Among Giants

Revived for a new generation to discover, Arderne Gardens in Claremont, Cape Town, is a wonderworld of arboreal ancients and exotics

- Catriona Ross

We were warned about Arderne Gardens at school in the ’80s. ‘Stay away from the fence,’ our teachers said of the adjoining property, ‘and no shortcuts through the gardens, girls.’

Occasionally we were taken on outings into that shadowy, mysterious place, to play hide-and-seek among the shoulder height roots of the towering ‘wedding tree’ and walk the overgrown paths that snaked between camellia bushes, our teachers patrolling for unsavoury loiterers. Then, as we discovered in senior school, if we leaned from the windows of the upstairs science lab, we could get a good look at the occasional flashers in raincoats who lingered at the fence of that neglected garden, hoping schoolgirls would see them: an education of sorts.

These days, this public space in Claremont has been lovingly restored to its original splendour by a group established in 2004, Friends of the Arderne Gardens (FOTAG), in partnership with Cape Town’s city council. Although the garden was declared a National Historical Monument in 1979, and the 37m-high Moreton Bay fig has long been a popular backdrop for wedding photographs, the place is still a well-kept secret. Just off the frenetic Main Road, it offers serene glades and lawns, Japanese-style ponds fed by a natural spring, an unusual collection of magnificent trees including redwoods and araucarias, and heirloom rhododendrons, camellias and azaleas.