17/07/2026
Flora Friday! 🌳
We recently featured the Dawn Redwood, which was one of many exotic trees planted around Caves House and the Jenolan Valley. But how did the other trees, which are native to Europe, Asia and America, come to be planted here?
Over the next few weeks we’ll take a look at some of our exotic tree species – where they are originally from, how they were introduced to horticulture and when they were recorded as being cultivated in Australia e.g. in Botanic Gardens and nursery catalogues.
The Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney was an important source of plants for the gardens in the 1890s, with the Lithgow Mercury reporting on 12 August, 1898 that ‘the director of the Botanical Gardens, Mr. J. H. Maiden, accompanied by two assistants, arrived here on Saturday… they brought 10 cwt. of small scrubs and plants to replace the others.’
We aren't sure which ones he brought here (the tree species we'll cover may have been introduced later), but the Botanic Gardens were already being ‘enriched by the introduction of a vast number of new and rare plants, which have been contributed from Europe, Africa, India, the neighbouring colonies, and other countries’ (The Garden, 1871), so there would have been plenty for Mr Maiden to choose from!
🌿 Follow along as we uncover the stories behind Jenolan's exotic trees and the remarkable journeys that brought them here.
Historic images of Caves House and surrounding gardens over various years, supplied by Jenolan Caves Historical & Preservation Society.
Photos: JCH&PS
