Christchurch, the Garden City

Nations in Bloom

The "Nations in Bloom" competition has been developed by the International Federation of Park and Recreation Administration to find the world's best garden city.

Christchurch bettered some stiff competition from Britain, Japan, Spain, and South Africa to win the top prize in the 1997 "Nations in Bloom" competition, in the category of cities with over 300 000 people.

It’s a credit to the time and effort of Christchurch gardeners and the importance Christchurch people have placed in having in beautiful City in which to live, work and play.

The Christchurch City Council was responsible for researching and compiling the material for the presentation. Before the final in Madrid, Christchurch had been chosen as one of the top six garden cities in the world on the strength of a 4000 word booklet with 20 photographs that was prepared especially for the competition. The submission highlighted Christchurch’s excellence in managing our urban landscape - our attention to the City’s heritage and environment and our commitment to community involvement. Various criteria were scrutinised: from the quality of the City’s parks and reserves to waste management planning.

City facts

City population: 310,000
City area: 46,000 Ha
Total area of city parks and public open space: 5,300 Ha

The city's urban area contains 15% and the city's rural area 3.5% respectively of public open space. This is comprised of 665 parks of differing sizes serving metropolitan, district and local needs.

Awards

In 1996 Christchurch was judged the outstanding garden city among 620 cities entered in an international competition promoted by the Bangalore Urban Art Commission in India. This followed Christchurch being granted the New Zealand business sector's Local Authority of the Year Award in 1994, and jointly winning - with Phoenix City - the international Carl Bertelsmann Prize for excellence in local government in 1993.

In the last 12 months Christchurch City has won 15 national, regional and local awards for its achievements in the fields of energy efficiency, waterways management, heritage and environmental projects, and urban redevelopment.

Botanic Gardens

The Christchurch Botanic Gardens, founded in 1863 and covering 30 hectares, are world renowned and acknowledged as possessing the finest collection of exotic and indigenous plants to be found anywhere in New Zealand. Visitors to the Botanic Gardens total 1.2 million per year. For tourists and others, visiting the Botanic Gardens is the most favoured activity after shopping.

Notable public gardens

Within the suburbs amongst the extensive parks are the two notable public gardens of Ilam and Mona Vale which used to be in private ownership, but are now administered by the city's university and the city council respectively. At the university garden (Ilam) new strains of azaleas were bred and are now known throughout the world as Ilam hybrids. Mona Vale is also a lovely garden, with its old house, timber bridges, fountains, fernery, rose and bedding displays and majestic trees. This garden was purchased through the enterprise of Christchurch citizens who raised the major part of the purchase price.