Winning gold at Chelsea Trish Waugh1

The garden The garden was 10m wide by 11m deep on a slope that elevated 1.2m from front to back. The theme of the garden was to be one of well-being and guardianship – the health and spiritual well- being provided by the land and all it encompasses. It was to depict a slice of New Zealand from the central plateau in the North Island out to the Chatham Islands. The idea was to encompass elements of Mäoridom, indigenous flora and geology that could only be 100% Pure New Zealand. And so “Ora – Garden of Well Being” was conceived, taken from the phrase “kia ora” meaning “be well”. The garden was inspired “100% Pure New Zealand Ora – Garden of Well Being” at Chelsea Flower Show. Image courtesy Andrew Maloy. by mythical Mäori fairies or patupaiarehe, spirits that are believed to live under the cover The creation of the “100% Pure story short we redesigned the of mist and the gardeners and New Zealand Ora – Garden of Well garden for a much smaller area guardians of our native forests. We Being” at Chelsea Flower Show and were eventually accepted by wanted the garden to be distinctly was a very special experience for the RHS for the 2004 Chelsea Aotearoa-New Zealand. me and I would like to share the Flower Show. highlights with you. Much Mäori symbolism and lore Design team was incorporated into the design. My husband Doug and I, together Our team comprised the following: The essence of kaitiakitanga or with Kim Jarrett, a landscape Kim Jarrett, lead designer and guardianship was very important designer and art director in the special effects designer; myself to the garden and as a result we film industry, were first invited as plant designer; Lyonel Grant, went to great lengths to ensure the to design and build a garden for sculptor, paving designer and cultural correctness of our design. Chelsea Flower Show in 2002 by weaver of our story; Tina Hart, We believed if we got this right we Ellerslie Flower Show, who were visual artist who prepared our would get the rest right as well. initially considering carrying out the submission illustrations, painted project. We had just completed a scenic backdrop for the garden Other cultural elements were a very successful Gondwanaland and applied colour effects in incorporated into the design. There exhibit in the ASB Discovery the garden; Doug Waugh who was a marae (traditional meeting marquee at Ellerslie Flower Show organised the materials for place) and a moko waiwera earlier that year. the garden and coordinated (benevolent lizard form) carrying construction on site; and lastly but hot water from the puna (spring), Kim and I prepared a design with by no means least Brian Massey, cooling it so visitors to the garden Mäori sculptor Lyonel Grant and who had just finished as head could bathe in the nga wha (hot presented this to Ellerslie Flower greensman on the set of Lord mineral pool). A cave, or te waha o Show. At this point Tourism New of the Rings and who brought a Rüaumoko, was the dwelling place Zealand had been brought on wealth of experience with specialist of the spirits of the garden. The board as principal sponsor and greens effects used in the film cave was also to be the control all systems would have been go industry. centre for all the special effects Kim for taking our garden to Chelsea had planned for the garden. It was in 2003 if it hadn’t been for the large enough to contain a sound World Trade Centre bombing in system, which played sound tracks September 2002. To cut a long

