The NZ 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.

Members of the Trust are made up of both private and public garden owners and managers who open their gardens or plant collections to visitors.

NZ Gardens Trust was established through the generosity of our ‘Founding Gardens’. For this the Trust and the gardening fraternity is indebted.

View our founding members

TRUSTEES

Hamish Saxton - Chair

Wolfgang Bopp, Christchurch Botanic Gardens - Deputy Chair

Mel Haskell, Casa Rossa

Susan Gifford

Shannon Boden, Hollard Garden

Jen Nolan

Danny Todd

Pippa Lucas - Auckland Botanic Gardens

Trust manager

Victoria Read

ASSESSORS 2024

Paul Roper-Gee - Lead Assessor

Jan Woodhouse

Dylan Norfield

Rob Watson

Tony Barnes

Ben Conway

Chris Paul

Sue McLean

Tracey Ower

Geoffrey Marshall

Guide to the star ratings

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
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.
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.
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

The NZ Gardens Trust 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.
- 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.
An NZ Gardens Trust 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.
NZ Gardens Trust members are welcome to arrange to visit other NZ Gardens Trust gardens. Part of belonging is collegiality.
- 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
- Membership to the Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture and subscription to their Journal and Newsletter
- 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

● Trusted Ratings

● Unique Garden Varieties & Experiences

● Quality Gardens ● Trusted Ratings ● Unique Garden Varieties & Experiences ●

Testimonials

“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

Website
"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

Website
"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

Website
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

Website
"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