Keen from an early age
Bernie Hollard’s interest in things horticultural began early.
In 1906 his grandfather dug up a garden patch by an ake ake hedge and Bernie Hollard planted a cutting of a yellow abutilon taken from a plant in his grandmother’s conservatory. He was reported later to have been delighted when it flowered.
His grandmother loved gardening and his grandfather grew rhododendrons (notably “Sir Robert Peel”). A few years later a second plot gardened by young Bernie Hollard featured blue and white forget-me-nots and a Siberian Grass stipa pennata. Bernie Hollard returned to Kaponga in about 1915, aged around 13, to help his father on the Manaia Road farm during World War I.
At the time, William Hollard was a director of the Kaponga Co-op Dairy Company.
In 1926, Bernie Hollard’s father bought a 256-acre dairy farm from the Richard Thomas Best Mellow estate, formerly Wilkie land that was sold in 1896. A parcel of 156 acres of the farm purchased was duly registered in the name of Bernard Hollard and the remainder was in his father’s name.
As soon as he could, Bernie Hollard installed sharemilkers and turned from farming to gardening.
A name that's synonymous with gardening
The name Hollard is synonymous with gardening. Garden enthusiasts who live in other parts of New Zealand or overseas have for many years added Hollard Gardens, to their lists of important places to visit in the country.
Hollard Gardens is of particular interest because it is the achievement of a private individual after almost a lifetime’s work. Hollard Gardens is a plantsman’s garden and a monument to patience and horticultural skill.
It was established in 1927 by Bernard (Bernie) Hollard, a hands-on gardener and collector with a wide interest in plants, selecting each according to whether it had personal appeal, whether it would fill a gap in an existing collection of species or varieties and whether it was choice among its kind. The design of the garden took into account not only aesthetics but also how well a plant would do in its environment according to climate or topography.
He preferred to plant more than one plant as insurance in case one failed, or to pass extra plants on to other gardeners to ensure they were never completely lost to the collection.
While the garden was recognised as primarily the fruition of Bernie’s horticultural passion and hard work, Rose Hollard worked alongside him in early years and gained her own impressive knowledge of plants. Both Bernie and Rose Hollard were saddened when a plant ‘croaked’ or ‘conked’ but recognised as well the opportunity presented to fill the recently vacated space with other plants.
Bernie Hollard was a regular contributor to a national gardening magazine and was recognised by his peers for both his horticultural knowledge and his generosity in sharing it, and for the valuable plant collection housed in his garden.
He was a hard-working and patient plantsman. He believed that the best plants were the ones worth waiting for.
The plant he bred and for which he is best known – Rh. Kaponga – took 12 years to flower.
Bernard and Rose Hollard recognised the importance of their garden and were keen to see it preserved for others to enjoy, handing their property first into the care of the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust. In 2002, ownership was transferred to the Taranaki Regional Council, which has developed and implemented a new management plan..
