Fernery for restoration

Press, 8 May 1978, Page 12

Fernery for restoration

An old fernery at Mona Vale is being restored after years of neglect. Originally built for the 1906 Christchurch Exhibition in North Hagley Park, the fernery was shifted later to the Mona Vale property. For some years, it has been nothing but a circular brick wall, rotting trellises, and a jungle of undergrowth. It was boarded up by the Mona Vale caretaker (Mr H. H. Ayres) about six years ago to keep out vandals. But even then, young people have been able to break through the bricks and get into the structure beside the rose garden. Mr Ayres and his workers have now cleared out the

fernery, where clematis had taken hold. Trellis work will be done by City Council staff at Queen Elizabeth II Park in their spare time, and planting of new fems can sUrt when the shading trel-

lises are put in place. Mr Ayres said it would take about two years to

complete the restoration work.

A crown-shaped fountain and pool stand in the middle of the fernery, which is now cleared and open so that the public can have an idea of

its past glories and how it looks before renewal work starts. Some stones used for its grottoes, walls, and foot] bridges are filled with fossils. Others have paua shells imbedded in them, probably to reflect the water. Much of the stone came from the Port Hills. Only a few tree ferns and some flax survived from the ioriginal fernery. : The showcase of native ] plants was a central feature ]of the New Zealand International Exhibition of Arts land Industries in 1906 and 1907. The entire exhibition stretched from the Armagh Street bridge to a point past Peterborough Street.

James Cowan wrote a comprehensive book about the exhibition, and was obviously taken with the fernery off the Main Corridor. It “was a spot of delightful sylvan restfulness after

the bustle and noise of the outer exhibition world,” he said.

He enjoyed being “within these quiet mossy walls,

where the subdued light came soft and pleasant to the eyes.” In those days, it was a glass-roofed building about

100 ft in diameter. It trans-1 formed that part of Hagley Park into a bush gully with' plants from all parts of New; ] Zealand. Cowan called it “a : woodland nook” with “little forests of rich frondage, deliciously soothing to the senses.” Water trickled and fell everywhere, in special grottoes and from the rocky walls, and there were about! 80 species of fern. The fernery sloped down] to the centre, where the! fountain had a trout-filled pond around it. A bush bridge of tree fem trunks spanned the pond. Walls of the fernery were camouflaged with bog moss, and small fems grew from that cover. Tree bark was nailed on to the pillars and posts. Mr Ayres thinks it may be Spanish cork, imported especially for the exhibition. Cowan explained that the timbers overhead had been masked to resemble tree trunks. Mr Ayres said the fernery could hold plants not seen in the rest of the Mona Vale grounds. Water features would be turned on again wherever possible. At the original exhibition.

the fernery had a glass roof. Cowan said it had a light green tint that gave the fems “an unnatural and sickly” colour in daylight, but that was the only fault he could find with it. He was fascinated with the variety of pathways and water gurgles. When restoration work is completed, Mona Vale visitors will be able to relive that fascination.