1 Landscape Design Co Ltd, State Highway 2, Katikati; [email protected]

2 New Zealand Garden Journal, 2005, Vol. 8(2) of bird calls and traditional Mäori did as a team and we believe it is wharenui elsewhere in this very instruments, as well as housing the time when the patupaiarehe, Jacobian garden and restore it to pumps, water heaters, UV filters, the spirits, joined the project. its original condition. Here, in this smoke machines and compressors. piece of New Zealand in the heart We decided to have a dress of England, we received a formal We searched for New Zealand rehearsal in late January 2004. welcome by Ngati Ranana, one of native plants on the internet and The Auckland City Council very the iwi of London. We then went spent many late nights making kindly agreed to give us space in to the Chelsea site for a blessing phone calls to the UK to source the Americas Cup yacht, Alinghi’s and cleansing of the area. A small the thousand or so plants required old base in the Viaduct Basin. piece of Aotearoa-New Zealand to fulfil our design brief. We also There we spent a good week had arrived at Chelsea. planned to send 300 plants from assembling the structures Weta New Zealand. Then in early Workshop of Dunedin had made for Before arriving at the Chelsea site November 2003 I made a trip to us. We set up the moko waiwera, we had envisaged something like a England to check on things and pumps, heaters, filters, special nice grassy slope and warm sunny to source further plants to fill any effects and a token assemblage of days. But the Royal Horticultural gaps. plants, ironing out as many bugs Society had stripped off all of the as we could. We then carefully grass and left us with a very muddy As part of the design Lyonel was packed all the bits and pieces into site that we were to wallow around going to carve some whekï-ponga a large shipping container ready for in for the next few weeks. The rest (Dicksonia fibrosa) which were transport to England at the end of of the team were jetlagged but I to line the boundaries either side March. think all of us were daunted by the of the exhibit. This was bending prospect of what lay ahead. the rules at Chelsea though as no The monthly planning meetings structure was supposed to be more continued and the media machine At first there was a pleasant than 1.2m high within 2.4m of the got faster and faster. Then all of a backdrop of mature trees to the front boundary of the exhibit. We sudden it was 24th April 2004 and rear of our site, but what we didn’t wanted to go above 2m. To get time for Doug and I to leave for find out for another couple of around this we decided we would England. We were arriving a week weeks was that several buildings, carve living ponga and then we earlier than the rest of the team as including a 3 metre high bright blue could argue they were plants and we needed to check on the plants BBC semi-trailer were to be moved not a structure. The concept of te we had ordered, and those we had onto the area prior to the opening ihi kei roto i nga ponga, the spirit sent over, as well as look around of the show. which dwells within the tree fern for anything new that was needed. At Chelsea everything is crammed was incorporated into the design. Although there were plenty of in very tightly. Our site was next plants, they had just experienced Not surprisingly Lyonel is very to the main entrance which at first a very harsh winter and were not well connected and he, Kim and we thought was going to be an in good condition. We realized we Tina gained permission from Ngati advantage, but due to there being really had our work cut out for us Whakaue in Rotorua to collect a one way system for vehicles and that there would be quite a lot live ponga from the top of Mt during the build up we found we of grooming to do to have them Ngongotaha in Rotorua. This is a were right at the end of the delivery looking their best. sacred mountain to Mäoridom and system for plants and materials. also believed to be a traditional The day after everyone else arrived There were times when we knew a home of the patupaiarehe. we were all assembled at Clandon truck load of supplies had passed House at Guilford. This is the through the gate but it could take In late November 2003 the whole ancestral home of Lord Onslow, hours to finally reach our site. team, plus representatives from once Governor of New Zealand. Ngäti Whakaue, a television crew Day one of the build up and it was While in New Zealand he had from the BBC, another from TVNZ raining again. We were up to our purchased a wharenui (meeting and various helpers and transport ankles in mud, but we remembered house) which had survived the assembled in a valley near the the patupaiarehe like it when it is Tarawera eruption. He’d had it summit of Mt Ngongotaha. We wet and misty. It didn’t just rain taken to his estate in Guilford spent the weekend extracting the though, it hailed, was freezing where it was reassembled and ponga, taking as much root-ball as cold and there was thunder and used for some time as a boat shed. we could manage with each one. lighting. We also had our first plant A blessing and karakia was given During World War II the estate delivery – the large cabbage tree as each ponga was removed and was used as a hospital for or Cordyline australis. This was assembled for Lyonel to carve. It convalescing soldiers. During a actually the first plant on site at was an amazing experience and stay there two Mäori soldiers saw Chelsea for 2004. the first time the team had worked the boat shed, realised what it had The next day it was still raining. together on something tangible. originally been, and knew people We dug the hole for the spa pool. We had spent a lot of time planning had sheltered in it to survive the Patupaiarehe liking it or not we and having monthly meetings but Tarawera eruption. They were were ready for it to stop raining. this was the first physical thing we given permission to relocate the Digging holes was the worst part.

