Vegetable Gardens
Through the canopy entrance of 20-year-old prunus, michelia are underplanted with ivy to give structure. This property was purchased 5 ½ years ago and the owners have since transformed this mature garden with palms, varieties of fern, bromeliads, and natives.
Bring the kids to the wetlands garden, home to three large turtles; stand there quietly to see them pop their heads out of the water. The large Bug Retreat will also ignite their imagination and yours!
Meandering paths hedged with liriope lead through woodlands plantings. Past the gleditsia is the enclosed potager patch with espalier fruit trees and antique water feature. Here you will discover the Galley’s passion for growing unusual edible delicacies.
This vegetable garden illustrates a country lifestyle with the convenience of living close to the city. Set on 1.9ha with a sustainable vegetable garden, fruit trees, microgreen glasshouse and livestock paddocks. This garden is also a great stop for lunch on the deck amidst the palms and sub-tropical plantings. Greg will give a daily talk at 11.30am on his methods of composting and worm castings.
Suburban permaculture garden educating visitors on self-sufficiency and growing food. Planted with annual, biennial, and perennial productive plants that produce food all year. The garden has mandalas, mosaics, stepover and espaliered fruit trees, a herb spiral, food forest, productive sub-tropicals, and an ancient bush block.
Join Dee daily at 11am for a Permaculture Food Forest Workshop - Check out the event page for more details.
Public Gardens
Renowned New Zealand designer Michael Mansvelt has transformed an empty garden centre into a site so verdant and vibrant, he has named it Jungle Nurseries.
Michael bought the 1.5-acre (6070-square-metre) property in early 2020, then with help from his team, filled it with his favourite plants. The nursery features several large glasshouses ideal for growing rare and exotic tropical plants – the main glasshouse is a must-see and perfect destination for rainy festival days. Visitors will be inspired by the interesting plant combinations and playful and rhythmic design. Refreshments available for purchase.
Admission: Free
Located in the heart of New Plymouth, Pukekura Park is a Garden of National Significance, has a five-star rating from the New Zealand Gardens Trust and has the international Green Flag award. Created in 1876, the 52ha park has an amazing range of native and exotic plants displayed in a natural setting.
The Fernery and Display Houses have been a must-see for almost a century. Linked by tunnels, the three glass-topped caverns dug into a hillside and the tropical house display a wide variety of native and exotic plants. The Fernery and Display Houses are open 8.30am-4pm.
Free public garden
Pretty, vibrant, charming and unexpected with huge plant diversity. Visit the city's oldest public cemetery featuring 6ha of mass-plantings in and around the graves and an abundance of mature trees. Five-star TripAdvisor rating.
Open dawn to dusk.
Guided walk available - Check out the event page for more details.
It’s almost unbelievable that a steep hillside overlooking the Waiwhakaiho River could be sculpted into such an elegant landscaped garden with luscious borders, majestic trees and secluded outdoor rooms.
Established by the Matthews family in the 1930s, Tūpare’s central feature is a majestic house in the Arts and Crafts architectural style, based on a design by the renowned James Chapman-Taylor.
Admission: Free public garden
Located just off Te Henui Walkway, The Vicarage garden embraces history, hues and harmony.
Encircling the early colonial building is a wide variety of colourful annuals and perennials that create a restful experience. The Vicarage itself, built from Taranaki andesite in 1845, is one of the oldest surviving stone buildings in New Zealand. It’s also home to the New Plymouth Pottery Club.
Free public garden.
Over seven decades Pukeiti has built up one of the world’s biggest and most diverse rhododendron collections. Along with other exotics, they create an explosion of colour amidst lush native rainforest and beside mountain streams. The 360ha property also boasts an all-weather visitor centre and walking tracks for all fitness levels. Other highlights include the covered vireya houses, the treetop viewing platform over the waterwheel and the popular Rainforest Eatery.
What's On
1 - 10 November Pop-up artist studio and exhibition by Jana Branca in the Rātā Room. Supported by Percy Thomson Gallery. 10am-4pm.
2 November and 9 November Artist floor talk by Jana Branca in the Rātā Room. 10am start. *Free event
6 November Fine art workshop with Jana Branca in the Rātā Room. 10.30am-12pm. Please email jbranca.art@gmail.com to make your booking.
