Blooming PASSION

Growing flowers to get through a period of burnout has bloomed into a joyful passion project for a Tauranga gardener

- Text Rachel Clare

Madeleine Lambert is just the kind of friend you wish you had. If she's not giving away bunches of beautiful homegrown flowers, she's inviting you into her garden, handing you a pair of secateurs and saying, "Go for it." And lucky you, because for six months of the year, her garden is full to the brim with dahlias, zinnias, hydrangeas, strawflowers, scabiosa and whatever else has taken this keen gardener's fancy. Flowers bring her joy and she's keen to spread it.

Haven for birds

Surprisingly, until five years ago Madeleine was a flower-growing novice. She and her husband Wayne are no strangers to landscaping though, having built four houses where they've designed and planted the gardens from scratch. However, as busy teachers and parents of two children, they'd always opted for a more low-maintenance style of garden with mainly shrubs, hedges and other greenery.

When it came to the landscaping for their current home, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, Tauranga, planting lots of natives was a top priority for Madeleine, who grew up among lush bush and birdlife in rural Hokianga.

The property is on the site of an old kiwifruit orchard (seedlings still come up) and backs onto a native reserve with karo and põhutukawa trees. Adding to this borrowed landscape, she and Wayne planted more põhutukawa as well as mānuka, harakeke and lemonwood. “It’s now a haven for tūī, grey warblers and kerurū, and a beautiful outlook,” says Madeleine.

They also planted an orchard full of nectarines, lemons, plums, avocados, limes, mandarins and even a pomelo, which was their daughter Grace's favourite fruit when the family lived in Thailand during a five-year stint travelling through Asia.