Category Archives: Abbie’s column

Abbie’s newspaper columns

The constructions at Paloma

First printed in the Weekend Gardener issue 322 and reproduced here with their permission.

Clive Higgie and his slightly surprising small companion, the irrepressible Pablo.

Clive Higgie and his slightly surprising small companion, the irrepressible Pablo.

Over the years, Clive and Nicki Higgie have amassed one of this country’s foremost collections of plants and turned them into a remarkable garden at Fordell, near Wanganui. With his farming background, Clive is both practical and innovative and enjoys turning his hand to both construction and sculptural installations for the garden. He is not afraid to mix and match different styles and the results can be both surprising and original.

Some of Clive’s work is edgy, even flamboyant, and pushes boundaries in unexpected ways. A plain board fence at the entrance has been transformed into a statement by using witty wall writing – it is rather too whimsical and well executed to be described as graffiti.

The seating deck built out over the large pond area is also a little edgy. There is something a little insecure about sitting in such an exposed position even if the water is shallow. Clive says he made a few design mistakes on this small platform, particularly making it so low that leaves accumulate below the deck. Clive also constructs the seats. He calls them his Barebum Chairs, which I originally misread as Ba-ree/-bum.

The boathouse is a work in progress. Showing typical ingenuity, Clive has used a concrete water tank as foundations for the structure. The roof is made from fibreglass matting coated with acrylic while the balls are ceramic.

The Iona Cross is distinctly monumental construction made by Clive, standing nearly two and a half metres tall. It is concrete and was poured flat before being moved to its location. By contrast, the Polynesian influenced vertical panel was boxed up and poured in its final location. These are just two of a series of installations surrounding his earth labyrinth which reference the ancestry of Clive and Nicki’s first grandchild.

Paloma Six

Clive is pleased with his recent constructions of simple concrete plinths. “I add a bit of oxide to colour the concrete and to stop it being that glaring white of fresh concrete. I really like the plinths. Sometimes a small vase or sculpture can get lost in a garden setting but the plinths make them stand out.”

The ribbed pillars have a clear debt to ancient times but have been created using labour saving modern techniques. The mould was simply a product called baby iron (small profile corrugated iron) bent in a circle and filled with concrete. These have reinforcing rods down the centre and are boxed up and poured in their final location.

Paloma orange

Elsewhere in the garden, Clive has made extensive use of pillars constructed from terracotta field tiles. He first saw the technique used at Tupare in New Plymouth. He explains: “The pipes are irregular so I mortared them together before filling them with concrete. The mortar joins give structural strength. They didn’t do that at Tupare and many of their pipes had cracked and split.”

Not all construction is in concrete. Clive used ponga longs of irregular shapes and sizes to build a simple stumpery installation. The pongas vary from waist height to around 3 metres.

In his new Garden of Death, his friend, sculptor Steuart Welch, made the hanging crucibles which he calls Dracula pots. Clive has filled them with bleached animal skulls to complement the theme of the garden which is based around the social history of poisonous plants.

The attractive large planters came from a quarry stone crusher and, originally, the smooth sided bowl fitted inside the ribbed one, breaking large stones down to form road gravel. Being magnesium steel, they were of no scrap value but now contain large plantings of ornamental oxalis.

Clive is pleased with his simple solution for the side gate leading from the lower garden to the Matchless Arboretum. Because sheep graze beneath the trees, it is important that the gate be kept closed. A simple system of a counterweight pulls it shut behind visitors.

Paloma Gardens are open to the public all year round. For further information, check out their website: http://www.paloma.co.nz, email clive.nicki@paloma.co.nz or phone 06 342 7857 For my earlier story on Paloma, check Breaking the Mould of the Modern New Zealand Garden – the Dreams at Paloma.

A Sign of the Times

We are amused. We have received a letter from the Taranaki Rhododendron Group advising us that as they no longer have competitive displays, the committee is looking at what to do with the trophies. There are, apparently, three options. The first is to return them to the donors or their families. The second is to donate them to the local museum (in which case, please would we supply full details of the horticultural achievements of the donor). Should the museum not want them, the third option is for the committee to decide on their disposal.

