Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival

10/09/2026

Warm welcomes, Devonshire teas and floral photography – that’s what you’ll find when you visit the Goodin Country Garden during the 39th Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival.
Shaped by dramatic volcanic rocks, Chris and Steak’s garden at Warea is anchored by a graceful family with explosive beginnings (worth asking about).
Encircling the house are expansive lawns and mature trees, alongside lush clivia, roses, and rhododendrons. Chris and Steak’s daughter, Nicci Goodin, is a prominent New Plymouth florist and much of the planting is with her creativity in mind.
The garden provides a fitting backdrop for photographer Emma Bass’s luminous floral works, on show during the spring festival (30 Oct – 8 Nov). These works offer an evocative dialogue between cultivated landscape and artistic interpretation of nature’s beauty.
There is plenty of room for a picnic, or you can partake in a Devonshire Tea with divine scones made by Chris.

09/09/2026

Welcome Back: Q&A with Robyn & Graeme Lepper
https://www.gardenfestnz.co.nz/post/welcome-back-q-a-with-robyn-graeme-lepper

08/09/2026

A bumper crop of knowledge will be growing in our gardens this spring for the 39th Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival (30 Oct – 8 Nov).
As part of the Mitre 10 Speaker Series, garden visitors can hear experts share tips and tricks, passions and actions.
Discover a permaculture food forest with Dee Turner at Korito, learn about growing bananas with Vance Hooper at Magnolia Grove, and, at Manaia, be inspired by Jenny Oakley’s sessions on hanging baskets and propagating plants.
At Kahikatea in New Plymouth, Katy Roach will, for the first time, walk and talk people through edible plants for garden beginners.
At Lepperton, Bee Valley Flower Farm will be buzzing. Experts from the Moths and Butterflies NZ Trust and the NZ Bumblebee Conservation Trust will share fascinating facts about these winged insects, and there will also be tours of the flower farm.
There’s no extra charge for the Mitre 10 Speaker Series talks – standard garden admission applies. https://www.gardenfestnz.co.nz/events

07/09/2026

The Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival is now in your pocket. 🌸📱

The brand new Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival app is LIVE, making it even easier to plan your festival days and explore your way around the gardens.

Browse gardens and events, create your itinerary, and keep all the festival info you need handy while you’re out and about.

📲 Search “Taranaki Garden Festival” in your app store to download it on your mobile.

06/09/2026

Welcome back: After a two-year break, Maria and Hugo van der Poel are re-opening their traditional spacious country garden at Warea. Expansive lawns, established mature trees, including a century-old pūriri tree, and formal plantings, seamlessly lead to a native bush walk. During the Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival (30 Oct – 8 Nov), visitors are invited to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy this garden at your own pace. Punctuated with sculptures by Italian artists Simone Cenedese, Alfredo Barbini and Christchurch sculptor Gary Baynes, the natural setting of The Van der Poel Garden provides an inspiring amphitheatre for art. Complimentary tea and coffee available. Art for sale. Photos: Jane Dove Juneau

03/09/2026

The Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival is about to get even easier to explore. 📱

We’re launching a brand new Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival app, designed to help you make the most of your festival days.

Browse gardens and events, plan your must-sees, and keep everything you need for your Garden Fest adventure handy while you’re out and about.

Launching very soon.

02/09/2026

Our gardeners have been quizzed on a whole bunch of subjects, so expect a series of Q&As with refreshing answers. Here's the first one. https://www.gardenfestnz.co.nz/post/keeping-it-fresh-q-a-with-dee-turner-from-korito

01/09/2026

Located just off Te Henui Walkway, The Vicarage garden embraces history, hues and harmony. Encircling the early colonial building is a wide variety of colourful annuals and perennials that create a restful experience. The Vicarage itself, built from Taranaki andesite in 1845, is one of the oldest surviving stone buildings in New Zealand. During the Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival (30 Oct – 8 Nov) The Vicarage is open all day, for free. It’s also home to the New Plymouth Potters and, on the first Saturday of the festival (31 Oct), there will be a pottery market day.

30/08/2026

New Monday… Portia’s Place is a romantic two-year-old garden with 100-year-old bones and a newcomer to the Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival (30 Oct – 8 Nov). On this contoured half-acre section in Stratford, Zach Caskey and Mitchel Alexander have combined plant knowledge and creative flair to shape a woodland cottage garden with yesteryear charm. Mitchel has created paths and stonemason-style steps, while Zach, the plantsman, has unusual specimens thriving in a glasshouse beside an old copper beech. This place of constant discovery includes bamboo, a wetland, wild topiary and hidden treasures. Photos: Jane Dove Juneau

28/08/2026

Rural Haven is one of our new gardens this year - read about the makers or pick up a copy of today's Taranaki Daily News to peruse Page 2.

There’s an old saying that Taranaki’s volcanic soil is so good you could plant a nail and it would grow.