New Zealand Garden Journal, 2005, Vol. 8(2) 3 Eighty two years of accumulated to use them somehow. We had often had to stop work or work out Chelsea gardens buried and just put so much into producing them of shot. waiting to be dug up. Rocks, and getting them there that we Then completely unannounced and bricks, stones, concrete – you were not prepared to give up on without even so much as a “How name it we dug it up. them. We decided to work late that do you do?”, four judges walked night to try and have the problem After about four days it finally onto the garden taking us all by solved and the ponga looking stopped raining. The cabbage tree surprise. This was the preliminary sharp before we went home. was settling in, the replica silica judging session, and stern, poker- Pongas went in and out, new ones terraces were in place on the liner faced they sat down comparing went in and were spliced to join and the rock structures were going our technical brief to what we had alongside the carved ones. A few in with the cave being built behind. actually done. They were giving extra touches were made to the I think the reason it stopped raining nothing away and would make carving and a few hours later we was because we had built the recommendations to the rest of the had some compositions that we cave and the patupaiarehe had judges later that day. were really happy with set against somewhere they could hide. the painted backdrop which was a Final judging the next day took Day six, the spa pool was in and representation of Mt Tarawera and place with the same protocol. we were starting to lay out the Lake Rotomahana where the pink These guys have a bit to learn paving. Lyonel had designed and white terraces once existed. about garden-side manner. Luckily the paving in a patiki design with Tina had to do the final touch-ups we got everything finished with a Hinuera stone – some natural and to the backdrop and then we had small amount of time to spare. some oven baked which created a to blend it into the garden using the Only one other exhibitor has very three-dimensional effect. plant material. won gold in their first attempt Of course the Australians were The show begins at Chelsea. This amazing there – sponsored by Fleming’s During the last few days of the achievement was made even Nurseries who grow 5 million build up the Tourism New Zealand more remarkable by the fact our plants per year. Their exhibit was public relations machine kicked in. team had travelled 20,000km to designed by Jim Fogherty and built Sloane Square tube station was do it. Our exhibit cost 100,000 by Marty Semkin and his crew. decked out with posters saying “NZ pounds sterling (approximately They were a good fun team. They now growing in the UK” and the NZ$300,000) to construct. Sheik were well researched and had native plant displays installed in the Zayad who won Best of Show done a reconnoitre the previous station during the week of the show spent one million pounds. Two year both during the build up and looked great. When we saw the sites along had cost 280,000 the show itself. They had selected London double-decker buses with pounds to construct and they a site with easy access, not too the New Zealand publicity splashed got silver. All together there was crowded and they were able to all over them we really felt like we approx 60 million pounds spent on have containers on site for a week had arrived. exhibits at Chelsea that year. or more. They gave the impression Three days to go and although we Four golds were awarded in our of being like a well-oiled machine were cutting things a bit fine we still category with our New Zealand and were very professional. felt it was completely manageable. exhibit being one of them. The We were fortunate to have a group That was until the film crews garden had exceeded everyone’s of keen kiwis who got stuck in and started appearing on the scene. expectations. We had achieved helped us build the garden. Dan These final three days were what we thought was the King and Marie Campbell were spent working around each other. impossible. New Zealand has experienced set builders in the film Another thing we had to contend not received so much television industry and well used to tight time with were people in orange vests, publicity in the United Kingdom frames and thinking outside the the stewards who were there since the Americas Cup. Coupled square. Teena Petit and Pamela for safety reasons. Armed with with the success of the films Lord Russ provided expertise in plant load hailers they yelled at people of the Rings and Whale Rider we care, grooming, plant placement every time a vehicle approached were on a roll. and a lot of sheer hard graft to – “Watch your backs!”, “Stand to When the 2004 Chelsea Flower produce the garden. Lyonel’s wife, one side!” During the show they Show opened to the public on Vicki Grant also worked extremely would even yell at the visitors, the 25th May, the people came hard for the team both on and off “Move along!”, as if they were in droves. Winning Gold was the site. herding cattle. great but the best part was the Te ihi kei roto i nga ponga Security in general was extreme overwhelming appreciation we The carved ponga arrived but their and we needed a pass for received from the public. People fronds were not in good enough everything. Television cameras queued for 1–2 hours to see condition for the high standards were everywhere and particularly our garden. The Canterbury required at Chelsea. This was focused in on our exhibit. While it Horticultural Society was first on a great disappointment for the was nice to receive the attention the scene and cheered loudly. Ex- team but we were still determined it was also very frustrating, as we patriot kiwis felt home-sick and the

