Located
a short drive up the Port Hills to Mt Pleasant, just 14 km from central
Christchurch, Villa Toscana is a creative vision of ingenuity and originality.
As a huge testament to Jenny’s persistence, passion and determination, she has
managed the hillsides into compliance, to now present a spectacular
manifestation of her uncompromising ethos. The Villa gardens are a ‘sensory
wonderland’ - alive with sound, water, light, fragrance and movement - curated with Jenny’s meticulous attention to detail and her refined aesthetic;
offering a harmonious experience - where innovation and heritage coexist. This
is a culmination and progeny of Jenny’s travels and missions to explore ancient
antiquities, civilisations and landscapes and overlaid with her moving personal
story. One can now experience this imaginative re-enactment and interpretation
of timeless New Zealand and European scenarios, buildings and stonework.
Different worlds merge almost imperceptibly, with 3.5 km of
meandering pathways enabling enjoyable walking, amongst vibrant and joyful
compositions of plantings, which entice you from one area to the next. At the
top of the garden, you are embraced by a mystical pine forest, with tiered
gardens, magical grottos and belvederes, adorned with statuary and fountains.
Close to the Villa, a stepped boardwalk has been built,
alongside a 200 metre long spring fed waterway that builds to a cascade during
periods of rain, passing with a roar through bountiful bog and punga plantings
and under characterful bridges, as it descends the valley. The experience is
reminiscent of the West Coast, with its wild dramatic beauty and is enhanced by
views into the adjoining native garden, with its rustic paths and lush
ferneries.
Across the boardwalk bridge, a vibrant woodland bulb garden
appears, nestled under the dappled light of overarching spring foliage,
providing coolness and colour, before the path opens up to vistas of green
hillsides. You are led, via an intriguing bay hedged, zig zag path adorned with
classical sculpture alcoves, to a sun-drenched Italian summerhouse pavillion.
Below this charming Tuscan hillside, the Villa’s Mediterranean
theme continues, with dramatic rocky outcrops, discovered after extensive clearing
of the property’s lower slopes. These have provided the perfect foil for
striking, sculptural cacti and succulent plantings; their yellows, reds and
greens, taking on a luminescent quality as the sun sets.
Alongside 'Tuscany’, Jenny has tastefully
crafted a beautiful Central Otago ambience. She has used recycled timbers and
stone and incorporated many antique features, to build an Arrowtown schist cottage,
with a rustic barn and chapel ruins set amongst a complementary palette of
evocative plantings, with a pinetum as the backdrop.
Successive additions to the original 1.1 hectares have occurred over the years, as Jenny has purchased adjacent properties to preserve the garden’s privacy, views and critically - in keeping with her ethos - to protect and enhance this prominent part of the Port Hills. This culminated in 2019, with an additional 3.19 hectares, now transformed, through Jenny’s vision and drive over the ensuing years, to become Parco Villa Toscana. Breathtaking vistas, expansive avenues, wildflower and perennial meadows, alcoves and groves of specimen native and exotic trees abound.
The glorious gardens of Villa Toscana now extend across a
total of 4.6 hectares, with an impressive gradient of 90 metres (27 storeys)
from the top of the garden to the lower reaches. A triumphant symphony of
plantings, whimsical features and an enduring charm manifests throughout the
seasons, day and night.
Jenny has elevated all this to an entirely new level and
dimension, with her exceptional investment in creative lighting effects - a
magical fairyland experience, bringing the garden ‘to life’ as dusk falls!
The garden is a botanical tour de force, with over 80 varieties of trees and impressive collections of plant families such as: magnolias, bulbs, hydrangeas, conifers, hostas, perennials, rhododendrons, roses, clivias, irises, maples, hellebores, agaves and aloes. Thousands of new plants are replenished each year, to ensure the vitality and luxuriance of the landscape.
Gracefully featured in this garden are over 70 thoughtfully
placed sculptures. Created by talented artisans, whom Jenny has met throughout
her travels in New Zealand and abroad and whose works resonated with the stories
and themes evolving in the garden. These artistic energies now enhance and
blend seamlessly into the natural beauty of Villa Toscana.
The garden is also a wildlife haven, with 14 exotic and 11 native bird species that thrive in this abundant, diverse environment - bringing their uplifting vitality, life and melodious song.
“I am enthralled by the extraordinary choral bird symphonies in the native bush, led by the exquisite bellbirds, as they herald daybreak and then the evening falling, with the autumnal quick change of temperatures. It is blissful to have the pair singing above, following my visitors and I , as we traverse the stone bridge with the fantails flitting around us - joyously uplifting.”
A pioneer and entrepreneur, graduating with a BA and MA (1st Class Hons), Jenny developed her own Psychology Practice in 1987, after corporate roles in Personnel Management and Human Resources Consulting. She has a distinguished background in competitive sport at a national level and has won numerous New Zealand titles in squash and tennis.
Jenny became New Zealand’s first professional Sports Psychologist, with her science-based approach to maximising performance. She went on to create her Power of Focus Progamme, working with people in companies throughout Australasia to develop greater focus, creativity and energy levels, within their business cultures and their personal lives.
Always taking the unconventional route and having discovered her natural aptitude and aesthetic talents for house and garden restoration, Jenny embarked on what was to become a massive mission, starting in 2001 with the purchase of a barren wilderness on Mt Pleasant, that would transform over 24 years into Villa Toscana.
Jenny has woven a unique DNA into Villa Toscana, infusing it with a distinct sense of playfulness. Its design is a harmonious blend of signature plants, captivating artworks, carefully chosen ornaments and authentic craftsmanship. Together, these elements combine to create a garden with architectural spaces that are both intriguing and charming.
Jenny believes in, embraces and teaches, a pioneering ethos, applying this in a practical way when faced with any challenge. It has been clearly demonstrated in the metamorphosis of the difficult, testing landscape and included the re-building of her home. After its demise in the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, the quaint timber colonial homestead has been replaced, like a phoenix from the ashes, by her masterfully planned and crafted Italian Villa.
The ongoing development and maintenance of her vision for this spectacular and intricately detailed garden, is managed by Jenny and her small, loyal team.
The energy, discipline, zest and enthusiasm that saw the young Jenny become a sports champion and highly successful psychologist, has resulted in one of the most exciting new gardens in New Zealand today.
She now shares this serenely beautiful location, with select visitors.