Dove-Myer Robinson Park, more commonly known as the Parnell Rose Garden, is a park in Parnell,

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New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The park is named after

Dove-Myer Robinson Sir Dove-Myer Robinson (15 June 1901 – 14 August 1989) was Mayor of Auckland City from 1959 to 1965 and from 1968 to 1980, the longest tenure of any holder of the office. He was a colourful character and became affectionately known across New ...

, the longest-serving mayor of

, who served for 18 years. There are over 5,000 roses in the garden. Some of the plants in the garden have been bred by internationally celebrated rose breeders. The 'white garden' is a popular venue for

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s. As of 2010, the park was home to the oldest manuka and the largest

pohutukawa ''Metrosideros excelsa'', commonly known as pōhutukawa ( mi, pōhutukawa), New Zealand Christmas tree, New Zealand Christmas bush, and iron tree, is a coastal evergreen tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that produces a brilliant display o ...

tree in Auckland. Each year in November, the park is host to the Parnell Festival of Roses, which showcases New Zealand craft stalls, art exhibitions, music, strolling performers and thousands of roses.

History

The area was once known as Taurarua. It was included in the land made available by

Ngati Whatua ''Ngati'' is a 1987 New Zealand feature film directed by Barry Barclay, written by Tama Poata and produced by John O'Shea. Production ''Ngati'' is of historical and cultural significance in New Zealand as it is the first feature film written an ...

for the establishment of Auckland city in September 1840 . In around 1905, what is now the Luxerose cafe, was built for Emily Gillies, the widow of Robert Gillies. as a timber and shingle,

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

style house, named “Kohanga”. It is likely to have been designed by Charles Le Neve Arnold, the architect of

Auckland Grammar School Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

. In 1914 ratepayers voted by 815:575 for a £15,000 loan to buy for a park. In 1915 a court settled the price at £16,125. The Gillies residence was converted to a

tea house A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whic ...

in 1925. Also in 1925, a controversial stone entrance was built. Other additions include; The Netherlands War Memorial (1963), the Signals sculpture (1971), the Dove-Myer Robinson Lookout Shelter (1981) and the Nancy Steen Garden (1984). The gardens were renamed after the former mayor in 1981.

References

External links

Parnell Rose Gardens review

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Photographs of Parnell Rose Gardens
held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections. {{Parnell, New Zealand Parks in Auckland Gardens in the Auckland Region Parnell, New Zealand Rose gardens Waitematā Harbour