A Millers Flat garden grabs attention. Gillian Vine reports.
"It's at its best in spring,'' Allan Ashworth says of his Millers Flat garden but adds that he and his wife, Isabel, are endeavouring to make it attractive in every season.
The reason is that the Ashworths operate a B&B and want to ensure visitors are not disappointed in the garden whenever they come to stay.
They bought the 0.4ha property two years ago, moving from Hamilton to Central Otago, where Allan grew up.
"We had a checklist of ‘wants', looked from Whangarei to Oamaru, then found this one online and kept coming back to it,'' Isabel explained.
They bought the house without seeing it, although Allan's sister had looked at it for them.
"Then everything went into a 40ft container, which took a week to get down here [from Hamilton],'' Allan said.
They brought some plants, including two young fan palm seedlings, all of which survived the journey south in the container.
As the house was large, they decided to open a B&B and utilise the attractive established garden by calling it Ashworth Gardens.
That is why they are keen to have it looking good for as much of the year as possible.
"This is a beautiful spring garden,'' Allan said, indicating the rhododendrons and azaleas under which are thousands of bulbs including daffodils, fritillaries and trilliums.
One of the garden's great attractions year-round is a weeping cypress in front of the house that Allan spent many hours pruning to restore its shape.
Now bearing little resemblance to the overgrown tree of two years ago, it is a hit with visitors, who love to be photographed alongside it.
The Ashworths' efforts to extend the flowering season are paying off, with plenty of colour in summer from annuals such as zinnias - Allan's favourite flower - begonias and snapdragons, as well as lilies. Penstemons, coneflowers (Echinacea) and phlox do their bit, too, and these attractive perennials flower into autumn, as do dahlias, many of which have been grown by Allan from seed.
Overlapping the late-summer flowers are sedums and autumn bulbs.
By the beginning of March, there are masses of Cyclamen hederifolium, whose marbled leaves vie for attention with the pink flowers, blooming under rhododendrons, viburnums and camellias, and sneaking up through the winding gravel tracks that Allan laid through the shrubbery, supplementing existing stone paths.
Autumn crocuses (Colchicum speciosum) make their appearance about the same time and dainty autumn snowdrops (Acis autumnalis) pop up in the rockery, their pink-tinged flowers appearing on wiry 15cm stems.
Hardy and generally fast to multiply, they are perfect dry-garden bulbs that are worth searching for.
Allan has a large and productive vegetable garden, backed by an espaliered apple that Asian visitors marvel at, never having seen apples growing.
On the opposite side is a mature gingko and a splendid variegated English beech (Fagus sylvatica), probably Roseo-marginata.
Asked about keeping the garden looking fresh and colourful in dry weather, Allan said: "We are lucky to have a bore.''
Having a reliable water source helps their efforts to extend the appeal of the garden into summer and autumn.
Still, it sounds as if a return visit in spring should be marked in my diary.