Quite some time ago, Mark went all out one year with exhibition blooms and, as far as we can recall, he won all but one of the trophies. In due course, a large carton arrived here with the engraved trophies for us to hold for the year. They were fairly extensive. Besides the usual cluster of silver cups, there was a very large barometer which did not work, a large crystal vase which made up for in size what it lacked in style, the odd tray or two, maybe a shield and a fairly remarkable, large wooden piece carved out of rhododendron wood in a freeform fashion, adorned with handpainted clematis. Maybe it also had Mount Taranaki on it. It was certainly a curious mixture of European folk art and traditional Maori carving designed to be the centrepiece of any room in which it was placed. I am sorry to admit that these trophies spent the whole year of our possession living, unseen, in their carton. I am sure it fell to me to clean the silverware before they were returned for the following year’s awards.

I banned Mark from ever entering again. Though, in his defence, he had already decided that it was not fair for amateur members to be competing against professionals and it would be poor form for him to try and repeat his successful performance.

Fortunately the silver cup which Felix donated (for the best maddenii hybrid bloom) is of modest proportions and reasonably inoffensive. We have advised the Rhododendron Group that it seems most appropriate to return it to us as part of our family history. I think we can spare the local museum from the problem of what to do with the Felix Jury cup.

Buxus alternatives for garden hedges

With buxus blight cutting a swathe through many gardens, it is clear the problem is here to stay. We set out to review some of the alternative plant options. The advantages of box for low hedging include:

• only needs to be trimmed once or possibly twice a year
• has a very small leaf which means that trimming with hedge clippers doesn’t leave unsightly half leaves visible
• good dark green colour
• sprouts from bare wood if trimmed hard
• so easy to root from cutting that it is cheap to buy and easy for the home gardener to propagate more plants
• will also tolerate a certain amount of shade

We have yet to find a proven like-for-like replacement, only plants that fit some of the criteria.

1) Lonicera nitida – ticks all the right boxes bar one, but that is an important one. Good dark colour, tiny leaves, easy to propagate, cheap… but it grows so rapidly that you will have to clip frequently. This may be as much as once a month in the growing season. It will get very twiggy and leggy if you don’t keep it tightly clipped. The same goes for teucrium which needs even more clipping and isn’t even green, though it does make an attractive hedge.

2) Myrtus ugni, usually referred to as the NZ cranberry. Little leaves, easy to strike from cutting, easy to train and can be kept low, delicious fruit but it develops bare patches. It is really only an option for the edible garden area and it won’t make a nice tidy little hedge that resembles buxus. It doesn’t like shade and can be thrip-prone.

Kurume and Gumpo azaleas - there are also white flowered options for those with refined tastes

Kurume and Gumpo azaleas - there are also white flowered options for those with refined tastes

3) Gumpo or Kurume azaleas – these are the small leafed, low growing, evergreen azaleas. Good foliage, clip well, can be kept small though the leaves are larger than buxus and they have excellent shade tolerance. They flower, which some gardeners may not want. Gumpos tend to have larger flowers than the Kurumes. The big disadvantages are the expense per plant which will be prohibitive for many gardeners and the difficulty in sourcing large enough runs of the same variety. Some will get thrip (particularly the Gumpo types) so choose the variety with care. Evergreen azaleas are much easier to strike from cutting than most rhododendrons so keen home gardeners with a long term view, may want to try building them up at home.

Camellia hedging options - C. brevistyla

Camellia hedging options - C. brevistyla

Camellia brevistyla

Camellia brevistyla

4) Camellias – some of the slow growing, small leafed varieties are suitable though the leaves will still be larger than buxus. They trim well, resprout from bare wood and are a good colour. There is a limited number suitable for keeping down to a metre, let alone 30cm, so varietal selection is important. Camellias are not easy to root from cutting for the home gardener and can be expensive to buy. Microphylla and brevistyla set seed freely so could be raised from seed at home if you can find a parent plant. Itty Bit is a true miniature for low hedges. Night Rider is very slow growing, though ultimately larger in size. You could keep it to a metre but it will be expensive to buy. We have opted to go the camellia route in the event of our moderate metreage of buxus hedging getting blighted and have raised seedlings of C. microphylla in the nursery for replacement.

