Cloudehill Garden & Nursery

Cloudehill Garden & Nursery Australia’s most ambitious garden in one of the finest locations for serious gardening world-wide. Cloudehill is also home to a nursery and restaurant.
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Adam and Suzannah’s garden attract all sorts of fascinating visitors, such as this ‘cuckoo bee’ that Adam captured.Now h...
15/02/2026

Adam and Suzannah’s garden attract all sorts of fascinating visitors, such as this ‘cuckoo bee’ that Adam captured.

Now how many people have seen a cuckoo bee? And what on earth is a cuckoo bee? Well, a cuckoo bee is one that sneaks around to the hives of other bees and sneakily lay eggs in them, which hatch and are cared for by the innocent and unsuspecting host, and turn into more cuckoo bees.

So, the moral of the story – if you are a bee, it pays to be very suspicious of blue polka-dotted gentlemen bees no-matter how dazzling their apparel.

Adam and his partner Suzannah’s own garden is of course is naturally, amazing and absolutely stuffed to the gunnels with...
11/02/2026

Adam and his partner Suzannah’s own garden is of course is naturally, amazing and absolutely stuffed to the gunnels with flowers.

Adam was kind enough to share some stunning photos of their garden and if you would like to see more of Adam's handy work you can follow them on Instagram at

Valerie and I took a drive across to Kinglake to say ‘congratulations’ to Matt and Michael for the article and once ther...
09/02/2026

Valerie and I took a drive across to Kinglake to say ‘congratulations’ to Matt and Michael for the article and once there, who should we bump into but Adam Edwards.

Now Adam was Cloudehill’s gardener for several years. He left some three years back as he had been offered a very nice gig running an entire team of gardeners maintaining half a dozen retirement homes. So much easier than standing on top of one of our very tall tripod ladders trying to clip hedges quite a bit taller again.

It seems in the years since Adam has been introducing, to the staid beige world of retirement home living, many of the amazing perennials that “antique’ specialise in, indeed, some of which they have bred themselves.

Adam was soon showing us some of his handiwork on his phone and were we impressed! And it’s not just us of course. Everywhere he has been working these past three years he has left a trail of stunning gardens full of the ‘New Wave’ perennials the boys at Antique are famous for and the residents of all these places are astonished and delighted.

At a time the world seems to have become a somewhat sorry place, along comes Adam with veritable truck-loads of flowers from Matt and Michael and scattering joy every step of the way.

Adam was kind enough to share some photos and if you would like to see more of Adam's handy work you can follow them on Instagram at

I picked up my copy of ‘Gardens Illustrated’ last month and spotted Matt and Michael from ‘Antique Perennials’ in Kingla...
05/02/2026

I picked up my copy of ‘Gardens Illustrated’ last month and spotted Matt and Michael from ‘Antique Perennials’ in Kinglake were being featured in this very prestigious international publication. And I was trying to remember – has any nursery outside the UK ever been featured in this magazine before? And couldn’t think of one!

Anyway, a lovely article, and superbly illustrated with yet another arrangement of Claire Takacs’ wonderful photographs, and in every way exactly what Michael and Matt deserve for all their hard work over more than 25 years.

And at this point all I can do is heartily recommend everyone zoom down to their local newsagency and purchase a copy while they’re still on the shelves.

If you have missed out you can also take a peek online at www.gardensillustrated.com/gardens/town-and-city/perennial-nursery-australia

Diggers Nursery also sells Antique Perennial plants, so pop on up and check them out and take a stroll around the garden while you are here.

📸 ©Claire Takac

A very quick snap taken last week showing an old double orange daylily and Crocosmia Lucifer. Both normally would be fin...
29/01/2026

A very quick snap taken last week showing an old double orange daylily and Crocosmia Lucifer. Both normally would be finished by now, but this (on the whole) cool summer they have stayed around for much longer. Come up and take a look.

When it comes to interaction with people, the cockies are the ultimate. A few weeks back Valerie and I popped into ‘the ...
27/01/2026

When it comes to interaction with people, the cockies are the ultimate. A few weeks back Valerie and I popped into ‘the One in Twenty’ for a much-needed flat white and noticed a cocky sailing across the road beside us. It landed neatly on the back of a convenient chair, then began earnest conversation with the lady opposite. The curious thing is how long it was chatting. I think almost ten minutes. It clearly had a lot to say and the lady opposite could barely keep up.

King parrots are another bird always keen to come right up and say hello. One landed on our front porch, perambulated th...
25/01/2026

King parrots are another bird always keen to come right up and say hello. One landed on our front porch, perambulated through our open front door, up the hall and into the kitchen where it woke up our border terrier ‘Tillie’ who went from fast asleep to a state of indigent fury in one and one half seconds as border terriers are wont to do. The king parrot whistled out into the garden very speedily.

