It’s the kind of destination that breathes with a natural indoor-outdoor rhythm. Every step – from the light-filled café to the wide deck, then into the fields and gardens beyond – feels like it was always meant to be taken slowly. Here, you can sip something warm, enjoy simple, country fare, and inhale the soft perfume of lavender carried on the breeze. It’s a place where connection to the land elevates every moment, and calm finds its way back to you without asking.

But Red Hill Lavender Farm is more than a moment – it’s a working, family-run farm with deep roots and strong values. Founded by the Crump family in 2007, it has grown into the Mornington Peninsula’s largest commercial lavender farm. Their lavender is hand-cultivated on 27 acres high on the Red Hill ridge – a location chosen for its ideal growing conditions and remarkable beauty. In full bloom during summer, the fields are a feast for the senses: visual, fragrant, peaceful.

At the heart of everything here is a simple philosophy – to remove the non-essential. In their botanical skincare range, that means creating products without synthetic preservatives, using only plant-based, natural ingredients, and ensuring each batch is small, fresh, and full of integrity. These products – along with culinary teas, oils, and lavender-infused treats – are available exclusively through the farm’s retail store and online. You won’t find them on supermarket shelves, and that’s the point.

Even their packaging is intentional – recyclable, biodegradable, and designed to be reused. Everything at Red Hill Lavender Farm reflects a commitment to simplicity, sustainability, and care – for people, for the land, and for the future.
There is also history here, deep and meaningful. Long before the lavender rows or café tables, this land was the traditional home of the Boonwurrung people of the Kulin Nation. That presence is felt in the surrounding bush, the shifting light, and the sense of something greater that hums just beneath the surface.

Over the years, this property has worn many hats – an apple orchard, a fly-fishing lake, a winery, even a Greek restaurant. But today, as a lavender farm and café, it seems to have found its true calling – offering visitors not just something to do, but a feeling to carry with them. Something soft, quiet, and enduring.

Come for a walk through the fields, sip a tea on the deck, breathe in the scent of harvest bunches drying in the botanical tent, and take home something made with intention.

It’s not just a place; it’s a return to something essential. Open Thursday to Monday, it’s as close to perfect as you could expect.

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The Diggers Club, the driving force behind Heronswood, is Australia’s largest community of gardeners. It invites you to embark on a journey of discovery and cultivation, offering an unparalleled selection of heirloom seeds, rare plants, and bulbs. Whether you’re a novice gardener or a seasoned expert, The Diggers Club is dedicated to helping you create your own beautiful and productive garden, fostering a sustainable future for generations to come.

At the heart of Heronswood lies its living catalogue—a vibrant tapestry of fruits, vegetables, and flowers that evolve with the seasons. Summer brings a spectacular display of perennials and heirloom vegetables, showcasing the best plants for Australian conditions. Each visit offers new inspiration, with the garden’s ever-changing beauty serving as both a peaceful retreat and a source of creative ideas for your own green space.

The magnificent buildings and grounds of Heronswood are not just a visual delight but also significant historical and architectural icons. Established in 1857, the heritage-listed site is lovingly nurtured by The Diggers Foundation, a not-for-profit charity dedicated to preserving our gardening legacy. Through membership, sales, and garden entry, all proceeds support the foundation’s mission to conserve historic gardens, champion heirloom seeds, and inspire gardeners to take action against climate change.

As you explore the gardens and gallery, you’ll find a welcoming community ready to offer advice and encouragement. The garden shop and nursery are brimming with treasures waiting to be taken home, allowing you to grow a piece of Heronswood in your own backyard.

A visit to The Diggers at Heronswood is more than just a garden tour; it’s an invitation to be part of something greater—a movement towards preserving our environment and heritage. As you stroll through the idyllic landscapes, you’ll not only enjoy a respite from the everyday but also become part of a community dedicated to making a difference.

Join us at Heronswood and discover the joy of gardening with purpose. Here, the past meets the present, and every seed sown is a promise for the future. Experience the beauty, learn from the experts, and support a vision that nurtures both the land and the soul.

Heronswood House and Gardens and Café are open 5 days a week Thursday to Monday from 10.00am.

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The truth is different generations often look for different things in the outdoor experience – kids want to play and explore, a lot of adults want the tranquility. By literally offering the opportunity to get lost in nature, Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Garden manages to appeal to all generations. This beautiful setting and playful environment allows the child’s playful imagination to be unleashed in a setting that gives them a new appreciation of nature, and the adult’s inner child to be rediscovered amidst serene scenery.

