360 SPECTACULAR: HANGING OUT
Helen Harvey, Aaron Wood and Simon O’Connor took a tour of the Oakley Garden, one of Taranaki’s most spectacular gardens.
Jenny Oakley thought it was impossible to damage flowers in a hanging basket by over watering them.
But the seemingly never ending rain in 2017 meant a couple of the baskets hanging in an old walnut tree got so heavy the hooks they were attached to straightened out and the baskets fell to the ground, Jenny says.
‘‘Normally they take a lot of watering, but I’ve probably only watered them about three times this year. I usually start watering them in August.’’
They’re heavy baskets so shifting them is a problem, she says.
‘‘Some of the very big ones take three people to lift.’’
On entering Oakley’s garden the stunning hanging baskets in the tree in the centre of the garden and others above the deck are the first things visitors notice.
Depending on the size of the basket, and Oakley’s are quite large, there are about 35 plants in each.
Pansies, parsley, cineraria ‘Silver Dust’, lobelia, heuchera, which has a deep red foliage, and alyssum are some of the plants that fill up the baskets, which are lined with coconut fibre.
‘‘The baskets are time consuming and fiddly and they take a little bit of maintenance. You have to be dead heading and watering, so they do take a little bit of effort. The bigger the basket the more water it holds, so you are making less work for yourself by having a big basket.’’
The deck is covered with colourful potted plants including buxus, hostas, and ligularia with bronze foliage.
‘‘I have a lot of rhodohypoxis in pots because they do really well here and there are lots of different colours, so I have big bowls of those around the place.’’
Clivia look amazing under the cherry trees and old fashioned climbing roses, which will be flowering in time for the Powerco Taranaki Garden Spectacular, grow high up into the trees.
The old fashioned roses include Albe´ ric Barbier, Anais Segales and Souvenir de Madame Leonie Viennot, which has a neat story to it, Oakley says.
‘‘It was in flower when the first soldiers left Auckland in World War I and they threw the flowers off the ship as they sailed.’’
On the way to the next area of garden and the tennis court xeronema – Poor Knights Lily will be putting on a display, as will a plant that keeps everyone guessing.
‘‘What I have that is quite unusual is corny abutilon vitifolium that has blue or white flowers and absolutely everybody wants to know what it is.’’
Jenny doesn’t care what fashion dictates is in vogue for gardens – people love flowers, she says.
‘‘Flowers are good for your soul, so if can provide a beautiful experience you have happy visitors.’’
She has old fashioned poppies that come up from seed every year, as do the honesty, granny bonnets and foxgloves, she says.
‘‘They’re easy to grow and long lasting. A lot of the fashion in garden centres is to have new and interesting things but it’s the old fashioned things that last better. I sell plants because I have a lot of old fashioned things that you can’t get in garden centres any more.’’
Oakley, who has a degree in horticulture, propogates plants in a nursery hidden away behind a climbing rose covered wall.
‘‘I really enjoy that part of it, propagating plants. That’s one of the best parts of the festival – getting a wheelbarrow with a load of plants and bringing them back and putting them in the garden.’’
During the Garden Spectacular Oakley will give talks on propagating plants as well as demonstrations on how to make hanging baskets.
She still has things to do in the garden before visitors start to arrive, because the weather has held up a lot of the work.
‘‘In Taranaki you can normally work in wet soil, but this year the rain has been extraordinary.’’
Jenny says she hates to think how much time she spends in the garden.
‘‘It would be ridiculous if you added it up. But a garden is never finished any gardener would know you go outside you see something that needs doing and its very satisfying and rewarding so you keep doing it.’’
‘‘In Taranaki you can normally work in wet soil, but this year the rain has been extraordinary.’’ Jenny Oakley