14-23 November, 2004    Duration: 10 days

Welcome to Gayle’s latest new tour, especially designed for garden lovers. Although you may have visited Melbourne and the surrounding countryside before, you may not have had the opportunity to explore the wonderful gardens that are there. Victoria is the garden state, and the 21 gardens Gayle has selected should look sensational this November. 17 of these gardens are new to any other garden tour we have led, so do consider coming again! It will be a holiday you will always remember, and we are sure that you will make many new gardening friends.

Gardening Highlights (21 great gardens, 6 superb plant nurseries)

Large private gardens in nine historic properties in the Macedon and the Dandenong Ranges north and east of Melbourne, including special highlight gardens such as

‘Mawarra’, Australian garden designer Edna Walling’s favourite garden,

re-opening after 40 years

"The Jewel of the Mountain", a large private Mt Macedon hillside garden

The National Rhododendron Gardens, an unparallelled display of international repute, with tens of thousands of plants blazing with colour.

Nursery and display garden visits, with the chance to buy unusual plants and seeds, and get them posted home!

‘Heronswood’, home of the Digger’s Club

‘Norgates of Newbury’, the source of perennial pleasure

A visit to the "Best Gardening Centre in Australia for 2003

A tour of the extensive Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens

Breathtakingly beautiful English-style gardens, often owned by garden designers

Roses in full bloom, including the David Austin English roses (one garden has the OPCAA national collection, and even a talk on how to prune them). See the oldest rose maze of its kind in the world with over1200 roses

See the oldest and largest hedge maze in Australia

Fabulous vegetable parterres, kitchen and herb gardens (even a lavender farm!)

Seasonal Highlights: include tree-like rhododendrons, azaleas, roses (including the wonderful heritage roses), pawlonia, paeonies, hostas, iris and perennials.

Sightseeing highlights:

Beautiful Mornington Peninsula, with unspoilt beaches, charming bays, rolling countryside, abundant wildlife, magnificent food and wines

The Macedon Ranges and Spa Country (even the chance to indulge at Hepburn Springs Spa Resort)

Lush Dandenong Ranges, filled with towering mountain ash and huge tree ferns..here you will be able to hand-feed colourful rosellas…

Sample Melbourne’s attractions - theatres, galleries, markets, wholesale outlets, restaurants and cafes…you’ll have 1 ˝ days and 3 evenings free! Our hotel is opposite the famous Victoria Markets.

An elegant National Trust historical property, with the choice of a guided tour of the house or garden

Ample shopping time in picturesque villages, for antiques, pre-loved books, art and craft, collectibles and…what you like!

Experience the Convent Gallery, Daylesford, one of Australia’s finest and most beautiful

Visit the ‘Best Specialist Shop in Australia’, Dandenongs

Take one of the prettiest walks in Victoria along the Yarra River, Yarra Valley

Unique dining out experiences.. in a Mornington Peninsula charming cottage restaurant, in a convict-hewn bluestone restaurant in a Yarra Valley winery, in an Agatha Christie-inspired teahouse, a gourmet luncheon in a beautiful country garden…

Wine tasting in Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley

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A ride on Puffing Billy, Australia’s premier steam railway

Have the chance to see the largest display model railway in the world, and more..

This is a once in a lifetime trip so don’t miss out!

Your Tour Itinerary

Key: Breakfast B, Morning tea MT, Lunch L, Afternoon tea AT, Wine tasting WT, Dinner D

Day 0: Saturday 13 Nov, 2004

Tour members ex Perth depart Qantas Domestic Terminal 22.50 (10.50 pm) for the night flight to Melbourne.

Melbourne

After our early morning arrival at 6.15 am (Mel. time), our coach will transfer us to our hotel in Melbourne for breakfast. The morning will be spent at Fitzroy Gardens and the Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens, where we will enjoy a guided tour and you can buy lunch. The coach can return you to our hotel by 2 pm. The afternoon and evening have been left free for you to rest, shop or explore. Overnight at the RADDISON ON FLAGSTAFF GARDENS (opposite the Victoria Markets)

Melbourne -Mornington Peninsula

We depart southwards to the Mornington Peninsula, and our first stop is at a lavender farm where we’ll have Devonshire tea, a farm tour and shopping time in their extensive lavender gift shop. Then on to a beautiful private country garden where we’ll enjoy leisurely garden viewing and a gourmet lunch with local wine. The early afternoon will be spent at a wonderful woodland and water garden, where you’ll see both Australia’s oldest and largest hedge maze, and the oldest rose maze of its kind in the world, with over 1200 roses. You’ll love our final garden, a romantic English rose display garden and nursery where we will hear an excellent talk on how to prune and care for the luscious David Austin roses. Once we check in for two nights at the HARBOUR VIEW MOTOR INN Hastings, you have the remainder of this evening free, with your own choice of dinner venue

Mornington Peninsula.

