ROCK GARDEN BY CENOTAPH

Taranaki Daily News, 15 September 1927, Page 8

ROCK GARDEN BY CENOTAPH

AN EFFECTIVE TRANSFORMATION. The rockery along the bank below the Taranaki Club in Queen Street and facing the Cenotaph has been completed, the last seeds being sown on Tuesday evening by Mr. T. Horton, curator of Pukekura Park, who supervised the re. lief work for returned soldiers in this locality. The design harmonises strikingly with the surroundings and, even now, before the plants have grown, tl)d corner may rank high in the list of beauty spots of New Plymouth. In the foreground stands the Cenotaph and its.grey shade is exactly copied in the facing of broken rocks at the foot of the bank. Above is a fairly wide terrace sown down in grass and orna4 mented by four rockery mounds placed at regular intervals. It is approached by flights of stone steps and it is hoped these will ultimately lead to seats that may be given by citizens. The slope above has been planted with cotoneaster macrophylla, a prostrate-growing ever.' green shrub that produces an immense amount of red berries in the winter, and though it will take two or three years to completely cover- the bank, it is eminently suited for the purpose. Another fringe of stone frames the top of the slope, and here two dozen flowering shrubs have been planted. Above this again is the club building. The whole is a very pleasing study in grey, but very soon many other colours will be added, for over 3000 native and exotic plants have been sown in the rockeries and stone facings. Every variety used will grow- well by the seaside. Formerly the bank was a dump for stone discarded from.the Cenotaph. Mr. Horton explained to a Daily News reporter yesterday that the pieces were mostly too small to make a display as effective as he could have wished for so bold a position. Had the stones not actually been there he would have recommended that larger ones should have been procured. As it was, he had made the best use of the material at hand.