Top Kiwi garden designer dies
20 Oct 2008
Leading New Zealand garden designer Doug Waugh has died of cancer, aged 52.
Waugh, from the small North Island town of Katikati in the Bay of Plenty, was part of the six-member team that took the first Kiwi-designed and built garden entry to the 2004 Chelsea Flower Show in London.
The award-winning creation - the 'Ora Garden of Wellbeing' - earned international attention and a prestigious gold medal.
Winning designs
Waugh, a landscape construction expert, was responsible for the construction of many national and international award-winning gardens. His winning designs gained gold medals at Chelsea, Melbourne and New Zealand's Ellerslie Flower Show, as well as New Zealand 'landscape of the year' in 1990.
Waugh worked closely with his wife Trish, also a garden designer. The couple, who met while studying horticulture at university, had run a successful design and landscaping business since the early 1980s.
Ora garden recreated
The small but perfectly formed 'Ora' garden has been recreated as a permanent exhibit at the Taupo museum.
It includes WETA workshop-created geothermal silica pools, living fern sculptures and native bush, and features a spiritual dimension that explores the relationship between nature and the Māori people. Ora means wellbeing in Māori .
Museum manager Karen Williams, who helped establish the garden in Taupo, said it was a privilege to work with Doug Waugh.
"Both he and Trish have been committed to designing uniquely New Zealand gardens for years, long before they became fashionable. The 'Ora' garden is a wonderful tribute to him," Williams said.
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