ONE OF THE ARTS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 138, 6 March 1936, Page 10

ONE OF THE ARTS

Lady Galway in Praise of Gardening FAVOURED NEW ZEALAND Dominion Special Service. Auckland, March 5. A plea for the use of both native and Old Country plants in New Zealand gardens was made by Lady Galway in opening the National Flower Show today. “Gardening should be highly esteemed as a pastime, for it gives so much pleasure to the gardener and at the same time to others,” said Lady Galway. “Thus, it can well claim to be one of the arts. We are led to realise how much gardening and flower growing must have meant to the early New Zealand settlers when we Fee the wealth of Old Country favourites in the gardens. Here climate and soil are so well adapted to horticulture, and you can raise even sub-tropical plants that it is impossible to grow at Home. During our one season in the Dominion I have been most impressed with the way old favourites grow, usually quite 50 per cent, better than in England, and I must confess to being quite envious. lam told that this season has not been abnormal, yet we could not hope for such results In England more than once in every four or five years.” The importance given to the raising of New Zealand native plants Lady Galway regarded as highly commendable. There was a place for these and also introduced plants in the gardens of the Dominion.