All Black scores gold at NZ garden show
10 Mar 2010
New Zealand All Black Andy Ellis and his mate Danny Kamo have scored gold with their thought-provoking, sustainable garden at the 2010 Ellerslie International Flower Show in Christchurch.
The show, which opened to the public today (10.03.10) is enjoying its second outing in the South Island since its relocation from Auckland, and more than 60,000 visitors are expected at the five-day event.
Judging convenor Robert Hillier, from England, described the show as "brilliant" with a very high overall standard.
As well as gold for Ellis and Kamo, judges also awarded gold medals to two international designers - Chelsea Flower Show designer Chris Beardshaw and award-winning Japanese designer Koji Ninomiya.
The Last Laugh
Ellis and Kamo received high praise for their design - ‘The Last Laugh’ - a serious statement about the impact humans are having on the environment and the planet’s natural resources.
Judge Hillier said the concept and delivery of their garden was "amazing".
Last year the design duo produced an exhibition garden, ‘The Crate Escape’ featuring a cricket pitch, grandstand / bar and barbecue that depicted "the ultimate bloke’s backyard".
However for 2010, the designers say they’ve "grown up" and want to promote sustainable design practices.
Central to their award-winning garden was an enormous boulder, symbolic of Mother Earth fighting back.
The boulder had come crashing into the garden exploding through the fence and deck and sending an undulating wave, like that of an earthquake, through the garden landscape, said Ellis.
Their idea was to get visitors to stop and reflect on their own gardens, their choice of design, use of materials and how this impacted on the environment, the designers said.
International guest designers
Both international guest designers, Chris Beardshaw and Koji Ninomiya produced exceptional gardens that had raised the garden show’s overall standard, according to the judges.
Competition had been tough and the extreme diversity of gardens had made it interesting but also difficult. The quality and standard of exhibition gardens at Ellerslie would be well received at Chelsea, Judge Hillier said.
"Koji’s western Japanese garden is the best garden I have seen him design - it is simply great. And third gold medal winner, Chris Beardshaw’s ‘An Englishman’s Retreat’ is perfection in terms of detail and finish," Hillier said.
Jim Fogarty from Australia, who has judged at Ellerslie for the last eight years, said the standard of gardens had definitely improved this year as was evident in every exhibition garden getting an award.
Starlight Marquee
Meanwhile, a team of Christchurch council workers beat international competition to win gold in the Starlight Marquee, with a garden of mushrooms, moss and lichen.
Judges said the Christchurch Botanic Gardens ‘Pictures of Life and Death’ garden was "extraordinary" and would "blow the public away".
Lead Judge Penny Cliffin said the garden had "extraordinary lighting and sound effects and an interesting commentary on decomposition as a basis of life under the ground".
Visitors enter the garden via a glow worm cave and their first view is through a 2.5 metre high waterfall. An array of fungi, lichen, moss, liverwort and ferns carpet the floor which has a six-minute cycle of changing lights and sounds.
The Ellerslie Flower Show is held in Hagley Park in the centre of Christchurch - known as New Zealand’s garden city. The show opens each day at 10am and hours have been extended to 7pm daily to allow visitors to view exhibits lit at twilight.
More information:
Gardens go green at Ellerslie Flower Show
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