A bit of a personal tour of the Sydney royal botanical gardens

[happypalms]

I had to travel to Sydney for some personal reasons, and well as any palm nut would do head straight for the botanical gardens at the first opportunity available. So with camera in hand and a date set for a meet up with one of the leading palm gurus @palmtreesforpleasure Mr Colin Wilson who has been (how shall I say it) the main person behind getting the palm collection started again in the gardens. And I will say a lot of his personal time and budget has gone into creating one of the best collections in the southern hemisphere in a temperate climate slash subtropical region. I have visited the garden before but to get a personal tour and shown a major part of the collection and some hidden gems throughout the gardens. It was a learning experience I will never forget, I would like to thank Colin personally for his time and dedication to such a project a true palm nut paradise. So thank you Colin for sharing with me your one passion in life that I can relate too! 
Richard @happypalms

[happypalms]

[happypalms]

[happypalms]

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[happypalms]

[knell]

wonderful tour, thank you for bringing us along with your keen eye! so many beautiful plants

[Tyrone]

Thanks for the pics Richard. It’s amazing what is growing in Sydney. I haven’t been back to Sydney BG in 15 years. You can’t go to Sydney without going to the BG.

Once in 2004 I had a business meeting in Sydney. I flew out on the midnight flight from Perth and landed around 6.30am. My meeting wasn’t until 10.30am in the middle of the CBD, so I took a taxi to the BG. I wandered around it for hours and had breakfast there. I walked to my meeting which ended around noon. I walked back to the BG and had lunch and continued my tour. Then caught a taxi mid afternoon back to the airport then caught my plane back to Perth. Got back to Perth about 8pm that night. It was a great day out. I travelled about 7500km that day and had a ball in the Sydney BG. Unmissable really. 

[tim_brissy_13]

One of my favourite places. Thanks for the pics Richard. I haven’t been since 2018 when I had a business meeting way out in the Eastern suburbs and had a few hours to kill before my flight home. Stayed until it was nearly dark and still have a bunch of dark photos from that visit. I could spend days there. 

[gyuseppe]

Richard, do you remember what palm tree it is?

[happypalms]

2 hours ago, knell said:

wonderful tour, thank you for bringing us along with your keen eye! so many beautiful plants

It’s incredible how many palms are in the garden, and if you were to take them out it would not be the same garden. I got a stack more pictures yet to post.

[happypalms]

1 hour ago, Tyrone said:

Thanks for the pics Richard. It’s amazing what is growing in Sydney. I haven’t been back to Sydney BG in 15 years. You can’t go to Sydney without going to the BG.

Once in 2004 I had a business meeting in Sydney. I flew out on the midnight flight from Perth and landed around 6.30am. My meeting wasn’t until 10.30am in the middle of the CBD, so I took a taxi to the BG. I wandered around it for hours and had breakfast there. I walked to my meeting which ended around noon. I walked back to the BG and had lunch and continued my tour. Then caught a taxi mid afternoon back to the airport then caught my plane back to Perth. Got back to Perth about 8pm that night. It was a great day out. I travelled about 7500km that day and had a ball in the Sydney BG. Unmissable really. 

The Perth red eye flight hey done that one before, it’s a wonderful garden with some very old plants and a must see for anyone interested in plants and for anyone who just wants to unwind from the city. Iam lucky my sister lives in woolloomooloo a short ten minutes walk away soo very accessible for me when iam in Sydney. Colin had been a fantastic person for the garden giving so much time and knowledge about palms for the garden.

[Hu Palmeras]

Hi Richard, my friend. There's a beautiful and spectacular botanical garden in Sydney. It's very pretty. I loved the photos you posted. I have a hearing on the 25th of this month. I hope the people I'll be meeting with want to create the botanical garden. If not, I'll have to keep looking for someone to fund it.

