Near the entrance to Ben Lomond House, Clyde Rd, Napier.
Clare Gleeson’s recent book The Fairer Side of Buxton: Alfred Buxton’s gardens & the women who loved them details a man who played a pivotal role in developing Aotearoa’s horticultural landscape – some of which were in Hawke’s Bay.
“What would you do if a week before Christmas you were instructed to prepare your house for a visit from royalty in seven weeks' time?”
The New Zealand Weekly asked its readers this in 1958.
Greenhill Lodge in Raukawa was the house chosen for the Queen Mother’s weekend break.
A magnificent mansion, it was set in a beautiful garden designed by Alfred Buxton.
Between 1900 and 1950 Buxton designed more than 350 private and civic gardens throughout the South Island and as far north as Hamilton.
Many were in Hawke’s Bay where the 1950s wool boom meant farmers had plenty of money to spend.
Greenhill’s garden was set out in 1919 and had many typical Buxton features. To create a “wow” moment with the first sighting of the house, it was approached by a long, winding drive.
Buxton loved exotic trees such as oaks, horse chestnuts, elms and limes and many of these are still at Greenhill today, ringing in the seasons as they colour and drop their leaves in autumn and new growth arrives in spring.
On one side of the drive, a magnificent stone pergola wreathed in roses led down the slope to a water-filled grotto surrounded by beds of flowers.
Behind the house was a croquet lawn with a summer house nearby, which was surrounded by a stone trough decorated with shells where water lilies floated.
Buxton’s gardens were impressive and expensive. They also required a team of gardeners to maintain them.
In its heyday, three full-time gardeners worked at Chesterhope Station near Hastings, where the visitor approached the homestead through an avenue of walnut trees.
Japanese-inspired elements were a popular Buxton feature and one of his signature rustic-style bridges with a climbing hydrangea winding along it crossed the Chesterhope lake, which was filled with water lilies and edged by Japanese irises.
There were several ornamental cherry trees underplanted with bluebells and a single weeping cherry.
Acid-loving plants flourished and there were many rhododendrons, camellias and massed plantings of azaleas.
Lilies were a feature of the late summer garden and there were groups of cyclamen and ground orchids as well as huge beds of narcissi.
The garden was donated for the site of the new Cranford Hospice in 2017 but after the flooding caused by Cyclone Gabrielle nearby the property’s future is uncertain.
The garden Buxton designed for the Ben Lomond house in Napier c1916 cost almost £6000 ($990,900 today) and took a year to complete.
Ben Lomond is at the top of a hill and the garden surrounded the house and spread down the slope below. Near the house was a large fernery.
Visitors descended to the lower level and along the path to a summer house beneath a large rose-covered pergola.
Below the pergola was a tennis court and below that a substantial begonia house which included a Japanese garden with a large pond.
There were also two arched Japanese bridges and a series of ponds and waterfalls feeding into an even larger pond at the bottom of the hill.
Most of the extensive amount of rock used in the rock garden, stone walls and paths came from the local quarry, now the Centennial Garden, which was manned by prisoners from Napier Prison.
The area that was Ben Lomond’s garden is now divided into four properties but features of the garden remain in each.
These three Hawke’s Bay gardens are an important part of Alfred Buxton’s legacy and shine a light on his extraordinary contribution to New Zealand’s garden history.