First up today we will visit the winner of the 2003 ‘Best Garden Centre in Australia’ award. Then several hours will be spent at the famous Heronswood home of the Digger’s Club. After morning tea in their unique thatched café, we’ll enjoy a guided tour of the gardens before having free time in the nursery and shop. We’ll move on to discover a beautiful country property which is a haven for wildlife. Here, in the spacious flowing garden you’ll find a walled secret garden, a wisteria walk, a superb themed herb and kitchen garden, water features and even a bush walk! Mid afternoon we’ll arrive at another elegant country garden with a large Italinate courtyard, a spectacular walled garden with fabulous plant borders and an equally impressive vegetable garden. Because it is a garden winery, you will be able to taste and buy local wine to take to dinner tonight. Then there will be time at our motor inn to relax and change, before we travel to a country cottage restaurant for a most memorable gourmet dinner. Overnight again at HARBOUR VIEW MOTOR INN.

Mornington Peninsula-Daylesford-Hepburn Springs.

This morning we bypass Melbourne, and travel along the Western Highway to stop at an orchard, where you will be able to buy fruit. Then we’ll arrive at an impressive perennial nursery, where the fields should be ablaze with colour. After morning tea, you’ll have time to wander, and mark the plant species you like in your complementary mail-order catalogue. Then we’ll travel through scenic countryside to Daylesford; here there’s a treasure-trove of shops, crammed full of books, curios and collectibles. You’ll have ample time to browse and buy lunch. You may like to visit the Convent Gallery, one of Australia’s finest and most beautiful. With its seven gallery areas, tiny chapel, café and superb gifts, it’s been called ‘a divine experience’.

Then we’ll visit a well structured garden; a series of potagers are anchored by standard crab-apples, and paving, walls and hedges lend a touch of formality to this dry-adapted garden. We will arrive mid afternoon in the nearby town of Hepburn Springs, the heart of Spa Country. After checking in at our motor inn, you have the remainder of the day and evening free. Why not indulge in an aromatherapy mineral spa bath, body wrap or facial at the nearby Hepburn Springs Spa Resort? (open to 7 pm). There’ll be many choices where you can dine tonight. Overnight HEPBURN SPRINGS MOTOR INN.

Hepburn Springs-Macedon-Melbourne

Today we’ll visit three stunning gardens at Mt Macedon, in the ranges north of Melbourne. But first we will stop on the way at the delightful village of Woodend, which is crammed with characterful shops. But save morning tea for our first garden, a charming English-style garden belonging to a photographer. The second property is larger, and its lakeside setting ensures year-round tranquillity and beauty. Here you can wander by the lake edges and through shrubberies, woodland and orchard. We’ll enjoy a garden lunch before arriving at ‘the jewel of the mountain’, the third and largest garden. What a fitting end to the day; this very private garden for all seasons is simply sensational, ‘a pure visual delight’. It includes a heritage rose arbour, masses of perennials and a Monet bridge spanning a magnificent lake, which is massed with iris and waterlilies. Then we will travel down to Melbourne, where you will have a free evening, and your own choice of dinner venue. Overnight at RADDISON ON FLAGSTAFF GARDENS, Melbourne.

Melbourne

Today is your free day in Melbourne, to do as you choose. There is late night shopping tonight until 9 pm. Overnight at RADDISON ON FLAGSTAFF GARDENS.

