By Tanya Steele
A hidden jewel of the Yarra Ranges was recently featured on Gardening Australia, showcasing what they called ‘one of Victoria’s best native gardens’.
The Karwarra Australian Native Botanic Gardens was filmed for the popular show and gardeners at the site appreciated the chance to display the curated garden to the greater public.
Presenter Millie Ross took viewers through tips and tricks for planting under gum trees for the segment “Among Gums” which aired on the show on 21 June.
Gardener at Karwarra Shelley Graham said the producers contacted them to flag the segment and filmmaking took place in July of 2023.
“We walked around the garden and suggested different areas they could focus on and have as a feature,” she said.
The segment was all about planting under gum trees – which was something the team at Gardening Australia wanted to address.
“It’s tricky for people with gumtrees around to get established plants under them,” Ms Graham said.
There are around 900 species of gum trees and cultivars and they are not always the easiest trees to grow plants underneath.
At this time of year, croweas are flowering and Ms Graham said that people enjoy segments on the show that inspire them to do things in their gardens as well.
Ms Graham said the segment on Karwarra highlighted gardening ideas to use this time of year in particular.
“It helps to learn how to group plants that grow in similar conditions,” she said.
“Philotheca are tough plants that grow well under gum trees and also grow well out in more sunny spots.”
“They are also insect attracting as well.”
Ms Graham has worked in Karwarra for 11 years and worked with the production team at Gardening Australia a few times and said that visitations to Karwarra usually pick up when they are featured.
Taking the film crew through different sections of the well-cultivated Karwarra site allowed the film crew at ABC to feature many of the scenic spots and views the garden offers and Ms Graham said that the segment also featured some drone shots showcased an amazing perspective of the garden.
“It demonstrated how much the area really is under the canopy of the gum trees – it’s grey gum forest where we are,” she said.
“We also highlighted different vistas that they could have for filming and different views they could use and they do great drone shots as well”.
Karwarra has been featured on Gardening Australia twice before while Ms Graham has worked there – once in 2018 and once in 2021.
Presenter Millie Ross featured many native plants on the segment including argyle apple, croweas, Bendigo wax flowers, holly flame pea and thyme pink bells and people can still catch the episode on ABC iview.
A Yarra Ranges council spokesperson said that despite the chilly weather the next six weeks will see the Karwarra gardens showcasing lots of late winter and early spring flowers, including some impressive Waratahs in flower.
“Our crew here at council do an amazing job in maintaining Karwarra Gardens and we hope that the recent exposure on a program such as Gardening Australia will help spread the word further, and encourage more people to visit this beautiful spot,” they said.
“We’ve also recently constructed a new concrete path that complements the gravel pathways to make the gardens more accessible to everyone.”
“There’s a lot flowering in winter and it’s just a changing palette of colour,” Ms Graham said.
Karwarra Australian Plant Garden and Nursery is tucked away on the Kalorama Memorial Reserve at 1190 – 1192 Mount Dandenong Tourist Rd in Kalorama.
It is free and open to the public from Tuesday to Friday from 10pm to 4pm and on the weekends from 1pm to 4pm.
