At our June meeting, Lynne Chapman treated us to a talk on some of the gardens she enjoyed in New Zealand in November 2023 on Deryn Thorpe’s Travelrite Tour of the South Island. Although this wasn’t a rose tour, there were plenty of roses to be seen and the tour started in the Heritage Rose section of the Christchurch Botanic Garden. There Lynne also showed us Flora and Otto, a large mosaic chair and ottoman made by a group of artists from china broken during the devastating 2011 earthquakes, which had such an impact on the area.
The gardens, large and small, all had their own individual style and most were designed to take advantage of the stunning scenery. One highlight was a large country garden where the owner showed how the garden had changed, along with her ideas, over the past fifty years. In contrast, another standout was a smaller, fairly new garden which blends into the surrounding landscape and uses hardy plants that receive minimal intervention.
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