The woman who planted 1800 tulips in her Tawa garden

Carolyn Campbell grew up in a gardening family in Lower Hutt. Her father, John Eaton, was an amateur plant breeder and created ‘Rainbow’ beet, aka ‘Bright Lights’ beet, which is still popular today.

In her own garden, Campbell ignored her mother’s advice to begin by planting shrubs to establish the garden’s bones and instead planted hundreds of annuals. “Years later, I saw her point and the shrubs went in.”

Snowdrops in June herald the start of the garden year, followed by crocuses in July, miniature daffodils (‘Tete-a-tete’ and ‘Jetfire’), then later varieties such as ‘Thalia’ and ‘Cassata’.

The first tulips begin after the daffodils and progressively flower for about six weeks. Dutch and bearded irises, roses, lilies and Japanese irises take centre-stage next.

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From January through to May, it’s the turn of the perennials, with masses of dahlias over summer and chrysanthemums in May. In late summer, the jungle garden is at its peak.

The star act of the garden are the tulips and the highlight of Campbell’s gardening year is choosing next season’s bulbs.

Her love of tulips began with ‘Menton’, a large peach-hued single which rebloomed for several years before disappearing. Happily, the recently released ‘Menton Unique’ offers the same gorgeous sunset tones in a very full blowsy paeony tulip. “I love tulips because of the array of colours they come in. Each spring, your garden can take on a different atmosphere depending on the combinations planted.”

Last year, her French-style courtyard had a pastel theme with tulips of lilac, lemon and white in baskets and containers, while the large pots in the perennial border were planted in shades of bright pink and orange.

The modern hybrid tulips rarely reflower so most are planted in containers in groups of 15 of one variety for maximum impact. At the end of the season, Campbell keeps the larger bulbs to plant in the garden.

She feeds all her tulips with bulb food when planting.

Some 1800 tulips were planted last year. “As I open my garden each spring when the bulbs are out, I need to have a good display,” says Campbell.

Countering the gasp at what this must cost, she hastens to add she uses loyalty points collected during the year and, as she buys so many bulbs, gets trade discounts. Different varieties of tulips such as double paeony, fringed, crown, parrot, lily and striped are planted alongside the classic singles.

Tulips like to be planted when the weather is cool, so Campbell begins planting in mid-May and continues for four to five weeks. She pops the earliest bulbs in the fridge, but hasn’t found it makes much difference. The Wellington climate provides enough chill to initiate blooming.

Planting in containers extends the flowering time as the tulips are planted lasagne style so by the time the first flowers fade those in the next tier have pushed through and are in bud, giving continuous flowering for six weeks. The tulips are planted in two layers. The late flowering bulbs go in first, covered by 10cm of potting mix and then early flowering bulbs topped with at least 15cm of mix.

Plain potting mix is best, a mix with water storage crystals will hold water and in a wet year may cause the bulbs to rot.

As well as thrilling the visitor’s senses, the garden also provides sustenance of the edible variety. In addition to the vegetable garden there are espaliered and ‘Ballerina’ apples, feijoa, lime, lemon, mandarin, plum, banana and orange trees. A passionfruit vine hugs the arch.

Campbell loves experimenting and pushing the boundaries of gardening in Wellington’s climate. She enjoys the challenge of getting things to grow and if she sees something she likes, she’ll try it.

Campbell is assisted by husband, Rob, who is chief lawnmower and composter, while sons Liam and Luke lend a hand for a fee and daughter Caitlin cheers from the sidelines.

Fifteen years ago, Campbell studied landscape design and then worked as a gardener at her children’s primary school. This gave her the confidence to pursue gardening as a profession and she now maintains 18 gardens in the north Wellington area.

Campbell opened her garden to the public two years ago. It was a great motivator to complete dreamed of projects but does come with a lot of pressure. The garden is open on selected weekends during the year and by appointment to groups.