Xanthe White designs landscape installation for garden festival

CHELSEA Flower Show silver medalist Xanthe White has been confirmed as the designer behind this year's landscape design installation feature at the 21st Taranaki Rhododendron & Garden Festival.
Xanthe's design concept for New Plymouth's foreshore is under wraps but it draws upon her childhood memories of summer holidays in Taranaki visiting her grandmother, reveals Xanthe.
"New Plymouth was my father's childhood home and was one of the special places of my youth," said Xanthe.
"My grandmother lived on the side of Pukekura Park. Every day we'd go down to the beach for a swim, and when we'd come back for lunch there would always be something from Grandma's garden like fresh tomatoes. At night before bed I would lie beside her fire drawing camellia flowers I had collected from her garden."
This is the fourth year a leading international or New Zealand landscape designer has been chosen to create an innovative landscape installation for the 10-day festival, which runs from October 31 to November 9.
Having won a prestigious Silver Gilt award for her 100 percent Pure New Zealand garden that was commissioned by Tourism New Zealand for the 2006 Chelsea event, Xanthe White is one of New Zealand's most talented and creative landscape designers, said Taranaki Rhododendron & Garden Festival manager, Lisa Haskell.
"Over the past four years, visitors have enjoyed installations designed by leading English, French and New Zealand designers," said Lisa.
"While draft plans have already been drawn for Xanthe's garden, construction won't start on the foreshore installation until the two weeks leading up to the festival. Xanthe's unique finished landscape will be unveiled in a function the night before the festival opens on October 31."
Visitors to this year's festival can also enjoy 49 gardens that are ranked among New Zealand's best.
Eighteen gardens are rated by the New Zealand Gardens Trust as being 'Gardens of Significance' the highest concentration of such gardens in any part of New Zealand. Two gardens, Rosedale in Bell Block, and Nikau Grove in New Plymouth, were recently awarded Garden of Significance status.
Gardens include large formal country gardens, sub tropical gardens, gardens with a Japanese theme, art gardens, and gardens set in Mt Taranaki's rainforest.
There is a wide range of events, guided walks and guest speakers also scheduled throughout the festival including the President of the American Rhododendron Society, Fred Whitney.
Mr. Whitney lives on a two acre block south of Seattle, in the state of Washington, where he has planted some 1,500 rhododendrons and companion plants. On Sunday 2 November Mr. Whitney will be speaking at Pukeiti one of the largest rhododendron gardens in the world with around 10,000 varieties planted.
Other speakers include garden TV celebrity Maggie Barry, and award winning florist Denise Gray among a host of local gardening experts.
For a full programme of gardens and events, visit www.rhodo.co.nz or contact the Taranaki Rhododendron & Garden Festival office on 06 759 8412.