Euonymous

Euonymous

5) Euonymus – there are assorted selections of small leafed euonymus being hailed as buxus replacements, including one named Emerald Gem. These look promising but international reports are that euonymus are somewhat disease prone and local reports are that it can be thrip-prone which will rule it out for shady areas. We would recommend trying this as hedging in a modest way before getting too carried away and we have yet to be convinced of its long term merit. It should be relatively easy to root cuttings and is sometimes available in a hedging grade at a reasonable price.

Melicytus obovatus

Melicytus obovatus

6) Our friend Tony is sold on Melicytus obovatus, a native from northwest Nelson which takes clipping very well. In the wild it will grow to 2 or 3 metres (but common buxus can become a huge shrub resembling a small tree left unclipped). Plantsman Terry Hatch at Joy Plants is very keen on this melicytus and produces it for sale. As far as we know, it has yet to be tested in the long term (by which we mean as a garden hedge past a decade) but it is worth a close look.

7) Selected pittosporums will make good taller hedges but you are fighting nature to keep them to the low level of edging buxus. Their leaves are also correspondingly larger. The compact pittosporums, Golf Ball and similar selections, make a quick option for clipping balls and topiary, if you don’t mind the paler shade of green. Keep them in full sun with plenty of air movement too.

8) Corokia will make a good hedge and there are dwarf selections available but they are harder to trim if the new growth is left to harden. If not cared for, they can develop bare patches.

Ilex crenata 'Helleri'

Ilex crenata 'Helleri'

9) Twining Valley Nurseries in Pokeno are producing Ilex crenata ‘Helleri’ as a buxus sub. Ilex are the holly family and crenata is a small leafed species from Japan and Korea. It is recognised as a good hedging plant but I have only seen it in photographs and I don’t know how low it can be kept. It is worth investigating.

New Zealand totara - a long term prospect for hedging

New Zealand totara - a long term prospect for hedging

10) Our native alpine totara, Podocarpus nivalis, stays very low and can be clipped hard to get dense foliage. However, it is a long term option, it will be expensive to buy in quantity and it does not have the good green of buxus.

We have yet to hear of low hedges which have stood the test of time – by which we mean 10 years, not one year. Until there are more reliable reports, we would not advocate spending too much money and effort on major plantings of alternatives. There simply are no easy answers for a replacement for buxus and we keep coming back to the view that it may be timely to review the role of low hedges in New Zealand garden design.

For earlier articles on the topic of buxus blight and the role of buxus in a garden situation, check out:
* The appropriately named buxus blight
* There is life beyond buxus hedging
* Trouble with buxus
* DEBBO (that is: death by bloody buxus overload)

The ilex again

The ilex again

So much for clean and green….

The ugly sight of roadside spraying

The ugly sight of roadside spraying

Mark regularly despairs at the state of our rural roadsides, expostulating at the cavalier use of herbicides and the ugliness of sprayed areas which then create a blank canvas for weeds to colonise quickly. “How,” he asks, “can we pretend to be clean and green in our country when people see these road verges?”

This particular example is from down the road, more or less. We suspect it is the farmer trying to eradicate bristle grass but in fact bristle grass got established in the first place here because it is an early coloniser on sprayed areas. Alas our councils regularly get in on the act, too. In days gone by, rural roads used to have wide gravel shoulders which were graded from time to time. Now the maintenance regime is such that the road edges have been recontoured to slope sharply downwards at the side – the idea being that this moves the water off the road quickly but it also means that cars can no longer move off the road safely. And it is all to be kept free of vegetation, which is done by spraying.

We designated our road verges no-spray zones – which can be done by ringing the local council. We would rather maintain our own property frontages which we plant extensively and mow. It stops any contractors swooshing around with herbicides. The year they sprayed all our belladonna lilies was too much for us. It is not that we are opposed to sprays in principle. But Mark uses herbicide spraying to target spot weeds and generally it can be achieved in an unobtrusive, near invisible way.

The scorched earth approach to dealing with rural road verges needs to be revisited. It is bad environmental practice and it looks downright ugly – not a good advertisement at all for our country.

