LINGER AWHILE

This meandering garden near Rotorua seems made for slowing down and exploring at leisure

Garden enthusiasts and visitors alike find plenty of pleasure in Marian and John Sandrey’s property. Plants and the imagination both flourish in their garden, which sprawls on a Waikite Valley rural block not far from Rotorua. Visiting garden enthusiasts may well marvel at the towering trees, masses of maples (including 40 of the weeping variety), azaleas, cherries and rhododendrons that thrive at this address. The latter are so impressive that the Sandreys’ garden was included in the 2019 New Zealand Rhododendron Association conference hosted in Rotorua. If visitors

‘In a big garden you have to be aware of balance’

need to sit awhile to take it all in, there are about 20 garden seats positioned for that purpose.

Rushing around this garden is not advised, as there’s simply so much to note. “If you dart around the garden you also miss some of the imagination,” says Marian who has, over the years, added things here and there (little signs and pretend critters) to appeal largely to their grandchildren. Their youngest grandchild (aged four) recently enjoyed a garden scavenger hunt when out from Ireland. Marian and John’s three children all live overseas.

John has enjoyed adding pieces from years gone by to the garden. Farm implements – now garden art – are an apposite nod to the past.

When Marian and John moved to the valley back in 1966 it was to dairy farm. In 2003 they divided off their existing section of land, selling the rest of the farm. About half of the 3.6ha is part of the garden area and the remainder is grazed out.

“Cows were a higher priority than gardens initially,” John says. “We have a lot more time these days. There’s nothing regimented in terms of the time spent in the garden, but we are out there a lot. It doesn’t rule our lives completely but autumn is especially busy. It’s our shared hobby.”

His equally industrious wife adds: “I don’t think you could do this if you didn’t share the pleasure.”

Everything in the garden needs maintenance, they say, with plenty to keep them both busy, some of that with a focus on scale.

“In a big garden you have to be aware of balance,” John says. “Trees get very big and you have to limb up and prune or remove them to get the space right.”

When a tree is removed it opens up a new vista, Marian says, and then new planting ideas follow. There have been plenty of additions over the years,

but no planting plan as such, although Marian says the intention was always to create different areas.

A long rockery, for example, provides bursts of colour close to the house and includes a bore-fed pond with a fountain. Flag irises, granny bonnets, campanulas, azaleas, heucheras, dahlias and forget-me-nots provide pretty colour in a patch close to the grazing paddock.

Marian sees a garden of this size “as a giant canvas and palette which can be worked on, changed and enhanced and then extended to incorporate the surrounding landscape as part of the final picture”.

There’s an area that is pure cottage garden and happy at home here are hydrangea, hollyhocks, delphiniums, sweet williams and foxgloves. Close by is a woodland where ajuga, ligularia, acanthus, astelia, rengarenga, wood anemone and a swathe of Chatham Island forget-me-nots provide a carpet that luxuriates in the shade.

Meander through this woodland to an ornamental woodlot of maples and a range of dogwoods, including the variegated variety. The maple (this time the crimson of an Acer palmatum dissectum weeping variety) is again a star, with 14 of them thriving alongside the little pump-fed waterfall that’s another delight at this property – especially when lit at night.

There are trees in abundance in this garden. A line of purple Bloodgood Japanese maples, which Marian adores, line a back fence. A grove of Japanese white birches totally validates Marian’s comment that “there’s beauty to be had in tree trunks”.

Question what’s most beautiful in their garden, and John’s answer is straightforward: the maples for their colour and the hostas for their foliage. Marian’s love is widespread. Rhododendrons, azaleas, heucheras, lily of the valley Pieris japonica and the

‘There’s beauty to be had in tree trunks’

berberis barbery – especially Helmonds Pillar – are all high on her score card. As for the favourite season, summer and spring aren’t automatically top of the pops. While Marian concedes every season has its beauty, she feels the starkness of winter carries a special glory. John loves autumnal colours.

Marian and John have ensured the outlook from inside their house celebrates the result of their labours. The view from the dining room, for example, takes in buxus hedging on either side of wide steps leading up hill to a Lutyens seat flanked by conifers.

The hedge, in this formal aspect to the garden, is clipped into balls in key places. The view from the relaxed seating areas takes in the rockery, including the surrounding pinks and mauves of carnations, bergenia, irises and azalea.

Marian feels that some aspects of their garden resemble landscape paintings. The outlook beyond their land is also beautiful. The ever-changing views over the valley and out to the Paeroa Ranges are part of the borrowed landscape, which can be enjoyed from many parts of the garden. The tip of Mt Tarawera can also be seen from one of the garden’s vantage points.

The Sandreys have named their garden Sandara, which means “to grow up brightly and healthily” in Korean. A message on one of the trees that reads “find joy in the journey” isn’t a difficult directive to obey.

THESE PAGES Varying shades of crimson are well celebrated in this section of the rockery; the weeping maple in the foreground is Acer palmatum ‘Crimson Queen’; behind it a kalmia offers a soft pink touch, and the deeper pink in the background is courtesy of an old-fashioned rhododendron; burgundy loropetalum – between the kalmia and rhododendron – adds more colour; offsetting this rich array is the low-lying conifer Juniperus squamata that provides a blue-hued carpet; buxus are shaped into balls, and silver birches provide a backdrop.

THIS PAGE Marian and John Sandrey; Paeroa Range is in the background, behind a row of Lombardy poplars. OPPOSITE (clockwise from top) The sweeping path to the front door follows the contour of the rockery; clustered around the pot plant are grey lamb’s ear, blue campanula and a green nandina. Just below the rockery this area has a shaped ball of lonicera with catmint in blue; the twisted branches alongside belong to an oriental robinia ‘Lace Lady’; a very old birch tree looks over this patch of garden. Campanula flowers behind heuchera; the hedging plant in the left foreground is Euonymus japonicus.

THESE PAGES (clockwise from top) A garden full of carnations, heucheras, campanula, maples and conifers; yellow Sedum acre ‘Aureum’ thrives to the left of the pink carnations and the yellow on the right belong to rock rose (helianthemum). Looking up toward the birch grove, this wilderness hillside area has been planted in hydrangeas, foxgloves and Acanthus mollis (bear’s breeches) to provide good cover in an area where it’s of no concern if they spread. The journey up the drive passes an oak that Marian and John grew from a seedling about 40 years ago – agapanthus are allowed to spread under the tree in this hard-to-mow patch.

THESE PAGES (clockwise from top) A cluster of birches is a mix of Japanese and the white trunked Himalayan varieties; the corrugated iron rabbits were a Christmas gift. The three patio maples are part of a group of 10 that has pride of place in the ornamental woodlot; the trees in the foreground are cherry. The garden pot – of which there are three – was a find during a trip to Ohope; Marian and John love the pots’ traditional craftsmanship; on this level of the garden Californian poppies add an orange splash amongst rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias.

THIS PAGE At about 60 years of age, the huge poplar (Populus canadensis) is one of the property’s oldest trees. OPPOSITE (clockwise from top) Hostas love this south-facing part of the garden; the trees are birches. Seats under a weeping elm; a path runs from this part of the property to the woodland. The view from the kitchen window keeps its colour year-round; loropetalums provide a further touch of burgundy and corokia ‘Silver Ghost’ is shaped into cones.