By Callum Ludwig
Prime weather conditions have bolstered a wonderful garden experience you won’t find anywhere else at the Blue Lotus Water Garden in Yarra Junction this year.
Having opened for the season on Boxing Day, the garden is open for its 18th season until 14 April.
Owner Geoff Cochrane said they tried to improve the garden every year.
“We got early warm weather, we had a dry and warmish September and then October and now we’ve moved into very subtropical weather because we’re getting so much warm, moist air coming across Victoria and we’ve benefited very much from that,” he said.
“We spend the off season getting the garden prepared for the following season, so each year we like to think we’re making improvements and we had everything up to scratch when we opened this year so it’s probably the best it’s ever looked.”
Thousands more flower buds can be seen this season than last, with one of the most noticeable attractions, the Amazon Waterlily (one of the largest waterlily species in the world), having already grown lily pads that are three times bigger than December 2022.
Mr Cochrane said it was a very big contrast to last year, in which it felt as though it was Christmas time before they got out of winter.
“We opened on 26 December and we hardly had a lotus flower out last season. It did our reputation harm because it took about three weeks before we got a reasonable number of flowers out,” he said.
“This is a unique garden. There’s nothing like it in Australia. You can’t go anywhere else but here to see such a big display of water flowers,”
“This is a garden where the flowers do the talking, and that’s why it’s difficult for me to do the talking, you actually need to come and see it for yourself.”
When the weather’s nice, the garden can attract over 1000 visitors in a day.
For visitors who have been before, check out the greater display of perennial flowering plants that have been added to the collection, walk through the new archways, see the new subtropical area and its artificial creek and make a note to visit later in the season where the garden will be home to a large display of begonias in hanging baskets when the weather is cooler.
Mr Cochrane encouraged Upper Yarra residents to get the discounted local’s season pass and enjoy the garden whenever they like throughout the season.
“It’s always a hard one, you don’t visit your local tourist spot, you visit tourist spots when you go on holiday so it’s always a battle to get locals to come to a local tourist attraction but all the locals that come here love it every year,” he said.
“Bring friends and family and feel free to have a picnic here, that’s what most people do. We’ve got a dozen or more gas barbecues around the garden and you can spend half a day here if you like.”
The local discount for the season pass applies to anyone who lives within 25km of the garden.
