Cloudehill is divided into some twenty 'garden rooms' including colour co-ordinated herbaceous and shrub borders, a tree peony collection, a copper beech walk, spring bulb meadows and a green theatre. The gardens are part surrounded by spectacular mountain ash forest and yet our restaurant, Seasons at Cloudehill, enjoys exhilarating views over the Yarra Valley and to the mountains beyond. Cloudehill is by far the most ambitious garden of its type in Australia and, allowing for our perfect growing conditions, the rich soils and cool mountain air, is on its way to being considered one of the world's great gardens.
Changing exhibits of sculpture, ceramics and garden art are displayed in the gardens throughout the year, and formal exhibitions by single artists or groups of artists are programmed during spring, summer and autumn.
The gardens are available as a glorious backdrop to wedding photographs and memorable wedding ceremonies are regularly held in our green theatre and marquee.
Workshops on garden design, garden history, on various plants (tree peonies and clematis for example), on potager gardening (which generally include lunch in Seasons Restaurant), are scheduled throughout the year. Please keep an eye on our events column for details.
Inspiration for the Gardens
Cloudehill is inspired by the famous arts and crafts gardens of England: Sissinghurst, Hidcote, Tintinhull and others. These, in turn, are derived from the renaissance gardens of Italy such as Villa D'este and Villa Lante. Our green theatre is a tribute to those magnificent Italian hill gardens. Of course, Cloudehill's location, with its reasonably gentle slopes, the dramatic forest to one side and exhilarating views to the mountains, provide plenty of inspiration and the placing of art works into the gardens give a contemporary twist to a classic design.
The original hedge surrounding the property was most probably planted in the early years of last century and the garden has been broken into small areas by rows of beech and rhododendrons for 40 and 60 years. To use the spaces already available was our starting point. From there, we set about excavating terraces and walks to accommodate the results of my 15 years of collecting perennials. The more formal garden rooms are made on the upper slopes and the lower parts dissolve to the rough grass meadow in the bottom corner. The lowest path through the meadow leads visitors to the entrance to Rangeview, our neighbour's woodland garden where many paths loop and wind through beautifully grown cool climate trees and shrubs of every sort.
The great advantage of a garden of this style is that it is possible to cram many ideas into the various compartments. There is plenty of opportunity to experiment with light and shade, with colour themes and textual effects, even with different styles of topiary. No other style of garden design allows the gardener to pack so much variety into a relatively small area. We hope this suggests how home gardens may be improved. After all, every gardener living in the 'burbs' already has several formal spaces to work with: a front garden, a back garden and at least one connecting passageway.
The raison détre of Cloudehill are the herbaceous perennials, they dominate the most important terrace. Curiously, we are finding that the gentle Dandenong summers make for an especially long flowering season. Our borders flower through summer with no hint of a pause during the warmest weather, from late spring into autumn in fact. We find they flower for several weeks longer than similar borders might in England.
Historic and Important Plants growing in Cloudehill
The Japanese maples, Acer palmatum Dissectum Atropurpureum, moved to their raised beds along the main terrace in 1992, were originally imported from the Yokohama Trading Company in Japan by Ted Woolrich in 1928. These trees, with their extraordinary twisting branch structure, are absolutely world class.
We have Australia's original osakauki maple, (Acer palmatum Osakasuki), an Acer japonicum Aconitifolium, also an Acer maximowiczianum, these all imported from Japan in 1928. Several very large Enkianthus perulatus, a huge E. campanulatus and Australia's largest Magnolia denudata were likely brought to the country at the same time.
In the same year, Ted Woolrich imported several forms of the European beech from Fred Streeter's nursery in England. These include three specimens of the tricolour beech, a fern leaf beech, a golden beech and a weeping green beech. (The last two grow very splendidly near 'the dell' in our neighbour's garden, Rangeview.)
Important rhododendrons include, in order of flowering, Rhododendron grandis, several forms of the aboreum rhododendron such as campbellii, delavayii, Bennetts variety, Sir Charles Lemon and an astonishing Rhododendron aboreum Zealandica which leans out over the deck beside Chatterley's. The season is rounded off with the lovely lemon flowered R. Ightham Yellow and we are fortunate enough to have an entire grove of, Jim Woolrich's favourite: Rhododendron nuttalii. This has peeling bark similar to a griseum maple, large rugose leaves reminiscent of a loquat and very large, heavily perfumed, white trumpet flowers identical to a giant lilium. Along with these, the entire garden is dominated by banks and hedges of beautifully grown hybrid rhododendrons.
The Rangeview Gardens
Visitors walking to the lowest part of Cloudehill will find a standing stone: a two metre high a piece of South Australian slate. Lines from A Midsummer Night’s Dream have been carved into this by sculptor Ian Marr and Ian’s dramatic piece is the boundary marker between Cloudehill and the entrance to Rangeview Gardens. Rangeview was made, originally by Keith Purves and now by Mary and Ches Mason, out of the remains of Ted Woolrich's nursery. The gloriously mature trees and shrubs growing throughout are nearly all survivors of the bush fires that swept over the area in 1962. When Keith bought the property in 1983, colossal blackberry thickets made it impenetrable; in fact, he was two years in finding the boundaries. As the weeds were cleared, the original plants grew and blossomed. Mary acquired the garden in 2003 and has since been immensely busy, retaining the earth banks, resurfacing the labyrinthine paths and steps and upgrading the old plantings in every possible way.
This is now an enchanted place; Puck's garden on the shoulder of Mount Olympus. Much of its charm is in its serendipitous nature. A giant American tulip tree, surely the finest in Australia, rears up from the end of a narrow path. A small dell is overhung by a huge, weeping green beech and further along the slope one stumbles into a maze of kurume azaleas, in fact these were the first to be planted in Australia. They are tall and tangled now, but still bejewelled each spring with their tiny pastel flowers. And in a garden with rhododendrons everywhere, suddenly one finds a pure forest of them, their blossoms entirely concealed by writhing limbs stretching up into their high canopy. It is though the hill side has been transformed into a Himalayan cloud forest.
We suggest to those exploring Rangeview to look for signs of the resident wombats, and especially for lyrebirds. This is perhaps the best place in Australia to meet a wild lyrebird. A colony of these extraordinary creatures lives in the wet, densely forested gully immediately below Rangeview. Lyrebirds wander into the garden constantly and are very relaxed about two legged visitors to their domain. They have been known to wander up to visitors and their glorious calling and mimicry echo through the garden most days.
Rangeview is open along with Cloudehill. We only ask that visitors leave a gold coin donation in the box by the entrance.
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