Open gardens: inner city haven from the rat-race

This interior designer’s inner-city terrace garden is more like a series of green rooms. See it this weekend.

Rosie's garden has evolved over the 30 years she has been there.

Rosie’s garden, Sydney, 59 Ocean Street, Woollahra. Owner: Rosie Stevens. Open this weekend 10am-4pm; entry $8, under-18s free.

DESCRIBE THE GARDEN: It’s a small garden around a Victorian terrace, not far from the city, that is a series of garden rooms. It’s not a designer garden but I am an interior designer who loves plants and collects lots of things. It has evolved over the 30 years I’ve been here.

I started with a struggling lawn and some shrubs but as the neighbouring trees grew it has become very shady. The front garden is now a “survival” garden where garden beds each side of a brick pathway are filled with interesting but tough plants including cream clivias, Camellia lutchuensis and Ligularia.

Archways covered with star jasmine punctuate the side path and in the rear garden, Stephanotis frames the french doors and star jasmine trained in a diamond pattern covers the side wall. There’s also a small water feature made from a Turkish copper water bowl. Shade-loving hellebores, arum lilies, windflowers, hydrangeas, purple gingers, heliotrope and plectranthus all find a home here.

WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL? There’s an eclectic mix of different plants because I really like them and I do a lot of propagating. I create succulent pots and wreaths for my florist daughter’s shop. There are probably too many pots but I like to experiment. My grandchildren love helping me, so it’s not a precious garden.

FAVOURITE PART: The inner courtyard where an ornamental grape shades the conservatory, which is filled with three large hanging baskets of Boston fern. They were tiny when I bought them but now their enormous fronds trail down nearly 3m to the dining table. A pot stand features many pink bromeliads and the tall urns are planted with aspidistras. It’s north-facing, so it’s sunny in winter and we seem to live out there.

BIGGEST CHALLENGES: The lack of sun in the front. The plane trees that line Ocean Street are majestic but they take all the water and nutrients from the front garden and smother the plants when the leaves drop. A huge evergreen magnolia to the north blocks the winter sun, and a neighbour’s statuesque date palm has very dense, competitive roots. I just keep building up the soil.

WHAT’S IN FLOWER? A hedge of Camellia ‘Star Above Star’ screening the fence to the rear of the coach house bears masses of flowers. The hoya draped across the front of the house has its last blooms and the Ligularia is flowering, although I grow it for its handsome foliage.

EXTRAS: Also open nearby is my sister Annie’s garden, a newer garden designed by Marcia Hosking. Funds raised from my garden go to Guide Dogs Australia.

ALSO OPEN THIS WEEKEND

10am to 4.30pm, $8, under-18s free

Myrele: 182 Queen Street, Woollahra, NSW

Annie’s garden: 12 Quambi Place, Edgecliff, NSW

Cacophony Lodge: 41 Hatfield Road, Eumundi, Queensland

Lindmar: 130 Blewers Road, Morayfield, Queensland

Cowley garden: Boronia Avenue, St George, Queensland $7

Duania: 12563 Carnarvon Hwy, St George, Qld $7

Kanandah: 9405 Carnarvon Hwy, St George, Qld $7

Gandhara: 135 Coolibah Drive, Greenwood, Western Australia