[happypalms]

1 hour ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

One of my favourite places. Thanks for the pics Richard. I haven’t been since 2018 when I had a business meeting way out in the Eastern suburbs and had a few hours to kill before my flight home. Stayed until it was nearly dark and still have a bunch of dark photos from that visit. I could spend days there. 

I think it’s time you get back the garden, there’s a lot of surprises in that garden now. Although the plant labelling has been a bit mixed up now due to the garden maintenance when working with labels accidentally being lost, disturbed and just placed on a nearby palm by accident. Two signs as an example where crysophila guagra on the two palms with one clearly being a trachycarpus but labeled as crysophila. So the garden needs some good palm eyes to sort out the labeling situation.

[happypalms]

3 minutes ago, Hu Palmeras said:

Hi Richard, my friend. There's a beautiful and spectacular botanical garden in Sydney. It's very pretty. I loved the photos you posted. I have a hearing on the 25th of this month. I hope the people I'll be meeting with want to create the botanical garden. If not, I'll have to keep looking for someone to fund it.

It is a special garden in Sydney, iam hoping in a few years time I can do the same with the Coffs botanical gardens, good luck with your project and keep on persevering and don’t give up!

[happypalms]

52 minutes ago, gyuseppe said:

Richard, do you remember what palm tree it is?

Yes it’s a schippia concolor, I would say it might grow in Italy.

[Hu Palmeras]

Thank you very much, my friend Richard. I hope you too prepare those palm trees for a large botanical garden in Australia. You'll have a magnificent garden; it would be great with a giant nursery-style dome; it would be spectacular.

[Mazat]

6 hours ago, happypalms said:

I had to travel to Sydney for some personal reasons, and well as any palm nut would do head straight for the botanical gardens at the first opportunity available. So with camera in hand and a date set for a meet up with one of the leading palm gurus @palmtreesforpleasure Mr Colin Wilson who has been (how shall I say it) the main person behind getting the palm collection started again in the gardens. And I will say a lot of his personal time and budget has gone into creating one of the best collections in the southern hemisphere in a temperate climate slash subtropical region. I have visited the garden before but to get a personal tour and shown a major part of the collection and some hidden gems throughout the gardens. It was a learning experience I will never forget, I would like to thank Colin personally for his time and dedication to such a project a true palm nut paradise. So thank you Colin for sharing with me your one passion in life that I can relate too! 
Richard @happypalms

We would probably have stayed there and spent the night in the beautiful jungle ...
Yes, that's not allowed, of course, but I like the idea.
Impressive, Richard.

[Mazat]

3 hours ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

One of my favourite places. Thanks for the pics Richard. I haven’t been since 2018 when I had a business meeting way out in the Eastern suburbs and had a few hours to kill before my flight home. Stayed until it was nearly dark and still have a bunch of dark photos from that visit. I could spend days there. 

🤗

[Mazat]

4 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Thanks for the pics Richard. It’s amazing what is growing in Sydney. I haven’t been back to Sydney BG in 15 years. You can’t go to Sydney without going to the BG.

Once in 2004 I had a business meeting in Sydney. I flew out on the midnight flight from Perth and landed around 6.30am. My meeting wasn’t until 10.30am in the middle of the CBD, so I took a taxi to the BG. I wandered around it for hours and had breakfast there. I walked to my meeting which ended around noon. I walked back to the BG and had lunch and continued my tour. Then caught a taxi mid afternoon back to the airport then caught my plane back to Perth. Got back to Perth about 8pm that night. It was a great day out. I travelled about 7500km that day and had a ball in the Sydney BG. Unmissable really. 

Your distances are enormous. When you consider that we can jump in the car and have a complete change of scenery within 30 minutes.
Our little country sometimes seems like an ant compared to an anteater.

[Hu Palmeras]

where are you from mazat. Imagine Chile is not big. but longitudinally yes. or by joining it trioceanic too

[gyuseppe]

3 hours ago, happypalms said:

Yes it’s a schippia concolor, I would say it might grow in Italy.

