Beechwood Open Garden: Keith strolls the grounds of this great garden in the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia
Beechwood is a sprawling Victorian style garden that tells a fascinating story of garden development over the course of a century - and through several owners to boot. The original vision belonged to Francis Hugh Snow - a successful merchant who collected plants from his extensive overseas travels. We all enjoy their stunning autumnal show today but in the 19th century the threes were truly exotic.
Decades on we can lose ourselves amongst delightful stands of Beech trees… And other exotic species like the Rimu from New Zealand. A lot of them like a giant cypress can make you feel pretty insignificant.
For Gail Heritage, of the Open Garden Scheme, this is the 'bee's knees' of the scheme - Beechwood is one of THE great gardens.
Gail Heritage, Open Garden Scheme: "It is a beautiful heritage garden, in fact when Doctor Brian Morley was involved with the Botanic Gardens he described it as the quintessential heritage garden in South Australia. And it scored a first too - it was the first garden registered under the State Heritage Act. And we can see why. Absolutely, it's fantastic."
Beechwood is more than a garden - it's a sprawling kaleidoscope of plantings seamlessly woven together over 5 hectares. Not surprisingly, old man Snow had six gardeners to look after his passion - and his wife Flora overseeing the workers in his absence.
It includes a Centenary Fountain - erected in 1993 to mark the 100th birthday of the garden. Francis Snow's Grand daughters donated the funds to have it erected.
Beechwood has had several owners since the Snow family - each leaving their mark. It's worth coming to Beechwood just to have a look at the conservatory. It's also on the State Heritage Register and rightly so because there are only two cast iron conservatories like it in SA. The one at Beechwood was brought out especially from Paisley in Scotland by Thomas Elder, the bloke who gave us the Elder Park rotunda. But this was for his private home and it provided banana for the fruit bowl and flowers for the table at is home - not here but down in Glen Osmond at Birksgate.
The present custodians are Janet and David Rice. Since purchasing Beechwood in 2002, they've added their own special touches like expanding the rose garden - 300 David Austin Roses in all. The Rice family has also tackled a few perennial problem areas - like what to do with an old quarry on the hillside.
Gail Heritage, Open Garden Scheme: "The old quarry used to be a quagmire in winter so they've converted it into a Japanese garden. The trick is to find the sleeping giant with the earth as his bedclothes."
The local kookaburras gave us a warm welcome the day we visited but you need to plan it right because Beechwood is only open as part of the popular Open Garden Scheme.
Gail Heritage, Open Garden Scheme: "The Open Garden Scheme has been operating in Australia for about 20 years. It started in South Australia in 1993 and this year we're opening about 60 gardens both in autumn and spring."
Beechwood is open on April 17 and Sunday April 18 from 10am until 4.30pm. Sunday's opening will also be part of the Stirling Autumn Garden Festival so there'll be a special shuttle bus running from the main street in Stirling. If you have any further questions please email them to info@postcards-sa.com.au
Beechwood
36 Snows Rd
Stirling
Sun 17 - Sat 18 April
Open 10am - 4.40pmPublished 10th April 2010
