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Ellerslie International Flower Show
Hagley Park, Christchurch, New Zealand
10-14 March 2010
SHOW REVIEW
by Ruth Chapman and Helen Williams
Ellerslie in Christchurch was again a great success. Despite sometimes indifferent weather the crowd response was overwhelmingly positive. The few organisational quibbles about queueing were overcome and visitors could move easily around the show. The size of the venue and the mature trees combined to give a feeling of spaciousness and timeliness which enhance the experience.
The themes for 2010 were less pronounced than in 2009 with a greater diversity of plantings and design:
- Mixed styles. Exotics were mixed with natives, perennials with shrubs, rhododendrons with scabiosa and geraniums.
- Recycling and sustainability were less overt as a statement and seemed more integrated into overall garden design.
- Garden health, if the exhibits were anything to go by. The quality of the plantings and the hard structures was very high.
- Restrained colour palettes were again evident but last year's reds were gone, replaced with greens and pale colours. This may have been because there were not many flowers: with the notable exception of An Englishman's Retreat one needed to look past the exhibition gardens to the garden club and municipal garden displays. As in last year's Melbourne Flower Show there was some irony in a dominance of "flowerless" exhibition gardens alongside the crowded retail nursery sale stands (thankfully more plentiful than in 2009).
The exhibition gardens
The judges have their own criteria, including the "wow factor". We decided (with difficulty)our own top five according to whether they had a strong concept or theme which was well articulated, with a consistent implementation and an overall result which was pleasing to the eye. And probably we had a bias towards planted gardens rather than solely design gardens.
An Englishman's Retreat designed by Chris Beardshaw. A Gold Medal winner and the People's Choice winner - which probably says it all. This was Ellerslie's largest-ever garden with a great setting looking down to Victoria Lake. Quintessential English borders, densely planted with perennials - delphiniums, penstemons,roses (not many), rudbekia, salvia . . . - punctuated with maples, camellia, magnoia and texture plants - led to a fabulous Moorish pavilion with Italianate scuptures through which one glimpsed the lake. But, as they say, that's not all. Behind the pavilion lay a meadow with mown paths and wildflower patches. Fantastic.
Sustainability with Style designed by Phil and Linda Ducker for Soil and Health Canterbury and The Good Gardeners' Association. This garden combined attractive hard structure - a lovely garden room/potting area with Marseilles-tile roof ,neat brick-sided raised beds and a lych gate - with a wide range of mouth-watering edible plants. One could easily imagine sitting in pleasurable contemplation in this garden, just as much as in an "ornamental" garden.
Peace by Piece was one of the more architecturally-striking exhibits. Tall metal "wine racks" held hundreds of old bottles, each with its own message for peace. The green and white palette of natives, pebbles and a central pond, all using circular patterns or curves created a simple yet powerful statement.
Ellegance designed by Mark Hutching and Bryce Robb. This appealed to us because it was a very achievable design for most gardeners. A series of raised beds using large timber-capped pavers, surrounded and sheltered a large outdoor table and chairs, which sat on pavers of the same style
Tohunga's Retreat designed by Olive Screen for Letz Go Native. This was a bush garden, dark and green with a koru-shaped wooden path. The plants were chosen for their medicinal and spritual qualities - including lovely coprosma lucida with its translucent blue berries.
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Akaroa and the Bays won the National Flower Bed Competition
Koji Ninomiya's Japaneses Garden won Gold
An Englishman's Retreat: the vista
An Englishman's Retreat:the border
Sustainability with Style
Peace by Piece
Backyard Ellegance |
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