Newsletter December 2008
80 days to go until the gates open for the first Christchurch-hosted Ellerslie Show
The countdown has begun with only 80 days to go until the gates open for the first Christchurch-hosted Ellerslie International Flower Show. Visitors are guaranteed to be impressed with more than 80 horticultural exhibits which includes 28 gardens. Christchurch’s North Hagley Park is the only place to be come March 2009!
The Great Ellerslie Photo Competition returns next year and I encourage everyone to get snapping these holidays, capturing on film their favourite garden scene to be exhibited at the Show. We are a nation of garden lovers and when not tending our gardens, many of us can be found during weekends and holidays actually photographing our own garden or a borrowed landscape!
The Great Ellerslie Photo Competition is a chance showcase both our landscape and talent to the thousands of national and international visitors expected at the Show. And there are some fantastic prizes, including the top prize of $500 of Gardening New Zealand gift cards. Entries close on 28 February; details of the competition are on the website www.ellerslieflowershow.co.nz/ellerslie-1228432779.html
Ellerslie will again be nurturing the talent of our landscape design students in 2009. Thirty-one students from Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury have taken up the challenge to use No. 8 wire ingenuity and create a small courtyard garden for a couple in their 50s downsizing to an inner city townhouse.
The Tertiary Design Competition provides students with the opportunity to put into practice the skills they have learnt in the classroom, the winner receiving a $5000 travel prize to attend an international garden show of their choice. What better opportunity exists to showcase your skills to the thousands of visitors and potential clients who come to the Show each year?
Tim Scott from Lincoln University who won the 2007 competition will create his award-winning design at next year’s show. This was a bach garden of the future, reflecting a colourful use of plants, water awareness, organic methods, recycling and biodiversity.
Christchurch’s Garden City pride is at stake next year when the city hosts Ellerslie – the city looking to retain the National Flower Bed
Competition title it won in Auckland in 2007, just before we bought the Show.
Our award-winning Botanic Gardens team, lead by Jeremy Hawker, has come up with what I think is an equally award-winning garden design for 2009 – a floral tribute to the some what controversial Peacock Fountain. Love or hate the ornate late Victorian fountain, one thing for sure is the Botanic Gardens’ entry is unlikely to go unnoticed!
It is good to see our neighbouring communities in Waimakariri, Ashburton and Akaroa have taken up my challenge to attempt to wrestle the title from the city.
Christchurch International Airport, one of the Show’s key sponsors, is getting behind the event by not only decking out the entire airport in Ellerslie livery in the lead up to the Show but by also encouraging all those who fly in to Christchurch during March 2009 to retain their boarding pass to redeem at the Christchurch Airport Lounge at the Show for a free cup of coffee.
With Christmas Day only five days away, it’s now your last chance to buy tickets to Ellerslie as gifts for family, friends and staff. Ticket sales continue to strong, having topped 21,000. What better than an Ellerslie Gift Card which lets the recipient choose their own Ellerslie experience from the range on offer on the website – www.ellerslieflowershow.co.nz
I wish everyone a joyous festive season and safe holiday.
Regards
BOB PARKER
MAYOR OF CHRISTCHURCH
