Horticultural Adventure at Roraima

Roraima Gardens is so much more than an ordinary garden, this place is a living manifestation of the genius of its creator Lyle Filippe.

To walk into this place is to walk into a horticultural adventure-land. A gardener’s crazy psychedelic dream complete with alien spaceships and moon rocks, but all the while anchored to the earth by the careful and studied use of plants.

A garden is in many ways a window into the soul of its owner. Wandering suburban streets looking at gardens is an informative study of the imagination and outlook of garden owners. A green square of lawn symmetrically surrounded by some sterilelooking (and scent-free) standard Iceberg roses suggests an owner who likes a neat outdoor space, but is scarcely interested in gardening, whilst an overgrown jungle indicates very little appreciation of gardening at all! If you bring this thinking to Roraima Gardens, a visit here is to wander around in the subconscious of a creative master plantsperson.

Right place, right time

Lyle and his wife Cheryl came to this spot on the verge of the Melbourne-Geelong freeway 20 years ago. Formerly the Lara Plant Farm, the site comprised a couple of old shade and greenhouses and a few scrappy gum trees but, for an avid plant collector looking for a place to house his plant collection and to start a nursery, it was ideal.

Lyle describes it like the place found him and this sense of ‘right place, right time’ seems to be a bit of a theme for him. This is perfectly illustrated in the way the earthworks that characterise the garden came about. Not long after moving in, roadworks began on the freeway on their doorstep and Lyle seized the opportunity for some free soil to add some topography to the flat plot. For the road construction crew, it was a bonus to have a site close by to dump the excess soil and so, with the intention to ‘make a few hills’, hundreds of tons of soil were sculpted into a unique landscape.

The collector’s curse

Lyle is a self-described obsessive collector of things. Rusted crucibles, concrete conveyor beams, torpedo-like industrial boilers, chunks of turquoise glass and all manner of wheels, hubs and gears from machines that have long since gone silent, are dotted around the garden like relics from a post-apocalyptic movie set.

Lyle has a keen eye for repurposing discarded objects. He describes the insatiable drive that overcomes him once he has seen an object and mentally placed it in his garden as so powerful that there is no other way to overcome this than to track down the object and bring it home to his collection. He recounts stories of driving along, glimpsing an industrial artefact on the roadside and feeling utterly compelled to make a U-turn to ensure he could secure it.

His yard behind the garden includes a pile of enormous rusted arched beams that will, one day, form a spectacular garden dome. There is even a 12-metre wooden boat hull that Lyle has envisioned placed on the roadside as a magnet to draw attention from the freeway, a signpost heralding in the masses toward a real-life botanic ark. It may be some time before we see this feature on the roadside as it will require a large crane to lift it over the adjacent powerlines, but don’t be surprised when it does, because Lyle has it firmly in his vision, and it will bug him until he makes it happen!

A project that is more imminent is a viewing spire or turret, a stylised interpretation of the Eiffel Tower, that will sit in the middle of the garden, enabling visitors to climb up and view the garden from above. The design is well-formed in Lyle’s head, all that’s left to do is to explain the concept to his trusted sculptor collaborator, Justin Zahra and let the creation begin.

Plants come first

The passion for collecting is not confined to objects d’art, in fact these come in a distant second in significance when compared to the rare and valuable plant collection that Lyle holds.

His plant collection is unrivalled in Australia, so much so that botanic gardens staff frequently visit his nursery to source plants that he has saved from private gardens and collections. But his obsession for collecting goes well beyond accumulating plants, and his garden is a place where objects, curios and plants all intermingle to create a landscape like no other.

Whilst the display garden bursts with specimens of African Cabbage Trees (Cussonia paniculata), Swamp Cypress (Taxodium distichum), Dragon Trees (Dracaena draco) and giant Yuccas, it is behind the scenes and in the plant nursery where the real treasures are held. Benches and benches of specimens all neatly labelled and organised such that there is no danger of losing anything in this collection – at least not while Lyle is the curator.

Whilst the display garden bursts with specimens of African Cabbage Trees (Cussonia paniculata), Swamp Cypress (Taxodium distichum), Dragon Trees (Dracaena draco) and giant Yuccas, it is behind the scenes and in the plant nursery where the real treasures are held. Benches and benches of specimens all neatly labelled and organised such that there is no danger of losing anything in this collection – at least not while Lyle is the curator.

The retail nursery brims with a range of plants that no other garden centre could ever match. It is fun to watch the look on the faces of delighted garden enthusiasts as they wander deeper and deeper into this horticultural labyrinth. It’s like taking a walk inside Lyle’s mind – this place is one of astonishment and wonder.

No other plantsperson I have ever met has had the drive and vision to create such a unique and imaginative garden.

Do yourself a favour – if you are ever within half a day’s drive of Lara, this place will not disappoint.

Roraima is open daily and is located at 20 Swan Street, Lara, Victoria, 3212

roraimanursery.com.au