Paradise Garden Collection The Paradise Garden Collection represents how gardeners have tried to create
paradise on Earth. The word 'paradise' is derived from the
Old Persian word ‘pairidaeza’ which translates to 'enclosed garden'. There are six gardens in this collection. • The Chinese Scholar's Garden is an interpretation of 10th century to 12th century Sung Dynasty gardens that were designed as natural spaces to spark the imagination. • The Japanese Garden of Contemplation is an example of the 14th century to 16th century garden from the
Muromachi period, designed for meditation, study and quiet contemplation. • The English Flower Garden is an example of the
Arts and Crafts gardens from 19th century England which were used as plant collections and compositions of seasonal plant colours. • The Modernist Garden is a late 20th century American-style garden designed for outdoor living and inspired by
modern art. • The Italian Renaissance Garden is based on the Renaissance gardens of the 15th century or 16th century which were used to rationalise, control and improve nature and draw on Greek, Roman, Medieval and Islamic traditions. • The Indian Char Bagh Garden is an interpretation of the 16th century and 17th Century symbolic four-quartered Islamic gardens built by the Mughal aristocracy as an escape from harsh dry conditions. • The Ancient Egyptian Garden, claimed to be the world's first recreation of an
Ancient Egyptian garden of ca. 2000 BC, the first decorative gardens ever created, opened in June 2022.
Cultivar Garden Collection The Cultivar Garden Collection is the closest Hamilton Gardens comes to being a
botanical garden. Since 2001, the New Zealand Rose of the Year Trials and the Pacific Rose Bowl Festival have been held at the Rogers Rose Garden. • The Rhododendron Lawn features species and cultivars from plant hunting and the development of
azalea and
rhododendron. The garden is part of Hamilton City Council's long-term plan for the development and restoration of the
Waikato River.
Landscape Garden Collection The Landscape Garden Collection forms the outer spaces of the Hamilton Gardens site, and includes landscape gardens inspired by philosophical traditions. These spaces are supposed to be expressive and subtle artifacts of the relationship between
human beings and the
natural world. • The Hamilton East Park Cemetery, opened in 1863, • The Echo Bank Bush is an area of native bush, maintained in the 20th-century tradition of
conservation. • The Hillside Lawn is a vast lawn on top of Hamilton's old city rubbish dump, which typifies how landscapes have been restored after industrial use. • The Tropical Garden includes plants from other climatic regions, including tropical-looking plants, which are very hard to grow in the temperate Waikato climate. • The Surrealist Garden is a mystery garden aiming to trick the subconscious mind. The garden opened on 3 February 2020. • The
Tudor Garden is an interpretation of a 16th-century English Renaissance garden with red and black stone
knot gardens,
Elizabethan walls, and a stone pavilion. It opened in 2015. • The Concept Garden is a 21st-century garden to represent a single idea, following the conventions of
conceptual art. It is estimated to cost $250,000. It borders the Waikato River, and features river views. • The Mansfield Garden is an $800,000 recreation of the early 20th century New Zealand lawn party featured in
Katherine Mansfield's short story
The Garden Party. It was planned to open in October 2018, • The proposed
Medieval Garden, an example of a 13th-century European courtyard garden, would be based on the poem
Roman de la Rose, and would cost $650,000. • The proposed
Rococo Theatre Garden is an 18th-century and 19th century German or Austrian Rococo-Baroque garden costing $900,000. Such a garden would have been a theatrical setting for classical music performances and would have followed in the same traditions as the music of the time. ==Visitors==