Plotlines: garden tour
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Tour
Having been established in 1851, the Geelong Botanic Gardens are the fourth-oldest botanic gardens in Australia and they now have a suite of mature majestic trees to show for it. The gardens’ oldest trees, many of which are heritage-listed, will be the subject of a guided tour at 2pm on Sunday,May 9. Meet on the gardens’ front steps, gold-coin donation. friendsgbg.org.au
Festival
An avenue of giant red woods (
Sequoiadendron gianteum) in the Ballarat Botanic Gardens will be showcased as part of the Ballarat Heritage Festival, which runs for the month of May. There will be a guided tour of the avenue at 11am on Saturday,May 8 and there will be an exhibition that takes a more general look at these trees from California in the garden’s conservatory until May 30. ballaratheritagefestival.com.au
Plotlines: whatâs on this week
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By Megan Backhouse
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Around The World in 80 Trees.
Credit:Lucille Clerc
Lecture
English writer Jonathan Drori tells stories that weave together the botanical and the cultural and in his new book,
Around The World in 80 Plants, Drori discusses some of the more quirky aspects of everything from weeds and foods to rare ornamentals. âFor me plant science is fascinating, but enlivened when it is entwined with human history and culture,â he writes in the introduction of the new book. âMost of the stories in this book reveal as much about people as they do about plants.â The book, which follows his 2018
Rone (Tyrone Wright, above) got to know his home town on a skateboard - the street sport of the street artist. He s returned with an exhibition of his huge, ethereal, stop-you-in-your-tracks paintings and installations at the Geelong Gallery. There s also an explanation of the three faces he painted on the cement silos above nearby Fyansford. The silos have since been demolished, but that s the fate of some street art. Rone in Geelong runs until May 16. See geelonggallery.org.au
THE ONE CAFE
For coffee and service of the kind urban Victorians have come to expect, make your way to Poco Cafe Expres in Geelong West (111 Pakington Street) and put yourself in the hands of Talya and Jared Cooper. They serve coffee in all its complexities along with cakes, pastries and focaccias. On Friday afternoon the ice buckets emerge for aperitivo with drinks and tapas-style food served until 8 or 9. See facebook.com/pococafeexpres
Date Time
Bottle Tree undergoes repair
The Geelong Botanic Gardens largest bottle tree (Brachychiton rupestris) is being repaired after high winds caused it to be split down the middle.
Decay within the trunk, possibly caused by rot set in a smaller split, caused the bottle tree to become vulnerable to high winds and storm conditions.
City Works, Parks and Gardens chair Cr Anthony Aitken said this is a clever approach to preserving a significant feature of the gardens.
We will all be eagerly awaiting the outcome of this operation,
I hope the repair is successful and this beautiful specimen is saved.