Arderne Gardens | |
---|---|
Type | Botanical |
Location | 222 Main Road
Claremont, Cape Town 7708 South Africa |
Coordinates | 33°59′14″S 18°27′54″E / 33.987281°S 18.464864°E |
Established | 1845 |
Website | www |
Arderne Gardens is a public park and arboretum in Claremont, Cape Town, located in the Western Cape of South Africa. It was established in 1845 by Ralph Henry Arderne, a timber merchant originally from Cheshire, England.[1] In 1979, the park was named a South African Provincial Heritage Site.[2] It is now a popular venue for wedding photographs. The 4.5-hectare park contains over 300 trees, six of which have been designated as Champion Trees by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.[3] The Moreton Bay fig near the park entrance is one of the largest trees in the country[4] and is nicknamed the "Wedding Tree" by locals.[5] The ponds in the garden are the source of the Black River which then runs underground beneath Main Road and the railway line before emerging as a canal. The garden is best known for the wide open lawn (sometimes called the "great lawn") surrounding a Norfolk Pine and a Japanese-style koi pond. Unlike nearby Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, the focus of the Arderne Gardens is the cultivation of exotic species.