Garden Tours

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 30

2012-01-31T21:49:00.000Z

ALL HAS BEEN QUIET IN THE NZ GARDEN during January, due to the mild weather. The plants are all in good shape. In particular, unlike last year, the fern fronds are all still green. We have only had a couple of overnight frosts during the month and they were not severe. The forecast for February is for colder weather. As gardeners, we wait and see, hoping for the best. The plants will have hardened off by now so there should be no problem.

This week I bought myself a copy of Joseph Hooker’s book “Handbook of the New Zealand Flora”, A Systematic Description of the Native Plants of New Zealand, Volume 1. This is a digitally printed paperback version published last year of the original edition which was published in 1864. Joseph Hooker’s preface contains a most useful overview of the exploration of the country which names with clarity contemporary plant collectors and places with dates. The main body of the book contains comprehensive descriptions of species and where they were found, including those found during his three year voyage in HMS Erebus which began in 1839. The intricate detail of each of Hooker’s plant descriptions shows his enthusiasm and dedication to botany. He records details of over 700 New Zealand plant species. This book will be a useful addition to my small NZ reference library. Following in the footsteps of his father Sir William Hooker, Sir Joseph later became Director of Kew Gardens and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was a close friend and colleague of Charles Darwin.

The Friends of Valley Gardens volunteer gardeners have been meeting on alternate Wednesdays since last summer. Initially we had work to do in the NZ Garden. Then we helped the full time gardeners with the dahlia bed and then with the winter bedding. Latterly we have assisted Paula with the herbaceous beds and been busy with Simon clearing the undergrowth in the Peat Garden and around the old Magnesia Well Pump Room. The restoration of the Pump Room is the current main project of the Friends. Emphasis has been on fund raising which is progressing reasonably considering the economic situation. The plan for the volunteer gardeners is to clear the common undergrowth around the building by the spring, retaining the more interesting shrubs. As the new season unfolds we will assess with the Parks Department what remains and then further open up the area by felling the more common trees which are blocking out light. Tree felling will be done by the Council’s specialists. Laying out paths and underplanting will follow. We have a more or less regular six stalwart volunteers and would welcome more. If you live locally and can join as a volunteer, please contact me by the form below.

View of the Magnesia Well Pump Room in Valley Gardens in 1860

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 29.

2011-12-31T23:20:00.000Z

A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO ALL MY READERS. In particular success with your planting to all those who are growing plants of New Zealand origin in the northern hemisphere. I would love to hear from you and to compare notes.

This winter we seem to be back to unusually mild weather in North Yorkshire. I still have two pots of pelargoniums in flower out in my garden at home. In the NZ Garden there are surprising numbers of flowers on several hebe species and the sophora bush is still bearing yellow flowers, If this weather continues the Garden will be off to a good start in 2012.

In the middle of the month Paula and Mike spent the best part of a day tidying up and removing poplar leaves from the west end of the site. This has greatly improved the look of the place.

So, the Garden is in good fettle and as long as we experience no extreme weather between now and spring it will continue to mature. Visit my blog avery month to find out how things are progressing.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 28.

2011-11-30T22:02:00.000Z

WE HAD OUR FIRST FROST IN EARLY NOVEMBER. This was not severe enough to affect my bedding geraniums at home but it did show white in patches on the grass. However, I noted that the outer branches of the mature Olearia odorata in the NZ Garden appeared to have been scorched at around that time. This was surprising as Sture Bengtsson, in his research in Sweden, found among the New Zealand species tested for frost resistance, Olearia odorata was clearly at the top with a resistance better than –20°C. However he did find that frost resistance was greater in January than it was in November. We probably have here an example of the effect of early frost on this year’s unhardened growth.

This year's growth of Olearia odorata is scorched by an early frost

I have planted the five little Nothofagus solandri trees which were kindly given to us by Scottish Crarae Glen garden and they look very happy in their new home. It will be a few years before we have a significant little Southern Beech wood.

Our three prostrate fuchsias have produced large red berries for us this winter. The three original plants have spread out nicely, but like most of the west end of the garden the plants have become smothered with unsightly fallen poplar leaves and pine needles. The poplar is an enormous tree, performs little useful purpose and I would be pleased to see it go. The row of pine trees provide useful shelter from the prevailing wind.

Red fruits on Fuchsia prostrata

Winter protection in the form of nets retaining beech leaves and bags made from horticultural fleece is now around our most tender specimens. Several days after Sally and I had carefully secured the bags, strong winds removed the majority! To make them more secure I have now supported each with a wigwam of canes and tied the bags in with a length of string. They look robust now and I hope they will adequately protect their contents. I shall make frequent inspections as the winter progresses. It was this week last year that the big freeze and snowfall set in. I hope we'll be spared the worst this winter.

Horticultural fleece frost protection retained against wind by canes

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 27.

2011-10-28T21:53:00.002+01:00

IN ONLY ITS FIRST YEAR IN THE GARDEN our young Sophora microphylla ‘Sun King’ started to flower at the beginning of this month! This was a surprise, as my book tells me it doesn’t sometimes flower until it’s at least ten years old. It was around a half metre high when I bought it but I never asked how old it was. From its appearance I would guess it’s no more than five. The sophora’s bright yellow pendulous flower is the national flower of New Zealand. S. microphylla grows naturally in both North and South Islands. Our tree has been in flower throughout this month and is shedding some of the dense foliage which it carried when I bought it and new shoots appear to be showing. This seems strange for so late in the year. I hope it will not be susceptible to early frost.

Early in the month we had a visit to the Garden by seventeen members of the Yorkshire Gardens Trust. Founded in 1996, the Trust:

“.. exists to promote the interests, education and involvement of the public on matters connected with gardens, parks, designed ornamental landscapes and urban open spaces in Yorkshire, and actively to encourage the protection and conservation of such places”.

Patrick had been approached by the Trust to take a group of members on a historical tour of the Valley Gardens. He invited me to explain the origins of the NZ Garden and talk about its renovation. I provided a plant list which included a note of the small number of plants which had failed during last winter.

Members of the Yorkshire Gardens Trust with Patrick and Tony.

This month I made my way half way down the west side of Loch Fyne in Scotland to collect those much anticipated southern beech trees. It was a round trip from Harrogate. I dropped Bobbie off for her bridge congress at Peebles, stayed with my mother for the weekend near Lanark and took her and her South African carer on an excursion into Argyll to collect the trees. It was meant to be a spectacular treat of autumn colours with backdrops of mountains reflected in still lochs but turned out to be a rain soaked journey among mists and tumbling waterfalls. At our destination by appointment we met Nigel Price, Property Manager of the National Trust for Scotland’s Crarae Glen Garden. They have a National Collection of southern beech. He kindly donated five small, healthy, bushy, rainsoaked, self-sown Nothofagus solandrii trees as a gift to Harrogate’s New Zealand Garden. Plant hunter Reginald Farrer was the nephew of the founder of this garden. Yunnan rhododendrons grown from seed brought back by him are said to exist here. With many unusual trees and plants, this precipitous glen with its rocky burn is worth a visit in any season. My mother lives near flood plains of the upper reaches of the River Clyde and I have to say that the vee formations of wild geese on the wing in the area at this time of year have been an additional treat to hear and behold.

By adding these five more beech trees to the woodland area of our garden, we will eventually be able to remove the three holly trees, leaving us with a leafy little NZ beechwood providing shelter and underplanted with native companions such as white flowered libertia and hen and chicken ferns.

Our thanks go to Nigel and I hope he will pay us a visit in Harrogate should he pass this way.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 26

2011-09-30T20:54:00.002+01:00

AT THE HARROGATE AUTUMN FLOWER SHOW this month, Terry and Cath of Edrom Nurseries supplied me with six Maori onion plants (Bulbinella hookerii) for our NZ Garden, which I had ordered from them back in July. Also known as Ross lilies, these NZ plants resemble the red hot poker (Knifofia) which is a native of South Africa. Mine are still small so I plan to pot them on for planting out next year in the subalpine tussock section of the Garden. I recently came across and bought a specimen of blue bidibiddi (Acaena saccaticupula ‘Blue Haze’), a groundcover plant which should contrast well in this section of the garden with the stary bright yellow of the Maori onion. We already have the red biddibiddi groundcover growing happily among the rusty-red carex grasses in this section. Both species are found in the wild in subalpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand.

Congratulations to Terry and Cath of Edrom Nurseries in Berwickshire on winning 'Best in Show' at Harrogate Autumn Flower Show with their stunning display of gentians.

I’m proud to report that Harrogate were winners of the Large Town Category at the Yorkshire in Bloom Awards this month, with Gold Rose Awards for both the Spring and Summer judging. It was a treat to see that our Valley Gardens received three mentions in the judges report, and one of these was about the New Zealand Garden:

“Well done on replanting the New Zealand Garden. It may be helpful to have a planting plan added to the existing information panel”.

“The nectar rich planting in the Valley Gardens and Pierhead is to be commended and hopefully copied.”

“Perhaps an "Olympic Trail" round the Valley Gardens, identifying plants from countries entering the 2012 Olympics could be an added attraction.”

Food for thought! Now that the planting is settling down, in the case of the first we are in a position to list the plants which have become established. To do the last we’ll need to swat up on plant names and a lot of countries of origin. Judges always check back on what the previous year’s judges had to say. This sets us a big challenge!

I received the October issue of the RHS ‘The Garden’ magazine last week and have read with interest their RHS Advice for protecting Australasian evergreens. Our New Zealand Garden suffers in winter from a definite prevailing wind which, due to surrounding buildings and vegetation, drives in from the north west. The back of the garden is exposed to the north. During last winter a substantial depth of snow was driven onto the garden, even on to the ferns beneath the mature Pittosporum and the three mature Griselinia trees. We are waiting patiently for our shelter belt to grow up.

The lowest minimum outdoor temperature recorded last winter in the gardeners’ compound 50 metres from the Garden was -9 degrees Celcius on the 21st of December 2010. For five days the temperature never rose above -1 degree. In an earlier period from 29th November to 9th December the minimum reached -8 degrees and the maximum day time temperature had also rarely exceeded -1 degree Celcius. During both these periods there was a covering of at least a couple of inches of snow and it was some days after that the frost in the ground had fully thawed out.

Since then the summer has determined for us what has definitely been lost. We have found surprising results. With no individual protection, our three eight foot Pseudopanax crassifolius (RHS frost hardy) have come through very happily. Our dozen Pseudowintera colorata (RHS half hardy) plants came through very healthy without any protection. Even our three Fuchsia procumbens (RHS half hardy) plants survived.

Casualties were several cultivars of Pittosporum and our Sophora tetaptera (RHS frost hardy) which, being a north island tree we suspectd would not survive (we have replaced this with a Sophora microphylla (RHS frost hardy), which is found throughout New Zealand). We lost two Cordyline australis which we had not tied into topknots. Even the other two which we did tie suffered a little damage but recovered. This winter we will also give them bonnets of horticultural fleece. Among the ferns we lost all our hen & chicken ferns (Asplenium bulbiferum) (RHS frost tender) and a couple of Cyathea dealbata. We smothered the ferns with beech leaves held in place by nets. As they grow taller this will cease to be practical.

