Good form in the garden
By Mitch Graham
In 1932 the first new tree to be planted at Tupare was a kauri, a gift from Mary Matthews’ parents to celebrate Russell’s birthday.
Thankfully, many more have been planted since. Each year the gardeners add well-selected trees and shrubs to the Tupare landscape. In the past five years, we have planted nearly 3,000.
But it’s much more than a numbers game. I can’t think of many gardens that wouldn’t benefit from tasks such as rearranging plant combinations, adding complementary colours and interesting textures, or combining natural form and shape to create a scene where each plant happily rub shoulders with its neighbour.
Any observant gardener will be irked by a plant that just doesn’t fit within its surroundings. One such irksome combination is in the process of being rearranged in a corner of Tupare.
In the shade beneath a stand of mature rimu, there grows a row of rhododendrons. A row is never the ideal way to arrange trees and shrubs unless you intend to establish a hedge of holly, or perhaps a line of pleached hornbeams. It’s difficult to present a relaxed and informal garden border when you are faced with an arrow-straight display of mixed rhododendron varieties.
Not all the rhododendrons exhibit the perfect form for this site. Most are growing tall and reaching for light, but some don’t have any tricks up their sleeve and appear unthrifty and smothered in lichen. One of the rhododendrons well suited to the spot, though, is ‘Sir Charles Lemon’. It has a healthy squat form that sits nicely in the shaded border.
This week we began the gradual process of wrenching each rhododendron. Half the plants roots will be trimmed this month and the other half next month. Then in early June, each plant will be lifted out and transferred to a choice position elsewhere in the garden. So it’s not as rough and ready as the name “wrenching” suggests.
Already we have identified a selection of plants to replace them, thoughtfully chosen additions and faithful to the character of the garden envisaged by Russell Matthews when the first tree was planted in 1932.
PHOTO: These plantings at The Dell at Tupare are a well-chosen mix for form and texture.
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Mitch Graham (left) is Garden Manager - Tupare for the Taranaki Regional Council This column was published in the Taranaki Daily News on 8 April 2011 |
