Creeting Lodge Open Garden

A historic property designed in 1926 by Melbourne architect Marcus Martin; the garden showcases a perfect combination of European and Mediterranean plants.

Created in collaboration with Miles Baldwin Design, the garden presents a space where grand trees such as hornbeams, Magnolia ‘Teddy Bear’, crepe myrtles, forest pansies, and mature olives stand amidst a sprawling lawn. The original inhabitants of the garden, including red flowering gums, lilly pilly, and a splendid strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), provide living memories of a bygone era. Towering 150-year-old golden cypress pines greet visitors at the entrance gates.

The gardens are further enhanced by a collection of palms—the European fan palm (Chamaerops humilis), the Chinese windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), Silver Date palms (Phoenix silvestrus), and the Dragon tree (Dracaena draco)—each adding a unique shade and shape to the horticultural palette. Mass plantings of anthuriums, salvia, French and oak leaf hydrangea, and various species of viburnums create a visual rhythm, interrupted only by the English Box balls, both green and variegated, scattered in varying sizes throughout the garden.

Creeting Lodge is located on the lands of the Bunurong people. Open Gardens Victoria wish to acknowledge the Traditional custodians of this land and we pay respect to their Elders, past, present and emerging.