In 2020 Arderne Gardens turned 175. This wonderful, 4.5 hectare arboretum in Claremont, Cape Town, is filled with trees of great girth and height, together with plants from all over the world, some over 100 years old. For many decades wedding parties have posed for photographs under the great Moreton Bay Fig with its enormous surface root system spreading in all directions like a nest of huge Boa Constrictors. This mighty tree is known throughout Cape Town as The Wedding Tree. The Gardens are a picnickers’ paradise. They are flourishing today as a result of a private citizens’ initiative [Friends of Arderne Gardens or FOTAG], which ensured this urban treasure island would revive, survive and continue to offer great public pleasure after one of several periods of neglect and decay. But let’s go back to the beginning.
The Wedding Tree (Clare Gibbon)
Roots like cobras (Clare Gibbon)
Ralph Henry Arderne arrived in Cape Town from England in 1830 to start a second life. His first wife and infant had died in...
