A stylish and spectacular Adelaide Hills’ garden – elegant, enticing, green and gorgeous!

St. Anns is a magnificent two-storey home set amid an acre of outstanding, manicured gardens, creatively planted with a selection of choice trees and shrubs that flourish in the cool Adelaide Hills’ microclimate.

The original stone home, described as a shepherd’s cottage, was built around 1860, was added to in the following decade, and, in Victorian times, was transformed into a grand and gracious fourteen-roomed mansion. At one time a private school, over the years St Anns has been home to a number of prominent citizens, including two Members of Parliament and several local doctors.

Stone walling marks the entrance in Orley Road and creates a platform to display a magnificent, very old ponytail palm. Inside the elaborate gates, Teddy Bear magnolias, meticulously clipped topiary and hedges add touches of formality.

The land slopes downwards, and behind the house, a long balcony overlooks the garden and across the tops of the numerous established European trees, including a majestic 180-year-old Lebanese cedar and a 120-year-old blue cedar. These trees, some believed to be among the oldest in the Stirling area, along with many of the early plantings, have been retained and skillfully incorporated into the current layout.

From the house, a long central set of steps and a path lead down through several tiers and terraces, each with its own distinct character.

On the sunnier side, a series of lawned garden rooms is enclosed with layers of hedges that create quiet, contemplative spaces. Adjacent, in the dappled shade beneath the canopies of the big old trees, is a ‘wilder’ woodland garden with winding paths and wide varieties of rhododendrons, camellias, daphne, maples, magnolias and cercis underplanted with sheets of bulbs and hellebores.

Hedges define areas, some clipped into waves, others cloud pruned, and there is an elaborate parterre garden, a charming summer house and a Japanese-inspired area with a fishpond.

Ornate doors sourced in India and a colourful leadlight window embellish the Taj McChicken, an opulent chook house that provides luxurious accommodation for several lucky Black Australorp chickens.