I should be interested to read the experience over the past twelve months of other growers of NZ plants in the UK and overseas in similar climates to ours in Harrogate.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 25

2011-08-31T23:37:00.001+01:00

THE COUNCIL JOINER HAS REATTACHED THE AXE; the one that Betty found in the bushes, We did not find the hand so he carved a new one. He has done a fine job of repairing our treasured Maori pou.

This time last year I was thrilled to smell the perfume of our mature Olearia odorata. It has flowered again this month and was a treat once more. I have taken a batch of cuttings and hope to introduce more specimens in a few years time when they are mature enough to plant out. I have taken cuttings of a number of other NZ plants. These appear to be striking alright despite the predations of slugs, snails and young blackbirds in my back yard. The recent warm, wet weather has been a big help.

Friends of Valley Gardens are holding more volunteer gardening days. Last Wednesday we treated our chainsaw carvings with clear wood preservative and started on cutting back rhododendrons. Adjacent to the NZ Garden several rhododendron bushes have grown upward in the past as the other bushes around them had taken their light. With the other bushes now cleared away these rhododendrons have started to sprout new growth from their bases. We have now removed the lanky tops in order to encourage more growth lower down. This will improve the shelter at ground level and serve as a demonstration of how large overgrown flowering shrubs may be successfully reduced in size instead of pulling them out and replanting. This will be a useful process when we make a start on opening up the overgrown area around the Magnesia Well Pump Room Garden this winter.

Today Richard, Tom and I finished mulching the rear of the NZ Garden with wood chip. Richard found the missing hand from the pou. Too late. There is a new one in place now. It will not be long before we start to prepare the Garden for the winter. I feel we have more experience after last winter, which will enable us to take more positive action this time. Plants have now had two growing seasons to become more established.

I hope to make arrangements to collect some more nothofagus from Crarae Glen Garden in October. I shall also be attending the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show in September, when I plan to collect eight maori onion plants from the stand of Edrom Nurseries.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 24

2011-07-16T15:41:00.002+01:00

ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING PLANTS that we lost in the frost last winter was our one and only kowhai tree (Sophora tetaptera). This species of the genera sophora, supplied by a nursery last year, is only natively found growing in the warmer North Island of New Zealand. It was therefore no surprise that it didn't survive our harsh winter weather. To replace our loss I managed to find and buy a Sophora microphylla ‘Sun King’. This is a Hillier cultivar of the native which is found in both the North and South Islands. Simon and I planted this a couple of weeks ago in place of the Azara microphylla which came down in the gale. Hopefully this tree will be more suited to our Harrogate climate. I find that it is also found natively in Chile.

The yellow kowhai flower is the national flower of New Zealand but it will be several years before we can expect to see them on our tree. Like other NZ plants, the microphylla species goes through a juvenile form before maturing into its adult form. We can expect this tree to one day reach a height of up to eight metres.

We also lost to the frost three specimens of the baby Sophora prostrata. It looked as though two of these would pull through, but they both eventually gave up the struggle to survive. In their place I have planted the row of dense and hardy Hebe topiaria. As these grow into bigger bushes I could try planting some prostrata again using shelter from the hebes.

My thanks go to volunteers Jane, Betty, Richard and Mike who joined me for weeding and mulching last week. We had nice sunny weather and had a good natter over our picnic lunches. The garden is now looking smart for the Yorkshire in Bloom competition judges to cast their eyes over this week and for visitors to enjoy. The highlight of Thursday was when Betty found, in the bushes at the back of the garden, a part broken from the pou. There is still another fragment missing. It’s pretty certain that it will be there somewhere. We will keep on searching.

The next maintenance task we have planned in the NZ Garden is to take out some of the overgrown tops of the adjacent rhododendron bushes to encourage the young shoots lower down to grow and flower. This will improve the appearance of the area, give more low down shelter and discourage people from coming through the shrubs. This treatment of flowering shrubs in Valley Gardens has been generally neglected. I would like to see a programme of rejuvenation carried out throughout the Gardens in a gradual progressive way. In a public park environment it’s better to manage the shrubs individually than to have the eyesore of big clearances and replanting when the whole area has become an impenetrable jungle.

Hoheria sextylosa 'Stardust' in flower in the NZ Garden this month.

Looking around the NZ Garden, we are beginning to see some colour with the pink and blue flowering of our larger hebe bushes and I was thrilled to see that all three hoherias that I have planted recently were covered with white flowers, complete with attendant bees.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 23

2011-06-29T12:06:00.002+01:00

THE HOHERIA ANGUSTIFOLIA FIGHTS BACK! The slug savaged seedling of lacebark on my kitchen windowsill has bravely sprouted two little leaves and is hanging in by a thread. With water and sunshine, I’m hoping it will soon resume its growth into a full sized flowering tree. With the other one, bought from Graham Hutchins at County Park Nursery, when it grows strong in a few years time I plan to add them both to the shelter belt.

Seedlings of leafless clematis (Clematis afoliata), the two lacebarks (Hoheria angustifolia) and a leafless tree broom(Chordospartium stevensonii) on my kitchen windowsill.

In the forest bush section of the garden I have now planted the three H. sextylosa bought from Daleside last month. I also positioned the six Hebe topiaria in such a way that, as they increase in size, they will provide low shelter for more tender plants.

I believe I have managed to find some southern beech trees different from the three red beech (Nothofagus fusca) now growing in the woodland section of the garden. A National Collection of southern beech is held at Crarae Glen Garden on a mountainside beside Loch Fyne. Drawing a blank with enquiries elsewhere in the UK, I rang the National Trust for Scotland curator there. He told me he had some self seeded mountain beech (N. solandri var cliffortioides) which he had potted up. He could probably let me buy some in September, when they should be about one foot tall. We need more beech trees in the woodland section to replace the holly trees in due course. It will be more interesting if we have more than one NZ species of the genus. I am hoping he will be able to let us have four. I regularly visit Lanarkshire to see my elderly mother. It will save carriage charges if I drive over to Loch Fyne in Argyll to collect when I am in Scotland.

On Wednesday 20th July the town will welcome the Yorkshire in Bloom judges for the summer judging of the 2011 large town competition. I have arranged with Simon that gardening volunteers will meet on Thursday 14th and Friday 15th July at 10:00. This will be the week before Yorkshire in Bloom Judging Day and we will concentrate on weeding and mulching in the NZ Garden. All possible help will be much appreciated. Please send me email to tony@sissons.demon.co.uk or phone me on 565942 if you can join us. You will have a chance to learn about NZ plants besides gaining some useful exercise. We will stop for lunch and continue in the afternoon. We will make it a select social event besides the gardening. A picnic lunch should be brought. If we have enough volunteers we will also apply wood preservative to the 'chainsaw sculptures' and weed and mulch other areas in the Gardens.
Simon has been spraying some outbreaks of Japanese knotweed. It appears that some fragments were brought in with the extra topsoil which was introduced when we were preparing the ground for replanting in 2009. This emphasizes the importance of disposing of knotweed fragments on the bonfire and not on the compost heap. Simon seems to have succeeded in killing off the new shoots, but we must be most vigilant for any fresh outbreaks.

l to r Patrick Kilburn (Head of Parks and Open Spaces), Byron Roff, Greg Orchard and Councilor Caroline Bayliss (Cabinet Member for Cultural Services) pictured with the historic pou donated by Wellington for Valley Gardens.

The NZ garden had visitors from our sister city Wellington in New Zealand this month. Two Wellington City Council housing officials, Greg Orchard, Director of Property and Housing and Byron Roff, City Housing Manager, travelled 12,500 miles to attend the Chartered Institute of Housing Conference held in Harrogate on 20 June. They took time out to visit the Garden with Patrick Kilburn and Councillor Caroline Bayliss. It was great to keep our sister city relationship alive. We look forward to more visits both ways in the future.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 22

2011-05-31T23:55:00.008+01:00

FIRST THE FROST - NOW A SLUG GOT ONE OF MY SEEDLING HOHERIAS! These things are sent to try us. It’s clear that a plant backup plan is a wise precaution. If we take cuttings and grow from seeds we can replace losses among our precious plants in the future and also sell a surplus to others with an interest in NZ plants. Cash raised can go toward developing the garden. So, this month I started a small NZ plant nursery in my back yard at home with surplus pots from Simon and my home made compost.

My NZ plant hunting in the UK continues. I have found a Sophora microphylla, some Hebe topiaria and Hoheria sextylosa 'Stardust' at Daleside Nurseries near here in Harrogate. While I was on tour with my spring garden tour past week, at Chelsea Flower Show I found time to visit tree specialists in search of Southern Beech of NZ origin but only found the South American species. However I bought a copy of the National Plant Collections Directory 2011 and the following day at Wisley Garden I acquired a discarded Wisley Library copy of the RHS Plant Finder 2009-2010. There are significant numbers of New Zealand plants listed and I plan to extract the named suppliers and systematically contact them in my search for the remaining plants on my wish list.

Pittosporum tenuifolium in flower in the NZ Garden in Harrogate in May.

On a windy afternoon in the garden two weeks ago I noticed that our mature pittosporum tree was in flower. It has fairly insignificant dark brown flowers with a mild perfume. With my camera set for a moving subject, I took some photos from which I show one here. To my surprise there was a bee enjoying the nectar, which appears as a ginger tuft towards the bottom of my picture. Under the tree I noticed two seedlings had set, regeneration from last year's flowers.

My one week garden tour for visitors to Britain last week was much enjoyed. I was accompanied by garden lovers from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States of America. In fine sunny weather we visited gardens in Kent, East Sussex and Surrey, besides the Flower Show at Chelsea. Instead of staying in a central London hotel this year, I booked us in to the Mitre Hotel in Hampton Court. I was able from there to conduct an evening tour of the Palace gardens. With the unusually warm spring, the rose garden here looked stunning, as did the garden at Sissinghurst. All the gardens were beautiful and my little group of visitors were lovely. Bonding among people with a common interest in gardens from around the world is a pleasure to behold.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 21

2011-05-16T21:54:00.000+01:00

I DELIBERATELY DESTROYED A VIGOROUS TOTERA! This was several years ago in the private garden of a friend in New Zealand. It was getting too big in the wrong place. As I started to saw, I felt a deep sense of guilt at putting an end to the life of this handsome young forest tree. Last week I made my first step toward righting that wrong in my heart. I bought a new one to plant in its stead here in England. The Podocarpus totera is probably the second most revered tree in the forests of New Zealand after the mighty kauri. The kauri predominantly grows in the forests of North Island, but the totera is found throughout the country. It was thus a must for our NZ Garden where last year I reserved for this long-living tree a strategic place in the Forest Bush section. I planted it today and the assuaging of my guilt was complete. With good fortune there’ll be a totera for many years in Harrogate’s Valley Gardens at which future generations will be able to marvel.

Last week, Sally, a fellow Friend of Valley Gardens, and I had driven from Harrogate to County Park Nursery in Hornchurch, Essex. What a thrill it was to enter along a narrow path through a cornucopia of antipodean vegetation! And there, among it all was Graham Hutchins, plant hunter, winner of 25 RHS Gold Medals, 15 times recipient of the Lindley Medal, 4 times winner of the Farrer Trophy, 3 times awardee of the Sewell Medal. He is also the author of ‘Hebes Here & There’, a comprehensive book about species of the genus Hebe, now out of print and which is selling second hand today at over £70 per copy on Amazon! He’s most of all a fount of knowledge gained over a lifetime in horticulture, specializing in collecting and cultivating plants from New Zealand and Australia.

