Taranaki’s latest Garden of Significance

Openlands – Taranaki’s latest Garden of Significance

Nearly one third of the gardens in this year’s Taranaki Rhododendron & Garden Festival running from October 30 to November 8 are Gardens of Significance with the latest being Openlands in South Taranaki.

The spacious two and a half-acre country garden in Manaia, South Taranaki, is the 14th garden of significance in this year’s festival line up of 51 gardens. As registered by the New Zealand Gardens Trust, the Festival now includes one garden of “International Significance”, five gardens of “National Significance”, and eight “Gardens of Significance”—the highest concentration of any such gardens in the country.

Openlands started as a bare paddock in 1961, but the garden now features sweeping lawns and mature trees surrounding the farm homestead. For the last 30 years, the garden has been expanded and developed by Marie and Rodney Mills who built upon the original garden plantings started by Rodney’s parents.

In the main garden you’ll find beds of roses, a golden gleditsia and some 60 large rhododendrons providing huge splashes of colour in spring and into summer.

A huge puriri tree, often visited by Tui and native pigeons, announces the Openlands shade house area. The shade house is home to many colorful plants including vireya rhododendrons. But it is also home to a number of treasures from the sea including a large wooden supporting beam and a cargo net found at local beaches.
Nearby is a dell of native ferns and colourful clivias where two bridges cross the meandering stream running through the property.

Another signature feature of Openlands is the relocated, historic Auroa Methodist church. Built in 1910, the quaint country church has had an extensive renovation both inside and out. In the Openlands garden setting, the church has become a favourite photographic feature of Openlands—both for festival visitors but also local couples as a wedding venue.

An added bonus to the garden’s formal and informal beauty is the exotic birdlife in the property’s aviaries. Colourful and talkative budgies, cockateels, lorikeets and gulahs greet visitors to Taranaki’s latest Garden of Significance.

Now in its 22nd year, the 10-day Taranaki Rhododendron & Garden Festival also has a great line up of guest speakers including Professor Guan Kaiyun—one of China’s leading botanists and Rhododendron experts. The lineup also includes Good Morning floral designer, Astar, former gardening TV show presenter Maggie Barry, and locals Tony Barnes, Jenny Oakley, Greg Rine, Mark and Abbie Jury, Dee Turner, Mitch Graham and Yvonne Brunton all speaking on their areas of plant and gardening expertise.

In addition to the guest speaker line up, there are a number of guided walks through some of Taranaki’s unique gardens including the Pukekura Park fernery, Pukeiti, Tupare’s house and garden, Hollards Garden, and the Stepping Stones and Duncan & Davies Nurseries guided tour of its large nursery where visitors will view production fields of Japanese Maples, Magnolias and Hamamelis.

The Landscape Design Installation is taking a completely new direction this year and will be created by emerging media design firm Inc Creative Ltd in the role of Landscape Project Designer.

This New Zealand-based firm specialises in video and interactive installation, video production and post-production, spatial design, motion graphics and 3D animation – giving away a taste of what to expect from this year’s challenging design concept

ENDS

© Scoop Media