Prole drift in New Zealand gardening

The rococo styled fountain has drifted down the road from us

The rococo styled fountain has drifted down the road from us

Prole drift. I had never heard of it until last week but I was greatly amused by it. The usual example of prole drift is the devaluing of status suffered by the Burberry plaid when it was embraced with gusto by the chavs of the UK (referred to, apparently, as a downmarket demographic). The SUV is undergoing a similar slide in status. The classic Range Rover slipped a little when Japanese manufacturers started making more reasonably priced models. But those new generation sports utility vehicles still came with a reasonably hefty price tag and appealed to the wealthy middle classes who wanted to look as if they were forever whipping up to the ski fields, whether or not it was true. “The four wheel drive is so handy – eliminates the need for chains, don’t you know.” In those early days, such vehicles were often referred to as urban tractors or Remuera shopping baskets. These days they are just as likely to be Manukau or Pakuranga Tractors. There is a certain inevitability that the status symbols of the privileged will be coveted just as much by those a little lower, or indeed much lower, on the socio economic ladder.

But as I pondered prole drift, it occurred to me that it is a remarkably good description of much of New Zealand gardening. In an earlier column, I asked whether there was such a thing as the New Zealand garden. I came to the conclusion that there are certainly some defining characteristics. At that time, I wrote:

It must be something in our egalitarian heritage which has many New Zealanders taking the ideas of the large, historic gardens – especially in Britain though sometimes from wider Europe – and attempting to re-create something similar here. We seem to be oblivious to the fact that the vast majority of the great gardens of Europe and Britain were established and maintained by the wealthy and the powerful who could afford to pay gardeners to actually do the work. So we go for high maintenance gardening styles (clipped hedges, a touch of topiary, sweeping lawns, mixed borders, buxus enclosures around statuary) – all the trappings of the gentry and the nobility which our forbears were so keen to leave behind.

Prole drift! That is what it is: prole drift. We are still at the stage of wanting the status and class (prounounced something akin to claarss) and thinking that if we embrace the status symbols of those further up the social scale, somehow the mystique of privilege will envelop us as well. It is not our egalitarian heritage after all. It is covetous envy and has resulted in scores of mini-Sissinghursts and even mini-Villandrys with barely a smidgeon of originality. Buxus hedges in abundance, tightly clipped, filled with either neat and decorative vegetables (which makes it a potager), citrus trees (which makes it Italianate), colour toned perennials or annuals in formal style (French parterres) or a froth of artfully casual blooms lifted by the mandatory white cosmos or foxgloves (which passes for English cottage style but tightly corseted by encircling low hedges) , with accents of clipped topiary balls or pyramids, even the occasional knot garden, all ornamented with obelisks, Lutyens styled garden seats, pergolas, formal avenues, laburnum arches, and… marble garden features. Diana, perhaps, something armless or a small fountain.

The funny thing is that so far so good – this heavily derivative style of prole drift gardening has indeed been accorded status and recognition in this country and, scarily, is often equated with style, superior taste and class. It remains to be seen what happens as it continues its drift sideways and downwards.

The evolution of a New Zealand style of gardening better suited to our conditions (geographic, climatic, botanic, cultural and financial) will continue. Genuinely original gardens shine and in time, we may see a decline in popularity of the current prole drift styles.

Random piece of information: just beyond Hoi An in Vietnam, on the road to Danang are the Marble Mountains. These are mined and the local craftsman can create whatever you desire and to whatever scale you wish. What is more, they will then pack it and ship it to your home. On the day we visited, the striking memory was of the carved American eagle, but the factory was full of repro classical statuary. You too can order your greatest desire – and at third world prices. They were doing a roaring trade in the classical figures. I am afraid I still subscribe to the view that if you can’t have an original (and the British museums got first dibs on a large quantity of them), then you are better off to have nothing.

Repro classical statuary to your heart's desire from the Marble Mountains near Hoi An in Vietnam

Repro classical statuary to your heart's desire from the Marble Mountains near Hoi An in Vietnam

A final few words about the rococo fountain: it belongs to Pat. I do not for one minute think that Pat believed that this recent installation in her front garden would elevate her social status. It is equally unlikely that she has looked into the rococo forbears of her fountain. No, she bought it because
a) she really liked it
b) it was cheap
and c) she has a very obliging husband who was willing to install it for her. I just think that the fountain may have drifted as far as it can – it may have reached its ultimate destination.