Photo: Supplied by Vance Hooper
Vance Hooper has been breeding plants since the 80s.
The Taranaki nurseryman is most well known for his 'Genie' species of magnolia - a multi-award winning cultivar he bred in the early 2000s.
Last year 'Genie' was even selected to be part of the King's Coronation Collection.
Vance and wife Kathryn have littered their Waitara farm cottage - known as Magnolia Grove - with a huge range of magnolias growing everywhere you look.
And not just magnolias - Vance has begun experimenting with bananas and there's a bamboo forest.