Plant collector and cultivator Graham Hutchings with his grandson at his County Park Nursery in Hornchurch.

His nursery is tucked away in an urban environment behind the bungalow where he lives with his delightful wife Margaret. You immediately appreciate the number and variety of plant genera and species to be found in the southern hemisphere. Graham is a pure plantsman and enthusiast, working with minimal capital investment. His greenhouses are largely wood framed of his own construction with liberal use of polythene sheeting. He keeps his books in an old fridge for a cupboard. This is not a place of measured mass production but a haven of patient reproduction. If you need NZ plants in quantity, you go to one of the nurseries he has licensed to propagate his creations for the horticultural trade. However if you seek unusual specimens with ‘down under’ provenance and suitability for our climate, this is the place to browse.

From my wish list I bought the young totera which Graham had raised from parent seed collected by him from the wild in Hikurangi in the North Island, and also one fragrant olearia (Olearia odorata). There was only one of these for sale, so we must hunt elsewhere for the remainder on my wish list for our shelter belt. I also bought two butterfly brooms (Carmichaelia ‘Lindis’ and ‘Beauty Queen’). I had thought NZ brooms were not hardy enough for Harrogate, but Graham insisted they had been outside in his Essex nursery throughout our severe winter. Once established, they’ll be stunning in summer if they survive our winters. Finally I bought a fascinating leafless clematis (Clematis afoliata), a hardy tea tree (with pretty pink and white flowers) and two seedling hoherias.

In our garden this week I removed the nets retaining the protective beech leaves from the tree ferns. The good news is there are signs that most if not all of them have survived the winter cold. I’m just not sure yet whether the hen and chicken ferns are still alive.

All our corokia bushes are now well and truly in bloom with masses of yellow flowers. Some of our white flowered olearias and the pinguifolia and ‘Hartii’ hebes are flowering. The tree fuchsia is looking very healthy, as are the southern beech trees and many other plants. Simon has applied weed killer to the occasional growth of Japanese knotweed which have appeared. Sally and I will remove dead wood and remove the few weeds Friday this week before they seed. At last the garden is awakening from its winter hibernation.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 20

2011-04-29T22:12:00.000+01:00

HAS ANYONE NOTICED THE BREAKAGE at the top of our pou? In public gardens there’s always the risk that some young tear-aways will do damage when showing off to their friends. What a shame that users of our Valley Gardens have spoiled our treasured gift and unique representation of “the relationship between the tangata whenua (people of our land and our ancestors) and the environment”. Is this another example of mankind’s habitual contempt for his surroundings, or was it a foolish accident? How can we use this occurrence to learn to take greater care of our environment? Will the culprits come forward and admit their guilt, tell us where the broken piece is and make a promise to take care of our town’s public treasures in the future? Anyone reading this is welcome to contact me if they think they can help. If it was an accident, either phone me on 565942 or send email to tony@sissons.demon.co.uk. If revealing identity is a problem, but we can fix the damage, I will not divulge names.

On the subject of nature’s damage by winter wind and frost, I have submitted to Sue, the Parks Horticultural Officer, a list of plants which I recommend to fill gaps in the garden caused by the elements. I am recommending that our primary aim should be to reinforce the shelter belt while at the same time adding interest and nectar for bees, by adding flowering hoheria trees and fragrant Olearia odorata bushes to the belt. On calm days the prevailing breeze will waft the sweet scent of blossom through our garden while providing summer sustenance for insects. In the woodland section I am recommending replacing the failed, tender tea trees with two hardier flowering species and increasing the number and variety of southern beech trees with the eventual intention of removing our native holly trees. I would like us to add to the forest bush section two classic NZ podocarps, the interesting Phyllocladus alpinus which bears cladodes instead of leaves and a Podocarpus totara, again to give more shelter against the prevailing wind. Then I would like to introduce some hardy Hebe topiaria as secondary shelter to generate microclimates in the Subalpine Tussock area to protect more tender plants. In particular to protect yellow flowering Maori onion (Bulbinella hookeri, which resembles Kniphofia), which I have included on my wish list. Sue is now seeking sources for these plants.

I have left the netting which I fixed last November over the protective mulch of beech leaves around the ferns, as we are now experiencing prolonged dry weather and I figure that the leaves will help retain some moisture. I notice that new growth is beginning to show and hopefully we will have rain soon and I can remove the netting.

There is a gold medal winning nurseryman in Essex, now in his 80s, who is a specialist in NZ plants and has made several wild seed collecting expeditions to New Zealand. I have arranged to drive down and pay him a visit next week. His Plant List is most enlightening. He quotes hardiness based on his own experience in Essex, which is much closer to our climate in Harrogate than that of the West Country where most of our new plants came from last year. He has also hybridized a number of New Zealand plants, which should be interesting. I will write about him and my visit to his County Park Nursery next month.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 19

2011-03-31T23:53:00.002+01:00

OUR EVERGREEN AZARA MICROPHYLLA TREE of Chilean origin was blown down in a gale force wind on 10th March. In last winter’s clearance it had been left as mature shelter for our new plants. No longer supported by neighbouring trees, the wind was too much for its slender trunk which just broke. What a shame. It was an elegant tree with vanilla scented yellow flowers in early spring. I have taken some cuttings from one of its branches and hope one or two may take. There is now a gap where I believe we should plant another southern beech (Nothofagus) to replace the shelter.

A Friend of Valley Gardens, Sally, has volunteered to join me in managing the NZ plants and NZ garden maintenance. We have spent a morning in the garden today recording the condition of the plant collection following its two full weeks well below freezing last December whilst covered in snow. The lowest temperature recorded by our maximum / minimum thermometer on the fence outside the nearby ‘gardeners’ mess-room’ had been -9 degrees Celsius. It’s still early to come to a conclusion on the fate of every plant in the garden, but we were pleasantly surprised to see signs of new growth on a lot of barren looking wood. Some of the evergreen Olearia cheesemanii plants in the shelter belt which had lost all their leaves during the winter were showing signs of life. The naked Hoheria sexstylosa tree has started to show small leaves on its higher branches. The three Nothofagus fusca trees had retained their leaves and appeared to be bearing new leaf buds. Two of our three tea trees (Leptospermum scoparium) had green leaves close to the ground despite looking dead higher up. The bare stalk of our tree fuchsia had two new shoots at ground level. I had protected this with a couple of tulip bulb net bags. Our canopy of three mature griselinias and the fully grown species pittosporum were very healthy. I just hope they can survive equinoctial gales now and next autumn. It’s essential that we encourage the shelter belt along Cornwall Road to grow up as quickly as possible.

Research published in Sweden in 2007 by Sture Bengtsson into frost hardiness of some New Zealand shrubs reveals that some of the plants we have chosen for the garden have been found to be among the most hardy of New Zealand origin. His research shows that our choice of Olearia macrodonta for the shelter belt was wise and also that our mature specimen of Olearia odorata is ‘among the absolutely hardiest woody plants in New Zealand’. Its availability from UK nurseries seems minimal. With its wonderful perfume and nectar production in August and its hardiness, we should propagate and add to the shelter belt. We will follow this up.

We found the hebes to be a mixed lot. Hebe odora syn buxifolia, H. vernicosa, H. pinguifolia, H. ochracea, H. albicans ‘Red Edge’, H. salicifolia and H. rakiensis were all thriving and happy as if nothing untoward had happened during the winter. Hebe hartii ‘Lavender Spray’ and Hebe elliptica were struggling but will probably pull through where they have had shelter. However the ‘Wiri’ hebe hybrids had perished in the harsh winter.

The pittosporums told a similar story. Our one species Pittosporum eugenoides and our many small P. crassifolium ‘Variegatum’ had all died. However our species Pittosporum tenuifolium, as a mature tree and as young shrubs were very happy. Also very happy and flourishing were P. tenuifolium hybrids ‘Silver Magic’, ‘Tom Thumb’, “Limelight’, and ‘Wrinkle Blue’. However, P. tenuifolium hybrids ‘Tandara Gold’, ‘French Lace’ and ‘Golf Ball’ had not fared so well.

Coprosma ‘Dark Cloud’ and ‘Dark Spire’ were very happy. The creeping C. acerosa ‘Hawera’ will probably revive.

Corokia cotoneaster in both mature and newly planted forms were very happy. We look forward to seeing the many little yellow flowers on these in May.

The horticultural fleece placed over the frost tender Weinmannia racemosa tree appears to have just saved it, but the Knightia which I covered with fine bulb bag netting looks dead.

We await serious signs of new life from the other plants in the garden, especially from the various ferns. It seems that the frosts and snow made a mess of the garden, but the actual long term damage has not been as bad as it looked. I will soon be recommending a plant purchase list to Sue in the Parks Department aimed at filling gaps, extending interest and providing shelter. When the plants arrive we will organize a planting date.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 18

2011-02-28T22:58:00.000Z

WE ARE KEEPING OUR FINGERS CROSSED for our plants this month. It’s still too soon to start investigating what has survived the frosty weather. I don’t intend to open up the deep mulch of beech leaves around the tree ferns until the chance of heavy frost has diminished. When you consider what our plants have experienced this winter with whole weeks constantly below freezing and temperatures as low as nine degrees below freezing, the outlook does appear to be amazingly hopeful. We certainly know that no branches in the garden have given way due to the weight of snow. We can see that many plants appear to have had no problem at all with the cold weather. I plan to undertake an audit of all the plants in the garden and to write about them in future blogs. This will set the scene for future maintenance and for future frost protection. This spring we will probably move plants around somewhat to create and make use of microclimates within the garden. I hope to bring some news on all this next month.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 17

2011-01-31T21:14:00.002Z

THE THAW CAME AND THE SNOW WENT, but it’s too early yet to judge the extent of damage done to the plants in our New Zealand garden. It’s becoming clear however that the frost hardiness quoted in reference books is not necessarily accurate. Do quoted figures refer to continuous exposure to the stated temperature or to the depth of a brief overnight frost? Knowing little about frost, I did some preparatory reading about effects and precautions. I hope the precautions which we have taken will prove to have been worthwhile.

There are several aspects to the effects of frost and snow on plants. The obvious one is that heavy falls of wet snow can break branches from mature shrubs and trees, particularly leafy evergreens. The duration of below-freezing weather is significant as well as the severity of the frost. Ice on plants which persists for long periods freezes the soft tissues that should emerge as new growth in the spring. Different plants have different tolerances to temperature. This is possibly due to the differences in moisture content in their different forms of stalks and leaves. Foliage can be damaged without totally killing the plant, but frost in the soil can seriously affect the roots, which is likely to be fatal. This can only be avoided by copious quantities of mulch. Shelter provided by other larger plants, especially evergreens, can be useful and is one of the reasons for adopting the harmonious concept of garden layout. However, underplanting with ground level plants needs to to be done once the larger plants have had time to mature. It was clear from visiting the garden when the snow had fallen, that virtually all the garden had been covered with snow to a significant depth. The wind had blown it in quantity over the piles of beech leaves around the tree ferns despite the canopy of mature evergreen griselinias overhead. As the shelter strip grows up this should reduce this problem. The strip should also serve as a backdrop to retain some of the solar radiation coming in from a weak and low winter sun at the front of the garden.

