Jurassic park: Woodbank, Mount Wellington, Tasmania

This woodland garden is a little slice of Gondwanaland in the foothills of Mount Wellington, outside Hobart.

Woodbank. Picture: Kim Woods Rabbidge

A friend told her you should never buy a house for its garden “but that’s exactly what we did”, laughs Kerry van den Berg. In 2014, she and her husband Harry purchased Woodbank in the foothills of Mount Wellington outside Hobart and they have nurtured this significant garden ever since.

What they bought is a 6.9ha sanctuary that hosts a unique collection of flora curated over 50 years by horticultural pioneer Ken Gillanders OAM from countries once part of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwanaland. Many of the plants are rare and endangered. The woodland garden of 1.6ha is laid out around three small lakes with important collections of Nothofagus, rhododendrons and azaleas.

Picture: Kim Woods Rabbidge

“When we first looked at the property we had no idea of the garden’s significance,” says Kerry. Ken and Lesley Gillanders had sold to others in 2012 when advancing age forced them to relinquish their garden of botanical treasures and the highly regarded nursery. When the van den Bergs, who’d created a beautiful garden on 1.2ha in Launceston, wanted to move closer to family their wish-list started with a large garden. “I’ve always been a fanatical gardener and I wasn’t going to move unless we found a nicer garden than the one we had,” Kerry says. “I still don’t like the house – but I love the garden.”

Woodbank. Picture: Kim Woods Rabbidge

Woodbank could not have found better guardians. The van den Bergs were soon introduced to Ken Gillanders through the Rhododendron Society and he has visited regularly ever since, thrilled to see its continuation and helping to document its plantings. One project of the garden’s volunteer group has been to map the plants in every bed and create a herbarium, tapping Gillanders’ wealth of knowledge. “Every Eucryphia on the planet is in this garden,” says Kerry. “It’s a bit like a botanical ark – some of the plants here are extinct in the wild – so it’s a big responsibility.”

Picture: Kim Woods Rabbidge

Kerry’s love has always been herbaceous perennials, which she knew suited the garden’s style, but she only recently began adding them. “At first I didn’t want to change anything but I started to feel more confident after about four years,” she says. “Liliums do very well here and I’m interested in epimediums. There are carpets of trilliums here that I love, as well as masses of tiny cyclamens and rare bulbs.”

Harry, 78, who hails from a horticultural family in Holland, takes care of the practical side (tractor, chainsaw, wall-building) and prunes the huge cypress hedges. Kerry, 66, still teaches part-time as well as managing the garden. Her latest projects are propagating the rarer eucryphias – with Gillanders’ help – and coaxing elusive Himalayan blue poppies into flower from seed.

Until the pandemic, the van den Bergs hosted streams of international and interstate visitors, plant fairs and groups at Woodbank. “It’s like a learning community. We try to do community things with the garden rather than keep it for ourselves,” Kerry says.

“I’ve learnt a lot in the past five years,” she muses when I observe her fluency in botanical names and the ways of plants. “It’s interesting to think about why people want to collect plants – I guess you either have that interest or you don’t.”

Q&A

My stephanotis has two seedpods from last year and is flowering again. Should I remove the pods and how do I propagate the seeds? Sylvia Gollan, by email

This fragrant climber produces seedpods resembling avocados. Unless you want the seeds, remove them early to save the plant’s energy. To propagate seeds, leave pods until they split open, revealing up to 100 tightly packed seeds, each tipped with silky floss. Press lightly into seed-raising mix straight away; keep warm and moist. They should germinate in about two weeks.

What is the biological mechanism that causes our extensive banks of walking iris (Neomarica) to flower together? It’s quite a spectacle. Michael Shanahan, by email

A master gene named Apetala1 has been identified that controls more than 1000 genes involved in the flowering process. Another gene named Flowering Locus T (FT) is also being investigated for its role. Day length, perceived in the leaves, triggers flowering in many species. Environmental factors include temperature and rainfall. Spring flowering species are more affected by temperature changes than species that bloom later in the year. Individual Neomarica flowers last only a day but there is a succession of them.

Any tips to encourage my three-year-old magnolia to grow? It shoots nicely every year but has failed to grow. Chavelli Sulikowski, Hobart

It might have been rootbound when planted or the roots are having trouble penetrating compacted soil. Possums might be eating the buds. Keep grass well away from the base. Mulch with compost, leaf mould or lucerne.

Stonefields By the Seasons by Paul Bangay.

Send your questions to: [e-mail] or Helen Young, PO Box 3098, Willoughby North, NSW 2068. The best question for November wins two copies of Paul Bangay’s new book Stonefields by the Seasons.