Touring Arthur Streeton's spectacular gardens | Garden Design and Inspiration | Gardening Australia

Jane visits the garden created by landscape painter Arthur Streeton for his wife, that has remained a beautiful illustration of their love and of horticultural history. Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe

Sir Arthur Streeton (1867-1943) is best known for the landscapes he painted as part of the Heidelberg school of artists. In 1920 (i.e. aged 53), when he finally had some money, he bought 5 acres on a ridge in the Dandenong Ranges – an area he was introduced to by his good friend Dame Nellie Melba. He then he set about trying to make it as welcoming as he could for his homesick wife, Canadian-born and European-trained violinist, Nora. “The garden is a kind of a love letter from Arthur to Nora,” says current owner Julie Dodds Streeton. “They were a very romantic pair and it’s their love story.”

Today much of the views to the bay that Arthur and Nora would have enjoyed have been screened out by the huge Douglas firs, which Arthur planted to remind Nora of North America. He also planted a boulevard of linden trees to remind her of Germany, where she studied. As well as the more common Tilia x europaea, he planted the rare US species, Tilia americana.

Julie thinks he wouldn’t mind the trees filling the view – “today he’d be called a tree hugger,” she says. The oaks were grown from acorns Arthur picked up in Melbourne Botanic Gardens, which he loved. He wrote letters protesting a planned tramway through the gardens, which helped stop it going ahead.

Arthur was poor for most of his life but he paid for the new house by selling a single painting: “Golden Summer, Eaglemont”. Still Nora never loved the hills as much as he did, and preferred to live in the city.

Arthur planted out borders and a rockery and kept lists of the plants in his garden.

After Nora died, Arthur lived full-time at Longacres and spent much of his last 7 years in the garden. He painted a lot there, but Julie says it’s hard to recognise the garden in his work. He loved the ancient blackwoods on the property, and included them in his paintings, and he and Nora were animal lovers, so there was a horse called Peter on the property that features in some works.

Julie is the widow of Roger Streeton, one of Arthur and Nora’s grandchildren. He shared Arthur’s love of hands-on gardening and left his mark on the property, adding an apple walk, massive amounts of different hydrangeas, an azalea ‘bowl’, peony roses, a wildflower meadow and a cyclamen lawn. Julie particularly loves the sea of lily of the valley & Solomon’s seal around the house, and a lawn studded with violets.

Gardener Craig Wilson, who runs Gentiana nursery, is the garden’s main carer now. He says that, because Longacres is on a mountain ridge, it has its own climate. While it never gets frost, they do get snow. “The main problem is the hot weather in late summer,” says Craig. Cold-climate plants don’t mind wind, rain and snow, but they baulk at hot northerly winds. A major bonus is the amazing soil: “It’s amazing, ancient volcanic soil about a metre deep.”

A major challenge for Craig are feral deer. “They’re beautiful to look at, but they just eat everything,” he says. “It so restrictive.” Deer destroyed the wildflower meadow before it got above knee height, and have eaten out the cyclamen lawn.

Luckily the deer haven’t devoured the Wollemi pine that Roger planted; it is now about 10m tall. Craig said he had to learn not to prune the suckers from roots: “Apparently they’re multi-stemmed; I had no idea,” he admits.

Featured Plants:
DOUGLAS PINE – Pinus douglasiana
AGAPANTHUS – Agapanthus cv.*
LILY ‘LESLIE WOODRIFF’ – Lilium cv.
LILY ‘CONCA D’OR’ – Lilium cv.
HYDRANGEA ‘GRANDIFLORA’ – Hydrangea paniculata cv.
HYDRANGEA – Hydrangea macrophylla cv.
RED BEECH – Nothofagus fusca
BLACK LOCUST – Robinia pseudoacacia *
ENGLISH OAK – Quercus robur
* Check before planting: this may be an environmental weed in your area

Filmed on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country | Olinda, Vic
___________________________________________

Gardening Australia is an ABC TV program providing gardening know-how and inspiration. Presented by Australia’s leading horticultural experts, Gardening Australia is a valuable resource to all gardeners through the television program, the magazine, books, DVDs and extensive online content.

Watch more: http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/gardening-australia
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gardeningaustralia
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/gardeningaustralia
Web: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening

___________________________________________

This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation YouTube channel. Contributions may be removed if they violate ABC’s Online Conditions of Use http://www.abc.net.au/conditions.htm (Section 3).