Morning sun shines on two inches of snow under the evergreens on the south-east facing slope

Simon and his team have been recording the maximum and minimum temperatures adjacent to the NZ garden in the garden diary on each of their working days. The lowest minimum temperature recorded by them so far this winter has been -9 degrees Celcius on the 21st of December 2010. Between that date and the 25th December the temperature never rose above -1 degree. In an earlier period from 29th November to 9th December the minimum at night reached -8 degrees and the maximum day time temperature had also rarely exceeded -1 degree Celcius. During both periods there was a covering of at least a couple of inches of snow and it was only some days after that the frost in the ground had fully thawed out.

Taking a general look around the garden, the tied topknots on our Cordyline australis seem to have saved them, while I notice that many mature but unprotected cordylines in the neighbourhood of Harrogate have perished. I would like to find some specimens of the mountain cordyline, which should be more resistant to our English winter. The Pseudowintera colorata bushes, rated as Half Hardy at 0 degrees, appear to be surviving. This is pleasing as it’s a pretty plant with its colourful variegated leaves and the nursery which supplied them sent us some spares. Fleece and similar substitutes only provide a degree or so of protection. We will see if this form of protection has worked on the tree fuchsia, weinmannia and knightia bushes when we remove it in the spring.

Work in America on antifreeze proteins could eventually result in the possibility of protecting frost tender plants by stabilizing plant cell membranes to prevent damage by ice. See Wikipedia .

Sue, the Horticultural Officer in the Parks Department has taken a look at the garden and has been in touch with me about reordering failed plants. I don’t believe we should try to replace things that will not work. There are plenty of alternatives which we do not have yet. I therefore agreed to provide her with a list of replacements. I would also like to include some new plants from my wishlist. These include the mountain lacebark and the mountain ribbonwood, a totara, hardy hebes, Nothofagus solandri, Sophora mycrophylla and others. I have proposed that we should carry out an audit in mid March, in order to establish what has expired and what has not. Then we can decide what to order to fill what I hope will be not too many gaps in the garden.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 16

2010-12-22T22:40:00.002Z

THE EFFECTS OF FROST AND SNOW ARE THE BIG UNKNOWN for the plants in our NZ garden. They are certainly being put to the test this winter!

The plants at serious risk are those which are frost tender or half hardy. Among these are the tree ferns (Cyathea and Dixonia), hen and chicken ferns (Asplenium), crown and rosette ferns (Blechnum) and the NZ rock lily (Arthropodium). In mid November I smothered these plants in a deep mulch of beech leaves which I had collected in my back yard and Simon had swept from under a beech tree in the gardens. Simon acquired an old tennis net, which I took to pieces and cut into six foot lengths. I spread these lengths over the leaves and pegged them down firmly with stiff wire to stop the leaves from blowing away. Hopefully this will protect the crowns of the ferns and the rock lily from the most extreme cold. They are all underneath evergreen trees which should also help.

Tree ferns smothered in beech leaves with net.

I bought some frost protection bags made from horticultural fleece from a garden centre and placed these over the knightia and weinmannia bushes. Unfortunately one of these bags soon went missing and is presumably now doing frost protection duties in someone else’s garden. In its place is a large home-made bag which I made by sewing together six net bulb bags which previously had contained tulip bulbs for the gardener’s autumn planting. All these plants are also sheltered overhead by evergreen trees.

Net bulb bags sewn into winter protection over knightia.

We were given substantially more NZ pepper trees (Pseudowintera) than we ordered so I planted the surplus ones in various parts of the garden. These are classified as half hardy but on my last inspection they all seemed to be surviving so far without protection.

Cabbage tree left tied in topknot. Net over beech leaves around ferns.

The cabbage trees (Cordyline) are classified as frost hardy (-5), but as you see a lot of casualties in people’s gardens in winter I decided to protect them by tying up their fronds in topknots. This serves to prevent ice forming in the crown of the plant where it can kill off the new shoots and thus kill the tree.

Our tree fuchsia was looking sad, so I placed a couple of bulb bags over him too, for good measure. He is fully hardy down to minus 15 degrees celsius, so he should be very happy this winter!

Simon is keeping a record of the maximum and minimum temperatures near the garden each working day. We shall eventually see how temperatures prevailed over the winter and record how the plants fared under these conditions. There’s not much else we can do now but just wait and see.

I should be interested to hear from readers of this blog, if they can add their own experience of NZ plants in winter. The problem will increase as the plants grow bigger. My brother in New Zealand tells me a friend of his uses fleece bags with light bulbs in each to protect tropical plants out there. In the snow, that would really become a winter wonderland!

A Merry Christmas to all my readers and a happy and successful season to gardeners everywhere.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 15

2010-11-29T14:52:00.000Z

Pou Whenua (poe fenua)

VISITORS TO THE NEW ZEALAND GARDEN in Harrogate will have pondered on the significance of the carving of the pou whenua (pronounced poe fenua) which was gifted in 2010 by sister city Wellington and the Maori Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust. In New Zealand the pou whenua represents the relationship between the tangata whenua (people of the land and their ancestors) and the environment.

Master carver Rangi Hetet carved our pou from the wood of New Zealand’s native totara tree. He is the last surviving member of a special group of carvers known as Konae Aronui. He shares his skills in Konae Aronui Wananga, the art school in the Maori Treasures complex in Lower Hutt near Wellington. The complex maintains the Maori art tradition inherited from their ancestors.

Our Maori friends Sam and June Jackson, who came all the way from New Zealand to bless our pou, have been in touch with Rangi about the significance of the various elements in the carving. This is his explanation:

“The ancestral figure holding the traditional axe at the peak of the pole is called a Toki Poutangata. The ancestral figure represents the chieftainship and prestige of the Maori people.

The ancestral figure of the Maori woman holding a poi, or a ball on a string depicts the event and memories associated with the arrival and welcoming by Maori of the first European settlers at Pito-one (known these days as Petone). Petone Beach is located on the northern side of Wellington Harbour. The poi also reflects the traditional welcoming ceremony of the indigenous tribes of Wellington, Te Ati Awa and Taranaki Whanui, performed to welcome guests within their region.

While this pole acknowledges the indigenous tribes of Wellington, the different styles contained in the pole also reflect the importance of Wellington to all Maori tribes throughout New Zealand.

The carved design of the rope or fishing twine intertwined throughout the pole celebrates the history of the ancestor named Maui who fished up the North Island. The North Island is known as Te Ika-a-Maui or The Fish of Maui. This part of the pole reflects the importance of the deity Tangaroa, Maori god of the seas. It has particular significance to Wellington, as one Maori name for Wellington is Te Upoko-o-te-Ika-a-Maui or The Head of the Fish of Maui.”

On the four sides of the base are four tikis. Sam and June have told me that these figures are stylized carvings representing the four winds or ‘people from all directions’. The term tiki is applied to carved human figures generally, both by the Maori and by other polynesians. Heads of tikis are carved in different styles according to region. Ours are typical of the region around Wellington.

Tony Sissons November 2010.

Valley Gardens (Woodland) Walk in Harrogate - 3

2010-10-25T18:08:00.005+01:00

AS EXPECTED, THERE WAS SOUL SEARCHING at our October Harrogate in Bloom group meeting about only achieving silver gilt in the Britain in Bloom Champion of Champions category this year. However we did decide to put this year’s judging behind us and to now concentrate on the way ahead.

In Valley Gardens it has been decided that work on the so called Woodland Walk project will have to wait until the Old Magnesia Well project is nearing completion. This is due to the Council manpower resources that will be needed. However fundraising can still run in parallel as we will be approaching different sources for grants. The Well project will be broadly an education one, while the Walk will be a community recreation and wildlife support project. Tom, Jane and I attended a ‘Meet the Funder’ event in Ripon this month, which was organized by Harrogate and Ripon Councils for Voluntary Service (CVS). For me, it was surprising to discover how much funding is actually available. The challenge is to apply in a convincing manner, to beat the competition. We attended a session on ‘Implementing an Outcomes Focus’, designed to raise fundraising skills. I found the whole business most fascinating and look forward to facing the challenge. Meanwhile Alex, the landscape architect who helped with the New Zealand garden design, has also met with us this month with a view to providing estimated costs of design for both projects. These costs will form the basis for initial fundraising.

The gardeners in Valley Gardens have been busy lifting the summer bedding and planting for next spring. They will soon start to lift the dahlias and put the tubers into winter storage at the nurseries. They will blacken and die back as soon as the first frost reaches them. Every tuber clump is labelled with its name ready for carefully planting out again next season.

Colleagues among the Friends of Valley Gardens have been very successful in finding old pictures of Valley Gardens in ‘The Olden Days’. These fascinating pictures may be seen on the Valley Gardens web site.

Here is an interesting comparison between a postcard view some time in the 1930s or 1940s and a photo I took this weekend.

Valley Gardens Rockery in an old postcard

Valley Gardens Rockery as it is today

The beautiful Rockery has slowly grown into a thick Woodland. The rocks are still there if you peer inside! I’m sure things can be improved.

Some will remember Sheila who was a very committed member of Harrogate in Bloom a few years back. She moved to Scarborough and we have seen quite a lot of her recently. We invited her last month to our Harrogate in Bloom Awards ceremony together with Rodger, who is also the chairman of Britain in Bloom judges. In return, four from Harrogate were invited to visit Scarborough’s in Bloom Awards ceremony. I was honoured to be one of these. It was a most impressive event, held in the Spa complex and attended by approaching 400 volunteers from Scarborough and surrounding villages.

A first for me this month was having my windows cleaned ‘ladder free’. I have to say hoses and four story poles may comply with health and safety criteria but my back garden had to be substantially rearranged to accommodate the new method.

Ladder free window cleaning four stories up

I was glad my plants were all in pots! Many households with fixed flowerbeds and lofty windows must have a big garden redesign job.

Harrogate scoops Silver Gilt at Britain in Bloom Awards 2010

2010-09-30T20:35:00.004+01:00

LAST WEDNESDAY’S BRITAIN IN BLOOM AWARDS EVENING in Birmingham was a glittering occasion. I digress in this blog from my creative thoughts about gardens to tell you about this important event in the calendar of our Harrogate in Bloom group. Caroline was unable to take her place in our Harrogate contingent at the Awards, and no-one more eligible could be found to go at such short notice. So, when asked, it was with enthusiasm that I accepted the invitation to take her place despite the fact that I had my turn at the Awards last year in Torquay.

Britain in Bloom Awards 2010, Centennial Centre, Birmingham.

Well, having been awarded Gold last year, Harrogate was invited to compete in a Champion of Champions category this year. This was an honour which we decided we could not refuse although our town was a big size mismatch for our other three smaller Champion competitors. Soon after we made that decision we were asked if we would collaborate with BBC TV in the two year production of a programme about nectar. Again we accepted the invitation with enthusiasm. During the year we also embarked on the replanting and rededication of the New Zealand Garden involving research, sourcing and planting. This culminated in the arrival and installation of the beautiful carved pou whenua and a delightful civic visit by Maoris all the way from New Zealand to bless the pou. We had an experienced team of competent volunteers and council staff who had the necessary expertise, experience and dedication to deliver these projects in addition to the usual Harrogate in Bloom gardens competition, hanging basket scheme, web site, schools and young people projects, floral trail, flower show breakfast and other regular HiB features. Everything went well and on schedule prior to judging day.