6 November Guided tour with Rhododendron Collections Officer. 10am-11.30am.
Everyday Metal sculpture exhibition by Nathan Hull Sculpture and Destine Hull in the Keiller Garden.
Every day Guided walking tour. 2pm.
Every day Mobility vehicle rides. 10am-1pm. No booking required.
Every day The Rainforest Eatery is open 8.30am-4pm during the festival.
Pukeiti is open all day every day with free entry for all. It is owned and managed by the Taranaki Regional Council.
King Edward Park is rated by the New Zealand Gardens Trust as a nationally significant garden. The ancestry of the park est. 1902 is seen in its charmingly formal design. The lofty close-clipped hedges give shelter to abundant azalea and rhododendron collections. This garden has rose beds of both heritage and modern varieties, historic aged trees and a century old model boating pond. The bronze statue of Wendy, is the companion piece to the Peter Pan in London’s Kensington gardens. The 150-year-old cannon has long been a favourite toy for children, along with the pirate ship. Seek out some of the hidden features along pathways or bring a picnic to seated areas.
The Observatory, originally a tea kiosk capped with a band rotunda, is undergoing refurbished inside to become a park museum.
Free public garden.
Stratford’s King Edward Park is a gem in the heart of Taranaki, showcasing the area’s unique history, a colourful array of plantings, and the Pātea Awa. Take the Three Bridges Trail spanning the river, wander along easy walkways of mixed exotic and native gardens and enjoy the McCullough Rhododendron Dell.
Remember to visit the Malone Memorial Gates, built in 1923 to honour local Gallipoli hero Colonel William George Malone, who also invented the lemon squeezer hat.
Free public garden.
Event: La Mer Jazz in the Gardens. The French café-style music of La Mer will float through three gardens during the festival. Pack a picnic and head out for gypsy swing classics led by vocalist Dominique Blatti. La Mer’s line-up also includes Bernie Schmid on guitar, Malcolm Alder on bass, Helen Griffiths on violin and Aaron Bosch on piano accordion. Find out more on the event page
This horticultural oasis of colour in the heart of fertile dairy country boasts an incredibly diverse plant collection of national importance, featuring many rhododendrons, azaleas and an extensive range of native and exotic plants. It’s built on the legacy of renowned plantsman Bernie Hollard, who established the garden in the 1920s. Year-round, Hollard Gardens buzzes with the sound of insects and birds feeding on seasonal flowers, fruits and seeds. Kids love the quirky playground in the family corner, with free barbecues on hand.
A visit to Bernie’s home garden has lots of ideas for the keen home gardener and is well worth a look, along with the food forest and compelling visitor centre nestled amongst the trees.
Free public garden.
New Gardens
The Festival is always on the lookout for new gardens. If you want more information on how you can be part of the 2023 festival contact us 06 759 8412.
Located just off Te Henui Walkway, The Vicarage garden embraces history, hues and harmony.
Encircling the early colonial building is a wide variety of colourful annuals and perennials that create a restful experience. The Vicarage itself, built from Taranaki andesite in 1845, is one of the oldest surviving stone buildings in New Zealand. It’s also home to the New Plymouth Pottery Club.
Free public garden.
Nestled below the Kaitake Ranges, this one-acre garden with coastal views has been developed from a bare paddock (Te Pātiki) over the last seven years. Formal lines of hedging and shelter contain informal lush plantings of flowering shrubs, perennials, herbs and fruit trees.
Other features include a walipini (sunken-earth greenhouse), a small pottery studio and a wall garden.
On the outskirts of Hāwera, Steve and Kerry Christiansen have created a semi-formal garden with manicured lawns and shapely hedging of many varieties. This one-acre garden, less than five years old, is dotted with rustic garden art, including Kerry’s birdhouses made from recycled materials. You’ll also see an avenue of espaliered fruit trees, a quaint black-and-white craft shed and greenhouse. Christmas crafts and garden art for sale.
Inside the roadside fence is an enchanting garden embracing the past and present. The old Magnolia Campbellii and huge-trunked Rhododendron Arboreum Tomentosum are part of Sir Victor Davies’ original plan. Around the house, the old garden has been rejuvenated as a woodland. The new garden leads to a figure-of-eight path around a stream and features ornamental specimens and native plantings. Beechwoods is named after two ancient native beech trees, uncommon in Taranaki.
