The historic home garden area at Cranbourne gardens, at first glance, looks like some post-modern mishmash. But a closer look reveals that side by side in a very small space are several slices of the domestic gardening past that have been cleverly reinterpreted with Australian natives.
In the 50s-style garden, where you would expect to find a camellia or rhododendron, there is instead a fabulous red-flowering gum, Corymbia ficifolia. At the foot of a tree there is Hypocalymma 'Golden Veil', with its uplifting foliage. And in the corner, instead of a marguerite daisy is an everlasting daisy, or Xerochrysum bracteatum.
In a typical Victorian terrace or pocket-handkerchief-style front garden, instead of a standard iceberg rose, the alternative is a standard Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' - it's a beautiful, bird-attracting plant. Rather than a clichéd box hedge, the lovely glossy foliage of Syzygium australe has been used and, to replace lavender or chamomile, is Rhodanthe anthemoides 'Sunray Snow', with its beautiful greyish foliage that provides year-round interest, and is smothered with little paper daisies in spring.
A present-day contemporary courtyard uses Cordyline obtecta 'Emerald Goddess' which has lush, droopy foliage. An ever-blooming Grevillea rhyolitica 'Deua Flame' and a drought tolerant low-growing Lomandra in the border replaces azaleas, and a magnificent pot has a beautiful Sturt's desert pea.
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne encourages people to use more Australian plants in their own gardens and the design work is really innovative, and so if you get the chance to come and look, you will be inspired.