By judging day we were confident that our big commitment to an ambitious programme would impress our two judges. However it transpires that our judges were not sufficiently impressed, for they decided we were not good enough for Gold. This week in Birmingham we were awarded Silver Gilt. Not bad actually I suppose, at the level of Champion of Champions, but naturally a great disappointment for the many people in our dedicated team who had invested so much time and enthusiasm. It was some consolation however, that we were awarded the RHS Britain in Bloom Discretionary Tourism Award.

Maybe we had taken on too much and should do fewer things with greater intensity next time. Maybe we did not communicate our diverse activities sufficiently well to the judges and more important, ensure that they had been understood. Maybe we did not focus sufficiently on the essential elements in the judging criteria and in particular the judges comments from last year. Maybe the judges were distracted by the presence of third parties around the judging process. Possibly it was a combination of all these. Whatever the reason, we must now put it all behind us and set a course for the season ahead. There’s plenty to do in the future, with the nectar project to creatively steer to a favourable conclusion, the challenging overwintering of the New Zealand Garden, the encouragement of Friends of Valley Gardens in their new projects and much else. What we do now should not solely be focussed on winning awards, which are of course essential to our role as a conference and tourism town, but also on the longer term development of our assets and reputation.

There’ll be much soul searching at our group meeting next week, but I know my colleagues will regroup and start to plan the way ahead. We are proud of our town and determined to wow our visitors and residents alike.

Valley Gardens Woodland Walk in Harrogate - 2.

2010-09-21T12:16:00.000+01:00

TWO EVENTS LAST WEEK FOR ME had a bearing on one of the next Valley Gardens development projects. Firstly the Friends of Valley Gardens attended a most interesting talk on the history of the Gardens by Malcolm Neesam, the Harrogate historian. Secondly Simon and I took our wives out on an exploratory visit to the arboretum at Thorpe Perrow near Bedale.

Malcolm’s talk took us from the early days when the area known as Bogs Field was originally secured for public access in part of the Act of Parliament of 1778. To this area other sections were added piecemeal until the Gardens as we know them today evolved. It could not be said that an original Valley Gardens ever existed because of this series of acquisitions. From Malcolm’s collection of old photos and picture postcards it’s clear that for a hundred years the Gardens have been even more popular as a social gathering place than they are today, with bands, free live performances and deckchairs for hire.

Importantly, plans still exist which relate to the various acquisitions and proposed developments during the evolution of the Gardens. By studying these plans we may be able to establish where old paths still exist beneath present ground levels. By rediscovering these paths we may be able to re-establish more economically the proposed so called Woodland Walk behind the stream between the Main Entrance and the Magnesia Well Café. The photos and postcards show a more open aspect to the stream than exists today, including a simple fountain, which leads one to question whether Woodland is a correct description for what we have in mind. Maybe Bankside Walk would be more appropriate.

It seems to me that if we seriously wish to include a new path, the redevelopment of this stretch of garden must start with some serious civil engineering. Only when this is complete can we consider the planting. However this gives us time to study and discuss our planting options. Do we want a short colourful display of rhododendron species in spring or should we plant an all summer show of mixed form and leaf colour? Can we design an autumn extravaganza into the planting? Should we arrange a succession of flowering trees for the benefit of insects throughout the summer season, maybe incorporating a beehive?

As you will have read in my earlier blog, I have already visited a big mature Himalayan garden at Stonefield Castle in Scotland for inspiration from a reproduction there of one of the nine passes that lead to Bhutan. It was now with the assorted leaf colour idea in mind that Simon and I set off with Paula and Bobbie to visit the arboretum at Thorpe Perrow last Saturday. The first signs of autumn colour were beginning to show. There were lots of examples of interesting summer leaf colour and we were even beckoned by the heady September perfume of flowering Clethra bushes

For the full summer season it should be possible to select a scheme of leaf colour covering various shades of silver, yellow, purple, red, blue and green. A succession of flowering trees and shrubs could punctuate the scene at intervals and provide extra colour for visitors and a summer-long supply of nectar and perfume for insects. This is a theme for a garden which has been in my imagination since I first saw the spring hillside in the garden at Hever Castle.

At Hever Castle Gardens, a hillside is a blaze of colour produced by a combination of tree form and leaf colour enhanced in spring by flowering shrubs.

At Thorpe Perrow last weekend, leaf colours of green cotinus, golden privet, purple berberis and a cotinus which was turning red make a colourful autumnal spectacle.

I have started to establish and list the most suitable trees and shrubs for this approach to replanting the bank behind the stream.

Tom, our chairman, returned from the States on Friday so we can now start to generate a theme, an overall plan of action and some financial resources for this interesting Valley Gardens project.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 14.

2010-08-28T22:12:00.005+01:00

There was much happening during the week of the rededication of the New Zealand Garden. For a start, my house was shrouded in scaffolding and a painter was at work preparing and painting the exterior stonework, wood and iron.

On the previous Friday morning Simon and I had removed some plants from the spot chosen for the steel and concrete foundation for the wooden pou. The Council gravediggers had arrived with a mechanical digger, concrete mixer and materials for the installation. They dug the hole, leveled the steel sleeve, poured the concrete then installed the interpretation board. They finished soon after lunch.

On Monday I started to install the plant labels which I had produced the previous week at Harlow Carr with Peter, their Records Manager. Caroline, my persuasive colleague in Harrogate in Bloom, had insisted that we needed to identify these unusual New Zealand plants. There are those who fear labels will get moved around by the public. Anyway we’ll give it a try. I managed to remember all 89 plant species bar four. For those, I looked at my planting plan. Plastic label planting takes longer than you think. They have long flimsy stalks and I wanted to get them all the way in to make them hard to pull out. Gardener Paul gave me a hand for a while using a long steel pin from the golf course. In the late afternoon I was interrupted by Mary and the BBC TV producer. “Would I please do some weeding in Victoria Avenue ‘on camera’ for BBC TV”. The Beeb had arrived the day before in a bid to film volunteers cleaning up last minute for the Britain in Bloom judging on Tuesday. Mary ran me down to my house to collect some tools and then up to the chosen spot. However as soon as the cameras were rolling it started to bucket down with rain, didn’t it, and weeding had to be postponed until 8-30 am Tuesday.

Tuesday morning was fine and the cameramen got their shots and I then went down by way of Montpellier Gardens to see if there were any insects feeding on the flowers of our catalpa tree. There were. Could we not feed the insects with our trees and continue to delight our town’s visitors with our flower-beds. Read Mary’s blog about the BBC TV programme and all this!

So, on to the New Zealand Garden where I installed the last of the labels. I had to be present in the Garden when the pou whenua arrived to be fixed. I needed to take photos of the pou in place for inclusion in my souvenir booklet. This was waiting on my kitchen-table-top computer ready to rush to the printer in a bid to have 40 copies printed for Thursday lunchtime. The pou was duly inserted in its metal sleeve ready for the Britain in Bloom judges to see, after which it was to be removed until Thursday morning. The judges arrived at the New Zealand Garden an hour later than planned. They had collected a large group of followers from the Royal Horticultural Society, Daily Telegraph, BBC TV cameramen et al. There must have been as many as ten of them advancing towards me up the slope from the Display Allotments.

Honey bee taking nectar from Olearia odorata

When they arrived at the Garden I first insisted they all smell the Olearia odorata which was strong with perfume and attracting lots of insects. My photo shows one of many honey bees foraging with enthusiasm on the mature olearia bush which had survived from the 1953 planting.

The judging cortege were by now in a hurry to finish their tour, so I had little time to explain the theme of the garden. This delay meant that I had missed the deadline to have my booklet at the printers as promised. So I relaxed and tucked in with the rest to a cup of tea and Frances’ tasty cakes in the Sun Pavilion. I transferred the two most appropriate photos from my camera to the booklet on my computer in the evening and readied a memory stick for the printer.

Wednesday morning saw me waiting outside the printer’s premises until he opened. I was relieved to be told that the souvenir booklets would be printed and made up by lunchtime on Thursday. Now I could relax. Back home, I had been ignoring the painter, so I decided to do an inspection. Up four floors of scaffolding at the back was a change from gardening. It was a long way up those fixed ladders! I was impressed by his attention to detail.   If you need a professional painter in Harrogate let me know and I’ll pass on Lee's details.

I discovered that a piece had been omitted from the pou whenua when I photographed it on Tuesday, so I legged it up to the NZ Garden again after breakfast on Thursday, where they were finishing off installing it for the second time, and I took more photos. Then it was home again to await the call from the printer to say my booklets were ready. I cast off my gardening clothes and smartened up with light trousers, my blazer with a floral tie and my Harrogate in Bloom name badge. The call duly came through from the printer and I fetched the booklets.   I collected my camera and my iPod with lapel microphone and set off for the highlight event of the New Zealand Garden project.

I met some HiB colleagues in the Sun Pavilion and we made our way together to the Garden to the accompaniment of the White Rose Band. A lot of people were gathering.   Among them members of the Golden Oldies World Cricket Festival and civic dignitaries. For those who were unable to be present at the rededication, here is a brief account of the ceremony:

Our honoured guests from New Zealand arrived and at 4:30 pm Caroline started her introduction, followed by a prayer led by Father Garry, Chaplain to Harrogate in Bloom. The National Anthem was sung by Harrogate’s SPARX choir and then they sang God Defend New Zealand in English and then in Maori.

The Mayor, Councillor Bill Hoult, welcomed the Deputy Lord Lieutenant, the High Sheriff, members of the Golden Oldies Cricket Festival, among whom were a number of cricket players from New Zealand, and all others present. He thanked the various people and organizations who had contributed to the rejuvenation of the garden and introduced Councillor Ray of Wellington City Council.

Councillor Ray thanked the Mayor for his kind words and the choir for their singing and especially for their excellent pronunciation of the Maori song. He introduced himself as a City Councillor in Wellington and specially mentioned the late Kenneth Broadwith for leaving the substantial gift to the Gardens and thanked Air New Zealand for generously helping transport the pou safely from New Zealand. He then expressed some thoughts in the Maori language - when translated in general terms these meant he explained, “All authorities, all the voices, all the mountains and the rivers and all those special houses, those places we treasure, greetings to you all”, He said that Her Worship the Mayor of Wellington, Kerry Prendergast sent her best wishes and those of the Wellington Council and City. He expressed his pleasure that his elders Sam and June Jackson were able to travel with him to perform the traditional Maori blessing of the pou, which was carved by the prominent Wellington carver Mr Rangi Hetet. He reviewed the history of the relationship between Wellington and Harrogate, recalling that a sister city relationship was established in 1978.

Referring to the New Zealand servicemen of the Second World War who were buried in the Stonefall Cemetery he expressed some thoughts to them and their families as they do in the Maori language, which translated essentially said “go well to be with your ancestors”. He mentioned the reminder of the sister city relationship in the form of the Wellington Council’s ceremonial mace which was gifted by Harrogate Council which is still carried in at the start of every meeting and on other occasions. He explained that they had made two unsuccessful attempts to mould castings of the pou, so they decided to send the original carving.

