The New Zealand Gardens Trust is an organisation made up of people who are passionate about gardens and wish to share their amazing range of plants, along with traditional and innovative garden experiences and design.
Established as a Trust in 2004 to promote the best in New Zealand gardens and horticulture, NZ Gardens Trust has set up a system to assess all registered gardens and provide visitors with information that truly reflects the experience of visiting the garden.
Our team of assessors is made up of highly-qualified horticulturists and landscape architects.
Garden Members of the Trust are made up of both private and public garden owners and managers who open their gardens to visitors.
NZGT Gardens Trust was established through the generosity of our ‘Founding Gardens’. For this NZGT and gardening fraternity is indebted.
View our founding members
TRUSTEES
Wendy Palmer, Welton house - Chair
Jennifer Horner, Puketarata - Deputy Chair
Wolfgang Bopp, Christchurch Botanic Gardens
Mel Haskell, Casa Rossa
Daryl Spooner, Mincher
Susan Gifford,
Hamish Saxton, CEO Hawkes Bay Tourism
Trust manager
Victoria Read
ASSESSORS 2023
Jan Woodhouse - Lead Assessor
Dylan Norfield
Rob Watson
Paul Roper-Gee
Tracey Ower
Tony Barnes
Geoffrey Marshall
Ben Conway
Chris Paul
Sue McLean
Guide to the star ratings
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Six star - Garden of International Significance
These gardens provide New Zealand’s top garden experiences. These gardens achieve and maintain the highest levels of presentation, design and plant interest throughout the year. They are the complete package which inspire garden lovers and deliver an experience above all other gardens
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Five star - Garden of National Significance
These are highly recommended gardens for their presentation, design and plant interest throughout the year. They have a distinctive identity of their own and a character that gives them an edge. They may have special features that may appeal to those with special interests.
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Four star - Garden of Significance
These gardens display a good degree of design and plantsmanship. They have some special attributes that distinguishes them from our Three Star category – perhaps design or an important plant collection.
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Three star - Notable Garden
Each garden in this category has been inspected to ensure that the information published describes each garden accurately. They are of reasonable standard and especially maintained during their identified optimum season.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The NZ Gardens Trust (NZGT) is a charitable trust established in 2003 by New Zealand's only national horticultural body, the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture (RNZIH), to assess gardens for the public to visit.
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Promote our distinctive NZ Gardens Trust gardens to tour operators, national and international visitors.
Promote excellence in gardening. Promote the benefits of gardens and gardening.
Provide the ‘go-to’ resource for discovering distinctive gardens
Use a robust system of assessment that guarantees a quality visitor experience.
Maintain and develop relationships with industry-related entities such as Tourism New Zealand and RNZIH.
Promote collegiality and educational opportunities for members.
Deliver our highly anticipated annual conference for members.
Work towards broadening our garden categories to include more diverse gardens and collections.
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An NZGT garden is assessed to a standard identified for the public through the star rating system. The garden must be open to the public and presented to its assessed standard for a reasonable number of days each year (eg during a Garden Festival or Charity fund-raising) and/or by appointment to individual visitors for a cumulative period of two months in the year.
NZGT members are welcome to arrange to visit other NZGT gardens. Part of belonging is collegiality.
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Promotional and marketing services
Advance notice and access to our very popular annual conference, including visits to stunning gardens, illuminating presentations from gardening experts and endless gardening conversations as you wander, absorb and dream!
Regular newsletters and NZ Gardens Trust updates
Access to the NZGT garden owners private Facebook group
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Volunteer on committees to help with projects
Help promote NZ Gardens Trust and garden visiting via social media.
Host local get-togethers of garden members and Friends
Attend our very popular annual conference, including visits to stunning gardens, illuminating presentations from gardening experts and endless gardening conversations as you wander, absorb and dream!
Quality Gardens
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Trusted Ratings
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Unique Garden Varieties & Experiences
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Quality Gardens ● Trusted Ratings ● Unique Garden Varieties & Experiences ●
Testimonials
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"The New Zealand Gardens Trust provides wonderful insights into the ever changing garden scene and is an essential guide in designing Garden Themed tours throughout NZ. Since 1992, our Gardens, Wine and Wilderness Tour has continued to seek unique garden experiences for our travelers and always the NZGT website is my first choice. Thank you for all you do."
Richard Lyon
Garden Adventures Ltd, USA
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“Botanica organises garden tours and cruises all over the world, visiting private and public gardens. The NZ Garden Trust website and system for grading is an incredible tool to help us research the best gardens to take our guests to visit. We have not come across another tool as valuable as this one, in any other country we visit."
Keith Quek
Botanica World Discoveries
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"Thanks to the NZ Gardens Trust for a fantastic website to give us a ‘heads up’ on what gardens should be included in any garden tour. It’s incredibly helpful to know that these gardens have been assessed by experts, and only the very best selected for inclusion. And of course, it covers the whole country. Kiwi gardens are the best anywhere … we love them!"
Sandra Ross
Director Ross Garden Tours
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"The NZ Gardens Trust site is an incredible resource. As a committed garden visitor and tour operator, it’s my first port-of-call for navigating the amazing quality and diversity of gardens accessible to visitors in NZ. I just wish every other country would follow suit!"
Michael McCoy
The Gardenist
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As an Australian I am rather envious of the New Zealand Gardens Trust. The Trust is such an excellent resource which has made my job both planning and leading garden trips to New Zealand so much easier. As an example, research for sculpture-focused gardens around Auckland was made easier using the NZGT website. I have great confidence in their selection criteria, ongoing assessment, and grading. Tours I’ve led to both the North and South Islands have been tremendously popular. The Trust is an invaluable asset to showcase the range of New Zealand's superb gardens.
Kim Woods Rabbidge
Opulent Journeys
