August 16th, 2025Beetham’s Botanicals

Well here I am penning another article for you, the reader, to enjoy…
This time I’ll be featuring botanic gardens I have had the privilege to visit and, in the case of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, work at for 10 years.
So let’s start with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (London, England) which cover over 500 acres and is home to over 14,000 trees. It is an immensely important UNESCO World Heritage site that began life in 1759 and has the most biodiverse collection of plants anywhere in the world.
The Palm House, completed in 1848, remains one of the most amazing constructions of its kind and is home to many plants considered to be endangered or (even) extinct in the wild.
My several visits in 1992 to this wonderful gardens opened my eyes to making sure botanic gardens (and arboreta) all around the world have a vital role to play in the conservation of plant species.
Heading east, let’s grab a cab to 1 Cluny Road to have a stroll around the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Spearheaded by Sir Stamford Raffles, the gardens opened in 1859 now covering just over 200 acres and achieved UNESCO status in 2015. In June of 2016 I got out of that cab and entered a truly brilliant tropical garden set amongst sprawling lawns, water features and sculptures. Constant hot and humid conditions called out for an icy cold beer which I managed to procure at the kiosk before venturing out to record many trees I had only read about.

Boarding a plane, let’s now fly over the Pacific Ocean landing at Vancouver International Airport and on to the VanDusen Botanical Gardens which opened in 1975 after converting a 55 acre chunk of land supplied by the local golf course.
I have visited these gardens many times from the 1980s through to this year and I always find something new that hits my horticultural heart.
There are many themed-garden areas here including a Sino-Himalayan collection which is well worth the extra time with its fine collection of Asian rhododendrons, maples and magnolias.
Well, we’ve come all this way since leaving the UK, so why not explore the David C. Lam Asian Garden (as part of the University of British Colombia Gardens, not far from Vancouver city). Here you’ll find more rhododendrons, rare and endangered trees and their intriguing collection of lianas (climbers) that scale the heights of the indigenous conifers. Plenty of interpretive labels make it an educational experience like no other.
Time to head back west over the Pacific and have a well-earned stop over in Honolulu. I have come to the shores of the Hawaiian Islands many times before and after much reading am well aware of how a lot of island floras around the globe are now, in some cases, facing extinction due mainly to the introduction of (now feral) goats, pigs etc that avidly eat the native plants. But in the case of the Foster Botanical Gardens Honolulu (original plantings from 1853) we find ourselves immersed in a collection of tropical trees from all over the world that find safe haven within the city.
Think baobabs from Madagascar, kapoks from Mexico, Central and South America and Hawaii’s own special fan palms (pritchardia spp.).
And now time to head home back to Oz. After leaving ‘Tulla’ find your way into Melbourne and feel the city vibe melt away when entering this amazing city’s Royal Botanic Gardens. These are my fave gardens ever (slightly biased as I worked there for 10 years back in the day) an absolute treasure trove of species from all the continents except Antarctica. There aren’t many times when I venture back to the Big Smoke that I miss visiting this oasis in the city and navigate back to trees (in particular) that I have seen maturing and giving joy to others.
And so that’s it…another snapshot of my anecdotal horticultural life – hope you enjoyed.

Cheers JB (Trees in Australia) | Next time: Spring is coming…