A day out in Christchurch - the garden city

Wednesday the 14th of May started early with a committee meeting from 8.00 til 11am.
For those interested in the machinations of such meetings , I give below a summary of the feedback from the officers and the regions before progressing to events of the my first full day .
Pat Heuser talked through secretary /treasurers report. She reminded us that the directors’ reference manual can be found on our website http://www.ipps.org/. The ‘members at large’ region which has only just been launched now has two members. We welcome Byoung Sup Ghill, a Korean nursery owner and Olivia E. Franklin Lovell from Barbados a senior agricultural officer, to the IPPS.
For those who are reading this and keen to learn more about the IPPS, we are a professional organisation interested and committed to the production of green plants. Our membership includes nursery staff , growers and propagators, educationalists, researchers, and trades men and women.
International editor, Charles Heuser
ISHS update. 57 volumes of the combined proceedings have now been scanned ahead of uploading on to the ISHS website. This will widen the access of our propagation and nursery production information way beyond our membership base , it amounts to an amazing treasure trove of horticultural knowledge stretching back to the 1950s. We envisage t hat this information will be available on- line in 2009
International reports
GB and I, Pete Bingham Our long term secretary, Claire Shaddick has left our employment . Claire has done an excellent job over the last nine years .We welcome both Wendy Staniforth and Gyongyver Janya who have been recruited in Claire’s stead.
NZ. Grant Hayman reported on the hot dry summer the NZ grower had experienced this year. Grant also confidently predicted that membership would be up this year.
Eastern Region Jim Johnson reported on arrangements for the forthcoming joint western/eastern region conference in Denver, a high altitude conference!
Southern Region. Bill Barr acknowledged the great contribution of David Morgan, the region’s recently retired secretary and welcomed new secretary Ronnie Stisher.
Western Region . Dave Hannon reiterated support for joint conference with the eastern region and was pleased to also report that he feels membership in 2008 will be up.
Japan. Akemi Mizutani provided an excellent written report which included information about their last conference .
Australia. David Cliffe reported that membership is up . Much of the increase is amongst young members.

We will reconvene in a few days time for committee meeting part two ahead of the full international board meeting when we arrive in Auckland.
On to the visits !
Gethsemane Garden, Christchurch.
Now, I don’t do religion but you couldn’t fail to be amazed by our first stop off . We were shuttled to the top of the hills overlooking Christchurch to a garden whose central feature was a three storey wooden ark made from douglas fir. Inside we found a chapel , and two reception rooms, all lavishly adorned. I thought I was back on last year’s trip to the USA !
The garden is a dedication to Jesus and is called Gethsemane. The garden feathures amongst other things the Lord’s Prayer spelt out in buxus , much of the garden is laid out to spell GETHSEMANE, and a further area spells out JESUS. Also interesting was the novel use of shade cloth as the construction fabric for a chapel!
Lunch was served in the middle section of the Ark , I was not sure if the IPPS was not all at sea at this point. I will chalk this up as a memorable visit – though spiritually I remain unmoved.

Much more up my spiritual street was a visit to Christchurch botanics. I had been a little underwhelmed on two previous visits but was excited at the prospect of going to look round the special trees that are the backbone of this garden. Christchurch is known as the garden city and I am pleased to report that the botanics, which are within Hagley park, are much improved. I am very much in favour of first class horticulture being available to all and putting a world class botanic garden within a public park, with free access to all, is something I would be pleased to see the new mayor of London consider for Kew gardens.
As you will see from the photos the autumn colour was blazing away, Acer platanoides, Gingko biloba and a myriad of Japanese maples looked just great.
For me the garden is about iconic tree plantings. At the entrance from the cathedral side of town there is a fine example of Fagus sylvaticus Asplenifolius. There are great cedars, oaks and giant redwoods and one enormous Eucalyptus delegatensis . Since reading ‘Meeting with Remarkable Trees’ I have started collecting photos of my own remarkable trees, and this eucalyptus is close to the top of my own personal list.
Christchurch botanics includes herbaceous borders, rock garden , display glass native and rose gardens. I noted that the general standard of plant husbandry had improved and the garden now includes more sculpture and fresh planting of southern hemisphere natives and cultivated plants. The impression I have is that the gardens is back on track and on the way up.
From here we proceeded to Odering nursery. Ray Lawson nursery manager and NZ representative on the International board took us to his nursery, a seven acre site in what is now residential Christchurch, though back in 1939 when the nursery began, was on the edge of town.
Five generations of Oderings have worked this land . The nursery was like no other that I have visited. Cut flowers grew alongside houseplants, grafted tomato plants, herbaceous perennials, bedding , succulents and shrub. The nursery utilises the available space very effectively with plants packed in right up to the four corners of the site.
The key to their continuing success is knowing their market. With a relatively small population specialisation is very difficult and that accounts for such diversification. The nursery supplies all its own retail outlets, including the one on site and other independent retailers. In such a tight space it was interesting to see the investment in technology , including seed sowing and transplanting machines. All though could easily be set up again on a green field site if the land was ever to be sold off for development. The nursery was a mix of the old and new and had a slight sense of a bygone era, a nursery skilfully growing a wide range of crops, supplying a local market. It was a great visit, full of thought provoking innovation.
The visit finished in the cafe of the garden centre which was beautifully planted with exotics including the scented L.uculia gratissima A tutored beer tasting and BBQ in this setting rounded off the day.