He said "A garden is a perfect symbol to celebrate the friendship and the bonds. Standing here with Sam and June and looking at some of the plants, some of the foliage from our country I found that quite special. Here I am in another land on the other side of the world and here are some of these things from our land as well as the pou here, and the memory of the airmen and the mace. The garden is alive, is vital and is full of promise for the future, as our friendship is. Between the tangata whenua, (that’s the words for us, the indigenous people of the land), our ancestors and the environment and for all peoples". He said he knows that visitors will enjoy the garden for many years to come and it will flourish and be a reminder of the time we shared our bonds of friendship. He expressed his appreciation for the welcome they had received on arriving both at Heathrow and on arrival in Harrogate. He related how they had been conducted on a tour of the Pump Room and Baths and enjoyed taking the waters and the toffee as an antidote!
He said he would leave us with these words:

"Kia hora te marino, kia whakapapa pounamu te moana,
Kia tere karohirohi i mua i tou huarahi."

which he then translated as:

“May calm be spread around you, may the sea blossom like greenstone, and the shimmer of light dance across your path, may kindness be your companion always”.

He asked June to lead all present in a song and everyone joined in. He then introduced Maori elder Sam Jackson.

Kaumatua (elder) Sam Jackson recited the Maori prayer.

Kaumatua (elder) Sam Jackson recited the Maori prayer which was said as the first Maoris set out from the Islands to New Zealand. It was a sorry reflection on our modern times that an overflying helicopter had to almost drown out the first few of elder Sam’s words. Then in a short speech he especially welcomed the presence of young children. He said “They are the storytellers of tomorrow. In sixty to seventy years from today they will say I remember the time those people came. It's a wonderful thing we’re doing today.” He mentioned that he, June and Ray would visit the graves in Stonefall Cemetery for a short ceremony of dedication before they leave. Together they sang a short song in Maori.

Caroline then asked elder Sam to untie the ribbon and reveal the pou whenua. June chanted Maori text and Sam blessed the pou in the Maori language and it was revealed.

Caroline said a big thank you for this beautiful gift and to Sam for blessing the magnificent pou, the band, singers and all involved and invited the Mayor's guests to the Harrogate in Bloom reception in the Sun Pavilion.

In New Zealand the pou represents the relationship between the tangata whenua (people of the land) and their ancestors and the environment. Master carver Rangi Hetet carved our pou. He is the last surviving member of a special group of carvers known as Konae Aronui. He shares his skills in Konae Aronui Wananga, the art school in the Maori Treasures complex in Lower Hutt near Wellington. The complex maintains the Maori art tradition inherited from their ancestors

For me this had been a most eventful week, the culmination of ten months of work on the New Zealand Garden refurbishment project. The ceremony was an emotional occasion for everyone present, which I shall always remember. It remains now for us to maintain, improve on and protect what we have created over the coming years.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 13.

2010-08-14T11:16:00.000+01:00

“YOUNG CHILDREN, THE STORYTELLERS OF TOMORROW, WILL REMEMBER THE TIME THOSE PEOPLE CAME” were the words of Maori Elder Sam Jackson in his address before the blessing of the pou whenua on Thursday. The unique rededication ceremony contained emotive song in English and the Maori language by our choir SPARX, and song and chanting by our wonderful Maori guests from the other side of the world. It was a truly emotional experience.

The pou whenua (pronounced ‘poe fenua’) is a traditional link between the maori people and the land on which they live. We are specially honoured to have received not a replica but an actual original wooden carving made for Wellington City and gifted to us. We all need to connect with our environment just as do the plants around us. We need to be in harmony with nature in order to survive on earth. Whether we believe that climate change is true or is perceived we still need to moderate the effect that humanity is having on our planet.

Following a traditional blessing and watched by the Mayor, other civic dignitaries and many guests and members of the public from as far away as New Zealand itself, Maori elder Sam Poutu Jackson unveils the pou whenua in our New Zealand Garden.

Besides taking photos, I managed to record all the speech and song on my iPod. I will transcribe into a future blog some extracts along with my thoughts on the message brought to Harrogate by our guests.

On behalf of everyone present and the residents of Harrogate, a big thank you to Wellington for such a wonderful gift and to Ray, Sam and June for coming all the way to our garden to bless this treasure. We will take great care of this reminder of the link with the land on which we all live.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 12.

2010-07-31T11:37:00.001+01:00

THE MAORI POU WHENUA has arrived. It was kindly flown to the UK from New Zealand by Air New Zealand. Patrick tells me the Customs at the airport were very unsure. They had never had to clear a pou whenua through customs before! After lengthy negotiations it was finally released. Did they suspect it was a disguised guided missile or something?

We’ll be very proud of our unusual gift from Wellington. I have been to see it at the Council Nurseries. It’s a carved heavy wooden pole with a deep red glossy finish and will stand six to eight feet high in the ground. It was still in its packaging, so I only managed to see the top and bottom. However the carved figure on the top gave me a clue to its uniqueness. Simon and I will move some of the plants at the centre of the garden on Tuesday to prepare for its foundations to be laid.

As I have previously mentioned, Wellington are sending a small delegation all the way from New Zealand for the re-dedication and blessing of the garden and pou. Our guests for this unique ceremony will be Councillor Ray Ahipene-Mercer, of the City of Wellington, Kaumatua Samuel Poutu Jackson and Mrs June Te Raumanga Jackson of Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust, representing the interests of Te Atiawa, Ngati Tama, Ngati Ruanui and Taranaki. They arrive on 11th August and we plan to introduce them to our native North Yorkshire during their stay. The ceremony takes place on the afternoon of Thursday the 12th from 4 pm at the New Zealand Garden in Valley Gardens. The public will be at liberty to come and watch and to remember the reason for our sister city relationship. I am producing a souvenir guide to the opening of the garden and the concept behind its layout. In this I will explain the history:

The City of Wellington, New Zealand and Harrogate Borough Council have a sister city relationship, established in the 1950s, to honour 23 New Zealand airmen stationed in North Yorkshire, who lost their lives in World War II and who are buried in the town’s Stonefall Cemetery. There were exchanges of native plants between Harrogate and Wellington in 1993. The area in Valley Gardens was designated The New Zealand Garden and laid out with the new plant material which had arrived all the way from ‘The Land of the Long White Cloud’ on the other side of the world.

In 2009 the Borough Council received a bequest for the Gardens from the late Harrogate-born Kenneth Broadwith (1938 - 2009). This has been used to clear the site of most of the accumulated non New Zealand plant material and to replant it with UK sourced New Zealand native plants. A number of mature specimens from the 1950s planting remain.

Traditionally made of the wood of a totara which is one of New Zealand’s majestic forest trees, a pou whenua is designed to mark the relationship between people and their environment. In the Maori language you pronounce ‘wh’ like an ‘f’. So when spoken it sounds like ‘poe fenua’.

Come and witness this unique re-dedication and blessing by our guests from New Zealand in Harrogate’s Valley Gardens up beyond the Sun Pavilion from 4 pm in the afternoon of Thursday 12th August.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 11

2010-07-20T15:09:00.000+01:00

GARDEN RE-DEDICATION DAY IS DRAWING NEAR. Sunshine and showers have brought out the weeds. Simon and I spent a day a couple of weeks ago clearing them all before they had a chance to seed. In a dry spell I gave all the plants a good watering with the hosepipe. Everything is still looking healthy. I was surprised to find sprouts of balsam coming through in the centre of the garden. It must have come from the load of treated soil which the nursery provided back in March. Balsam is very hard to eliminate! We must patiently pull up any we come across. Meanwhile Alex and I have been working on the garden interpretation panel and I have been designing an opening day souvenir brochure.

A Maori pou, or marker post is on its way from Wellington for the garden, as a gift from the City of Wellington and its Maori iwi partner Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust. We have three guests from Wellington arriving by kind courtesy of Air New Zealand, a City of Wellington Council representative and two Maori representatives who will bless the garden in a Maori ceremony.

July has been a good month for seeing what the flowers look like in our newly planted garden. Working with BBC TV on Sarah Raven’s nectar plant project (see my post April 2) has made me aware of insect activity in our new garden. It is clear that the hebe is a popular source of nectar for all sorts of insects and the majority of hebes are in flower right now. However not all. This is interesting, because one of Sarah’s points is that we need to provide a succession of nectar bearing flowers throughout the season. The earliest to flower was the low grey leafed Hebe pinguifolia which flowered in May (see my post April 24). I shall be watching for the flowering of later species of hebe which we have in the garden. Talking of nectar, I notice that our mature New Zealand flax is seriously in bud. Hopefully it will be in flower when the garden is blessed by our guests on 12th August. You may remember, I mentioned earlier that this is a favourite with the little tui in New Zealand which loves nectar. I shall be watching to see what wildlife it attracts here. I shall be interested to hear from anyone who sees signs of nectar feeding on this flax. Our tree-trunk seat is well placed for watchers. Incidentally, to identify bumblebees go to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust web site.

This is a short post because our complete programme for the Maori blessing ceremony is not yet firmed up. As soon as I know the detail I shall make my next post. Meanwhile I know there’s more weeding to do in preparation for the big event, so I shall not be idle.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 10

2010-06-24T21:56:00.006+01:00

I have changed the design of my blog pages. I hope you agree that they are now prettier.

MY HARROGATE IN BLOOM COLLEAGUE Mary is closely involved with the BBC TV filming in Harrogate of their nectar project. She has been given a refractometer and has been measuring the nectar content of flowers which are visited by insects. Among the flowers which she has investigated is the hebe. Based on my casual investigation in our NZ garden I have suggested to her that different species of hebe are popular with different insects. Why NZ, a country with no native bees has produced a native plant so popular with bees is thought provoking. Read Mary's blog. If you’re interested in learning more about insects and nectar, so are we. Please be in touch.

We have finalized the text for the interpretation board which will be installed in the garden in time for the opening and this will be in production shortly. I am also producing an information sheet for students and enthusiasts with more detail and photos. This will be modified to record fresh information as it arises. You can already read a plant list through the link in the section on the right of this page.

The weeds in some parts of the NZ garden are thriving after the rain earlier in the month and the present warm weather. Simon and his team are finishing the summer bedding in the rest of the gardens this week. I have arranged to help them have a blitz in the NZ garden next week before the weeds start to spread seed. We need to have everything looking good for the opening in mid August.

The NZ holly, known as hakeke by the Maori is now in flower along our shelter belt. Also generally known as a tree daisy, this olearia like its brethren is decked with little white daisies with yellow centres, just like the earlier flowering Olearia cheesemanii.

I WENT TO WESTERN SCOTLAND this month with my daughter who lives near Sydney and we took the opportunity to visit a wonderful garden at the northern end of the Mull of Kintyre. It surrounds a classic Scottish baronial home built in 1837 by a wealthy Cameron family and is now a five star hotel.
The reason I wanted to make this visit was because I have volunteered to lead the Friends of Valley Gardens project to open up a Woodland Walk with views, on the hillside behind the stream beside the Elgar Walk. In the process, one of our options will be to use more rhododendrons and other Himalayan plants. This garden around Stonefield Castle has probably the most historical collection of Himalayan plants in Britain. It’s a reminder of the Reichi La, one of the nine passes that lead to Bhutan. Now very mature, the garden contains all the well known species of rhododendron, many of which are large, now over 100 years old and raised from seed collected in Sikkim around 1849/50 by Sir Joseph Hooker and Dr Campbell Oronsay. The garden today is wild and overgrown but many plants still carry identification labels. The best time to visit would be in May, although there were a few blooms still to be seen in the middle of this month.

I was lucky to meet the one gardener who looks after the whole estate and even luckier to find that he had, in his potting shed, a copy of the plant list. I am grateful to have obtained from the hotel a copy of this, which I shall be studying with great interest. I notice a few NZ plants there along with trees and flowering shrubs from other parts of the world.