Adrian McLeod is the former owner of Fairfield Garden Centre.
Stratford’s King Edward Park is a gem in the heart of Taranaki, showcasing the area’s unique history, a colourful array of plantings, and the Pātea Awa. Take the Three Bridges Trail spanning the river, wander along easy walkways of mixed exotic and native gardens and enjoy the McCullough Rhododendron Dell.
Remember to visit the Malone Memorial Gates, built in 1923 to honour local Gallipoli hero Colonel William George Malone, who also invented the lemon squeezer hat.
Free public garden.
Event: La Mer Jazz in the Gardens. The French café-style music of La Mer will float through three gardens during the festival. Pack a picnic and head out for gypsy swing classics led by vocalist Dominique Blatti. La Mer’s line-up also includes Bernie Schmid on guitar, Malcolm Alder on bass, Helen Griffiths on violin and Aaron Bosch on piano accordion. Find out more on the event page
Special Interest Gardens
After selling their nursery Cedar Lodge 13 years ago, David and Noeline transformed 7ha of rural farmland into Frog Lodge. Their passion for conifers can be seen throughout this “tree garden”, which also features a substantial-sized lake. A newly developed area stars a restored railway station nestled amongst young trees and a hillside planting of young natives. Visitors will also see two forms of weeping blue Atlantic Cedars, four cultivars of yellow New Zealand native trees, and new forms of miniature conifers.
Hidden behind one of New Plymouth's oldest wooden buildings, there is a verdant outlook created by a compact garden, with lush palms and sub-tropical foliage. Enjoy a light lunch in an urban oasis. Dining in or outdoors on the sheltered deck with a fireplace.
Two course lunch with wine match - $50pp
Fri – Sun, 11:30am – 3:00pm, during the festival
(other days by arrangement for groups over 20)
Tropical Treasures is a private garden set within a subtropical outdoor and tropical indoor plant nursery.
This tropical inspired garden has dramatic contrasting forms and foliage, large leaves and textures. Our love of aloes, cacti, agave and succulents add a taste of Palm Springs. While other areas have a tropical, British Colonial/West Indie style originating from the Caribbean. In spring the Japanese vibe is evident with all the maples and bamboo.
The sub-tropical take over is a labour of love and only six years old. Be amazed at what can grow and flourish at the foot of the mountain. Yet again, we have new-addition gardens to see from last year so offer more new spaces to enjoy.
Huge range for sale as well as tropical indoor & outdoor plants, pots and ornaments, landscape products and more.
Shape your scape event available – Check out the event page for more details.
Returning Gardens
Massed plantings of trees, shrubs and roses give immediate impact to this level country garden, which has been developed over the past 25 years. The various garden rooms and wedding garden make this a perfect picnic spot for visitors. Other features include a jetty by the lake, a renovated chapel, classic cars on display and handmade greeting cards by Roxicards.
Refreshments available 10:00am - 3:00pm daily with a Mad Hatter twist.
With a vision and lofty vista, Bindu and Kam have transformed an exposed, challenging hill-top site into a garden reflecting childhood memories in the Himalayas. There are many resting spots in this much-matured property, which features year-round colour and fragrance. This tranquil garden has views of both the horizon and the mountain.
Hundreds of nikau palms set the South Pacific theme. Native plantings and lush exotics create splashes of colour through this sizable suburban garden. Established pukatea trees with huge buttress roots form a native rainforest canopy along a natural creek. Sculptures, boardwalks, ponds a large waterfall and a wētā motel also feature.
Steep access, roadside parking only. Golf cart available on request. Classic cars on display.
At the end of this cul-de-sac lies a hidden garden. From structured planting at the front, explore the slopes of perennials, tree ferns and bromeliads before stepping down to a secluded native bush walk. A distinctive house, designed by Roger Walker in 1979, looks out over this curated, eclectic garden, which is completed by selected ethnic artworks. Garden featured in NZ House & Garden March 2022 issue.
This 40-year-old woodland garden, legacy of a renowned Taranaki plantsman, has provided historical content for current owners Kim and Owen. The 0.6ha holds an extensive array of evergreen and deciduous, native and exotics along with rare and unique plants. Vast colour is provided by rhododendrons, azaleas, astilbes and irises. Hostas flourish at the pond alongside burgundy and red maples.