Seeds of subversion

Subversion is not something you normally associate with horticulture but there's an award-winning Auckland horticulturist who, while not exactly a terrorist, quite likes being described as subversive.

Philip Smith is well known in gardening circles. He set up his business eight years ago and has been involved in projects as far afield as the Chelsea Flower Show in London. His most recent success came from designing the garden of a house in Leigh Harbour that won a 2009 New Zealand Institute of Architects Award.

The approach of this enfant terrible of the plant world is pretty reasoned. However, his youthful enthusiasm is tempered by frustration over modern trends and a creeping horticultural xenophobia. "The concept of 'native horticulture' needs to be re-thought. It's become just a label."

More specifically, on the subject of integrated gardens (arguably what he is best known for) he says, "some people think they can slap together a few exotics and natives and call it an integrated garden. It becomes a cliche."

Integrated gardens - gardens with an original combination of plants - are a concept about which Smith is passionate. What's so unusual about that you might ask? The way in which Smith likes to mix things is critical, and this is where the "subversion" comes in. "I like using flashy flowering plants, giving people pure visceral joy, together with other things you want them to appreciate."

It's his way of being inventive about the problem of species loss. Through this type of garden he "integrates" aesthetics with an advocacy for endangered species, providing something on an almost populist level while at the same time educating people. He readily admits it has to be done carefully.

"If you put some of these [endangered] species out on their own, people are not going to respond. But, in association, in a group, people view them differently."

He says the naturalistic style represents a paradigm shift.

The origins of Smith's style lie in the work of the early 20th-century German horticulturist, Karl Foerster. He added grasses and ferns to the traditional flower garden to provide naturalistic charm. "He was revolutionary for his time but was not working with the native assemblage we have here." Smith is trying to extend the model, taking the prototype of flowers, grass, and ferns, while also inserting certain subtle native trees or shrubs. He says this evokes more of the nature of the New Zealand landscape. "We can evolve this cool style of garden, making people aware of their native environment and of conservation values."

Regional identity

In his design, Smith advocates being geographically appropriate - looking into the native ecologies, plants and horticultural traditions of a particular area. "It's more fun for the client as well," he says. When designing a garden in Hawkes Bay recently, Smith used several local plants. One was a critically endangered native daphne - Pimelea aff. aridula - occurring only on Te Mata Peak.

In the Auckland region, Smith tries to encourage the use of several species. "Take the Waitakeres. With a ridgeline on an east-west access, the north side of these ranges is completely different from the south side. It's the most amazing mosaic of different habitats. The Hunuas, by comparison, tend to be a lot more uniform and botanically not so interesting."

An example of a species Smith is trying to promote is Dichelachae inaequiglumis - a regionally threatened, self-seeding, meadow grass. One of the few places it can grow is Waikumete Cemetery. "This is a plant Aucklanders need to know about," says Smith, "an example of a regionally threatened species that can be brought into gardens."

That's part of the reason Smith says he does what he does - trying to promote self-sustaining populations of endangered species. In conservation terms they are called "insurance populations".

"There's a little native forget-me-not - Myosotis petiolata. Three varieties are endangered, one critically. People think it's an English plant but New Zealand is the world centre for it; we have heaps of native forget-me-nots. I'm quite proud of the fact I have a critically endangered plant self-seeding in a client's garden in Parnell. That makes you feel good."

Exotics and weeds

If Smith is subversive in the way he combines plants, there's another level - the way he champions the protection of some exotics. This might sound like heresy in an age when everyone seems to worship at the twin altars of "indigenous" and "native". Exotic has the connotation of "weed". Talking to Smith you get an idea of the ignorance and hysteria surrounding the term.

"There used to be this great horticultural tradition in New Zealand of people going off exploring overseas and bringing back interesting things. The work of these remarkable people is being lost. It costs thousands of dollars worth of trials just to get a species back if we lose it."

He gives some examples of "interesting things" that could be lost. "Try to imagine Auckland without deciduous magnolias (not the evergreen ones, they're just big puddings!)" Then he mentions a small, traditional British garden flower called a geum. "If we don't keep on growing them there are varieties of geum that will go west and that would be sad. They are fantastic garden plants, small things that can't just march off into the wild because they're not strong. Geums are not going to take over the New Zealand landscape."

He says exotics that have the greatest potential as weeds are the ones that align themselves best with our native ecologies.

In Auckland the predominant native ecologies are "closed", i.e. forest or scrub. "Not grassland like the Caucuses, or the prairies in America."

When using exotics in Auckland, Smith tries to come up with a safe garden style - one that is incongruous with the predominant native ecology. "The English or Northern European flower garden style, integrated with New Zealand natives, works really well. These are garden plants which require open habitats in order to survive naturally. They have such a small chance of doing it out there."

He says one advantage this garden style has over other others, like sub-tropical, is that sub-tropical has the potential to be dangerous. "Botanists are actually a bit concerned about exotic Queen Palms and Bangalow Palms because they've started to naturalise in areas of bush around Auckland."

When talking about environmental weeds Smith concedes you have to be very careful with exotic climbers. "Our worst weeds are climbers." But, it's also in the use of climbers Smith demonstrates how imaginative he can be. "There's an intriguing species of small-leafed, nationally-threatened native tree I use - Pittosporum Obcordatum. One thing I do is grow climbers over it. The tree then becomes a canvas."

He is particularly interested in one category of clematis called Viticellas - safe because it has no (or limited) dispersal ability, while providing all types of bright colour.

"If you combine Viticellas with certain native shrubs you have three things - your ecology, your structure, and your resonance, and the climbers die down every winter. Suddenly, there's a native shrub draped in red flowers, a look it hasn't had for the last million years!"

Dumbing down

Horticulture has almost become mass-produced, Smith says. There's been a dumbing down. With mass production comes blandness, something he feels strongly about.

"You end up with gardens that are a cacophony of 'star' plants. Demand for what you find in specialist nurseries is tailing off." The inference is that fashion is resulting in species loss. Specialist nurseries are closing.

"We are steered towards iconic species. The word icon is a real bane, a sting in the foot of culture. You end up valuing only the most spectacular." Smith describes his garden style as almost anti-iconic. "When you focus on icons all the time, you limit yourself. In horticulture and botany we have so much, and yet we focus on so little because we know we can sell it. It's disappointing.

"As horticulturists we have to take a couple of risks and take responsibility for the natural environment."

On the theme of icons, Smith's opinion on the controversy over the nikau palms in Queen St is interesting.

"The nikau is a beautiful tree and certainly better than the liquidambars that were there before." As to whether they are suited to the urban environment, he makes the point that nikau have been known to flourish in ravines and gorges. "Queen St is a natural ravine; a natural gorge."

The problem, he says, is that many of the trees originally came from the wild and therefore have wild rhythms, not those of a tree grown from seed in the controlled environment of a nursery. And many are already quite old. "They've been through a large amount of their life cycle."

So what does this enthusiastic, young botanist have in his own garden?

Within the space of two metres he has five or six native species (providing the basic structure, which stays in winter) with flowers giving seasonal interest and dynamism. It's a vibrant mix of "subversive" colour and shape.

And where did Smith hone his skills?

"My mother's garden of course," he laughs, "much to her chagrin!"

* www.o2landscapes.com