GARDENS IN TARANAKI.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 5 September 1929, Page 8

GARDENS IN TARANAKI.

TWO LOVELY EXAMPLES. (By a Soutlilanclcr.) Writing to the "Hawera Star" on gardens In Taranaki, "Sonthlandor ' describes two examples. She says • The first of these really could he called a park—or the more pedantic word demesne describes it better, as it is too large tor a garden, though a •’urden it is. too. covering 25 acres ot valuable Taranaki land worth how mU ch an acre? and could run how many cows? which, after all. arc leall.N the flowers of Taranaki! Hut how beautiful it is to line! some people left in this good old world of ours who can sacrifice utility for beauty, though, alas, many of us cannot do if we would. But here is a beauty spot, almost .unique, 1 am sure; real dense bush that anyone could swear was native, anti yet planted by the hand ot man within the short time of 50 years. The natural formation of these lovely grounds seems just to have been designed by nature for the loving bands and” understanding, Nature-loving minds behind them to produce this little paradise on earth; the dingles and dells, the little rivulets of water, lend themselves to the natural lay-out of these lovely, romantic little pathways and bush tracks, that never were laid out. but just found themselves'! wandering haphazard here and there as fancy seemed to take them. It lias been said that real New Zealand bush can never be reproduced, but I defy anyone to distinguish one little dell in this garden as anything but natural virgin bush. There are rotten old tree stumps lying across a little stream, covered with moss, ferns, etc., tree ferns and native trees meeting overhead, the ground all round alive with tin'v growing l'erns and bush things, tiie usual bush parasites on the native trees, dead leaves upon dead leaves underfoot that might have been accumulating for centuries, instead of only 50 years, and the smell of the luis'li was’ there. Perhaps the best way to reproduce bush is to plant and then leave it alone for 50 years or so. In our various public gardens where it lias been planted there is too much cleaning up done, therefore it never gets the true touch. The groves of bamboo in this wonderful garden arc most unusual; some black bamboo we bad never met before, and the ordinary bamboo thirty or forty feet high, some canes quite slender and some thicker than a man .s ami. made the men exclaim ‘‘What fishing rods.” and the women ‘‘'Curtain poles." uses to which our hostess told us they bad often been put.

A thicket of hydrangeas, now faded, must 'be glorious in their blooming time, and reminded me of a similar one at Vaucluse. in Sydney harbour, at the lovely old home ot the W entwortlis. with 180 don the gate-posts. This old mansion now belongs to the nation, and a great deal of the old furniture that was dispersed is now getting back into it. The marble din-ing-room is practically as it was oyer a century ago, with family portraits round and the bust ot a young girl Wentworth on the mantelpiece, a whimsical smile on her marble face, turned towards the. heavily carved old table, with high-backed chairs so .stifllv set all round, where she bad doubtless .often been the life and soul ot many a gay party—anil it is dated 1810! Wentworth himself —like K. L. Stevenson and Cecil Rhodes- lies on a knoll lii.gli above the back ot this beautiful place, within sight of the harbour he loved so well. Down a shady green path is tin; most wonderful thicket of hydrangeas, which to we Southiatiders its a wonder, as they never grow like this with us.

i; can see, too. that the beds in the lawns of this beautiful Taranaki garden will soon be a. blaze of flowers .-surrounded by English trees of a perfect shape, making a scene not too soon to be forgotten. The second garden is quite different, in very large and beautiful lawns without a. bed or shrub to disturb its symmetry ; just one big, unbroken oblong. wide and large green lawns, surrounded completely by a most magnificent- flower bed. backed by beautiful shrubs, native and other trees, presents a truly lovely sight. Here. too. as in the other garden, we admired the eamelias, grown into huge trees really, and though these blooms may lie considered stiff, the effect of their crimson. pink and white blossoms in great profusion away up on the sky line, above tree ferns, liikau palms, etc., is really glorious. When we plant a poor camelia away down south we have it so protected by sacks and boards that the poor thing looks as if it couldn’t help itself, and never blooms like these or grows more than a few feet in height. The spring flowers in this border were a great delight, and a big box of them went south to .gladden the hearts of those to whom spring is still a long way off. There are some pergolas in this garden with lovely creepers and quaint imitation stepping-stones ais used in Scotland; these were formed by digging round boles in the ground and filling them with concrete —most effective. I could continue on about these gardens ad lib. but everybody does not love a garden, though the many lovely ones in Taranaki tell me that most of the people here do. And even if 20 acres will give a net profit of £3OO per annum, as I read in your paper the other night, please don’t all do it. Let 11s have these lovely gar-1 dens. too.