Take a drive up the Dandenongs today and celebrate Australia Day with our wildlife, and a stroll around the garden.

Here we have another connoisseur of cheese, ‘Robert’ the butcher bird, who was popping into my office most of spring, I ...
23/01/2026

Here we have another connoisseur of cheese, ‘Robert’ the butcher bird, who was popping into my office most of spring, I suppose with a brood needing tucker.

Fascinating how the wildlife of the Dandenongs have taken to Cloudehill. There are two wombat holes, complete with wombats in various parts of the garden. And generally they are well behaved and only wander out in the evenings to graze the lawns and save us a bit of mowing. They love grass. Especially Miscanthus nepalensis, which I have given up growing because our wombats think it caviar.

The Lyre birds in the ‘woods’ are also a feature. In fact the Cloudehill woods is probably the best place in Australia to see lyrebirds. For the past six months a young male (his tail a bit short) has been wandering up to people as though he would rather enjoy a pat. I walked past once as he was practicing his chorus line and he didn’t bat an eyelid from two metres away.

Cloudehill’s weekends of Ozact’s The Tempest had the most perfect evenings. Ozact, as they always do, put on a fabulous ...
21/01/2026

Cloudehill’s weekends of Ozact’s The Tempest had the most perfect evenings. Ozact, as they always do, put on a fabulous show and the audience highly appreciative, including the wildlife. As tends to happen, a couple of cockies put on a running commentary at one point forcing an actor to repeat her lines in a much louder voice. But that’s cockies for you. Probably they were as happy with The Tempest as everyone else at the time, and were just being noisy about it.

Another bird to take an interest was the magpie I happen to know very well. I presume she is a she and in any case I call her ‘Millie’, and she pops into my office two or three times every day for cheese. The trick is not to make her wait too long or she goes ‘poop’.

Millie seemed to thoroughly enjoy The Tempest and spent several minutes admiring the actors performance from her spot out in front of the audience and rather close to the action.

Visitors will have noticed that we have moved Angela’s Aunty from underneath the Peiris forrestii behind Seasons Restaur...
19/01/2026

Visitors will have noticed that we have moved Angela’s Aunty from underneath the Peiris forrestii behind Seasons Restaurant to a much better position by the path between Seasons and the Diggers Club Nursery.

And here she is looking as cheerful as ever with her cup of tea, and behind, a rather good altroemeria. Do come and take a look.

Here we have Graeme Foote’s mermaid, who I have always thought looks a little Ukrainian so perhaps she is a Black Sea me...
17/01/2026

Here we have Graeme Foote’s mermaid, who I have always thought looks a little Ukrainian so perhaps she is a Black Sea mermaid? The plant to one side with the mauve flowers is what used to be Perovskia atriplicifolia, or Russian sage, a name forever falling headlong off the tongue, which now has become the much less challenging Salvia yangii .

On the other side with the pinkish flowers we have Calamagrostis Karl Foerster. This is one of the great ornamental grasses. Very tough and flowering early with its handsome mauve-pink flowers, which age to biscuit and go on to look good for eight months. The reason for these lasting so long is that the plant is sterile. It can never seed and this is also a good thing. Instead, it runs gently at the root. Karl Foerster is one of the ornamental grasses I imported way back 30 years ago. And of the two dozen that made it through quarantine, it is just about the best. C. Karl Foerster was sent to me from Ernst Pagel’s famous nursery in Germany, and he was given it by the legendary Karl Foester himself.

Here is a nice combination of a mauve (unnamed) clematis and Clematis Golden Tiara. The yellow clematis are useful thing...
15/01/2026

Here is a nice combination of a mauve (unnamed) clematis and Clematis Golden Tiara. The yellow clematis are useful things. Generally long-flowering then producing splendid silken seed heads so that later flowers nestle over the seed heads. They are also more heat and drought-proof than most of their brethren.

The weekend is looking perfect for outdoor theatre, so do join us for Ozact performing Shakespeare's The Tempest Saturday and Sunday night. Head to our website for more information and tickets. www.cloudehill.com.au

Address

89 Olinda-Monbulk Road
Olinda, VIC
3788

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 4pm
Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

+61397511009

Website

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A Garden for all Seasons

Made on an easterly slope at the top of the Dandenongs, Cloudehill is at an altitude of 580 metres. The garden has deep volcanic loam soil and 1.25 metres of rainfall. This falls most of the year, though February, March and April are drier. There is little frost, more snow than frost in fact. These factors go to explain why the Dandenongs is one of the outstanding places to garden worldwide.