Historic and contemporary photographs of Catlins gardens and homes go on show in Owaka from tomorrow, the exhibition's opening date chosen to coincide with the Catlins Horticultural Society's silver jubilee spring show. Gillian Vine previews the exhibition.
Katherine Raine peers at a 19th-century photograph of three people outside a cottage in the Catlins.
"That certainly looks like some form of Campanula," she says of flowers by the path.
The American-born landscaper is fascinated by the development of gardening in South Otago and has spent untold hours poring over photographs in the archives of Owaka Museum.
A museum volunteer, Ms Raine was intrigued by the number of photographs showing houses with gardens as a rich topic for an exhibition.
Museum director Kaaren Mitcalfe says the subject reflects the community's passion for gardening, something which dates back to the days of the moa hunters, and still continues.
Funding assistance for the exhibition was obtained from the Clutha District Creative Communities Scheme and the Catlins Historical Society, and the result is "Growing Home: Catlins Gardens Photographs of Then and Now", which opens tomorrow.
As the bulk of the museum's 1700 old photographs span the years from 1890 to 1920, that period has been chosen for the exhibition.
Many are photographs of settlers outside their homes, from fern-tree huts to large villas, and the gardens are as varied.
The images are supplemented by panels of information and residents' recollections.
That is the "then" part of "Growing Home".
"Now" is recent photographs of gardens, submitted by residents.
In part, the exhibition is possible because of recent and ongoing work digitising the images in the museum's collection, Ms Mitcalfe explains, as digital enlargements can be displayed even when the originals are too small or too fragile to go on show.
The principal aims of digitisation, though, are to enable better public access and ensure back-up copies of photographs are kept in case anything should happen to originals.
NZ Micrographic Services (NZMS), the company undertaking the work, is a specialist in museum digital projects, and Ms Mitcalfe is delighted with what is being done.
For example, NZMS has digitally repaired some photographs, including one where the original is torn from top to bottom.
The computerised version looks undamaged, making it more suitable for display.
There is another significant advantage to the process.
"You can actually see more than you can on the originals. It's quite exciting," Ms Raine says.
In one, a "rock" turned out to be a dog, in others people's faces are clearer and in many, plants are easier to identify, which has delighted Ms Raine.
William Winders in his Taukupu orchard and a couple by a strawberry patch among the photos on show underline the importance of food crops in the 19th-century, but flowers were not forgotten.
Ms Raine points to roses, lilies, gladioli and "what looks to me like sweet peas" in old photographs and to the use of ponga and cabbage trees as decorative features.
"I find the pioneer stories so touching. They came to this wilderness place and made gardens," she says.
Throughout the Catlins in spring, patches of daffodils and snowflakes mark the sites where once there were gardens.
Although Mary Fraser's boarding house at Ratanui is no more, the garden around it features in a series of three photographs in the exhibition, while among surviving 19th century Catlins buildings is the school at Kahuika.
Now a holiday home, in spring the daffodils - presumably planted by children more than a century ago - fill what was once a playground and make a brilliant splash among the green of surrounding paddocks.
Also still standing is Bruce Wilson's family home at Glenomaru, "too far gone" to be restored, he says.
A photo in the exhibition shows the house in its heyday, with box-edged gardens of roses, and delphiniums in the foreground with white gravel paths.
Some of the trees and a venerable rhododendron remain, as do patches of snowflakes, a bank of daffodils and a line of hazelnuts.
"We had a good crop last year," Mr Wilson says of the hazelnuts.
The exhibition's old homes and gardens, seen through the eyes of contemporary photographers, help convey what life was like for European settlers and bring back the sense of nostalgia so elegantly portrayed in Mary Ursula Bethell's 1929 poem, "Time", which concludes:
At the old, old cottage, the old wooden cottage,
[One could] say, "One might build here, the view is glorious;
This must have been a pretty garden once."
Spring fever in Owaka
The opening of "Growing Home" is one of two major events on in Owaka tomorrow, the other being the Catlins Horticultural Society's 25th anniversary spring flower show. As well as expecting a strong line-up of spring flowers, shrubs and foliage, society president Pat Harrison and her committee promise some extras, including a piece of the anniversary cake for each visitor. The show is being held at the Owaka Community Centre from 1.30pm to 5pm. Admission is $3 for adults; children are free.
See it
Growing Home: Catlins Gardens Photographs of Then and Now opens at the Owaka Museum, 10 Campbell St, Owaka, and will run into the summer. The museum is open from 9.30am to 4.30pm on weekdays and from 10am to 4pm at weekends.
