On Saturday, I was privileged enough to attend one of Dennis Hundscheidt’s tropical gardening workshops held in his garden in Sunnybank. This was the second of his workshops I’ve attended, the last one was in 2023. This year, the conditions have been especially favourable for tropical plants and the gardens were looking particularly spectacular.
It was more than a mere workshop: it was a masterclass by a true expert with a passion for his craft. Dennis has had an illustrious career in horticulture and landscaping, spanning several decades. He is responsible for importing many of the now ubiquitous palms and cordylines we now see growing in the warmer parts of Australia.
If you simply do a Google image search of ‘tropical gardens’, several images of his garden appear. It has been featured on television in the days of Burke’s Backyard, and was previously part of the Open Gardens Australia scheme.
The gardens are unbelievably beautiful, and they are one of the finest gardens I’ve ever seen. Period. As I already mentioned on Facebook and Instagram, the experience of entering his garden reminded me of the ‘Pure Imagination’ scene out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where the where the magical candy-filled garden is revealed for the first time. It was a moment of excitement and awe.
The gardens are filled with many rarities, but also host a surprising array of very common plants. The way in which the plants are displayed is what sets his gardens apart from others. Dennis has opted for colourful foliage and varied forms, which are arranged in contrasting colours and leaf shapes that really elevate them well above their ‘common’ status. The plants are selected for their reliability in Brisbane’s climate. Dracaenas, cordylines, and tradescantias, for example, feature heavily throughout the gardens, and all are ‘tried-and-tested’ selections in Brisbane.
The little pearls of garden wisdom I picked up in these workshops from Dennis’s decades of experience are invaluable, and could not have been acquired from reading books or trawling the internet.
There is a lot out there that has been published about Dennis and his fabulous garden, so I will leave this post on this note: it’s wonderful to have someone so accomplished in their field to generously impart their knowledge in a workshop setting, and I sincerely believe that learning from him has made me a much better gardener.
Here are some photos I took on the day:
Zacaconia Tropical Gardens 