Treasures of North Island: A Gardener's Paradise

(page 4)

A garden in sheep country?

Leaving Barbara, we headed south to a unique garden, belonging to Clive and Nikky Higgie near Wanganui. Clive runs a large sheep farm, but he has a deep passion for plants, of everykind, and has devoted a large area of the farm to his collection even planting unusual tree specimens across the fields, protected from nibbling sheep by oil drums around their bases!

Clive exchanges and obtains seeds and plants from all over world and his collection forms a veritable botanic garden. Around the house are many palms, including a lovely Jubaea, just commencing its phase of upward trunk growth. He has also constructed a large, walk through glasshouse, full of gems, needing extra warmth and shelter from the winter wet. It includes many of the unusual plants from Madagascar.

The most spectacular area however is a field, resembling a steep sided amphitheatre, with a mini lake at its base. One half of this faces the sun and is hot and dry, the other in contrast, shadier and a little cooler.

Tracks wind there way along the slopes, amongst one of the largest collections of xerophytic plants I have ever seen... but don't slip or you could end up impaled on a Yucca or a giant Cereus!!
Puya, Dasylirion, Agave, Aloe, spectacular red flowering Erythrina and much, much more are here, all labelled and carefully researched to confirm there identification.

The opposite side is home to palms, some such as Livistona and Washingtonia planted in large numbers, many bamboos and shrubs of all kinds. I was especially taken by a giant lobelia, which had carried a huge flower spike, though Clive hasn't arranged,(yet!), the Gorillas that would normally feed upon it in its native home high in the mountains of Africa.

Interesting too, a plant of the rare palm Juania Australis, which I saw for the first time. Growing in quite a dry spot, in full sun, an attractive plant with silvery undersides to its fronds. Nearby, a species of Chusquea bamboo with spiky, stiff leaflets, this plant originating from the seasonally dry habitat shared with the more familiar Chilean Wine palm, Jubaea.

It was a real privilege to visit this remarkable garden, that is tended solely by Clive, Nikky and their children to a very high standard.

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