Wonder Around the Elms Garden

The Elms
Mission Street
Tauranga

27 March 2014

A bit of Garden History …

Many of the English trees in the gardens were planted by missionary Alfred Brown in the 1830s. An acorn carried from England in 1829, has grown into a fine specimen on the north lawn (pic below, note the post holding up one of the limbs). Norfolk Island pines were favoured by missionaries for the Christian cross, renewed in each year's new growth.

New Zealand trees and shrubs were planted in the early twentieth century by the second generation of the family to occupy the property.

There are also fine examples of unusual trees, such as the bunya bunya pine.

During the 1950s a fire cleared the garden in front of the library.

Duff planted all the trees on the library lawn, and in front of the building. The remaining fruit trees, citrus, apple and pear, date back to his era.

The Tea Garden, with seating surrounding a graceful palm tree, owes its name to Gertrude's efforts to help the family finances. Visitors were able to order afternoon tea by ringing a bell. 

Alice and Ediths garden. After the death of their mother, Euphemia, in 1919, her daughters went to the East Coast for a holiday. They were able to indulge their interest in New Zealand plants by bringing back small specimens of rimu, totara, miro, tawa and the native maidenhair fern. The sisters supplied flowers and foliage to Ruby Norris, a local florist, and raised funds to help soldiers during WW I by selling bunches of violets. They also raised some much needed income by supplying flowers and foliage to a local florist.

The Elms was once famous for its hollyhocks, which grew to an amazing 16 ft in height. In the 1930s a couple employed by Alice to help with the property obtained seed from a gardener at Buckingham Palace from the splendid hollyhocks that grew there. For years they self seeded in The Elms garden.

The last of the original elms planted by Reverend Brown was felled in the 1950s but one tree remains on the north lawn, grown from a sucker from one of the originals. It was planted by Alice Maxwell about 1945 in order to retain one of the trees after which the property is named.