Ray Choate
Ph: 8267 3106
Email: ray.choate@adelaide.edu.au
Chair:
Ray Choate
Vice-Chair:
Richard Nolan
Secretary:
Alan Betteridge
assisted by Helen Livingston
Treasurer and NMC Representative:
Ray Choate
Programme Committee:
Richard Heathcote & Di Wilkins
Committee:
Richard Heathcote
Jeff Jenkinson
Richard Nolan
Di Wilkins
Date: Monday 20th September 2010
Event: Dr Janet Waymark
Author of Modern Garden Design, Janet Waymark is an English academic. Her topic will be ‘Aspects of the Natural Garden’.
Venue: To be announced.
Date: Friday 15th October 2010
Event: Lost Gardens of Adelaide Exhibition opening.
There will be an exhibition launch at Carrick Hill on the ‘Lost Gardens of Adelaide’. This will be in conjunction with an exhibition at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens entitled ‘Garden of Ideas’.
Venue: Carrick Hill, 46 Carrick Hill Drive, Springfield.
Date: Saturday 16th October 2010
Event: A talk by Kenneth Cox.
This event is in conjunction with the Rhododendron Society. Kenneth Cox, from Scotland, is an international expert on rhododendrons.
Venue: To be announced.
The Branch Committee is reviewing the newsletter, its content, and its publishing schedule. Suggestions from Branch members will be appreciated.
Reminder: If you have an email address and are keen to have your SA Branch AGHS newsletter emailed instead of posted please let Ray Choates know at email: ray.choate@adelaide.edu.au.
Essays about South Australian gardens which no longer exist due to urban development, subdivision or for other reasons.
Essays should be no more than 4000 words and the use of illustrations is strongly encouraged.
Closing date is Monday 27th September. The winner will be announced on 15th October. Prize $750.
Download rules and submission details.
Urrbrae House Gardens and Waite Arboretum
On Sunday the 9th of May members visited the Urrbrae House Gardens and Waite Arboretum on the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide. Urrbrae House was built in 1891 and has an attractive garden and rose garden, both redeveloped over the past few years. A sculpture garden in the ‘Mallee Garden’ was also part of the tour.
The thirty-hectare Arboretum has more than 2000 labelled trees and shrubs from all over the world. It was an excellent opportunity for Adelaide and South Australian members to get some ideas of trees and shrubs for their own gardens; many of the trees have been in the arboretum since 1928 when the first plantings occurred.
Jennifer Gardner, Director of the Waite Arboretum, conducted the tour and answered questions, followed by tea in the Dining Room of Urrbrae House. It was a pleasant autumn day and the gardens, after recent rains, were looking fresh. Jennifer escorted the group, looking at several important trees, including an Australian Teak (Flindersia australis) and a California Buckeye (Aesculus californica) that several members retrieved seeds for planting!
The Arboretum suffered a fire a few years ago, and a project is being developed to replant the approximately 100 trees that were killed or seriously damaged.
A follow-up visit in Spring is envisaged, when several of the flowering trees attract massive number of butterflies. The Branch Committee has decided to assist the Arboretum in the replacement of several trees because of the fire.
Adelaide Himeji Gardens
On Sunday 11th April 2010 over 40 members attended a tour of the Adelaide Himeji Gardens, as a commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the opening in 1985 of these gardens. The ancient city of Himeji became a 'Sister City' to Adelaide in 1982.
Several speakers talked about aspects of Japan and the gardens. Trevor Nottle spoke about the Bagot steam yacht expedition to Japan to collect plants. Jennifer Harris, curator of Asian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia spoke on Japanese landscape and art. Newell Platten, architect and author of The Lure of the Japanese Garden and Fumio Ueda, a Japanese gardener who has been associated with the gardens for many years also provide valued contributions.
The Garden is said to blend two classic styles:- the 'senzui' (lake and mountain garden, where the imagination endows the small pond with vastness and grandeur) and the 'kare senzui' (dry garden, where rocks and sand evoke the presence of water and even the sea itself). The tour and talks were followed by tea in the gardens.
