Taranaki garden transformed from tangled to tropical

This story is from the team at NZ House & Garden magazine.

When the deck of your home becomes so full of potted plants “there’s no room for visitors”, something needs to change.

For Sharolyn Croton, that involved moving to a larger property where she could give full rein to her passion for subtropical plants and further develop her business selling them.

Sharolyn and husband Shane bought an overgrown 0.8ha rural plot 8km from New Plymouth, aptly called Tanglewood, and, jokes Shane, “we untangled it… the first thing we did was chop that sign up and we tell everyone that we have been untangling it ever since.”

Sharolyn started growing cold-hardy palms, partly to evoke a holiday feel after returning from two years of living on Australia’s Gold Coast. Shane built a shade house at their city property, they established a subtropical garden and Sharolyn started putting plants on the roadside to sell. “People wanted more. They wanted indoor plants and they wanted pots and they liked looking around in the garden to see how everything grows. People thought it was quite different to your normal garden centre,” she says.

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“So we got to the point where we thought if we wanted to take it seriously and make a go of this nursery thing, we needed a bit more space.”

Gardening is in her genes, she explains. “My Nana Baker had a farm… she always had a lovely garden too. Most weekends as a child I stayed with my mum’s mother, Nana King, and she had a beautiful garden with a fish pond… and a hammock. I loved spending time there.” Nana King is now 90 and still loves to garden. Sharolyn’s dad Wayne Baker is also a keen gardener and she recalls his edible garden helping to feed the family when she was growing up. Funnily enough, in recent years more subtropical-inspired plants have popped up in his garden.

Her husband also has green roots; his dad, Jim Croton, made him and his siblings weed the garden before or after rugby matches.

The Crotons’ new property, on a rural road leading up to Mt Taranaki, had previously featured in the region’s annual garden festival but during the intervening years, shrubs had shot up and trees were left to soar. “As we untangle it we discover pathways and little white arrows where they had directed people in the festival years ago,” Sharolyn says.

It took arborists eight visits to remove about 35 trees, including dense pines and other specimens that shut out the light and stymied airflow. Maples and established beech trees were kept but the clear-out has resulted in good airflow meaning frosts don’t hit as harshly.

Initially the Crotons and their regular customers wondered what they’d done. “They saw our beautiful garden [in the city] and then came here and there was nothing tropical about it,” says Sharolyn. “It’s a bit like people who buy an old house and do it up for a reno show or follow renovators on Instagram. We thought we could do the same thing but with a garden… people can watch us develop it, watch it change.”

As well as retaining trees, they kept much of the original garden’s layout, interspersing subtropicals with existing plants.

The orchard has cherimoya (from the custard apple family), banana palms and mountain pawpaw as well as nectarines, peaches, dwarf apple trees, avocados and a variety of citrus. A recently completed area carpeted in white stones is full of palms (fan, sugar cane, kentia and bismarck) as well as leucadendron, yucca, the Australian grass tree (Xanthorrhoea australis), blue bamboo (Himalayacalamus hookerianus), two types of chamaedorea and a mix of agaves.

In other parts they created new gardens and built hard structures, with Shane’s trade as an exterior plasterer and general handyman proving useful. An Australian-themed desert garden is under development, bordered by a bamboo screen and planted with Australian bottlebrush, the Queensland bottle tree (Brachychiton rupestris), kangaroo paws, an Australian cycad (Macrozamia communis), the Australian grass tree and other exotics.

Some gardens are his and hers, joke the couple, pointing to a band of black mulch running next to a swathe of stone chips. They couldn’t decide which ground cover worked best so used both in different parts of the same area.

As display space for their nursery business, Tropical Treasures Taranaki, there are plant “rooms”, including one dedicated to bromeliads, and others with cycads, philodendrons, palms, taro, yucca, bamboo, orchids and tillandsias. Displays of water-loving plants grow in artfully arranged pots beside trickling fountains and ponds full of plump fish.

Shane plans to build a stand-alone store for house plants but for now they’ve taken over the conservatory of the house.

The Crotons’ enviable knowledge of subtropicals and tropicals is honed from personal experience as well as the support of fellow growers and distributors. Sharing is caring, they say.

“People seem to like how helpful we are. We have already learned from our mistakes so we don’t want them to have to go through that stage. We want to point them in the right direction when they are investing,” says Shane.

Sharolyn’s early intentions may have been to recreate a holiday vibe, but there’s little lazying around these days.

Q&A with Shane and Sharolyn Croton

Most-used tool: My spade. I’ve been through two on this property in the nearly four years I’ve been here. (Shane)

Most-used part of the garden: Because we work from our garden it would have to be the loop [the public path around the garden]. We are always showing people our plants. (Shane)

Most-used tool: My spade. I’ve been through two on this property in the nearly four years I’ve been here. (Shane)

Most-used part of the garden: Because we work from our garden it would have to be the loop [the public path around the garden]. We are always showing people our plants. (Shane)

New additions at the front of the garden have fast become favorites – an outdoor shower, the hammock chair garden, and the lower deck and firepit/Australian desert garden. We’re drawn to this area after work. (Sharolyn)

Best tip for other gardeners: Mulching, even if only with a decorative dressing, as it really helps the plants thrive. It keep weeds down, retains soil moisture, helps keep the roots warm in winter and cool in summer – all positive things from such an easy thing. (Shane)

Feed a garden. People often leave plants to their own devices, but feeding helps keep them strong and healthy. This results in pest-free plants as well as better growth and the ability to withstand the harsh elements. (Sharolyn)

Favourite season in the garden: For me it’s summer. I love the long hot days and the growth over summer is amazing. Our garden really shines over these warm months. The best part of the summer day would be in the evening when it cools, or early before the sun heats up. (Sharolyn)

Our climate: Taranaki actually has a really good climate for growing subtropicals. We are up a bit closer to the mountain so find that we can be two or three degrees colder in winter but also can be hotter in summer due to no sea breeze. We’re not as high above sea level as many think, which was an important factor when moving here.

Is your garden open to the public? Yes, as a retail nursery with display gardens, visit tropicaltreasures.nz. (Sharolyn)