Tags
Australia, garden, garden flower, nature art, photography, Royal Botanic Garden, sketch, sketchbook, Sydney, trees, Wollemi Pine
We had only one more morning scheduled in Sydney before we were to leave for Cairns. After enjoying my train ride through the Botanic Gardens the day before, I convinced my family to head there. There were many strange (to us) trees, beautiful flowers, unfamiliar birds and lovely statues.
We entered through the Woolloomooloo Gate into a wonderland of flowers, palms and birdsong.
I was most excited about seeing a Wollemi Pine, one of the rarest trees in the wild. Several years ago I illustrated quite a few trees for the Vanishing Acts tree guides done by the Morton Arboretum and the Wollemi Pine was one of them. It was so neat to see this tree in person!
Another interesting tree was the Dragon’s Blood Tree, Dracaena draco, planted in the early 1860’s. It’s named for its red resin and grows very slowly. Notice that the leaves only grow on the ends of the branches!
As we walked through the gardens, we heard the cockatoos before we saw them. They’re loud! It was fun seeing and hearing all the different birds throughout the morning. We saw my favorite birds, the rainbow lorikeets, on the way back to the hotel.
There were so many interesting things to see, it was hard for my husband to keep me moving along! I would have loved to sketch at any point, but we had to get back to the hotel, pick up our luggage and head to Cairns. I think my favorite trees were the fig trees. They were just enormous with such interesting trunks, each like an individual sculpture on the grounds. I added one to my sketch page later in the trip and finished it at home. Enjoy!
Karen's Nature Art 
Gorgeous trees at the Botanic Gardens – so many exotics by our standards! Thank you for sharing them with those of us will never make it to Australia!
They were truly amazing-glad you’ve enjoyed them!
I am sure it must have been like entering another universe! Everything is so different from home! I loved all your photos and your sketch is beautiful! I like the way you have captured the different shades of colour on the tree trunk.
Thanks, Clare! Yes, it was like entering another world! Even more so when we went to Cairns and the rainforest… 🙂
I missed Part ! and did not realise you were here in Australia. I can hear the enthusiasm in your words and can tell that you enjoyed seeing and hearing the sights.
I hope that enjoy the rest of your Australian adventure.
Hi Alissa,
We were in Australia at the end of July into the beginning of August. It was an amazing trip and I took so many pictures that it’s taking me forever to go through them all. We did enjoy our trip immensely!
Fascinating trees. From Part 1, I know you took a train around the Gardens the day before. Were you still able to see a lot while on the train, or did you miss a lot and discovered most by walking?
I saw quite a few of the most interesting ones from the train, but my pictures were all blurry because we didn’t stop at them. The train was a great overview so that I knew where to take my family the next morning as we didn’t have a lot of time.
Got it! Thanks for explaining. Is it a jump off/ on train? Or once you get on, you just get off at the end?
It does have stops where you can get off and back on, generally at various buildings and not at trees 🙂