Glenrannoch was built in 1873 making it the third oldest property on the mountain. The name comes from the Scottish Gaelic word 'Glen' meaning 'within a ridge' and 'Rannoch' which means 'bracken' or 'fern'.
The 1983 Ash Wednesday fires damaged much of the garden but it has since been completely renovated - partly by Stephen who was the head gardener for two years after the fires.
Garden design: The garden comprises formal and informal sections. The formal is closer to the house and has mass plantings of perennials and shrubs, beautifully set off by well-clipped box hedges. The informal sections become more apparent further away from the house and down towards the creek, the beautiful fern gully and bushland. The steep, three-hectare garden is broken up into four levels which are joined by paths and over 500 steps, of which Stephen has "raked every one of them!"
Plants: The National Trust considers the Macedon Ranges to represent one of the most important collections of 19th Century gardens in Australia. Glenrannoch is one of the best examples of these with its stands of towering trees.
Two trees of particular interest are:
The Monkey Puzzle Tree (Araucaria araucana) from South America, so named because they thought it would be a puzzle for a monkey to be able to climb it. Like many others in this garden the Monkey Puzzle Tree is on the National Tree Register as a significant tree.
The Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) which, in the wild, "grows to a monster," says Stephen. "It often germinates on the tops of stumps of other plants, so when the roots eventually reach the ground the tree is standing on a pedestal of its own roots." This specimen is also listed as a significant tree.
Glenrannoch is listed in Australia's Open Garden scheme.
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3 окт 2024