4 New Zealand Garden Journal, 2005, Vol. 8(2) British public were overwhelmed by and I am convinced it was because that are intertwined. It is the the uniqueness of our garden. of the spirit or wairua with which we essence of who we are as a people created it. and that deserves celebrating, Lessons from the show but it also deserves looking after. There are many lessons to be Lyonel wrote a small piece in our The world is changing at an ever- learnt from this experience. One technical brief that always springs increasing pace. Conservation in particular is to do guardianship to mind: now is about managing that or kaitiakitanga and respect for our “He toi whakairo change. flora which is a priceless treasure He mana tangata” that deserves our respect. I I will leave you with this thought; it felt very privileged to be able to “From artistic excellence is something we said to ourselves present such a wealth of unique Comes human dignity.” when things got really tough: “We flora to so many gardening For the team this garden was a are all in the same waka – we enthusiasts. We are in an enviable celebration of who we are as a just need to paddle in the same position in New Zealand in that people, a journey that transcends direction.” we have such a large number culture, the land and all it has to Future of native gardens in New of indigenous plants not found offer. It was a journey that touched Zealand anywhere else in the world. When millions of people and we are all I have a vision for the future of these plants are used in a way very grateful and proud to have native gardens in New Zealand, that is sensitive to their natural been part of it. especially public gardens. We habitats and associations they have the opportunity in this country resonate Aotearoa-New Zealand. We are a country that has only had to actually create gardens that are At Chelsea they glowed and as we significant populations of humans unique to New Zealand, and need had linked them inextricably with for 500 years. We have done a a good body of these gardens that our geology and our indigenous lot of damage in that time. But we resonate a sense of place and culture the English public couldn’t still have the most unique culture, will leave an indelible mark on our help but be touched. It was by far geography and plants in the world. visitors. the most visited garden at the show We have a landscape and a culture

Planting list for “100% Pure New Zealand Ora – Garden of Well Being”.

Botanical & cultivar name Common name Use/comment Alectryon excelsus Titoki Medicinal, culinary, bird attractant Anemanthele lessoniana Gossamer grass – Arthropodium cirratum Rengarenga, rock lily – Arthropodium cirratum ‘Matapouri Bay’ Reinga lily Medicinal Asplenium bulbiferum Hen and Chickens fern, moku Culinary Asplenium flaccidum Hanging spleenwort, makawe – Asplenium oblongifolium Shining spleenwort, huruhuruwhenua Culinary Asplenium oblongifolium × bulbiferum Mäori Princess fern, hybrid pikopiko – Astelia chathamica ‘Silver Spear’ Astelia Silver leaves Astelia nervosa ‘Alpine Ruby’ Astelia Upper leaf surface red, lower surface silver Astelia nervosa ‘Westland’ Astelia Silver leaves with a red tinge up the centre Astelia solandri Perching lily, köwharawhara – Beilschmiedia sp. Tawa Culinary, bird attractant Blechnum “capense” Kio kio – Blechnum discolor Crown fern – Brachyglottis repanda Rangiora – Carex trifida Mutton bird sedge – Chionochloa flavicans Tussock – Clematis forsteri Clematis Medicinal Cordyline australis ‘Purpurea’ Cabbage tree Purple foliage, bird attractant Cordyline australis Cabbage tree, tï Medicinal, culinary, bird attractant Cordyline indivisa Mountain cabbage tree Bird attractant Cordyline kaspar Three Kings cabbage tree Bird attractant Cordyline ‘Green Goddess’ Cabbage tree Bird attractant Cordyline ‘Jurassic Jade’ Cabbage tree Bird attractant Corokia ×virgata ‘Silver Ghost’ Corokia – Cyathea dealbata Silver fern, ponga Medicinal Cyathea medullaris Black tree fern, mamaku Medicinal Cyathea smithii Soft tree fern, ponga – Dacrydium cupressinum Red pine, rimu Medicinal, bird attractant Dicksonia fibrosa Golden tree fern, whekï – Dicksonia squarrosa Rough tree fern, whekï –

