Land Apart

Garden editor for the New Zealand House and Garden magazine Gordon Collier was recently in Seattle giving a lecture on the flora and fauna of the remote Chatham Islands. Collier’s illustrated lecture, “A Land Apart,” discussed what makes these islands so unique and why they are the newest “It” destination for plant hunters. Images of some of its 4 endemic plants that cling to life there told a tale of millions of years of isolation from other land masses; these include two plants beloved by gardeners everywhere — the giant forget-me-not Myosotidium hortensia, and the equally spectacular Astelia chathamica. Collier is the creator of the famous Taihape Titoki Point Garden, one of New Zealand’s most visited gardens.