BOOK REVIEWS

Great Gardens of New Zealand

Derek Fell
David Bateman Ltd
$NZ59.95

INTERNATIONAL author Derek Fell needs little introduction to New Zealand gardeners. The Pennsylvania-based garden writer counts the Ellerslie Flower Show among the many he's judged and lectured at and this book is the fruit of research and photographs amassed here over a 10-year period. Many of the gardens will be familiar to readers from magazine pages, but they deserve this fresh perspective.

Among these are long-standing gems such as Ayrlies. Bev McConnell's Whitford estate is dubbed Auckland's finest woodland and water garden and Fell's photos attest to that.

The first and last gardens in this north to south odyssey also grab attention: Lindo and Laetitia Ferguson's 33-year labour of love on Northland's historic Butler Point and the delights of Stewart Island with its Garden Circle - "NZ's smallest garden club".

As well as the traditional, Fell has an eye for the avant garde. The 35 or so gardens he visits include the eclectic retreat of Christchurch's Robyn Kilty and Otago artist Lindsay Crooks' Brighton beachside haven, a backdrop to his whimsical sculpture.

Fells says he wanted his gardens to be distinctive, reflect the extraordinary enthusiasm New Zealanders have for gardening, and represent all climatic regions.

This reasonably-priced book will be a compulsory addition to many readers' shelves.

Weekend Gardener, Issue 140, 2004, Page 28
(reproduced in Horticulture in New Zealand:
Journal of the Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture 2005, 8(1): 19)

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH