Flower show gardens ‘ just fantastic’
When Kate Hillier, managing director of the Ellerslie International Flower Show, told me this year’s show was going to be the best ever, I wanted to believe her.
The gardens are what we come for, and this year they are fantastic. I did not always agree with the judges, my golds were not always theirs. However, taking to heart the comments of the chief judge, the United Kingdom’s Andy Sturgeon, that judging had to be objective not subjective, I found pleasure in every design. ‘‘ It’s very elegant and simple,’’ I say to an elegant young woman sitting on the steps of her garden, Simplicity. ‘‘ It’s very like me,’’ Katrina Pinington replies without guile. It is, and quite stunning. Me, I also like them wild, passionate, romantic — and full of plants. And so many are.
Sally Brown
of
Blueskin Nurseries near Dunedin has created very much a plantwoman’s garden, Passion, with 107 different species gloriously celebrating pink flowers.
Ben Hoyle always creates showstoppers. This year his artificial grass is replaced by a multitude of brightly coloured paper umbrellas reflecting on a pond, partly enclosed by planted walls. The surrounding garden morphs from tropical to English cottage wildflowers to native grasses.
Yet the gardens themselves are not only what makes the show a success. Harder to define is the atmosphere; this year it is highly charged, light, lively, fun.
The organisers and staff are upbeat – and rightly so. They have taken aboard past criticism and run with it, in doing so have created not only the best Ellerslie we have seen in Christchurch but one that surely stands among the finest in the world. If you are a gardener, don’t miss it.