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New Zealand Native Gardens |
Designing a native garden can conjure up images of dusty trees and shrubs, a monotonous green border with little to commend or excite. But is doesn't have to, as the many new and exciting native gardens designed today, a native garden can be just as interesting, pretty or dramatic any other garden style.
Try to build a picture in your garden or border. Choose your major elements - the trees - first, allow them room to grow and develop, and then work from there. Contrast form (shape) and leaf textures, and colour. But avoid too busy a look, too many contrasts and the overall effect is a hotchpotch and the garden will feel restless instead of calming. In a modern garden, dramatic effects are dramatic because the plant palette and the overall scheme is kept simple and restricted. In the wild, our New Zealand plants look at home because they are massed or because of the predominance of one colour- green forests, tawny tussock lands. It is a very similar approach, so try to repeat plants to unify your scheme.
Many New Zealand plants are found throughout the traditional garden- hebes, phormiums, bracyglottis and others are found in some of the most famous gardens in the world, as well as in many New Zealand gardens. Many we don't even automatically think of as being a New Zealand 'native'.
Tropical Native Garden
New Zealand plants are brilliantly suited to the 'tropical' garden. The 'Kaka beak' (Clianthus puniceus) is a simply gorgeous plant that looks exotic and tropical yet hails from the northern areas and is now very rare in the wild. Cultivated forms include the dramatic C. puniceus 'Albus' shown here.
To continue your tropical theme, include the Puka, (Mertya sinclairii) with its great paddle shaped leaves in glossy green; the Broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis) and it's cousin G. lucida both have apple-green glossy foliage with a tropical look, and the benefit of being hardy in coastal gardens. Tree ferns (Cyathea and Dicksonia), nikaus (Rhopalostylis sapida) and cordlyine (cabbage trees) will continue your tropical theme.
Think about contrast of foliage and form when choosing your tree, perhaps a tall slender tree to lift the eye above a border of rounded, flatter shapes; or rounded tree to balance out a vertical element. A tree with horizontal form can provide a large area of light shade.
Through these trees you can encourage Tecomanthe speciosa, a very special native climber. The leaves are glossy green and creamy, white flowers hang in clusters in winter and autumn. Frost tender, it withstands coastal winds. An absolute treasure.
For infilling the border, try lower growing Hebe speciosa hybrids with brilliant coloured flowers in purple, red and lilac. Little Heliohebe hulkeana is great for the front of the border with rounded bronzy leaves and sprays of pale lilac flowers in summer. Sophora prostrata and the hybrids S. 'Otari Gnome' and S.'Dragons Gold' will enchant with their compact form and golden flowers in late winter. Incorporate the New Zealand iris (Libertia ixioides) for golden foliage and white flowers in summer. Good in the sun, little Geranium traversii will form a rounded clump of silvery grey-green leaves and produce pretty pink flowers in summer. In shade try massing the rengarenga lily (Arthropodium cirratum), it will thrive almost anywhere in shade and is a prefect ground cover under trees.
If you have a cool and shady border try Myosotidium hortensia, the Chatham Island Forget-me-not, one of New Zealand's premier native plants. The large, glossy, deeply veined leaves are very dramatic in the garden. Perhaps sometimes temperamental, all is forgotten when those wonderful heads of pure blue flowers appear. Moist, humus rich soil that doesn't dry out but is not soggy is what is required. Try it as an under planting in light shade, or as a border plant amongst your most sophisticated plants.
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New Zealand native gardens are full of contrast and colour
White Kaka beak (Clianthus puniceus 'Albus'), gorgeous in spring
Bold foliage of the Puka, Mertya sinclairii
Tropical looks from the Nikau, Rhopalostylis sapida
Cordylines lift the eye over hebes in this entrance garden
Arthropodium cirratum, rengarenga lilies, are indispensable groundcover plants
Intense blue from the Chatham Island Forget-Me-Not, Myosotidium hortensia |
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