Brent Wilson
Roses, lilies, salvias, hydrangeas, dahlias – more than 200 of them and other colourful perennials – turn summer into a magical kaleidoscope in the many gardens of Mount Wilson, west of Sydney. Gardens in this area offer prime cool-climate gardening inspiration.
What is a cool climate garden?
The winters in elevated, inland areas of Australia can be cold with heavy morning frosts, making them unsuitable for the lush temperate, subtropical or tropical plants favoured along the coasts. Instead, these areas are more suited to classic English-style gardens with cool-climate plants that are bare and dormant in winter but burst into life in spring and sizzle with colour over summer.
Summers can get hot and windy, however, so protection from these elements is provided by tall trees with generous canopies in summer, fiery colours in autumn and filigree silhouettes in winter.
While spring, summer and autumn are all about plant activity, winter is not the time to retreat indoors and develop cabin fever because the soil is too hard to work. It’s the chance to explore the ‘bones’ of a garden – to get trees back into shape, prune back rosebushes and plant spring bulbs for another cycle of exuberance.
Plants that thrive in cool climate conditions
Deciduous trees
- Silver birch
- Golden ash
- Magnolia
- Beech
- Forest pansy
- Crepe myrtle
- Callery pear
Evergreen trees
- Cedars
- Conifers
- Camellias
- Spruce
- Pines
- Junipers
- Cypresses
- Yews
Shrubs
- Rhododendrons
- Hydrangeas
- Dogwood
- Lily of the valley
- Hosta
- Lilies
- Butterfly bush
- Roses
Climbers
- Clematis
- Chocolate vine
- Wisteria
- Creeping fig
- Boston ivy
- Bower of beauty
Bedding plants
- Coreopsis
- Achillea
- Aster
- Foxglove
- Gaillardia
- Geum
- Primrose
- Hellebore
Visit Mount Wilson for cool climate inspiration
Nestled in the magnificent bushland and rainforests of the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains, two hours’ drive west of Sydney, the village of Mount Wilson is renowned for its grand historic homes and abundant cool-climate exotic gardens. Most of the estates were built by wealthy Sydneysiders about 120 years ago as a cool retreat from the city’s hot, humid summers.
Gardens in Mount Wilson are most spectacular during spring and autumn and many of them are open to the public. When you visit, park your car and walk through the village to appreciate the lookouts, walking trails, picnic areas and avenues of established trees such as planes, elms, beeches, liquidambers and pink cherries.
