Gorgeous gardens: Glascroft - a treat for the senses in Pātea

Olivia and Julian Shimmin in the Mexican section of their beautiful Glascroft Gardens in Pātea. Photo / Bevan Conley

In an occasional summer series, we take you into some of our region’s residential gardens. Today we meet Olivia and Julian Shimmin who have created a garden of many rooms at their Pātea property. Liz Wylie reports.

When Henry Scott Holland wrote about death as a process of slipping into the next room he could have been thinking of Glascroft Gardens in Pātea.

Olivia and Julian Shimmin’s beautiful gardens in Scotland Rd are next door to the Pātea Cemetery and a circular “moongate” affords a view of the Norfolk pines and pōhutukawa trees growing there.

The gardens consist of a series of 11 “rooms”, all designed to delight the senses.

“We like the view of the cemetery and during the Covid lockdowns it has been a pleasant place to go for walks,” Olivia said.

The first room entered from the street is the wedding room where the couple was married, featuring a sculpture by Graeme Kiff of Simply Wrought Iron in Whanganui.

It sits in the middle of a circular garden bed planted with grasses and there are roses and lilies in the surrounding beds and a large, sweetly-scented honeysuckle vine at the entrance.

The next room features a bed containing a cluster of enormous Christmas lilies planted by Julian.

“They are going to get even bigger than this,” he said.

The Mexican garden is a visual treat featuring bright tiles and colourful pots filled with palms, succulents and other heat-loving plants. There is a wood-burning aga oven and a bar with stools and comfortable seating options.

Beneath the bar is a low wall constructed from brightly painted 2x4 timber off-cuts.

The couple said the look was inspired by a wall feature in the Signs Lounge Bar at Cinema 2 in Hāwera.

The circular moongate leading to the Pātea Cemetery from Glascroft Gardens. Photo / Bevan Conley

Next to the Mexican room is the French room - a tranquil shady retreat filled with scents of lavender, lemon balm and roses.

In front of the Shimmins’ turn-of-the-century homestead is a beautiful paulownia tomentosa known as the princess, empress or foxglove tree.

“It has finished flowering, unfortunately,” Olivia said.

“The flowers are beautiful - big, purple trumpet-shaped flowers but the leaves are beautiful as well.”

Around the side of the house is Olivia’s gillyflower garden filled with scented blooms of sweet william, lavender and roses.

“I started this garden for our granddaughter when she was very ill in Starship Hospital,” Olivia said.

“It smells so good at this time of year.”

The wedding room at Glascroft Gardens features a central sculpture by Whanganui artist Graeme Kiff. Photo / Bevan Conley

There are more than 60 rose varieties in the one-acre gardens and behind the house is the magnificent rhododendron garden which is Julian’s pride and joy.

“There are over 120 plants here but I have discovered that there are over 900 varieties so it’s hard to know when to stop,” he said.

The rhododendrons were at their most spectacular when the Shimmins opened Glascroft to the public for the Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival in late October and early November.

“We had around 950 people through and it was incredible,” Julian said.

Behind the house is a sunken, circular bed housing some precious rose specimens that need extra wind protection.

“These are old Tudor roses that date back to the 16th century,” Olivia said.

“They are not that old of course but they are descended from the original specimens and need a lot of extra care.”

A birdbath next to the roses has glass marbles in the base, placed there for the purpose of saving pollen-drunk bees from drowning. If they fall in, they can gain purchase on the marbles to get themselves out.

A stunning variety of lilies feature in the beds at Glascroft Gardens. Photo / Bevan Conley

Along the shady side of the house is the stumpery room where some old willow trees were cut down and their stumps left in place.

The stumps encourage the growth of ferns and fungi to create new gardens from old.

Julian said the area was partly inspired by Victorian stumperies and also by a German gardening method known as Hugelkultur where tree stumps and woody materials are used to create new gardens.

A relatively new addition at Glascroft is the physic garden featuring plants with medicinal properties such as chamomile, comfrey and borage. The area includes a water feature with a central channel ending at a fishpond.

The physic room features medicinal plants and a fish pond. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Shimmins met in Julian’s native England and he followed Olivia home to Pātea where they have worked together building Glascroft for 15 years.

“Being so close to the coast we had problems with salt breezes while we were establishing the gardens,” Olivia said.

“We have discovered a number of salt-loving plants and learned to create shelter for the ones that don’t like it.”

The couple said they used a lot of mulch to keep the beds moist and the sandy soil underneath provided good drainage.

Galscroft is open for the festival each year and occasionally by appointment at other times.

The Shimmins also run their bed and breakfast Quince Lodge where guests can enjoy the gardens as part of their stay.