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Hortensia House is a romantic mix of roses and perennials, surrounding a rambling colonial house. Roses scrambled up arches, over pergolas, along the veranda and amongst the trees. A mix of annuals and perennials filled out the borders while a sweep of arums edged the creek. The hydrangeas the garden is named for were not yet in their stride, blooming later in the summer.
A smaller garden on the outskirts of Blenheim, Broomfield is a classic garden - formal lines with box hedging, emerald lawns and matching borders in blue and white, with only touches of pink or lemon. A formal potager (the strawberries had to have been polished!) and a wisteria walk add interest.
A family garden, although created by someone with a sophisticated eye, Stoneyfield used flowing lines to create beautiful coders of roses, perennials and annuals. A sheltered courtyard behind the house overlooked a potage made in deep raised beds, creating a better growing environment that the natural stony riverbed the rest of garden has been developed on.
Many of the gardens on the tours are frankly huge and you are left marvelling at the maintenance and standard of care that makes these gardens such a joy to visit, all the while thinking humbly about the burgeoning weeds back home. The smaller gardens are no less complex when you analyse the plantings, the planning for succession and the way the gardens have been designed to maximise the garden space - and to make room for many, many more plants than you would have thought possible!
If you are making are garden, renovating a garden or simply looking for inspiration for your own plot, you could do no better than to book for Hunters Garden Marlborough and experience all this for yourself.
Seminars and Workshops
Great effort is required to line up a new range of speakers covering diverse topics from vegetable gardening, food, specialist plant interest, solar energy and garden design. From English garden designer and Chelsea judge Julian Dowle and Clematis expert Raymond Evison, to the local heroes we heard, Garden Marlborough has a fascinating listing of speakers. So much so that it is hard to chose between them
Gerry Krueger, gardening in the winter snow-covered and summer drought-stricken territory near Spokane, Washington, delighted her audience with tales of developing her garden, where 'no wimpy plants are allowed', falling in love with roses and then discovering, here in New Zealand, the joys of inter-planting with perennials. A courageous gardener who considers any plant hardy 'until I have killed it'; she claims not to be a gardener but someone who loves and collects plants. This was belied by the slides of her extensive garden where the fence had been pushed out many, many times.
Local plantsmen Tim and Hamish Prebble (foliage plants) and Alan Trott (trees) has masses of advice and a huge knowledge of their gardening passion. Pens were busy scribbling names and many questions flying in these informative sessions. English clematis expert Raymond Evision spoke on clematis in a popular session.
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Hortensia House - a sweep of arums along the stream
Stoneyfield - a simply inspiring family garden
Stoneyfield- a mix formality with informal planting
Tour members enjoy classic symmetry at Broomfield
White standard roses aligned on a blue door in Broomfield's potager
Wisteria drips from the arch over a curving path at Broomfield
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