Portfolio > Emanuel's, Lake Karapiro
This luxury bed and breakfast in the Waikato stands atop a hillside which overlooks Lake Karapiro and the local mountain, Maungatautari. The owners, who built the property, designed the house to evoke the scale of large Arts and Crafts houses, and utilised traditional details throughout the building (in contrast to most buildings built today). Accordingly, the house looks as if it has been here for considerably longer than five years, which is when it was completed.
The garden needed to match the feel of the house, and serve as grounds for guests to relax in. 
Designing to an Arts and Crafts setup permitted us to adapt our interest in the work of Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll, whilst incorporating the ideas developed by the German and Dutch naturalistic designers/plantspeople, Mien Ruys, Karl Foerster and Piet Oudolf. This was appropriate to this property as the owners are English and Dutch respectively.
This garden is an example of our work into developing a New Zealand style of garden which is based on the progress made by Dutch and German horticulturists in the second half of the 20th Century (as presented in our 2004 Ellerslie Flower Show garden, "Middle Ground"). Karl Foerster is primarily responsible for introducing grasses (and other plants which do not fit the traditional idea of a desirable garden plant; i.e., flowering or structural species) into ornamental horticulture. He advocated for grasses and other components of 'real' landscapes to be pulled into the garden, to provide a more profound style of garden.
We feel that this approach to gardens can provide a template for the future cultivation of many endangered species in New Zealand. Many little-known native plants may not attract interest on their own, but contribute to compositions that may include non-weedy exotic species, through providing a more subtle range of characteristics (such as visually binding plantings). Many endangered and little-known native plant species have been integrated with exotic flowering perennials and interesting exotic species of trees and shrubs.
Many trees and shrubs were sourced from Waikato nurseryman, Peter Cave, 
who is one of New Zealand's most valuable plantspeople for his lifelong interest in promoting a great range of exotic species that mainstream horticulture does not regularly utilise. Peter has an important collection of magnolias, a group of plants that should be used more extensively in the North Island (there are far better species/varieties than the ubiquitous Magnolia grandiflora). He has also devoted his energies to amassing a significant collection of small trees and shrubs which exhibit scent, remarkable bark or flowers.
Some interesting plants that we sourced from Peter are:
- The columnar holly, Ilex dimorphophylla, which comes from a snake-infested island off the coast of Japan.
- Carpinus betulus 'Fastigiata', a columnar form of the hornbeam, which is a traditional feature of English rural areas (note: many fastigiate, or columnar, trees were included in the design, to refer to the character of farmland trees, such as poplars).
- Camellia sinensis, the plant from which tea is produced, which is used as informal hedges by the kitchen garden.
- Lagerstroemia chekiangensis, a beautiful flowering small tree with amazing flaking bark.
- A specimen of Quercus suber (cork oak), the tree grown in the Mediterranean for the production of cork. Cork oaks are hard to buy in New Zealand, although at one stage in our history, it was investigated as a possible crop.
- Luma apiculata (syn. Myrtus luma), a South American tree with remarkable orange bark which bears thousands of scented white flowers upon an elegant framework of dark green foliage.
The house is approached via a long driveway (in local gravel) which is lined either side with the native tree, tanekaha (Phyllocladus trichomanoides, or celery pine). Forming approximately half of the usable area of the land, an orchard of heritage fruit trees stands to the north of the house. Many of these varieties are almost forgotten old cultivars that people like Kay Baxter (a Northland horticulturist devoted to the preservation of heritage fruit varieties) have collected. They are often superior in resistance, fruiting or vigour to more modern cultivars. There is a large range of pear trees amongst these; mainly on account of their ornamental value (pears are amongst the most beautiful of all trees, on account of their graceful shape).
To the north side of the house stands the main border, which is positioned between the driveway and the guest terrace. This large border contains a mix of robust flowering perennials, grasses and shrubs. The Japanese grass, Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light', is the dominant feature of the border, with its upright silvery clumps of arching foliage. Shade for the terrace will be provided by specimens of Luma apiculata, which have begun to assume a spreading form. The rare native forget-me-nots, Myosotis eximia (from the Ruahines) and M. saxosa (from a very small area of Hawkes Bay) are both thriving within this garden, and the client is actively propagating them. Notable perennials include the copper-flowered Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty' (bred by Mien Ruys' father), Scilla natalensis (a very large African bluebell), Tulbaghia violacea (an onion-like South African flower), and the sky blue-flowered Salvia sagittata. These are mixed with native species such as the grass Deschampsia caespitosa var. macrantha, the scented divaricate, Pittosporum anomalum, the cream and black-flowered Hibiscus trionum and the threatened Pimelea tomentosa (most notable for its grey-green foliage and white flowers).
The south side of the house (which faces the view) opens on to individual decks (for each guest room), which are surrounded by native plantings. The coastal grass, Poa anceps, has been particularly successful, and is covered in brown flowerheads for much of the year. Several specimens of the critically endangered white-flowered rata, Metrosideros bartlettii, (of which only 34 trees remain in the wild) are planted on the south side, and for shelter to the southwest of the building. This job was the first project on which we were able to use the shrub, Pittosporum cornifolium, a plant that has been one of the most successful plants that we have trialled over the last three and a half years. Other interesting native tree species to be used as shelter and skeletal planting are the naturally-occurring hybrid, Melicope x mantelli, Pittosporum umbellatum, Toronia toru, Olearia avicenniaefolia, Melicytus chathamicus and the threatened kowhai species, Sophora fulvida.
To the east of the house (and adjacent to the kitchen) is the kitchen garden. This consists of raised beds which are constructed of brick or timber, in which the owners can grow separate crops of vegetable or herb species. Amongst these are the native spinach, Tetragonia implexicoma, and a celery-like vegetable called lovage from which one of the owners makes a soup which is traditional in English cooking. A compact growing species of kiwifruit, Actinidia arguta, (known as the cocktail kiwifruit) grows on iron supports above the kitchen windows.
In the areas adjacent to the kitchen garden, we have provided for future screening through the planting of miro hedges (Prumnopitys ferruginea). This native plant has a similar appearance to the popular yew tree ( Taxus baccata) of English gardens - so much so that its near relative, matai, is named for its similarity to the genus Taxus, Prumnopitys taxifolia. Closer to the pool, we have used hedges of Hall's totara. Totara hedges were a common feature of farm gardens in New Zealand, but are not commonly seen nowadays.
The garden at Karapiro was a testing ground for ideas that we have developed on the future of flower gardening in New Zealand, and the potential of flower gardens to assist in the conservation of New Zealand species. It is also becoming a very interesting assemblage of unusual tree species, both native and exotic. We are looking to continue to develop it, to experiment further with trials on endangered native species and worthwhile flowering exotics, and the combination of these in 'integrated' gardens.
