DAY 1 THU 6 NOV

HOME TO MERRIJIG (MANSFIELD) (D)

Meet your Ross Tour leader at Sydney Domestic Airport for your flight to Melbourne. Or meet up in Melbourne. From the airport we’re heading into Victoria’s High Country to Merrijig, near Mansfield. Check into Sebel Pinnacle Valley Resort for the next 2 nights. Welcome Dinner tonight.

Accommodation: The Sebel Pinnacle Valley Resort

DAY 2 FRI 7 NOV

SUNNYMEADE (B/L/D)

Two gardens today that reflect their owner’s creativity. First is Ralph Bristow’s Barwitian Garden. This new naturalistic, perennial based garden is a ‘tour de force’ in design and plant selection. When you’re in the garden you’re completely immersed and floating. As you move through it, you are drawn to its exquisite detail. Afternoon visit to Craig Irving’s Sunnymeade that has been inspired by his European travels. This series of inter-connected garden rooms is extravagantly decorative with fine plant selection. You will be feeling horticulturally saturated as we head back to Sebel Pinnacle Valley Resort.

Accommodation: The Sebel Pinnacle Valley Resort

DAY 3 SAT 8 NOV

MANSFIELD – HEPBURN SPRINGS (B/D)

Our destination today is Hepburn Springs in the Central Victorian Goldfield. On our way, meet Gail van Rooyen at Lakithi in the beautiful Strathbogie Ranges. It’s a gentle, romantic blend

of formal and informal spaces, cleverly designed to grow her favourite flowers and to maintain and enhance vistas to her dam and paddocks beyond. There’s a picking garden, birdhouse, meadow garden, a dam with summer house, rose beds, floral beds, cherry walk, orchard, veg patch, and a magical forest. Travel on to Hepburn Springs with a lunch stop in Seymour. Check into our hotel for the next three nights.

Accommodation: Hotel Bellinzona, Hepburn Springs

DAY 4 SUN 9 NOV

BABBINGTON PARK (B/L)

The home and garden of celebrity chef Annie Smithers’ Babbington Park is our first stop this morning. There are two acres of fruit and vegetables to supply their estate and also Annie’s restaurant ‘du Fermier’ in nearby Trentham. Flower gardens supply blooms to decorate the chapel and the restaurant. There are cows, goats, sheep, chickens, geese and ducks. Annie is treading gently on her earth. She is encouraging her visitors and her restaurant patrons to do the same. Then Annie will cook lunch for us at ‘Du Fermier’ in Trentham.

Accommodation: Hotel Bellinzona, Hepburn Springs

DAY 5 MON 10 NOV

DAVID GLENN’S LAMBLEY (B/L)

David Glenn’s Lambley is world-renowned as a benchmark in sustainable gardening. David will explain all aspects of this complex suite of gardens as he leads us through his masterpiece. A

treat today at Ceres Homestead with our host, Jane Charles who has restored this beautiful old property to its glory days. Built in 1864 by Thomas Bath, the first licensee on the Ballarat goldfields and famously embellished for the visit in 1867 by Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Jane will show us her magnificent home, refurbished outbuildings and her garden. And she will host us at a long table luncheon.

Accommodation: Hotel Bellinzona, Hepburn Springs

DAY 6 TUE 11 NOV

PETER SHAW’S GARDEN (B/D)

Travel to Anglesea to visit a unique coastal garden on the Great Ocean Road. This distinctively Australian garden has a relaxed vibe with a sense of place that gives it context in the wider landscape. Free time in Barwon Heads for lunch, then travel by ferry across Port Phillip Bay to Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula.

Check into our hotel for the next three nights.

Accommodation: Rye Hotel, Rye

DAY 7 WED 12 NOV

BROUGHTON HALL (B/L)

Two remarkable gardens (with dedicated gardeners) today in Gippsland. Morning visit to Marian Sommes’ Picardy, a romantic, flower-filled paradise in the French Provincial style. Nearby is David Musker’s Broughton Hall a grand series of garden terraces that fit snugly into the rolling dairy country overlooking the Tarago reservoir.

Accommodation: Rye Hotel, Rye

DAY 8 THU 13 NOV

CRUDEN FARM (B/L)

Morning visit to Cruden Farm is the former home and garden of the late Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, who designed and planted this garden as a young bride and lived to see 80 years of maturity.

Farewell Lunch today at Merricks Store. Afternoon visit to Attila Kapitany’s extraordinary Succulent Garden in Narre Warren.

Accommodation: Rye Hotel, Rye

DAY 9 FRI 14 NOV

RYE TO HOME (B)

Enjoy a relaxed breakfast this morning before your transfer to Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport for your homeward flight.