New Developments

Gardeners have always been inspired by different forms of fantasy. The Fantasy Collections explores different aspects of this theme; cultural, botanical, artistic and historical fantasy are all represented.

There are three Fantasy Gardens under development:

• The Tropical Garden is based on the gardener’s fantasy of being able to grow plants from outside one's own climactic region. In this case it is the fantasy of growing tropical plants in a subtropical Waikato climate.
• The Tudor Garden is inspired by historical Tudor gardens featuring mythical beasts, such as unicorns, sea serpents and griffins.
• The Surrealist Garden is a dreamlike garden, where the usual 'rules' are suspended. It will feature distortions of scale, visual puns and mysterious shapes.

These three gardens will fill in the area between the existing Paradise and Productive Collections, as shown on the diagram below: