Kerei Thompson, of Wellington, was in Dunedin this weekend for the annual trust conference, being held for the second time in the city.
About 70 people - including garden owners and garden lovers - from Dunedin and around New Zealand were at the conference, which concluded yesterday after four days of garden tours and talks in Dunedin and Invercargill.
The event included trips to gardens at Glenfalloch, Larnach Castle and the Dunedin Botanic Garden, as well as guest speakers, a banquet and other events.
Mr Thompson told the Otago Daily Times he was impressed - but not surprised - by the quality of the city's gardens.
In the Dunedin Botanic Garden and Larnach Castle, Dunedin boasted two of only five gardens of international significance in New Zealand.
The other three were all in the North Island, and Dunedin also stood out because of the range of smaller gardens within easy reach of the city, he said.
''The calibre in Dunedin has always been recognised as being very high ... there's just so much here.''
The trust was established after encouragement from the tourism industry, which wanted a Qualmark-style quality assurance system for gardens, which could be popular tourist attractions, he said.
That meant gardens were assessed regularly to ensure they maintained their ratings and visitors were not disappointed. For that reason, the trust's annual conference was a chance to discuss both gardening topics and also initiatives in marketing and tourism, he said.
This year's conference included addresses on eco-tourism by Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish Saxton and on the 150th anniversary of the Dunedin Botanic Garden by curator Alan Matchett.
Dunedin Botanic Garden collections supervisor Barbara Wheeler, who helped organise the Dunedin conference, said Dunedin could lay claim to being the ''garden city'' of New Zealand.
She hoped the conference would help inspire garden owners ''and help give them some really good ways to do more with their gardens''.
