NATIVE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 140, 16 June 1933, Page 6

NATIVE

LORD BLEDISLOE'S LETTER "ARTIFICIAL BUSH" la connection with the re.eont native garden competition for the challenge trophy presented by Lord Bledisloc,_his Excellency 'has written to the judges, Di. L. Cockayne and !Ur. J. G. MacKenzie, thanking them, for their report. The trophy -was won by Mr, A- Atkinson, of York Bay. Tho judges stated in their report ■that "Mr. Atkinson's garden was hardly ;i garden in the, ordinary acceptation of the term. ifr. Atkinson had converted a portion of 'his, property into a pleasing piece of artificial 'bush/ a, type of garden, in the opinion of the'judges, ranking equally .with, one established- on formal lines, .and, -perhaps, moi'e difficult .to/bring abput." In his letter, Lord xßlpdisloe stated: "In this country I think that ingeniously . and aesthetically '•_ planned 'artificial bush' may well be reckoned as a garden,' and possibly,some.day;be emphasised, and particularised, as _.' a 'New Zealand Garden)' just' as a spirit of a. ' Dutch Garden or an ■' Italian Garden,' indicating the type of. layout rather than the location.'" The judges also stated in "connection with Mr.'1 Atkinson's garden that: "An interesting- feature Tvas the employment of a good many species of Chatham Island endemics, one or two of which had not been- seen by the judges in Cultivation Wore." Attention was called by-the judges to the successful establishment of the para-taniwlia (Elatostema rugosum), which looked |as happy as in its natural habitat, a moist cully Lord Bledisloe's comment on this was: "^Vhatyou say about tho Chatham Island endemics is specially attractive. I must really find time to pay this 'bush garden' a visit, if only to see the ' Chatham. Island treasures and. the. para-taniwha.' . ,