Oasis Cottage

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Oasis Cottage Oasis Cottage is a NZGT 3-star country garden growing toward 4-star status.

We offer garden visits, florist services for Oxford, floristry and botanical skincare making workshops, and an intimate wedding venue set within our five-acre garden.

08/10/2026

One of the planting combinations that received the most comments from the recent Sheffield Garden Club NZ visit was this pairing of Peony Tulip ‘Verona’ with Triumph Tulip ‘Antarctica’.

I planted them together around the new pavilion, and I’m particularly pleased with the combination of the softer, fuller ‘Verona’ amongst the simpler ‘Antarctica’.

The pavilion itself is still very much a work in progress — so this is also a little preview of another part of Oasis Cottage taking shape.

A map of Oasis Cottage, ready for this season’s garden visitors.Laurie drew this to help people find their way around ou...
03/10/2026

A map of Oasis Cottage, ready for this season’s garden visitors.

Laurie drew this to help people find their way around our five acres — although getting slightly lost is quite possible.

It includes the established garden rooms as well as the Duck Pond and Hidden Valley, which are still being developed. The new visitor flyers have now arrived from the printer, just in time for our first garden visitors next week.

One job crossed off the list.

28/09/2026

The Entrance Garden after its annual cut-down.

I planted this area using relatively few plants, repeated in large numbers. They suit the same conditions, need no irrigation once established, and largely look after themselves apart from this major cut-back each year.

I’m rather late getting to it this time. The sedums were already growing strongly and the tulips had decided spring was starting with or without me.

The final photographs show what all that rather severe cutting back produces by summer.

25/09/2026

The amelanchier in the Blue Garden is having its moment.

Its blossom never lasts long before the leaves begin to take over, which perhaps makes me appreciate it all the more. I’ve carefully pruned this tree over the years to keep the stems clear and develop the spreading canopy above.

Underneath, Tulip ‘Ad Rem’ is providing the colour.

For a few days, it all comes together rather nicely.

“Oh my gosh. It must be so much hard work.”We hear this quite often when visitors discover that Laurie and I look after ...
21/09/2026

“Oh my gosh. It must be so much hard work.”

We hear this quite often when visitors discover that Laurie and I look after Oasis Cottage ourselves.

And yes, maintaining and continuing to develop a five-acre garden takes a considerable amount of work. But there is something rather important missing from that observation: we actually like doing it.

Over the years we've learnt a few things about making the scale manageable—mass planting, good machinery, keeping the lawns, edges and hedges under control, and accepting that there will probably always be a w**d somewhere.

We've also learnt that sometimes simply maintaining the status quo takes quite a lot of work just to stay still.

My latest Garden Journal is about the reality of being a very small garden team: just Laurie and me, a useful collection of machinery, and rather a lot of five-acre garden.
The Discipline of a Small Garden Team is now on the website.

https://www.oasiscottage.com/blogs/blog/the-discipline-of-a-small-garden-team

The tulips are back.Last year I planted 1,200 Triumph tulips through the Double Borders at Oasis Cottage. After flowerin...
17/09/2026

The tulips are back.

Last year I planted 1,200 Triumph tulips through the Double Borders at Oasis Cottage. After flowering, they were left in the ground — so I’ve been watching rather closely to see how well they would return for a second spring.

Happily, they’re beginning to appear again.

I picked this first bunch for the house today. The varieties planted through the borders are Antarctica, Pretty Princess, Saigon, Pallada, Sissi, Pink Ardour, Purple Prince, Delta Graffiti and Dynasty — all from Bulbs Direct

There is something particularly satisfying about bringing flowers indoors from the garden, but perhaps even more so when they’ve already given you one spring and have decided to do it all over again.

I’ll be keeping an eye on which varieties return particularly well as the season progresses.

The cut-flower beds are beginning to fill.I’ve started planting out some of the flowers I’ve grown from seed for this se...
15/09/2026

The cut-flower beds are beginning to fill.

I’ve started planting out some of the flowers I’ve grown from seed for this season’s floristry. These are Statice ‘Pink Pokers’, going into Cut Corner.

It still feels rather early to be planting flowers for summer with snow sitting on the hills behind me, but under the frost cloth they’ll get a little protection while they establish.

Every stem in the bouquets I make this season will be grown here at Oasis Cottage — so this is where those future bunches begin.

The view from my desk at the moment.I’ve raised the pots of early daffodils onto old chairs on the verandah so I can see...
10/09/2026

The view from my desk at the moment.

I’ve raised the pots of early daffodils onto old chairs on the verandah so I can see the flowers through the office window while I’m working.

Chairs that have become too uncomfortable — or slightly too questionable — to sit on tend to get a second career at Oasis Cottage as plant stands.

Our new Garden Season Passes have arrived.This season, your first $15 garden admission can become a Season Pass, allowin...
07/09/2026

Our new Garden Season Passes have arrived.

This season, your first $15 garden admission can become a Season Pass, allowing you to return to Oasis Cottage on any of our advertised Garden Open Days for the remainder of the 2026/27 season at no additional admission cost.

We have around 18 open days planned between spring and late summer, so there should be plenty of opportunity to see the garden change through the season.

Simply ask for a Season Pass when you visit and we’ll issue your named card on the day.

$15 per person · valid for the 2026/27 season · advertised Garden Open Days only.

03/09/2026

I vowed not to buy any more dahlias this year.
That went well.
Then an email arrived from Bulbs Direct with their Gallery Collection dahlias, which I thought would be perfect for a new display on the verandah. And, naturally, a few extras somehow found their way into the order too.
Surely I’m not the only gardener whose good intentions are undone by a well-timed email…

Address

1093 Woodstock Road
Oxford
7495

Telephone

+64210709729

Website

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