NORTHERN Tasmania is one of Australia’s best kept gardening secrets. Deep red soil, reliable (by Aussie standards) rainfall, mild, sunny summers and cold winters combine to create horticultural heaven. Small wonder some of our best-known gardeners live there, including Susan Irvine, Peter Cundall and Jennifer Stackhouse.
Having visited and loved Tasmania’s North West, with its picturesque towns and pretty gardens (not to mention amazing bulb farm, Van Diemen Quality Bulbs, www.vdqbulbs.com.au/), we decided in March to take ourselves off to the remote and scarcely populated North East. Launceston is a short hop from Melbourne and a perfect starting point, with its lovely location on the Tamar River, beautifully maintained 19th century architecture and total absence of high rise. From here it’s an hour’s drive east to the regional centre of Scottsdale, described by its first surveyor, James Scott, in 1855 as, “the best soil on the island . . . well-watered, with a mild climate”.
The small town lies in a setting of rich pastures and wooded hills, and I had high hopes of finding good gardens.
By a great piece of good fortune, however, what we discovered was even better: a late Victorian house in its original garden, operating as a first-class restaurant and self-contained accommodation – winner.
Anabel’s of Scottsdale (www.anabelsofscottsdale.com.au/) was built by successful local businessman George Dinham for his home and is now owned and run by his granddaughter Andrea Blake and her husband Sean.
The garden was originally four hectares and included five ponds, and has been a tourist drawcard for decades in spring when its sensational camellias, magnolias, wisteria and huge rhododendrons, underplanted with colourful bulbs, are in flower.
Arriving in autumn to a warm welcome from Andrea and Sean, I was spellbound by the garden in early evening, low sunlight shining through large, old trees and slanting across wide lawns.
Late summer flowers included scarlet fuchsias, pink and cream hydrangeas, elephants ears (Colocasia) and a rare South African daphne tree (Dais cotinifolia), with sweetly scented, puffy pink flowers, and rounded green leaves, whose bark is used by native Africans for thread or cord.
George Dinham loved rare plants, especially glasshouse orchids, but his greatest legacy is his tree collection.
The small town lies in a setting of rich pastures and wooded hills.
It is a special treat to come across a private garden containing mature examples of Himalayan dogwood (Cornus capitata) with creamy yellow flowers followed by red, strawberry-like fruit, coastal rainforest lilli pilli (Syzygium luehmanii) with pink berries and gingko biloba with butter yellow autumn leaves. Most outstanding of all, a dawn redwood (Metasequoia) a deciduous Chinese conifer was a curtain of bronze autumn colour.
This engaging garden full of interesting plants retains its 19th century atmosphere of charm and tranquility.
One word of warning. If you’re driving in this part of the world and have no head for heights, avoid taking a short cut that might turn into a terrifying mountain pass, with sheer drops of several hundred metres just centimetres from your car window.
Anabel’s of Scottsdale, 46 King Street, Scottsdale, 7260, phone 03 6352 3277. Yamina Collectors Nursery offers Dais cotinifolia for $27.50 plus postage, www.yaminacollectorsnursery.com.au/
