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| Clint Jensen and NZSL interpreter Ginette Rawlinson |
Today we had a private guided tour of Government
House grounds in preparation for the NZSL-interpreted free public tour at 10:30am on Love
Your Mountain Day.
Head gardener Clint Jensen showed us around the landscaped garden developed over a period of 45 years by Sir
Frank and Lady Mappin and gifted to the Crown in 1966.
Among the many notable trees in the garden
is a very special tecomanthe speciosa.
Native to the Three Kings Islands, the species was almost wiped out by goats
until the chance discovery in 1945 of one solitary plant which still exists on the
island.
Two plants were propagated from this one
remaining plant in the wild. One was sent to the former DSIR, and it is the
source of the tecomanthe plants now widely available in garden centres, Clint
told us. The other cutting was entrusted to the Mappins, a testament to their horticultural
knowledge and experience.
The tecomanthe specimen propagated from the sole
survivor on the Three Kings Islands is still thriving in the grounds of
Government House, carefully tended as the Mappins wished when they gave their
garden to the Crown.
On Love Your Mountain Day, you can visit
and learn more about the garden, its history and plants, and its lava-flow
forest which is a designated ecologically significant area, one of only three
pockets of lava-flow forest remaining in Auckland.
Tours leave from our information table at the Pavilion inside the grounds at 10:30am (signed) and 2:30pm (not signed). A tour of Withiel Thomas reserve, another lava-flow forest pocket, starts at 12:30pm. It is led by Sel Arbuckle, a highly knowledgeable volunteer who has weeded and looked after the reserve for over 15 years.
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