Richard is one of my favorite palms, unfortunately I have never tried it here, to see if it resists from me

[palmtreesforpleasure]

Hello Hu Palmerus,

We now have multiple botanic gardens in Australia planting palms as a conservation project with a select few people germinating seed for them.

Richard is part of that team and has done a great job driving the Coffs harbour project. Do not give up, if at first you do not suceed, try , try again as we have done. You can do it

Regards

Colin

[happypalms]

12 hours ago, Hu Palmeras said:

Thank you very much, my friend Richard. I hope you too prepare those palm trees for a large botanical garden in Australia. You'll have a magnificent garden; it would be great with a giant nursery-style dome; it would be spectacular.

Growing palms as you would know is a love thing for plants, the time involved in getting a palm seed from sowing to planting  is continuous thing. Even the time involved in just getting the seed   Is a process, dont give up. Colin has backed me up and given the boat a push in the direction I needed, and any good boat needs a captain, this is what you need to do for your project keep on steering that boat in the direction you need to go. But most of all keep your heart in that process and it will fall into place. 
Richard 

[happypalms]

9 hours ago, gyuseppe said:

Richard is one of my favorite palms, unfortunately I have never tried it here, to see if it resists from me

Next time rps have them get a few seeds. I did manage to germinate 5 seedlings from ten seeds I was very lucky it’s a rare palm in my area!

[Hu Palmeras]

9 hours ago, palmtreesforpleasure said:

Hola Hu Palmerus,

Actualmente contamos con varios jardines botánicos en Australia que plantan palmeras como parte de un proyecto de conservación y con unas pocas personas seleccionadas que germinan semillas para ellas.

Richard forma parte de ese equipo y ha hecho un gran trabajo impulsando el proyecto de Coffs Harbour. No se rindan. Si al principio no tienen éxito, inténtenlo una y otra vez, como lo hemos hecho nosotros. Pueden lograrlo.

Saludos

Colin

Hi Colin. Thank you so much, my friend. I hope this can work out for me. I'm like Richard, but on a smaller scale. I hope to see a Botanical Garden. Or will I have to plant the palm trees anywhere?

[Hu Palmeras]

22 minutes ago, happypalms said:

Cultivar palmeras, como sabrán, es una cuestión de amor por las plantas. El tiempo que lleva obtener una semilla de palmera, desde la siembra hasta la plantación, es continuo. Incluso el tiempo que lleva simplemente obtener la semilla es un proceso, no se rindan. Colin me ha apoyado y ha impulsado el barco en la dirección que necesitaba, y todo buen barco necesita un capitán. Esto es lo que deben hacer por su proyecto: seguir guiando el barco en la dirección correcta. Pero, sobre todo, mantengan el corazón en el proceso y todo saldrá bien. 
Richard 

Thank you very much, Richard. In Chile, there are enclosed venues for large shows, and they have giant domes. I hope they want to do something for plants.

[Mazat]

On 9/20/2025 at 2:03 PM, Hu Palmeras said:

where are you from mazat. Imagine Chile is not big. but longitudinally yes. or by joining it trioceanic too

 

Hugo, Switzerland ... 

41,285 km² area

A comparison with other countries...
Small, pretty, and hilly 😁

[Hu Palmeras]

I share genetic traits with people from Switzerland. These are my Celtic origins. Celts settled in Switzerland and later spread throughout Europe. Switzerland was the distribution point for Celtia and the Indo-European sub-races that emerged from them. There is a huge Swiss colony in Chile, and it is a very important country.

[Mazat]

22 hours ago, Hu Palmeras said:

I share genetic traits with people from Switzerland. These are my Celtic origins. Celts settled in Switzerland and later spread throughout Europe. Switzerland was the distribution point for Celtia and the Indo-European sub-races that emerged from them. There is a huge Swiss colony in Chile, and it is a very important country.

Thank you very much, Hugo, for this interesting information and explanation.
History is really exciting.