Ayrlies Garden
Encyclopedia
Ayrlies Garden is a country garden near Whitford
Whitford, New Zealand
Whitford is a suburb southeast of central Auckland, in Manukau City, New Zealand. There are multiple versions of how the town was named. It may be named after Richard Whitford, a man who operated a flax mill on the Waikopua near Housons Creek and was the postman...

, southeast of Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

 on the North Island
North Island
The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

 of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. It is one of New Zealand's best-known gardens, and has been described as the "quintessential New Zealand garden".

The garden now covers some 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) of rolling terrain, with large lawns, ponds and waterways, and heavily planted informal borders which make strong use of colour, including a "lurid border" of 'hot' colours. Some areas feature rose
Rose
A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...

s, clematis
Clematis
Clematis is a genus of about 300 species within the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Their garden hybrids have been popular among gardeners beginning with Clematis × jackmanii, a garden standby since 1862; more hybrid cultivars are being produced constantly. They are mainly of Chinese and Japanese...

 and perennials; others contain lush, sub-tropical plants, such as Petrea
Petrea
Petrea is a genus of evergreen flowering vines native to Mexico and Central America. They have rough-textured leaves, hence the common name sandpaper vine. It looks somewhat similar to a tropical Wisteria....

, Alocasia
Alocasia
Alocasia is a genus of broad-leaved rhizomatous or tuberous perennials from the Family Araceae. There are 78 species of Alocasia occurring in Tropical & Subtropical Asia to Eastern Australia and widely cultivated in Oceania and South America. The large cordate or sagittate leaves grow to a length...

, bromeliads, vireya
Rhododendron subgenus Vireya
Rhododendron subg. Vireya is a tropical subgenus of Rhododendron with 310 known species. Vireyas are native to southeastern Asia and range from Thailand to Australia....

 rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...

s and Ficus dammaropsis
Ficus dammaropsis
Ficus dammaropsis, Kapiak , or Highland Breadfruit , is tropical fig tree with huge pleated leaves 60 cm across. It is native to the highlands and highlands fringe of New Guinea. It generally grows at altitudes of between 800 and 2750 metres; its extreme range is from sea level to 2820 m...

. It also includes many large trees - mostly liquid amber, swamp cypress
Swamp cypress
Swamp cypress is a common name for more than one species of plants in the family Cupressaceae :* Species of the genus Taxodium* Glyptostrobus pensilis* Actinostrobus pyramidalis...

 and pin oak
Pin oak
Quercus palustris, the Pin oak or Swamp Spanish oak, is an oak in the red oak section Quercus sect. Lobatae.-Distribution:...

 - which have grown rapidly in the warm and wet climate, with rare frosts and over 50 inches (1.3 m) of rain a year. It contains several structures around the main house, including a small 'sitooterie' - a low gazebo
Gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal, that may be built, in parks, gardens, and spacious public areas. Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and open on all sides; they provide shade, shelter, ornamental features in a landscape, and a place to rest...

, to sit out in and admire the view. The large site is unified by a consistent planting and use of materials.

The garden was created by Beverly McConnell and her late husband Malcolm, co-founder of New Zealand engineering and construction company McConnell Dowell. It is named after Malcolm McConnell's grandfather's farm in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The garden began in 1964, when the McConnells moved to the site with their young family, starting with a 3 acres (12,140.6 m²) coastal site which was previously bare paddock with a heavy clay soil, and expanding to 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) in 1978, including the addition of three large ponds. From 2000, 35 acres (141,640.1 m²) of swamp flats below the homestead were transformed into a wetland area with an 8 acres (32,374.9 m²) lake, linking the garden to the Hauraki Gulf
Hauraki Gulf
The Hauraki Gulf is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a total area of 4000 km², and lies between the Auckland Region, the Hauraki Plains, the Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island...

nearby.

The garden is open to the public, by appointment.
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