Treemendous School Makeover

ALBANY School is one of four to win Treemendous School Makeovers having its grounds enhanced with a native tree garden.

Bucklands Beach Primary School (East Auckland), St Joseph’s School (New Plymouth) and East Taieri School (Dunedin) were also selected by the Mazda Foundation and Project Crimson Trust joint initiative from 94 schools.

“We’ve completed eight school makeovers,” says Mazda Foundation chairman Andrew Clearwater. “Many schools are now viewing environmental education as an important part of the curriculum and are  using their makeover areas as outdoor classrooms.”

Albany School’s grove, originally ‘out of bounds’ for students, is now transformed with seating, landscaping and mature native trees to attract native birds and insects, after teachers discussed the idea for five years before being able to put their plan into action.

View: www.projectcrimson.org.nz and www.mazdafoundation.org.nz

Quarterly: OUT NOW

WEEKEND GARDENER’S Quarterly Special Edition, Garden Skills is coming soon. There are great ideas and how-to guides for essential garden tasks including raising seeds, pruning, irrigation, composting, tool maintenance and boosting soil fertility.

On sale for $6.95.

Manawatu Garden Festival

THE ninth anniversary Manawatu Garden Festival has attracted four landscape design gardens.

Kevin Gillespie, Leonard Wall,  Margaret Macleod and Esmae Stroud will present designs for the festival at Manfeild Stadium, Feilding, on May 1 - 2.

The North Island’s biggest dedicated weekend garden show features the Weekend Gardener garden seminars which include Kathy Bills (Landscape design for less garden maintenance), Alan Fielding (How to compost correctly); gardening guru Wally Richards; and Weekend Gardener herbs columnist Marilyn Wightman.

Celebrity chef Astar from TVNZ’s Good Morning show presents How to be fabulous on the small of an oily rag.

Entertainment at the festival includes Feilding High School Wearable Art static display;  photographic exhibition; interior design complemented with floral art, schools calico drawing competition, What’s at the bottom of the garden, and lawn mower racing.

The festival, which has a United Travel South Island tour prize draw, is open 9am-4pm each day. www.gardenfest.co.nz

PROGRAMME 2010

Saturday, 1 May

10am    
Celebrity chef - Astar - How to be fabulous on the smell of an oily rag.

11am    
Weekend Gardener seminar - Kathy Bills, BRP (Hon) MRP, demonstration on Landscape Design for less garden maintenance.

11am    
First lawnmower racing race.

11.30am  
Feilding Little Theatre Nunsense musical bracket from their upcoming production.

1pm      
Weekend Gardener seminar - Alan Fielding, international lecturer How to compost correctly.

2pm      
Celebrity chef - Astar - How to be fabulous on the smell of an oily rag.

3pm      
Weekend Gardener seminar - Wally Richards - Manawatu gardening guru / journalist.

Sunday, 2 May

10.00am  
Celebrity Chef - Astar - How to be fabulous on the smell of an oily rag.

11.00am  
Weekend Gardner seminar - Marilyn Whiteman, herbalist and Weekend Gardener columnist Growing Herbs - from a 25 years perspective.

11.00 am 
First lawnmower racing race.

11.30am  
Feilding Little Theatre Nunsense musical bracket from the upcoming production.

1pm      
Weekend Gardener seminar - Kathy Bills BRP (Hon) MRP, demonstration on Landscape design for less garden maintenance.

2pm      
Celebrity Chef - Astar - How to be fabulous on the smell of an oily rag.

3pm                
Weekend Gardener seminar - Alan Fielding international lecturer, How to compost correctly.

Auckland gets new floristry training centre

BUDDING florists now have a dedicated home in the heart of Auckland’s professional flower industry with the opening of Manukau Institute of Technology’s new floristry training centre.

Based at the Floramax flower auction house in Mt Wellington, the floristry centre will equip aspiring florists with the skills, experience and industry exposure for a successful floristry career.

From its new base, MIT’s School of Horticulture will deliver floristry training programmes from beginner level, 12 week Introduction to Floral Design course to the recently introduced National Certificate in Floristry (Level 2).

Dave Bradshaw, Head of MIT’s School of Horticulture and Landscaping, says acquiring a dedicated floristry training centre in Mt Wellington had enabled the school to expand its training portfolio with the introduction of the National Certificate in Floristry.

Floristry lecturer Priscilla Hunt says: “Floristry is experiencing revived popularity as a career option and hobby and we’re seeing great interest in our programmes.

“Our location means that the students benefit from meeting growers, florists and other key industry players on a daily basis so our students stand a good chance of employment when they graduate,” she said.

MIT plans to introduce the National Certificate in Floristry Level 4 this year and the National Certificate in Floristry Level 4 Advanced in 2011.

‘Camellia Ark’ shares rare plants

EG WATERHOUSE National Camellia Gardens - home to Australia’s largest and most diverse collection of camellias - is sharing rare camellia specimens with public gardens as part of its ‘Camellia Ark’ project.

The project is propagating some of the gardens rarer and most beautiful specimens to ensure the ongoing viability of the plants.

The ark contains 107 plants of 40 different varieties and this is set to grow to up to 75 different varieties.

Camellia growing in Australia reached its peak in the mid 19th century with the boom ending in the late 1880s.

Sydney’s leading nursery at the time listed 160 varieties in 1883 which had dropped off to 53 in 1891 and to 16 in 1916.

The Australian and New Zealand Camellia Research Society (ANZCRS) was established with five members in 1952 of which one was Professor EG Waterhouse, after whom the gardens are named.

The national camellia gardens has a collection of some 1150 camellias including 850 different varieties, a number of which are rare cultivars not found anywhere else in Australia with varieties originally cultivated in Europe, Japan, China and the United States.