KEY POINTS:
Aucklanders are used to being accused of being brash and loud. Now the city's public gardens have earned the same label.
Auckland's flowerbeds have been likened to flashy sports cars popular with showoffs, while those in Christchurch are more like English country gardens, full of rustic charm.
The comments by award-winning landscape designer Xanthe White come as Christchurch and Hamilton make efforts to poach the lucrative Ellerslie International Flower Show - the biggest event of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
The event could switch from a city whose gardens are "flashy" and influenced by the Pacific to a city of English-style gardens with flowerbeds and neat borders.
Christchurch says it would relish the prospect of hosting an event that generates $14 million for Auckland and attracts more than 600,000 visitors. But experts say the style of gardens in the two cities couldn't be further apart.
Xanthe White said Auckland gardens were characterised by a subtropical look.
"The whole subtropical, bromeliads and foliage thing has been very trendy. But I'm starting to see a shift away from that to more edible and more planty gardens and people wanting colour and seasonality."
She said Christchurch was still in the classical English era of gardening flora such as roses, foxgloves and delphiniums whereas Auckland had taken on a Polynesian influence and was big on native plants.
"Auckland is probably more like a sports car, a bit more flashy and all slick lines and contrasts. It's probably more about being cool and the urban lifestyle.
"If you have a fireplace in a garden in Auckland, it's all sort of slick with concrete around it and a couple of architecture plants, whereas in Christchurch it's likely to have rustic charm, with roses climbing over it."
Auckland's climate was good for palms and succulents. Colour and seasonal change contrast Christchurch gardens with their northern counterparts. Sprawling homes in wealthier parts of Christchurch like Fendalton still maintain the classic English-style gardens, with flowerbeds and borders.
"A Christchurch garden changes a hell of a lot more. It's not a static garden," says award-winning Christchurch landscape architect Chris Goom.
Much of the look of Christchurch gardens stems from the climate. The city is exposed to hot, dry northwest winds blowing across the Canterbury plains in summer, and severe frosts in winter, which means plants must be able to cope with the extremes.
"Without frosts, we don't get the colour ... The more intense the cold of the winter, the more intense the colour in the summer. In the warmer climes, it tends to be more about structure."
Christchurch also had the best deciduous trees in the country because of its English heritage and the climate.
"Right through from big oaks in large spaces down to smaller maples in smaller areas, and there's a huge range in between."
Roses were making a big comeback in Christchurch, Mr Goom said.
"I think people have found that roses are not as hard [to grow] as they used to be."
WHEN AND WHERE
What: The Ellerslie International Flower Show.
Where: Auckland Botanic Gardens, Manurewa.
When: Wednesday to Sunday.
Cost: Adults $35 a day, senior citizens $31, children aged 5-14 $5, children under 5 free.
More flower show to see ... and more people to see it
Ellerslie International Flower Show managing director David Mee is expecting about 70,000 people to the five-day show this week, up on last year's 60,000 attendance.
"It's got a broad range of things this year and we have more metres of gardens than ever before," he said.
Britain's leading garden designer, Sarah Eberle, was a "huge drawcard".
She has created a specially commissioned garden for the show.
"We are absolutely stunned we have managed to pull off what really is a huge coup for us," said Mr Mee.
The show will feature for the first time the Visique Starlight Marquee - a blacked out marquee demonstrating various kinds of garden lighting.
In another first, there will also be a national flower bed competition, which will pit Hamilton, Christchurch, Manukau and Waitakere against each other.
And there will be floral fashion shows twice daily.
Other highlights include a display of 10,000 Thai orchids, with 15 Thai florists demonstrating how to make traditional necklaces using the flowers.
And the Monarch Butterfly NZ Trust will release hundreds of butterflies during the show.
The show, the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, has been held annually in Auckland since 1994. It was initially held at the Ellerslie Racecourse, but moved to its current site in 1998.