A second option for replanting a Woodland Walk in our Valley Gardens would be to lay out a bank of contrasting foliage colours to create a full summer seasonal spectacle with just a few rhododendrons to flower in May. At present there are too many boring conifers on the hillside which in my opinion lack interest. The existing rhododendrons have been forced out sideways by tall trees, behind and above them, which are taking all the light. The plan will possibly be to tackle the project in three phases over several years and maybe to build a couple of bridges over the stream.

I should be interested to hear your thoughts on how the bank behind the stream should look in future.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 9.

2010-05-27T20:57:00.001+01:00

Harrogate Parks has replanted the New Zealand (NZ) Garden which was originally laid out with material received in the 1950s as a gift from New Zealand. I joined the small working group which is carrying out this project.

THE GOOD LORD DID US WELL with plenty of rain after we planted, which gave our plants a good start. However the unusually persistent cold north wind has slowed the flower buds somewhat. I notice that the Olearia cheesemanii bushes in the shelter belt along Cornwall Road are now bearing hundreds of white flowers, clumps of the hebe 'Lavender Spray' are preparing to give a colourful show and there are plenty of buds on the Hebe elliptica.

However the star performer right now is the large mature Corokia cotoneaster (wire netting bush) in the front middle of the garden, which is covered in little fragrant yellow flowers.

The big event last week was the carving of three adjacent Leyland cypress tree-stumps into three iconic NZ shapes by 'Chainsaw' Mick, from Chainsaw Sculpture of Hackthorn in Lincolnshire. His subjects for the three stumps are a Kiwi (the NZ nocturnal flightless bird), a Marlin (native of the seas around NZ) and a symbolic wooden bench. Word quickly spreads and these carvings are already attracting many visitors to this part of the gardens.

Chainsaw carving is a skill with a steadily growing band of devotees in the UK although is has been very popular in the USA for quite some time.

Harrogate Borough Council has a sister-city relationship with Wellington, New Zealand, which was originally established to honour 23 New Zealand World War II airmen who were stationed in North Yorkshire and are buried in the town's Stonefall Cemetery.

The original plan was to carve the stumps in a native Maori style. However Wellington City Council is to gift a traditional Maori Pou, so the idea of these iconic wood-carvings came up instead. The inclusion of these additional symbols of NZ will add to enjoyment of the Gardens. Using the tree trunks in this way is also an eco-friendly thing to do.

The subject of a very generous bequest from local resident Kenneth Broadwith, the New Zealand Garden will be formally re-opened in August with a traditional Maori blessing, performed by Maori iwi representatives from Wellington.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 8.

2010-05-03T23:09:00.002+01:00

IN REPLANTING OUR New Zealand Garden, we've taken care to give hundreds of plants a generous welcome, as per the book. First, for each plant we dug a hole twice the depth of the pot, laying the spoil to one side, and then half filled it with well rotted farmyard manure. We then added a thin layer of loose soil to the top of the manure. We sprinkled a little general fertiliser on the pile of spoil. We removed each plant from its pot and loosened up roots constrained by the pot. We positioned the plant in the hole and back-filled with the spoil earth. When all the plants were in the ground we watered every one thoroughly on two consecutive days with a hosepipe and spread the whole garden with a couple of inches of mulch. On the planted areas we used material produced by the Parks tree surgeons' wood chipper. For the paths we were fortunate to acquire bags of a darker coloured commercial forest bark which was left over from another project. From my photo below, I'm sure you will agree that the team have done an excellent job. The tree surgeons carved two rustic seats from the trunk of an ash tree with a chain saw. This had been beside Cornwall Road and had to be felled because it was found to be starting to rot.

I must pay tribute to our stalwart NZ Garden planting team. Now I know how Harrogate's Valley Gardens won their national accolade in the 2009 Britain in Bloom competition. The town, its residents and its visitors owe a great deal to this dedicated and happy group of true professionals.

Let me introduce from right to left, multitasking Simon, the inspired leader of the team. His forward thinking, skilled organizing ability and mobile phone are his essential management tools. He's a man of many parts. Not only does he attend in the Gardens to a constant stream of planting logistics, weeding tasks, litter collection, blocked drains, broken glass and sundry public alerts, but he is also to be found early on Wednesday mornings and again in the evenings throughout the year erecting and dismantling market stalls in Knaresborough market place and he regularly attends to an elderly neighbour's garden. At weekends he can be seen with his Austin Princess at classic car rallies, but his principal Princess is his delightful wife Paula, top right, who he married 20 years ago after courting her for several years while working together in our Harrogate parks. They combine their interest in garden visiting with that of vintage motoring. Paula likes reading too, and her skill at cross-stitch demands attention to detail which explains why in the Gardens she never misses a weed!

Paul is the Celtic sage in the team, who rolls his own cigarettes in the tradition of gardeners down the ages. His family name is Ravenhill, the same he tells me as a village near Swansea, which dates back to Celtic times. Paul's interest in history is infectious and has stimulated thoughtful conversation while working together in the Garden.

With a husband and two children at home, and a landshare allotment to grow their vegetables, energetic Maria is also a busy member of a family turfing business. She is currently working with great enthusiasm as a student towards an Askham Bryan horticulture qualification, gaining a summer of hands-on experience in the practical aspects of parks gardening.

Cheerful Tim is 'temporary staff' from Lincolnshire with experience in the gardens of stately homes including the Milton Estate of Sir Philip Naylor-Leyland Bt. He is working for Harrogate Parks through this summer and then plans to study horticulture on a full time basis.

It's been a privilege in recent weeks to become an honorary member of the Gardeners' Mess-room and to proudly keep my own tea mug on their draining board! We tend to take our Parks gardeners for granted. It's great to get to know them. If you would like to do your bit, you can enrol as a volunteer through membership of the Friends of Valley Gardens. This is a great way to to help in the community while keeping fit with exercise in the fresh air. As volunteers we have given substantial help with planting.

This has been a memorable project using the earlier planting of the 1950s as a foundation. The Garden is now an antipodean amphitheatre in a south-facing sun-trap at the highest point in Valley Gardens. It provides Harrogate with a unique place for relaxation, contemplation, interest and education for many future years. I look forward to helping to maintain and develop what we have created and to progressively revealing facts about the NZ plants themselves in my blog.

An official opening ceremony of the NZ Garden is scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday 12th August. I shall post more news about this later.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 7.

2010-04-24T18:59:00.014+01:00

THE NZ PLANTS ARE PLANTED, thanks to much backbreaking work by volunteers and Council gardens staff. When we started planting, the number of walkers in the gardens coming our way increased substantially. All have been eager to know about our unusual specimens. We'll be installing an interpretation panel in due course which will give a brief explanation. We'll produce a printed guide when all is settled. There are some plants to be added when we've tracked them down. I have contributed two willowy Hebe salicifolia from my own garden this week.

The ferns look particularly at home. We've planted them at the centre of the garden among the rocks and under the shelter of two of the mature griselinia trees and the pittosporum tree which remain from the 1954 planting. At present they are all more or less of the same height, but as time passes the dicksonia and cyathea tree ferns will grow upwards, leaving the various blechnum ferns at ground level. I have given them some handfuls of last autumn's beech leaves to keep them cosy in the cold nights which are still lingering.

If you stand on the tar-macadam path looking toward the garden, the background planting to the right represents a beech forest margin and contains three southern beech trees and a Sophora tetaptera. It also contains some mature holly trees which we have retained for shelter. These could be removed in future years as the beech trees mature. The background planting to the left represents NZ native bush with a red pine, a variety of pittosporums, lancewoods, NZ pepper trees and a hoheria tree. This is where I would like to see a totara and a couple more hoherias added.

In the foreground, plant groupings represent those which grow in swampy areas, those which grow in alpine herb fields and all along the tar-macadam front are plants that grow in the high tussock lands in New Zealand. These are by and large more frost hardy than the other plants in the garden. Among these are the familiar hebes which have been extensively hybridized both in New Zealand and in Europe. We have several varieties of these. Simon tells me that the Parks staff will be laying two types of mulch next week. Fine-looking bought in stuff on the paths and paler stuff, produced by the Council tree surgeons, around the plants.

We already have flowers in our garden. I noticed while planting that there were little yellow flowers appearing on the blotchy-red leaved Pseudowintera colorata plants. These were underneath and barely detected from above. However the white flowers on the low grey-leaved Hebe pinguifolia could not be missed. For me though the big excitement was to see yellow flowers on one of the trees which we have retained which are not of New Zealand origin. This is another southern hemisphere plant, the Azara microphylla from Chile, which is named after J. N. Azara, a 19th-century Spanish patron of science. The scent of these flowers is said to resemble vanilla. I tried a sniff and remain to be convinced. If you live nearby, go to the garden and give it a try! It's the tree above the conventional seat. Let me know what you think.

Come back soon for more about our new New Zealand garden.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 6.

2010-04-02T23:48:00.005+01:00

THE NZ PLANTS WE ORDERED have come. They arrived at the Council nursery at Harlow Moor from three growers. These were Burncoose Nurseries and Trevena Cross Nurseries in the West Country and Binny Plants in Scotland. I went up to the nursery to inspect the new arrivals and to help Trish and Andrew check them off against the suppliers' despatch notes. They looked pretty healthy in their rows of black pots.

Nursery Manager Barry inspects the strange Lancewood (Pseudopanax crassifolius) among
the consignment of unusual NZ plants to arrive at the Council nursery at Harlow Moor.

I have photographed plants of each species or cultivar and produced separate reference sheets. These will provide us with guides for planting, for after-care and for recording progress of around 100 types of plant in the garden with New Zealand ancestry. We have not yet sourced every plant we would like. This is simply because some were not available. We will search further afield and add a few more later. Planting has been delayed while there were still frosts in prospect. Next week looks likely for a start. Meanwhile Barry at Harlow Moor is taking care of our precious plants.

I must take you back to the subject of nectar and pollination in my last post. We were thrilled to hear that the BBC had chosen to film Harrogate's gardening year on a series of visits through this year. This is because Harrogate Parks, with the support of Harrogate in Bloom, have agreed to modify the summer plantings in the town to include several nectar-rich flowerbeds. The high definition television shoot started last week with a visit of the programme stars Sarah Raven and Dr Jeff Ollerton. They presented their case to us for nectar-rich plant trials in the town, which is seen nationally as the premier floral town in Britain. Their case was immediately accepted by the 'in Bloom' group, who were unanimous in their support for biodiversity. The decision was made, the sun appeared through the windows, and Sarah together with 'in Bloom' members set off to inspect the spring bedding of white and red primulas in Prospect Gardens, with film crews in hot pursuit. We followed this excursion with filming in Victoria Gardens and then in the temperature controlled greenhouses of the Harlow Moor nurseries, where the summer bedding plants are already being grown from seed. It is anticipated that Harrogate will feature in one of three one-hour TV programmes on biodiversity in late 2011 or early 2012. There will be more shoots and we expect to learn a lot more about nectar.

Come back in a couple of weeks to see photos of the big NZ garden plant-out.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 5.

