I love a good visit to Sydney’s botanic gardens every so often. I enjoy going there because I see something different every time I do visit. It doesn’t take me too long to get there by train (it’s a huge bonus that I don’t have to drive!) and it gets me out in the fresh air. All of these make me a lot happier than sitting around at home.
I went into the gardens through a different gate to normal on this visit. Instead of the usual fig tree, I came across this delightfully wonky tree-which is a natural feature. On the equator, the trees grow straight, in the northern hemisphere they lean towards the south, and in the southern hemisphere they lean to the north. This species is Araucaria columnaris. It goes by several different common names, one of which is the New Caledonia pine, to which it is a native species.
In the gardens, there are still some roses around. This particular rose is called Rosa ‘Koramsaro’ It’s Magic!. I really like flowers that are composed of several colours, so this is right up my street!
This very purple, and very nice in my opinion, rose is Rosa ‘Stebigpu’ Big Purple. Out of the two roses, I think the purple one is my favourite as it is such a vivid purple.
As I can’t visit the gardens without having a look at least one fig tree, here is one of the many fine fig trees that these gardens have. It is the trunks that I love, as each one is so different and aren’t the standard straight up and down like most other trees.
The next tree is Agonis flexuosa, often called willow myrtle or peppermint is a lovely weeping tree. I love the shape of the tree, along with its delicate, thin leaves.
This rather large compound leaf comes from Helianthus major, or the giant honey flower. While there were no flowers around on my visit, am rather taken with these massive leaves-both the shape of the leaflets and the colour too.
These bright orange flowers belong to Leonotis leonurus,or lions’s tale. I have never seen this species before, but I really like the flowers.
I must have a thing for silver leaves at the moment. The next photo from Eucalyptus pulverulent ‘Baby Blue’, or the silver leafed mountain gum. This tree is a very nice looking tree. I don’t know how big its final size could be, so as with many of the plants in this post today, I will have to do some research.
This lovely little flower comes from Ipomoea batatas ‘Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Purple’, or the purple-leaved sweet potato.
This tree is Heritiera actinophylla, or black booyong. I like the buttress roots on this tree. It’s also a tree that I don’t know much about, so I will be doing a little research to find out more.
I keep saying that I’m not a huge fan of palm trees, but every time I visit the gardens I see one that looks particularly good. This time I have two. I think it’s because I have to tidy up after palm trees at work, and they often make a lot of mess! In the photo below are the seeds of the solitaire palm, Ptychospermum elegans. I like the contrasting colours in the picture.
The palm in the next photo the red latan palm, or Latania lontaroides. I like the red petioles (leaf stalks) on the fronds.
Cats whiskers, or Orthosiphon aristatus. I must have walked past thus shrub several times in the past, but this is the first time I’ve seen it flower. I really like these flowers too-I can see why they are called ‘cats wiskers’!
This very pink image belongs to Musa velutina, or pink velvet banana. I am rather taken with these, as there aren’t many banana flowers in Sydney, or in cold, wet climate of Lancashire when I was growing up!
Another banana I saw on my visit was what I think is Musa acuminata. I can’t say this is 100% accurate, but it is currently my best shot. Many plants do have little labels next to them in the gardens, but I couldn’t find one for this species while I was there.
These leaves belong to Heliconia caribaea x bhai, which has the rather tropical sounding common name of ‘Hot Rio Nights’. I like this species because the leaves are still whole and not ripped to shreds like many large leaves often are. That could just be because of its sheltered spot.
Finally for today are the very pink flowers of Begonia acutifolia, or the holly leaf begonia. They are very bright pink, which isn’t to everyone’s taste, but I like them-if you have it, you may as well flaunt it!
That was a round up of my most recent visit to Sydney’s botanic gardens in May 2026. There is always something interesting to see-as I was walking around, plants that looked food on my last visit are fading for the winter, but lots of other ones are beginning to look really good. That’s one of the best things about gardens and gardening-if you can organise it right, you can have plenty of interest throughout the year, not just in spring and summer.