Melbourne-Dandenongs

First stop this morning is in the Dandenong Mountains, east of Melbourne, for a memorable Devonshire morning tea. This will be at an old English tearoom, the décor for which was Agatha Christie-inspired! Then we give you lots of time to browse and buy lunch in the wonderful village of Sassafras. Here you’ll find antiques, country collectibles, bushcraft and the largest range of tea, teapots, coffees etc in Melbourne! Then we have a special treat in store this afternoon. After being closed to the general public for 40 years, we are privileged to be some of the first to be admitted to ‘Mawarra’….’a symphony in steps, water and beautiful trees’ This is Edna Walling’s (a famous Australian garden designer) favourite garden which she designed, and it is recognised as one of her finest achievements. We will enjoy a special afternoon tea in the garden’s ‘Wendy house’, before checking in at our beautiful resort hotel. The remainder of the day and evening are free, with your own choice of dinner venue. Overnight at YORK ON LILYDALE RESORT, MT Evelyn.

Dandenongs-Yarra Valley

Another great day as we wend our way to another outstanding large hillside garden, set against a backdrop of towering mountain ash. Belonging to a passionate plants-woman, it features stone steps and walls, ancient trees and shrubs, heritage roses, terraces of rare perennials, rock gardens filled with alpines and even a glasshouse filled with rare plant collectibles. After morning tea, we’ll be taken into Olinda, where you’ll have plenty of time to explore another wonderful array of shops, and make the hard decision, in which café to buy lunch! This afternoon promises to be fun. We’ll ride on the well-known steam train, the Puffing Billy, enjoy the lake at Emerald and then travel up the mountains into the Yarra Valley. Here you will be able to take one of the prettiest walks in Victoria, along the Yarra River. Then back to an award winning winery in the area for a wine tasting and dinner in an idyllic setting. Overnight again at YORK ON LILYDALE RESORT.

Dandenongs

Today we’ll continue to visit more outstanding Dandenong gardens.

You’ll be impressed with the wonderful old beech trees that characterise

the first large garden. Here you’ll find a walled garden with perennials, a serpentine rill to the pond and collections of liliums and vireya rhododenrons.

Then we’ll move on to one of the most celebrated gardens in the Dandenongs, a ‘garden of extraordinary vision’. This garden is brilliantly designed, and has many garden rooms, including a central parterre and magnificent paired herbaceous borders. The third garden lies in a hollow nearby, mystical, with a forest of ancient rhododendron trees complete with lyrebirds. After such a feast of fine gardens, there will be time to relax and buy lunch back in Olinda. This afternoon we will travel to the National Rhododendron Gardens, which are renowned worldwide. It will be nearing the end of their Spring Floral Festival. The 43 hectares of gardens contain 15,000 rhododendrons, 12,000 azaleas and 3,000 camellias, so, at its peak, it is a blaze of colour. We’ll ride on their ‘garden explorer’ train through this extravaganza, before being able to go on a guided walk and then browse in the gift shop. Back at our resort you will have time to rest, pack and change before our farewell dinner in the hotel function room. Overnight at YORK ON LILYDALE RESORT.

Dandenongs-Melbourne

Our last day! Today we will enjoy one more morning in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges. We’ll travel through a new area, stopping to feed the coloured rosellas before arriving at our second-to-last garden. The owner works as a garden designer, and her large English-style country garden promises to look sensational, especially since her daughter’s wedding will be held there a few days beforehand! We’ll enjoy morning tea before exploring a nearby garden nursery/ gift-shop. Then past giant tree ferns and mountain ash as we travel down the mountain, back to Melbourne. Our final lunch is at the elegant Como Historic House. This is an exceptional Victorian garden and mansion, and you will have the choice of a guided tour of house or garden. Then we will depart for Tullamarine Airport, arriving at 16.30 pm. For those travelling to Perth, our Qantas flight departs 18.15 pm, arriving in Perth at 19.10 pm. For those tour members who decide to stay on, our coach will be able to drop you back in Melbourne.

Welcome home!

 LAND CONTENT ONLY

Ex Melbourne         A$ 2403

Ex Perth                 A$ 2993

Senior discount        A$ 50

Single Supplement    A$ 496

Tour price includes

Return economy airfares Qantas ex Sydney and Perth

4 top quality hotels/motor inns, with twin/double share accommodation with private facilities.

Two night stopover in Mel and on Mornington Peninsula, three night stopover in Dandenongs.

10 cooked breakfasts, 4 lunches, 2 wine-tastings, 3 dinners

9 morning/afternoon teas

Entrance to all gardens

Luxury air-conditioned coach, recliner seats, rest room, TV video.

Ticket wallet, group photograph and detailed garden information booklet per person.

Fully escorted from Perth by Gayle and Nic Monzu