Most residents walking the quiet suburban streets of Avalon would be unaware they are treading on historical ground. Beneath the neat houses and manicured lawns of streets like Avalon Crescent and Tennyson Avenue lies the ghost of a botanical wonderland that once drew visitors from across the globe.
This was the site of the famed Mason's Garden, a sprawling five-hectare estate established in the mid-19th century. While the vast collection of plants is long gone, a few magnificent trees, some nearly 175 years old, survive as living monuments to Lower Hutt's rich horticultural past. These protected specimens stand as a quiet testament to a time when the area was a world-class destination for plant lovers.
Avalon's hidden history
Garden historian Clare Gleeson, who has studied the site extensively, says the remaining trees are a precious link to this forgotten era. Today, they are scattered among modern homes, with only small, discreet plaques hinting at their extraordinary origins and their status as protected heritage items.
The surviving giants
A walk down Avalon Crescent today places you in the very heart of what was once Mason’s Garden. According to Ms Gleeson, several notable trees planted around 1850 or 1860 still stand. Among them are a striking weeping pagoda tree, a resilient cork oak, a classic English oak, and a gold-leaved chestnut.
The historic trees blend into the modern suburban streetscape, easily missed by the casual observer. However, their scale and character set them apart from the more recent plantings. Many other surviving specimens from the original garden are now located on private properties, their historical significance concealed from public view.
The gardens were once home to countless treasures. Ms Gleeson recounts a story of a visiting Harvard professor who declared a magnolia tree on the property, which still stands today, to be the finest example he had ever seen anywhere in the world. The legacy of the garden also continues in unexpected ways. The owner of one property is reportedly growing new cork oak trees in Waikanae using acorns harvested from the original Mason's Garden cork oak, ensuring its lineage survives into the future.
From tōtara forest to global attraction
The story of Mason's Garden begins with Thomas Mason, also known as 'Quaker Mason', and his wife Jane, who arrived in Wellington from England in 1841 aboard the New Zealand Company ship Olympus. Mason acquired a section in Taita, an area at the time covered in dense tōtara forest.
An ambitious horticulturalist, Mason wasted no time in planning his garden. According to research by author Winsome Shepherd in her book Wellington Heritage: Plants, Gardens and Landscape, just six weeks after arriving, Mason wrote to his uncle in England with a detailed request list. He asked for asparagus, Siberian crab apple, onion, and red cabbage seeds, as well as dianthus, rose tree, and hawthorn seeds to begin establishing his vision. A subsequent request sought potatoes, vegetables, and seeds for oak and ash trees to bring a touch of the British landscape to what he saw as the "sombre green" of his new home.
After a brief period living in Australia, the family returned to Taita in the early 1850s. Mason brought eucalyptus seeds with him, and the property soon became known as 'The Gums'. Over the following decades, the garden grew into a botanical marvel. By 1896, a catalogue produced by Mason listed an incredible 15,000 different varieties of plants, a figure that expanded by another 230 just a few years later. The five-hectare pleasure garden, featuring rhododendrons, azaleas, and magnolias, became a major attraction.
A fruitful enterprise
Beyond its beauty, Mason's Garden was also a highly productive commercial operation. It supplied the growing Wellington market with vast quantities of fruit and vegetables. Rhubarb, potatoes, and tomatoes were particularly successful crops.
In fact, it is widely believed that Thomas Mason was the first person to cultivate tomatoes commercially for the Wellington market, if not for all of New Zealand. A popular anecdote holds that his gardeners were initially suspicious of the strange fruit, refusing to eat them. They only accepted that tomatoes were safe for consumption after observing local birds pecking at the ripe fruit without ill effect.
The garden's dual role as both a public attraction and a market garden cemented its importance in the region. It was a showcase of horticultural possibility and a vital source of fresh produce for the fledgling colonial capital.
The end of an era
After Thomas Mason’s death, the property was passed to his eldest daughter and eventually to his grandson, Thomas Wilford. Despite his best efforts to maintain the estate, Mr Wilford found the immense cost and labour required for its upkeep to be overwhelming. For a short time, the property was operated privately as Mason's Tea Gardens, a nod to its past glory. However, the financial pressures were too great. In 1922, the entire five-hectare property was sold to developers and subdivided to create the residential suburb of Avalon we know today. The transition was brutal and absolute, marking a definitive end to the famous garden, much like the recent closure of Larnach Castle where Larnach Castle offers free entry for children.
The boundary trees were felled and burnt, and photographs taken from the western hills show the smoke that filled the valley for weeks.
The destruction of the garden was a significant loss for the region’s heritage. The smoke that choked the valley for weeks symbolised the end of a unique chapter in Lower Hutt's history, paving the way for the suburban development that now defines the area.
Avalon's living monuments
Today, the handful of remaining trees from Mason's Garden are recognised for their historical value and are protected under the New Zealand Tree Register. They serve as a crucial, tangible link to the story of Thomas Mason and his extraordinary contribution to the region's landscape and history. For a suburb whose identity in the 20th century was largely defined by the now-closed Avalon television studios, these living monuments are a reminder of a deeper, foundational heritage.
The ongoing efforts of historians like Clare Gleeson and the continued existence of these "giants of Avalon" ensure the legacy of Mason's Garden is not entirely forgotten. Their survival provides a glimpse into a past where Lower Hutt was home to one of the most significant gardens in the southern hemisphere. The story of the Waikanae acorns shows that even now, nearly 200 years after Thomas Mason first planted his seeds, his legacy continues to grow.
