| Talking About Texture |
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The Press, August 28-29, 2004 Mary Lovell-Smith wanders around the edgy plants in a Prebbleton nursery’s new showroom. From the globe’s hotspots – Central America, South America, southern Africa, New Zealand even – come a range of uncompromisingly striking botanical beauties: aloe, agave, astelia, palm, puya, cactus and succulents. The leading lights in bringing these plants to Canterbury gardens are the Prebble brothers, Hamish and Tim, who for 10 years have collected, grown and sold them at their Prebbleton nursery, Texture Plants, on the corner of Springs and Marshs roads. A product of both foresight and their youth and hipness (the city’s horticulturists tend to be an older, more conventional bunch), the brothers have amassed a collection of plants unique in type and number. The brothers – who also pioneered growing examples of plants in situ to show both what the mature plants look like and their landscaping uses – now have an indoor showroom for their more frost and water-tender plants. After all, the fertile, low-lying, frost-prone paddocks of Prebbleton are far from most of these plants’ dry native habitat, and from their eventual homes on the Port Hills. Why the hills? Most of the plants in the new tunnelhouse showrooms can be grown on the flat or outside, says Hamish, but many must be in well-draining soil (they hate wet feet), and need protection from all but light frosts. For these reasons, flatlanders should put them in containers. Being mainly drought-resistant also make them ideal container candidates. And why new homes? Of course, they can be planted around any style home, replies Hamish placatingly, and look good. (The brothers offer a plantscaping service – for any garden, not just the new). It’s just that, he continues (there’s no beating about the bush, here), these plants sit at the top end of the price market. The new hill homes have unusually been designed by architects. They are minimalist, make a statement, and are low maintenance. Their owners want gardens to match and are willing to pay for them. Today’s younger gardeners want easy-care plants, says Tim, such as there. They seldom need pruning, feeding or watering, and they can be as fast or as slow-growing as their owners want. Feed and water them more and they grow faster. |
