Woolloomooloo Hullabaloo

For overseas readers, some of us Sydneysiders remember how to spell the suburb name Wool-loo-moo-loo using the saw 'sheep-toilet-cow-toilet'. Hope that helps.

More important than getting the spelling right for one of the prettier gates of Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, I want to highlight some new plantings funded by the Friends of the Gardens. We are trying to open up the views of the Gate and to make the landscape more attractive.

From these two pictures you can see that we've done both. Pretty much everything in the area between the Woolloomooloo Gates and Mrs Macquaries Road (for overseas readers again - Mrs Macquarie was the wife of Lachlin Macquarie, the early Governor of New South Wales who created the Botanic Gardens in 1816) has been replaced.

So far we've levelled and tidied the turf, and replanted the garden beds wrapped around the lawns. Beside the wall, as you can see in the picture, we have Barrel Cacti and giant bromeliads, with a Bizmarkia palm just out of the picture.

Behind the photographer (Troy Mason), two (weedy) Celtis sinensis trees guard a gap through the outer stone wall. The Indian Hawthorn hedge around them has been replaced by some of our very best Cliveas.

The Celtis may, or may not, be replaced. The replacements could be Dragon Trees, Tree Waratahs or another palm or two. Plenty of choices really but they have to be bold and interesting plants, for this bold and interestingly (for all readers) named Gate.