Description
Few have advanced the art of gardening in this country as much as Gordon Collier. New Zealand’s most passionate plantsman and garden designer extraordinaire needs no introduction to garden lovers, but in this beautiful celebration of his three famous gardens – created and nurtured over 60 years – friends, colleagues and fellow gardeners pay tribute to the man behind the legend.
T ī toki  Point, Anacapri and The  White House gardens perfectly display the talent and vision of Gordon Collier down the years as he worked tire-lessly to create living works of art. The sheer beauty of his work on display here will undoubtedly further inspire creative gardening in this country and become an important reference for students of garden design.
As the man himself has said, a good garden should be judged not by the rarity or the expense of the plant inhabitants but by how those plants are assembled, one with the other. And how that was done in these three memorable gardens is nothing short of magical.
About the Author
From the Foreword by Kate Coughlan,
editor, NZ Life & Leisure
In late 1997, before I could move to Auckland to take up my new role as editor of NZ House & Garden, Gordon and his wife Annette appeared at my Wellington door to introduce themselves. Gordon was writing for NZ House & Garden, and he wanted to ensure that I would continue publishing stories about New Zealand’s gardens. He’d come to make his case; face-to-face.
Certainly, I would. I knew Gordon’s famous Tītoki Point garden, near Taihape, and of his legendary presence in the gardening world. And I knew the magazine needed a world-class eye to recognise and write about the many properties being developed to high standards.
Not only did I continue to commission Gordon, but within twelve months, I created a new role for him as gardens editor. It was a wise decision, and the magazine was all the better for it. The flourishing of NZ House & Garden in the early 2000s, when it regularly sold 70,000 copies each issue, was due to the quality of the sum of its parts. And Gordon was a big part. The tenacity he displayed in beating a path to my door was replicated as he unearthed beautiful gardens the length and breadth of the country.
He and another of New Zealand’s gardening legends, Beverley McConnell of Ayrlies Garden, were the driving forces in establishing the New Zealand Gardens Trust in 2007. This was important and quite courageous work. It provided a uniform system for grading gardens open to the public, guaranteeing the burgeoning garden tourism industry.
Gordon’s artist’s eye has not only flowered in the creation of each of his three magnificent gardens but also in his work writing about the achievements of other gardeners and establishing a sound basis for our garden tourism industry.
Specifications
ISBN: 978-1-99-110303-1
Pages: 176
Dimensions: 210mm x 250mm
Author: Gordon Collier
Published: 21 March 2023
