Mount Wilson Things to Do Tips by iandsmith

Cathedral of Ferns reserve

The "Cathedral of Ferns" is a lovely spot to spend some time.
Mixed in with the ferns themselves are vines and large trees and a delightful little walk that takes you through them all.
Sadly, the piece de resistence called "Brown Barrel" (pic 4) got hit by lightning and is in the throes of dying and becoming mulch for a new breed of trees.
Let this not detract from your experience. You can also picnic and park here, something I would recommend.

Nooroo

It was Peter Valders' whole life, all his love went into the garden. Peter Valders wrote a book called "Wisteria" and was famous in the hamlet. It has been recorded that he was a witty man "in a Noel Coward sort of way".
Born in Australia and brought up in the bush, Peter Valder's early interest in the Australian flora was stimulated by local amateur botanists. He went on to become a plant pathologist and mycologist after graduating from the Universities of Sydney and Cambridge. He was pleased to later become involved in the teaching of general botany in addition to his mycological work. Peter has also been an office bearer of the Linnean Society and the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science. Since drifting into the popularizing of Australian botany and horticulture, he has made appearances on radio and television, written for magazines, and lectured to organizations concerned with plants and gardens. His interest in gardening has taken him to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Burma, and China, from which he has introduced numerous plants suited to the Australian climate. Also, he has visited gardens in Britain, New Zealand, North America, France, Italy, Spain, China, Japan, and Korea, accumulating photographs with which to illustrate his lectures and writings.
His involvement with his family's garden, Nooroo, at Mount Wilson, New South Wales, led to its becoming one of Australia's most admired gardens. It was here that he was able to indulge his enthusiasm for plants from all over the world. Amongst other things, he gathered together a remarkable collection of wisteria, his experience with which led to his writing Wisterias, the first monograph on this genus in any European language. It was the success of this book that encouraged him to utilize his long-standing interest in Chinese plants and gardens to write The Garden Plants of China, which was awarded as the Reference Gardening Book of 1999 by the Garden Writer's Guild of the UK.
To recognize his gifts of plants to and voluntary work for the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, in 1995 he was made their first Honorary Horticultural Associate, and in 1996 was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of his contribution to botany and horticulture in that country.
A former senior lecturer in Botany at the University of Sydney, Peter Valder is a mycologist, botanist, author, academic and television presenter. He has spent a lifetime popularising Australian botany and horticulture. His former home, Nooroo at Mt Wilson in the Blue Mountains, is one Australia's most famous gardens.
Valder's book, The Garden Plants of China looks at the huge contribution China has made to our cultural heritage through its cultivated plants; rice, citrus fruits, peaches, apricots and ornamental plants such as roses, camellias, azaleas, gardenias, wisterias, chrysanthenums and magnolias.
Title: The Garden Plants of China
Author: Peter Valder
Publisher: Florilegium, 1999
Selected by the Garden Writer's Guild in the United Kingdom as the Reference Garden Book of the Year for 1999.
Title: Wisteria
Author: Peter Valder
The first book in any European language about the genus Wisteria.
His property has now been sold to a couple of doctors and they have sought to maintain the high standard of the gardens.
This is another of the great gardens at Mount Wilson.

Gardens of Mount Wilson - Bebeah

It's hard to believe a place so stunning could be "off the beaten path" but it is. Frankly, for sheer beauty, nothing in the Blue Mountains beats it in spring.
Gardens are open to the public and I, for one, wouldn't want to live here. It must be hell trying to keep up with your next door neighbours!
I've only seen a couple of them but even the village itself is a sheer joy just to drive through. Down the overgrown avenue past the church, the post office and the Turkish Baths. It's all a bit much. In a way I guess it's good that it doesn't get too overcrowded because that would spoil it.
All the gardens here are private but they are open, particularly in spring when the blush of spring will colour your face as you gasp in delight at the splendour above the grass.
The pictures here are taken from one garden only and there are several. That should give you an idea of the quality that abounds here.