Co-ordinator: Kate Cino
The large pond here features two stone fountains and hosts nesting ducks in the spring and summer.
Plantings include hardy gingers, palms, dahlias, canna, fuschias, and banana trees. The semi-tropical plants’ bright flowers and dramatic foliage, in combination with ornamental grasses and flowering bulbs, bring an exotic flair to the sunny beds.
A signature plant is abutilon ‘Tiger Eye.’ Its orange bells striped with red attract comments throughout the summer.
Unusual ferns, large leaf rhododendrons, and a collection of silver astelia make up the eastern edge of this border in the shade of a giant redwood. .
Rockland II
Co-ordinator: Alex Muir
Carpets of spring bulbs and fragrant shrubs welcome visitors early in the season followed by hellebores, primulas, peonies, and irises. 
The western edge’s fern garden offers a cool contrast to the hot colours of Rockland I.
It has a strong framework of blue hydrangeas, rare rhododendrons, and Japanese maples.
Plants were carefully chosen for leaf colour, size, and texture as foliage is as important as flowers and scent here.
The large leaves of fatsia japonica are a contrast to the smaller, finer texture of calla lily leaves. Lavenders and hebes are planted at the sunnier eastern edge.
Hey Mr. Tally Man, Tally Me Banana
Several volunteers spent a sunny day replanting two ornamental banana trees in Rockland I and two in the pool garden. Valerie Murray, horticulture advisor says, “It’s a tender species that has to be protected from cold weather. You know that summer is coming when the plants return. The volunteers and visitors really look forward to these two plant “migrations.” The red-leaved banana is a popular plant choice as it creates a tropical effect in the garden with its burgundy-red, variegated foliage and stems. (While the plants may look exotic, no monkeys will be added as they do not actually produce bananas.)
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