‘Very, very Kiwi’ garden wins gold at international flower show

Since her 160m2 garden went on display at the Shenzhen Greater Bay Area Flower Show, over two million people have viewed Jules Moore‘s latest horticultural creation, Ocean’s Edge.

Constructed with the help of a Chinese crew, the Auckland landscape designer’s coastal-inspired garden features stainless steel waves, a massive shell made of cement and bamboo, five giant oysters sculpted from chicken netting and plaster of Paris and oversized kina decorated with fake pearls and teal beads.

“Everything was very, very Kiwi,” she tells RNZ’s Afternoons.

Moore came up with the “very challenging” design for Ocean’s Edge with her daughter Alayna and son James, who also sings with the designer, amidst whale song, on a 10-minute audio piece to accompany the display.

“A bit like when you walk into the airport, and they have that conch shell blowing, it was that kind of very, very Kiwi audio,” Moore says.

Her thematic focus for the garden, which features purple flax, lupins and succulents, was seafood – one of New Zealand’s biggest exports to China – in response to the brief of designing “something that connects New Zealand with China”.

Constructing Ocean’s Edge, which took about 20 days, was at times challenging because of language barriers with the local crew, Moore says, but her assistant Ru Zhang saved the day.

“She was amazing. She was like the watchdog. She’d go around and sort of point out things, and she’d translate everything. If I didn’t have her, I think I would have really struggled.”

One of seven international designers competing at the Shenzhen Flower Show, Moore is especially happy that Ocean’s Edge won Best Feature Garden as well as a prestigious gold medal – her fifth at an international flower show.

This year, following the success of Ocean’s Garden, the designer is looking ahead to “something big coming up in China”.

“I’m sworn to secrecy at the moment … There’s something really special coming up probably in the next month.”