Arderne Gardens

This guide to Arderne Gardens in Cape Town follows Ralph Henry Arderne, a Cheshire timber merchant who bought hillside land in Claremont in 1845 and, that same year, paid a sea captain five pounds for a Norfolk Island pine sapling no taller than a walking stick. It traces how he kept buying trees off ships from every ocean, a Monkey Puzzle from Chile, a Monterey Cypress from California, and how his son Henry Matthew carried on the collection after him. Look for the plaques on the specimens closest to the entrance as you walk in.