September 2023
WELCOME TO OUR SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER
Guidebooks can be picked up now or downloaded
They're ready! You can pick up a guidebook from one of the locations listed below, or head on over to our website and download a digital copy. The guide books have maps of the clusters, information about each garden, the events which are on and the amenities available in each area.
Pick yours up from:
Oderings Nursery Christchurch
The Kiosk, Botanical Gardens Christchurch
Bupa Retirement Villages Canterbury
Mitre 10 Mega Papanui
McAlpines Mitre 10 Mega Rangiora
Amberley Library
Hurunui District Council
Paris Cafe Amberley
Gifts & Finds Cheviot
Farmlands Amberley and Culverden
Red Post Cafe Culverden
iSite Hanmer Springs
Congratulations!
A huge congratulations to Alison Girvan who won the NZ Gardener Magazine competition. Alison has won tickets to the Hurunui Garden Festival, the Hanmer Springs Fete, entry to the Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa, as well as flights, accommodation and a rental car!
Spring favourites at Loch Leven
Spring is just around the corner! We are on the right side of winter and longer, warmer days mean more time in the garden. Plants are starting to emerge from their winter dormancy and transform the garden into a beautiful space. Daffodils, camellias and hellebores are flowering, the early peonies are well through and growing so fast, blossom will appear on trees and shrubs soon before beautiful new leaves appear, spring is full of so many delights.
Here at Loch Leven I have used plants that grow well in our climate, it was trial and error to start with but now I know what survives our harsh winters and often hot dry summers. Many of the plants give spring colour, interest and structure to the garden and also the added bonus of beautiful autumn colour. Some of my favourites are the deciduous viburnums, especially Viburnum Plicatum Maresii with its beautiful horizontial branches smothered in white lacecap like flowers and also so pretty in the autumn with splashes of flowers and stunning red-orange foliage. Other viburnums that do well here and are pretty include: Viburnum plicatum 'Snow Flake,' Viburnum Bodnantense x 'Dawn,' Viburnum Burkwoodii, Viburnum plicatum 'Pink Beauty,' Viburnum plicatum 'Rosacea,' Viburnum Opulus Sterile - the old fashioned snow ball tree.
Other shrubs I adore include the Philadephus, Kolwitzia and Deutzia, all old fashioned, hardy and beautiful in spring. Malus Ioensis Plena is a favourite of the crab apples with its beautiful soft double pink slightly perfumed flowers in late spring and beautiful autumn foliage.
Perennials add so much depth to the garden and are great fillers, I think they look best planted in drifts if you have the space. There are so many to choose from, I've got lots of old fashioned and unusual ones I don't see in nurseries today. Some of my favourites are Aquilegias, linums, geums, primulas, geraniums, pulmonarias, phlomis, helianthemums, centaureas, campanulas, brunneras and artemisias. Linum perenne is probably my favourite The wiry stems with narrow leaves bear five petalled electric blue blooms which open and then begin to fade within a day, but during spring and summer months it just keeps flowering. Ideal for any well drained sunny spot.
There are so many beautiful plants but above are some I enjoy in my garden.
Spring is the start of a new year for the garden and such a great time to get inspired.
Doreen
SPONSORS SPOT
As our sponsors support us please support them.
If you’re looking for a retirement village that still feels like a village and not a retirement city, come and visit one of our retirement villages in Canterbury.
At Bupa, we offer independent living in our warm and spacious villas or apartments, including our brand new one bedroom apartments with domestic services at Ashford Retirement Village in Prebbleton.
Should your circumstances change, all our retirement villages also have a care home located on site or nearby, subject to availability.
Situated only 90 minutes’ drive from Christchurch or Kaikoura, Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools & Spa is an extensive thermal complex situated in a picturesque alpine village.
Ease your aching muscles with our soothing water jets, soak in silky-smooth sulphur pools or bask in gentle rapids and natural rock pools. All surrounded by native gardens and gorgeous mountain vistas.
Our onsite licensed Tea Kiosk Café & Grill is great for those needing to fuel up or enjoy a coffee.
Or step into a world away at The Spa, a sanctuary of relaxation and indulgence. Our qualified therapists excel in a variety of massage therapies, body and face treatments and invigorating signature rituals. A luxurious respite from the fast pace of everyday life.
THE FESTIVAL DATES THURSDAY OCTOBER 26TH - SUNDAY 29TH, OPEN DAILY FROM 9AM - 5PM. WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THEN!
We are very grateful to our sponsors. Without their support we would not be able to bring you this wonderful event. Our sponsors are listed below plus on our website. The website will begin to be updated ready for this years festival in early to mid June.
If you want to contact the committee, or require any information contact us via our email address info@hurunuigardenfestival.com
If you haven’t ‘liked’ our Facebook or Instagram page yet, we recommend you do as we are often posting snippets of information and updates – more regularly than newsletters.
Check out our website www.hurunuigardenfestival.com which holds information about the gardens, places to go, see and do. This will be updated regularly as we lead up to the festival in October.