New Zealand Garden Journal, 2005, Vol. 8(2) 5 Botanical & cultivar name Common name Use/comment Dodonaea viscosa ‘Purpurea’ Akeake, purple hop-bush Purple foliage Dracophyllum sinclairii – – Elatostema rugosum Parataniwha – Entelea arborescens Whau – Euphorbia glauca Shore spurge Endangered species Fuchsia excorticata Tree fuchsia Bird attractant Fuchsia procumbens Creeping fuchsia Endangered species, bird attractant Geranium x ‘Pink Spice’ (G. sessiliforum x – Geranium hybrid traversii) Griselinia lucida Akapuka Bird attractant Gunnera prorepens – Bird attractant Hebe cultivars (various) Hebe – Hebe stricta Koromiko Medicinal Jovellana sinclairii – – Leptinella dioica Shore cotula – Leptinella perpusilla – Bronze, fern-like foliage Leptinella squalida ‘Platt’s Black’ – Dark brown-black foliage Leptospermum scoparium Tea tree, mänuka Medicinal, culinary, bird attractant Leptospermum scoparium ‘Snow Flurry’ Mänuka cultivar Bird attractant Libertia grandiflora New Zealand iris – Libocedrus plumosa New Zealand cedar – Lophomyrtus bullata New Zealand myrtle, ramarama – Machaerina sinclairii Pëpepe, toetoe tühara – Macropiper melchior Three Kings kawakawa Medicinal, culinary, bird attractant Meryta sinclairii Puka – Cultivar that does not climb like the Metrosideros carminea ‘Red Carpet’ Crimson rata species, but instead forms a low shrub Metrosideros excelsa New Zealand Christmas tree, pöhutukawa Medicinal, culinary, bird attractant Metrosideros robusta Northern rata Culinary, bird attractant Muehlenbeckia astonii Shrubby pöhuehue Medicinal, endangered species Muehlenbeckia complexa Wire vine, pöhuehue Culinary Myosotidium hortensia Chatham Island forget-me-not Endangered species Parahebe cultivars Speedwell White flowered selections Phormium cookianum Flax Medicinal, bird attractant Pittosporum ‘Chantilly’ Pittosporum Low growing with highly scented flowers Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Tom Thumb’ Pittosporum Dwarf, compact form of species Polystichum vestitum Prickly shield fern – Pseudopanax arboreus Five-finger, whauwhaupaku Bird attractant Pseudopanax crassifolius var. trifoliolatum Lancewood Bird attractant Pseudopanax laetus Five-finger Culinary, bird attractant Pseudowintera colorata ‘Red Leopard’ Pepper tree, horopito Medicinal, culinary Pteris tremula Shaking brake fern, turawera – Rhopalostylis sapida Nikau palm Medicinal, bird attractant Schefflera digitata Seven-finger, patëtë Medicinal, bird attractant Scleranthus biflorus – Moss-like ground cover Solanum laciniatum Poroporo Medicinal, culinary Sophora ‘Little Baby’ (S. prostrata) Prostrate kowhai Bird attractant Tecomanthe speciosa – Bird attractant Vitex lucens Püriri Medicinal, bird attractant Xeronema callistemon Poor Knight’s lily Endangered species Various species of mosses Mosses –

Trish Waugh is a landscape designer based in the Bay of Plenty, specialising in the use of native flora in innovative residential and commercial gardens. In addition to being part of the gold award winning team at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2004, Trish and her husband Doug have also won several gold medals at Ellerslie Flower Show and the Melbourne International Flower Garden Show, as well as Landscape Industry Association awards. In 1990 they won the Landscape of the Year award with a large scale native planting.

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