Best places to see bulbs & blossoms
Jo McCarroll’s pick of spring blossom displays and bulb festivals
Spring is here – and although that means there’s plenty of things to do in the garden, I urge you to take the time now to head off and see some of the blossom and bulb displays and flower festivals that are on offer around the country this season!
1 ENJOY SPRING BLOSSOM AT AUCKLAND BOTANIC GARDEN
I challenge anyone not to have their spirits lifted by a wander round Spring Blossom Valley at Auckland Botanic Gardens, where ornamental prunus trees burst into a froth of pink blossom over a carpet of yellow daffodils. The first blossom trees were planted here in 1983, as part of a trial to find the varieties that give the best spring display in the Auckland region. After years of testing, ABG manager Jack Hobbs says his pick for local gardeners is the Prunus campanulata hybrid ‘Pink Clouds’. It is more compact than a Taiwanese cherry, he says, so good for city sections – plus it doesn’t set seed so has not inherited a tui tree’s weedy tendencies! Spring Blossom Valley is at its best in October.
2 SEE TUIS, TULIPS AND MORE AT EDEN GARDEN, AUCKLAND
Tui feeding on Prunus campanulata are a spring highlight at Auckland’s Eden Garden. The Garden’s annual tulip fest is held in late August, with more than 16,000 flowering bulbs making a stunning spring display.
3 TAKE A STROLL ALONG HARPER AVENUE IN CHRISTCHURCH
The Yoshino cherries ( Prunus x yedoensis) at the top of North Hagley Park were planted for Arbor Day in 1936 and have been a popular spot to stroll in spring ever since. The park is famous for its spring bulb displays, first the carpet of bluebells in Little Hagley Park, then the thousands of daffodils that bloom amid the trees and long grass in the Daffodil Woodland. The first bulbs were planted here in the 1930s and staff have added more every year since. Snapping a pic of your kids seated among the sea of golden daffodils is a Christchurch tradition!
4 WATCH THE PARADE PASS BY AT HASTINGS BLOSSOM FESTIVAL
Hastings held its first blossom festival in 1950 to mark the start of the fruit seasons and to attract visitors to the area – and, cynics suggested, away from Hastings’ fierce rival Napier, which had been elevated to city status in March 1950! The theme for the 2016 festival is Buds, Blossoms and Blooms. The centrepiece of the event, the Hastings Blossom Parade, will be held on Saturday, September 10, and a fleet of decorated floats and costumed locals will make their way through the city centre to celebrate the arrival of spring.
In 1960, when rain delayed the Hastings Blossom Parade, punters piled into pubs and a riot broke out! It became known as the Second Battle of Hastings
5 PICK UP SOME BULBS AT MAPLE GLEN IN SOUTHLAND
If all these spectacular signs of spring make you want to add a bit of sparkle to your garden next season, stop by Maple Glen in Southland for a spot of shopping, and see the plants in situ while you are there! Muriel and Rob Davison and son Bob have an incredible range of rare and unusual bulbs for sale, including snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells. If you can’t get to the garden in person, they also sell online: visit mapleglen.co.nz.
6TAKE IN THE SIGNS OF SPRING AT HAMILTON GARDENS
The woodland plantings of rhodos, cornus, magnolia and maples around the rhododendron lawn at Hamilton Gardens will be at its best this month and next. Visit in the early evening when the perfume will be at its peak.
7CATCH THE DAFFODIL EXPRESS AT CARTERTON DAFFODIL FEST
Carterton Daffodil Festival will be held on Sunday, September 11 and Middle Run, a historic property in Gladstone, will again throw open its gates and allow visitors to pick daffodils for a gold coin donation to local charities. The Daffodil Express, a historic stream train, will bring visitors from Wellington for the day.
8STROLL THROUGH THE BULBS AT CAMBRIAN COMMON FOREST
Bob L de Berry has planted all kinds of delights in the woodland he has created just south-west of St Bathans in Central Otago. Snowdrops are followed by fritillaries, bluebells, daffodils, grape hyacinths, tulips and crocuses, with colchicums in autumn. Visitors are welcome – just drive 1.5km up Cambrian Road until you see the sign.
9ENJOY A JAPANESE CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL IN NELSON
An annual cherry blossom fest is held under the flowering cherries in Miyazu Garden to celebrate Nelson’s sister city relationship with Miyazu in Japan. Pop along for the music, food and entertainment on Sunday September 18 from 11.30am.
10 STOP AND SEE BLOSSOM AT ALEXANDRA BLOSSOM FEST
New Zealand’s oldest continuously running blossom festival is the Alexandra Blossom Festival, which celebrates its 60th anniversary, or Diamond Jubilee, this year. With its sub-zero winters and hot, dry summers, this part of New Zealand boasts the ideal climate for cherries, apricots, peaches and nectarines, and summerfruit is a major industry in the region – in fact, the Blossom Festival was established to recognise its important role. There are events between September 23-25, including the Contact Grand Procession along Centennial Ave. Floats have their own “Blossom Princesses”, young women who are competing to be named the 2016 Blossom Queen! The fest also includes a self-drive garden tour around 10 gardens in and around Alexandra. See blossom.co.nz.
11 DRIVE BLOSSOM HIGHWAY THROUGH CENTRAL OTAGO
The drive along Teviot Valley on State Highway 8, from Millers Flat to Roxborough and Alexandra then Cromwell, is colloquially known as the “Blossom Highway” – although why Tourism New Zealand hasn’t officially adopted that name, I do not know! This stretch of highway, which runs alongside the Clutha River, is lined with commercial orchards. From early September until mid-October (depending on the year) you’ll see cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches, apples and pears in bloom, starting with pale-pink cherries that grow mainly around Cromwell, finishing with the white apple and pear blossom down around Millers Flat.
12 TAKE IN 100,000 TULIPS AT THE ROTORUA TULIP FEST
Yes, you read that right – 100,000 tulip bulbs were planted for this year’s Rotorua Tulip Fest (October 1-9) and should be brightening up the whole CBD, with mass displays at Government Gardens and on Hospital Hill. That’s two and a half times more bulbs than were planted last year and it doesn’t even include the tulips planted in private gardens after a “Get Tuliped 2016” challenge was issued to local gardeners! This nine-day festival, which claims to be the country’s biggest tulip fest, includes tulip and garden tours, plus public lectures around gardening and food, as well as picnics, bike rides, markets and more. See tulipfestrotorua.co.nz.
This weeping prunus has the lowest weeping branches pruned off every year to raise the canopy and make the most of the view beyond
13 FILL YOUR VASES AT YOUR LOCAL PYO DAFFODIL FARM
We’ve got a story in this issue (page 40) about Railene and Barrie Mabin’s Taniwha Daffodils in the Hawke’s Bay, which offers PYO daffodils to raise money for Plunket! You also can pick your own daffs – $10 a bucket – at tulip and daffodil grower Hadstock Farm in Selwyn, which is open to the public over the first two weekends in September.
14 CELEBRATE SPRING AT WELLINGTON BOTANIC
Wellington Botanic Gardens is holding a Spring Festival (September 24-October 2), which includes the annual Tulip Sunday, a Dutch cultural festival that has been held since 1944. Some of the tulips in bloom here will be descended from the 20,000 bulbs gifted to New Zealand by the Netherlands, in gratitude for Kiwi hospitality to Dutch refugees after the war.