Says Max, Karyn's son as we drive past the Hamilton Gardens on our Rotorua roadtrip and I suggest we go in for another look. The day before we had spent a good amount of time there amongst the different gardens, my favourites are - the Italian Renaissance Garden, the Backyard Permaculture Garden, the Chinese Scholars Garden and the Bonsai Japanese Garden.
The others had their beauty in different ways although Rita wasn't that impressed with the Tropical Garden - where are all the flowers, like hibiscus and frangipani? She was expecting something out of Raro which I recall had coconut palms, fruit salad plants and more...sand. While a good attempt Hamilton, you just aren't tropical. Bromeliads and cannas aren't really cutting it.
The 'modern' American Garden was also a bit strange. So last century - Karyn wasn't impressed. But she loved the Herb garden apart from Max being a bit wary of being stung by lavender loving bees. I told him there's a fantasy garden with beasts and mazes and he was keen to go there. It even had a castle. But after a while he just wanted to go to the playground and laze on the swing. I don't blame him. I want an swing and adventure playground in my garden too. There's only so much looking around you can do.
Unfortunately I did not manage to fit another garden on my itinerary even though we parked right next to one in Rotorua but I'm sure next time the Government Gardens have my name on it. When you are road tripping with gardeners, we regret not going in to have a look. Not to steal cuttings, mind you, but perhaps ideas. Instead of a water feature, how about a boiling hot mud pool? The sandpits were impressive, because when you dug, the water was hot. That does not really happen in Henderson. I noticed Martha eschewed the sandpit mum had made and busied herself scratching under the maple tree again. Martha!
Martha ignores me she's having such a good time flinging bluebell bulbs.
However, I have managed to complete the pebbles on the end of my fernery and even placed more lambs ears there as edging so no more loose stones all over the driveway. Dad thought it was a good idea and dropped into Kings to purchase another bag, which was really heavy but we managed. So hooray that garden is near complete.
