; others request small donations for charitable causes.

I left feeling that the Taranaki Rhododendron Festival is worth the journey. Nowhere else can you find such a blend of spectacular cultivated plant varieties side by side with primeval, luxuriant rain forest.

Woeber is a freelance writer who lives in Tiburon.

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GUIDEBOOK

Kiwi Flowers

Getting there: Air New Zealand, Qantas and United fly nonstop from LAX to Auckland (12-hour, 40-minute flight). Round trips start at $1,298. Rental car services at the airport.

Festival information: All the gardens in the Taranaki Rhododendron Festival (Oct. 30 through Nov. 8 this year) are in New Plymouth or nearby towns. Allow 20 to 30 minutes for each visit, except for larger properties. Some guided tours are offered.

Where to stay: Kirkstall B&B;, 8 Baring Terrace, New Plymouth, telephone 011-64-6-758-3222, is set in an exquisite garden; Rates $22 to $32, including breakfast. Henwood House B&B;, 314 Henwood Road, Rt. 2, New Plymouth; tel. 011-64-6-755-1212; rates $30 to $60. The Mountain House, Pembroke Road, P.O. Box 303, Stratford, tel. 011-64-6-765-6100, has a great location at the base of Mt. Egmont; rates $45 to $60.

For more information: Tourism Taranaki organizes the flower festival, 188 Powderham St., PrivateBag 2058, New Plymouth; tel. 011-64-6-757-9909. New Zealand Tourism Board, 501 Santa MonicaBlvd., Suite 300, Santa Monica, CA 90401; tel. (800) 388-5494 or (310) 395-7480.