At your Leisure Garden Walks

The Herb and Formal Gardens Walk - Approx15 minutes

Walk up the steps in front of the Visitors Centre towards the Sundial.  Take a minute to read the inscriptions on the three basalt pillars on the right and to work out the time shown by shadow on the equatorial sundial.   As you walk up the steps to the herb garden, you will notice the enclosing hedge.  This is composed of Callitris rhomboidea or Port Jackson Pine, an Australian conifer which normally grows as a small tree.  The herb garden contains a  collection of medicinal, culinary, dye and strewing plants, with many allowed to follow their natural life cycles through to seed production.   On the other side of the path, the delightfully zingy lemon fragrance of the Lemon-scented Verbena is worth a sniff.  This is an untidy looking small shrub, growing next to the twisted hazelnut tree.

The next set of steps leads you to the third of the formal terraced gardens.  The perennial plantings here have been influenced by the traditional concepts of  garden design typical of Gertrude Jekyll,  the well-known English garden designer of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The magnificent backdrop of Eucalyptus Fastigata, the Brown Barrel Gum shouts ' Australia', and is perfect as the natural complement to the Edna Walling influenced colonnade.  Edna Walling, early 20thC conservationist, designed and created many romantic and peaceful gardens with an emphasis on natural materials. When you are ready to leave the perennial garden, follow the path at the very top under the colonnade to the first left hand turning. Walk through the rhododendrons to the roadway, then walk across to the Explorer's Walk.

Plant Explorers Walk - Approx 30 minutes

Many of our best known garden plants originate from eastern Asia and were originally collected on expeditions by European plant hunters who explored some of the most remote and rugged regions.

This area of the garden is well signposted, so take time to read  about our selection of famous plant explorers' travels, focus plants and adventures along your way.  Two gracefully pendulous and elegant conifers will catch your eye on the first section of this pathway.  The first is the West Himalayan Spruce, Picea smithiana near the large interpretive sign at the entrance.  A short distance along the path will bring you to the Kashmir Cypress, Cupressus cashmeriana.   Viburnum japonicum is planted on the right of the first bend going down the Plant Explorers walk.  Bright red berries will catch your eye and signal its presence. Keep a look out for the Golden Larch as you wind your way through the Explorers Walk.  This lovely tree is a deciduous conifer, the foliage turning golden yellow before falling.  Japanese maples of many sizes, a variety of lacy leaves and wonderful colours are at their glorious best throughout the Autumn months and the explorers walk features beautiful woodland plantings of these trees in an ideal growing environment.  Continue along to the large 'Where to from here?' sign and turn left to take the upper path to the remnant temperate rainforest walk.

The Proteaceae Garden - Approx 15 minutes

Start in the conservatory and go out through the door to the deck and walk down the ramp. Turn right at the end and walk along to the first steps on your left.  These steps lead to a landing giving a panoramic view of the Wollemi National Park, ancestral home of the Wollemi Pine.  The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah has areas of geographic plantings grouped together according to their country of origin.  The South African Proteaceae garden in front of you contains examples of this diverse group of plants which includes Proteas, Leucadendrons and Leucospermums. Linger here to enjoy the proliferation of flowering that happens every winter when many other plants are entirely at rest.Many comments are made about the brightly flowering little yellow daisy flowers in the South African Proteaceae garden. I'm told they are Helichrysum agryophyllum, commonly known as Golden Guinea Everlasting.  It is making a wonderful winter display along with the Protea, Red Hot Poker and Pink Erica.  All of these plants will grow happily in an acid, well drained, sandy soil in full sun.  The gardeners tell me that all are pruned quite hard after flowering to help them keep their shape and promote lush new growth.  They shouldn't be planted in a frosty spot, although after a couple of years, they can cope with the occasional light frost.  It gets pretty cold here in Mount Tomah, even snowing a couple of times a year, so these plants are able to withstand quite a temperature range.

Look over the top of the Proteas, and can catch a glimpse of the wonderful colours of the North American Deciduous Woodland trees, and the buttery yellow of ginkgos. 

Heath and Heather Garden - Approx 20 minutes

The view as you leave the wisteria walk looking left and right, is of a collection of conifer species, many of them quite rare in Australia.  The trees on the left are partially obscured by a hedge of Cherry Laurel, Prunus laurocerasus, a remnant of the kilometres of hedge that criss-crossed the land to protect young plantings in the Brunet days.  This hedging has mostly been removed now that the garden is mature enough to have developed its own sheltering microclimates.  Cherry Laurel is considered a 'weedy' plant, the berries contain seeds that are distributed widely by birds and germinate readily in mountain environments.  Because of this, the remaining hedges are kept well trimmed, never allowed to flower. 

Continue along the lower roadway, with North American woodland  on the right and Southern Hemisphere woodland on the left towards the Northern Pavilion, perched proudly atop a rise in the vista ahead.   The landscaping around this pavilion displays the texture and soft, subtle tones of heath and heather plants from around the world.  The setting is ideal, with the ground hugging plants clinging to their rocky boundaries to create such an illusion of space and isolation in this windswept environment.