30 members travelled to the Geelong Botanic Gardens via the West Gate Bridge and the Geelong Freeway. It was a slow trip but we eventually arrived at the Gardens and were met by two volunteers from The Friends of the Gardens who kindly gave us a guided tour.
The Geelong Botanic Gardens were established in 1851 and are the fourth oldest botanic gardens in Australia after Sydney, Tasmania and Melbourne. Geelong Botanic Gardens is a fenced area of approx 17 acres. It is surrounded by Eastern Park which overlooks Corio Bay. Both the Gardens and the Park are listed in the Victorian Heritage Register for their vast assortment of plants. 38 trees are listed on the National Trust Significant Tree Register- Giant Redwood planted in 1873, Maidenhair Tree, Chilean Wine Palm, Spotted Gum, Black Walnut, Kauri Pine, Copper Beech, Bunya Pines and Flame Trees.
We entered the Geelong Botanic Gardens via the modern 21stCentury Garden (opened 2002) designed for arid climate and local native plants and to promote education, conservation and sustainability. At the entrance and just inside are six wonderful Queensland Bottle Trees (Brachychiton rupestris) which are combined with architectural plants and spectacular tree-like sculptures towering over the gateway.
From the 21st Century Garden we passed through fancy wrought iron gates to the older Heritage gardens. Just inside the gates is a life size model of the 19th Century explorer Daniel Bunce, the first curator, with a Victorian lady visitor to the Gardens.
The borders along the central path down to the fountains and urns are mostly planted with mediterranean plants which need very little water – teucriums, phlomis, lavenders, echiums, euphorbias, sedums, succulents, helichrysum (licorice plant), artemisias and grasses.
We walked through the recently renovated conservatory full of amazing tropical plants, passed by the heritage rose lawn, the fern garden, along the beautiful camellia and rhododendron walk under planted with hellebores and bulbs, then admired the pelargonium collection beautifully displayed and viewed the1860’s sunken green house which now houses cacti.
There is a lovely sculpture of storks which was brought out from Japan in the 1880’s and eventually found its way to the Gardens in the 1970’s.
The Gardens have an extensive collection of salvias. A few of the taller salvias were flowering but many had been pruned and will flower in the summer and autumn.
We then travelled to the Geelong RSL where we had a very nice lunch and lots of chitchat. We arrived back in Camberwell around 4.30 pm.
Thank you to Helen and Marilla for organising this very enjoyable trip.