2010-03-14T23:19:00.008Z

'Friends of the Valley Gardens' get their Health & Safety instruction

WELL, THE SHADY HOLLY BUSH HAS GONE and, despite the recent hard frosts, Trish has found the NZ plants we need from growers in England. Meanwhile the beds in front of the public conveniences block have now been planted up by Simon and his team of five Parks gardeners assisted by Tom, our new chairman of the 'Friends of the Valley Gardens' and five other 'Friends' including myself. We planted over 500 assorted small shrubs and sedges in blocks. We were proud of our afternoon's work which, though a trifle back-breaking for the unfit, proved to be a fine rehearsal for planting the NZ collections. A glutton for punishment, with a team of gardeners from Harlow Carr, I spent the following Monday morning planting a selection of perennial plants in the 'Scroll Bed' in front of the Magnesia Well Cafe! Our NZ plants are expected to be delivered to the Council nurseries at Harlow Moor soon.

I've been a member of the Harrogate in Bloom working group for over fifteen years now. Last week we had a visit from Andy, a BBC TV director from Manchester, who is exploring the scope for a series of programmes on the need to encourage town gardeners to grow more high-nectar plants. Apparently an increasing proportion of our pollinating insect population now inhabits gardens in built up areas as intensive farming has seriously reduced the number of wild flowers in country meadows and hedgerows. However owners of gardens like to plant and sow new hybrids from which insects find it difficult to collect nectar. This in turn is leading to urban gardens now also becoming less insect friendly. Insects are essential to the life cycle of plants and food production. Research on this is apparently being increased. Thinking about our NZ garden, maybe we will eventually be in a position to help. Andy from the BBC is a horticulturist. After our meeting I took him around our municipal gardens in Harrogate and in particular to the site of our NZ planting project. We discussed the subject of nectar and pollination.

I later looked at what we have on our plant list. Hebes are among the most attractive to pollinating insects in Britain as well as NZ. We have a variety of cultivars on our list. Manuka honey is said to have medicinal properties and is produced by bees in NZ from Leptospermum scoparium, known commonly as the tea tree, and as manuka by the Maori. This is on our list but on the edge for frost resistance. I have a hybrid, L. 'Cygnus' in my garden which, though battered, has just survived the freezing weather. The little NZ bird called a tui just loves nectar, in particular from the big flowers of the Phormium tenax, which we will have. Unfortunately the charming little tui, with its distinctive call and little white bib under its beak, we have not. The beech scale insect plays a vital role in the food supply for a range of NZ native bird and insect species. It lives in the bark of Nothofagus (NZ southern beech) drawing off the sap. It then excretes sugary liquid drops, known as honeydew. We will have Nothofagus but no scale insects. We have the Metrosideros umbelata (southern rata) on our list, but it is frost tender and will need tender loving care.

In 1863 earlier members of my family, Richard, Mary and their eight children, emigrated by clipper ship from Yorkshire to NZ where they went into the business of growing fruit in Kamo. There being no native bees to pollinate the blossom, the early settlers had taken bees and bumblebees with them along with their fruit tree seeds. Today, we in Britain have had to return from New Zealand an old strain of long tongued bumble bee which has become extinct in the British Isles. The short haired bumblebee is to be re-located from Christchurch to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserve at Dungeness.

Other NZ native flora, not on our list, which produce significant quantities of nectar are Weinmannia racemosa (Kamahi) and Knightia excelsa (Rewarewa, NZ honeysuckle). These may not be sufficiently frost hardy for Harrogate. It seems that no-one in the UK has yet produced research to suggest a nectar value for plants in this country. Could we one day be in a position to contribute to such a study?

In my next post I hope to tell you about the planting of our 'harmonious collections'.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 4.

2010-03-02T12:22:00.008Z

Simon, Andrew, Alex and Trish laying out paths on site.

WE HAD A SITE MEETING late in February to lay out the positions of the paths by hammering in stakes. It was still frosty on site, but the stakes all went into the ground OK. However we did decide that no planting would take place until the chance of frost was much reduced. Those who have visited the site will have noticed that the ground has been cleared around to the public conveniences. This section will be planted first and the ground there is now being prepared. Low growing shrubs of mixed origin will be planted in front of the toilet block and higher growing ones to the sides.

For the plants of NZ origin the issue of frost is critical. In some respects this hard winter has been useful. It has made us well aware of the threat. The majority of the NZ South Island plants on our list are ranked as 'frost hardy', which means they will survive down to a temperature of minus five degrees centigrade. About ten percent are of high altitude NZ origin and these are ranked as 'fully hardy'. These will withstand temperatures down to minus fifteen degrees centigrade. During the Christmas to New Year freeze the max./min. thermometer in the exposed portion of my garden in Swan Road recorded minus six degrees centigrade. We are investing a lot of money on these plants, so we must take care of them.

Fundamental frost protection will be by planting beneath the existing evergreens which have been retained on the site, and by using liberal quantities of leafmould and bark chippings around the base of plants. It has been my concern that we should do our best to harness the morning sun to bring even the smallest amount of extra warmth to the ground. This is being partially achieved by bringing in more soil at the back of the garden, giving more of a slope for the low early sun to shine on. I have also been lobbying for a very ordinary-looking, large, berryless holly bush to be sacrificed. This is on the south side of the permanent path and it blocks out not only the rays of the sun but a lot of useful light. Simon, who is the gardener responsible for the maintenance of the Valley Gardens pointed out that there was always much moss in the grass on the shady side of this large bush. It was suggested that this holly engenders a useful degree of surprise when approaching the garden. In my next post I'll let you know whether the holly is to come under the axe. I shall also tell you about the planting programme to be followed by a group of volunteers from 'Friends of the Valley Gardens'. Return here in a couple of weeks to learn more about this interesting project.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 3.

2010-02-16T12:00:00.001Z

I'M DELIGHTED TO REPORT that my proposal that we should lay out the garden as a set of harmonious collections has been accepted by my colleagues. Alex has drawn up a plan for the garden. This is shown below. The scale here makes it difficult to read. I shall take a more detailed section by section look in due course. This will incorporate any adjustments that we make to accommodate plant availability.

In essence the dark green along Cornwall Road is the shelter strip, protecting the garden from cold northerly and north east winds, red is the margin of native forest bush, pink is the margin of beech woodland, pale green is sub alpine tussock, yellow is swamp and creek fringes and blue is alpine herb fields. Wandering paths will allow visitors to inspect the plants.
My brother David in Christchurch has been a practising landscape architect in New Zealand for many years, so I sent him a copy of my planting proposals including my plant list. I asked for his comments. I have on several occasions been on walks in the native bush with David and his wife Claire. They are both keen 'trampers' and conservationists. I admire their knowledge of native NZ plants. David's reply was "I've studied the detail of your Valley Garden proposal, which looks excellent". So my professional brother gives his approval. A great first step! He went on in his reply to recommend a handful of small adjustments to my plant list for which I am grateful.
Here in Harrogate at our Royal Horticultural Society garden at Harlow Carr we have been fortunate in having Andrew, another horticultural professional, with working experience at the Botanic Garden of Dunedin in South Island of New Zealand. He has shown us a selection of NZ natives which he has planted in a small experimental border in the garden at Harlow Carr. These plants have survived there for three years. I shall be going to see how they have stood up to the low temperatures this year over the Christmas and New Year period. He also showed us impressive mature specimens in the garden of Nothogagus fusca (red beech), Podocarpus nivalis (mountain totara) and Cortaderia richardii (plumed grass), all of New Zealand origin and looking very healthy. He warned us about differentiation between Australian and New Zealand tree ferns. Those at Harlow Carr are Australian varieties.
With the layout plan and plant list now in existence, Trish, the Parks Development Manager, is contacting nurseries around the U.K. in search of supplies of the plants we require. Will she be able to find what we want? Will the recent low temperatures have decimated the growers' stocks? To find out, read my next post.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 2.

2010-01-20T23:41:00.003Z

NEW ZEALAND is a long country. The climate at the northern end is notably different from that in the far south. The climate in Harrogate is most like that of South Island. Sadly, attractive trees and plants which grow in North Island are not frost hardy and therefore would not survive outdoors anywhere in England. I am recommending to my colleagues that we should lay out our garden in Harrogate as a set of 'harmonious collections' of South Island flora. This means that we group the South Island plants as found in nature so that the primary plants in each group will live with familiar companions from the wild.
The South Island of New Zealand consists of a long maritime mountain range down the west side, with rolling hills and low flat plains towards the east. The floral habitats vary from cold craggy places and alpine meadows high on the mountains down to, what was before the settlers came, densely forested temperate lowland native bush. Vast areas of mountain valleys are covered with beech woods.   Stream-side plants thrive beside rivers and creeks which carry the high rainfall in the mountains down to the sea.   I am proposing that we aim to reproduce these habitats in miniature in our New Zealand Garden in Harrogate.   However I also propose that we use some nursery-bred cultivars of native species to add colour and interest for visitors to enjoy. In other words we should make the garden colourful as well as informative.   I am recommending also that we replace this garden's original laurel shelter belt with some native South Island species of wind resistant plants.
On this basis I have compiled from book research a list of South Island plants for our landscape architect Alex to use when producing the garden layout and planting list.   The sections which I would like to see planted are as follows: (a) a margin of native forest bush, (b) a margin of beech woodland, (c) sub alpine tussock land, (d) swamp and creek fringes and (e) alpine herb fields.
I should say at this point that I myself am an enthusiastic amateur gardener and have enjoyed laying out domestic gardens in Malaysia, the Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, England and Scotland.   I have family connections and friends in New Zealand and have visited the country many times.   I hope you will contribute to my blogs about your own experience with plants originating in Aotearoa 'The Land of the Long White Cloud'.   Then, as the project progresses, we'll gather a bank of knowledge and experience that others may use.
It now remains to be seen whether my colleagues accept my proposals.   I'll tell you what transpires in my next post.

New Zealand Garden in Harrogate - 1.

2009-12-30T20:59:00.000Z

BACK IN 1954 and again in 1959 there were exchanges of native plants between the Councils of Harrogate in England and Wellington in New Zealand. An area in Harrogate's Valley Gardens was designated the New Zealand Garden and this was laid out with the new plant material which had arrived all the way from the other side of the world.
The temperate southern hemisphere climate in New Zealand is similar to that in northern hemisphere Britain. However the two are separated by the hot tropics which encircle the globe, and this has led flora of much dissimilarity to evolve over the millennia.
For a few years the more tender plants in the New Zealand Garden were taken indoors in winter while the remainder stayed outside. The outdoor garden became overgrown and the portable plants were lost due to neglect or a lack of understanding of their needs.
For a number of years recently there has been an intention to revitalize the overgrown garden, but the question of funding was a barrier. In 2009 the issue was solved when the Harrogate Council was left a legacy to be spent on the gardens.
This is the start of what I hope will be an on-going account of my part in the resurrection of the New Zealand Garden in Harrogate. I am working as a volunteer on the one hand with the Council Parks Department executive responsible and a landscape architect, and on the other hand with the Parks gardening team as a hands-on gardener. We have removed almost all of the non-New Zealand plant material from the site and taken stock of what has survived since the 1950s. We have retained some mature grizelinia and pittosporum tenuifolium trees and a small collection of olearia and coprosma bushes. We have also left some some large and mature specimen yew and holly bushes, which form part of the overall structure of the Valley Gardens.
For those who know Harrogate, the NZ Garden is up beyond the Sun Pavilion. Check back here from time to time to follow our progress with choosing and planting our new collection as we move into our northern hemisphere spring.