The Spring Fling at Te Puna Quarry Park is a chance for gardeners to speak directly to growers and plant specialists, some of whom are nationally renowned and all of whom are Western Bay of Plenty locals.

“The idea of the Spring Fling is to celebrate the Quarry Park when the gardens are at their best,” says lead organiser Athole Harvey. “Then we thought it was also a good chance to celebrate all the amazing growers that we have in this area.”

The inaugural event last year was such a success the Spring Fling looks like becoming a staple on the Quarry Park calendar, complementing the popular QuarryFest held on the first Sunday in November.

“The QuarryFest has more of a Christmas market atmosphere,” says Athole. “We thought there was room for something that was all about plants and gardeners.”

Among the stall-holders at the Spring Fling will be bulb expert Bill Dijk, fuchsia lovers Lorna and George Baldock, renowned plant breeder Ian Duncalf with clivias, bearded iris grower Cris Savage, plum tree specialist Brent Tennet and Kings Seeds, which has the country’s largest range of organically certified seeds.


Clivia enthusiasts Judy Shapland of Apata and Ian Duncalf of Te Puna had a combined stand at last year’s Spring Fling and will be back for this year’s event.

Mary Parkinson, who established the park’s butterfly garden, will share her knowledge of creating garden habitats for butterflies and hopes to have some frogs on display, there will be a hobby beekeeper speaking, and floral art and orchid repotting demonstrations.

Shona Purves and her helpers last year raised $900 for the volunteer-run park through the sale of Devonshire teas and baked the scones on-site in the gallery’s kitchen so visitors were treated to warm scones with jam and whipped cream.

“It was a bit of an undertaking – probably more so than I thought when I offered to do it,” says Shona. “We were baking continually from the opening at 10am and would have baked well over 200 scones through the day.”