Set on 25 acres of woodland gardens that transform with the seasons, decorated with abundant water features, Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Gardens stimulates all the senses. After weaving through the mazes and discovering all sorts of local flora and fauna, you can visit the gift shop and nursery or just sit in the fully licenced café and enjoy a range of light dishes. Of course, lavender is a prominent feature on the menu, including lavender scones, lavender ice-cream and lavender teas.

Once a beef and cattle farm, and one of the Mornington Peninsula’s original farms, the property was sub-divided in the 1970’s and sold to John and Sally Daly, who created the Hedge Maze, now the oldest and most famous in Australia. What wasn’t lost in the transformation of the property was a connection to the history of the site. The majestic Lombardy poplars planted on the farm in the 1950s still stand and the large Cypress trees, planted more than 100 years ago as windbreaks, have watched over a century of change on the site.

John and Sally established a few acres of gardens, planting mostly Australian natives, and created the hedge maze with more than 1000 Cypress plants, followed in 1988 by the world’s first Circular Rose Maze, planted with more than 1200 bushes and 217 varieties.

The twists and turns of the property’s history continued when the Bortoli family took over as maze keeper in 1998 and the whole 25 acres of the property was opened to the public. They took the site in their own direction, making more improvements each year and creating the Lavender Labyrinth and display gardens in 2006.

The Hedge Maze now stands at more than three metres high and two metres thick – making it just about impossible to cheat your way through – and is a lush enticing visual that looks as though it could have been transplanted directly from the green, English countryside.  The plantations are indeed local though. As well as fun and playfulness, environmental sustainability has been at the centre of the philosophy behind Ashcombe Maze since its inception. Many of the plants, including the cypresses used in the hedge and the roses, are drought tolerant, and the Woodland is full of mature trees that don’t receive any water other than rainfall.

The energy efficient café, built out of mud bricks made from the clay from Lake Ashcombe around a structure created from recycled telephone poles, is a testament to their commitment to celebrating the local environment while having minimum impact on it. The café is a shelter from the elements, yet still keeps you close to nature. Natural light washes into the café through large windows and the gift shop is walled with planks of cypress grown on the property.

The selection of plants also offers the perfect habitat for a range of local animals, birds and insects, including koalas and frogs, which are quite vocal during spring – so much so that visitors often think they are listening to a CD recording of frog singing.  Throughout the year, Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Gardens is a hive of activity, hosting children’s parties, team building sessions, student education, a range of lavender-based group activities, and the Great Gnome Hunt.

Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Gardens offers a refuge from the hustle and bustle of the modern digital world, but then, the outdoors has always been our natural environment and we will always be naturally drawn to the outdoors, to explore, relax and, indeed, sometimes get lost. Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Gardens is a place where the child’s playfulness and desire to explore meets the adult’s appreciation of the unique tranquility offered by gentle sun falling on tall trees, fallen leaves and a flowing stream. Here children can find a new love of nature, adults can rediscover their inner child, all while cheerfully lost in a maze. For further information, visit their website

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Peonies have been used as medicinal plants for at least two thousand years. The peony flower was referred to in ancient Greece as “the Queen of all herbs” and the ancient Chinese considered the “tree peony” to be the “King of flowers”. Herbaceous peonies only grow in cool climates with cold winters such as the Mornington Peninsula as they need the cold to help trigger the development of the flower bud. Flaunting voluptuous blooms, they come in an array of colours from white through pink to red and mauve and in ruffled single and double forms and are very fragrant. The peony season is very short. If you are a garden lover or an outdoor enthusiast that appreciates wonderful garden architecture and a light stroll in the countryside, make sure you book your tickets in advance for this once in a year spectacular. 

Unofficially….. Open Days for 2018 are anticipated to commence in mid-November on: Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th, Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd December

Bookings will commence in mid-October. Please book in advance to avoid missing out. Hours on “Open Days” will be 10am – 4pm (last entry 3pm). Parking this year will be next to the Peony Paddock. Please enter through the gates from
237 Arthurs Seat Rd, Red Hill (parking is available on the grounds)

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Owner Richelle Marks is a passionate floral enthusiast who has brought together an experienced team of talented professionals from exceptional backgrounds that include working at the Queens Box in Royal Ascot, Royal weddings in Madrid, event florals and styling for the Australian Grand Prix along with a plethora of stunning weddings and events across Victoria and our Mornington Peninsula. The best part about participating in a workshop at Villa Floretti is that you can come away from a workshop in creative bouquet making, flower crown designing, table scape arranging or festive celebration compositions with a wealth of knowledge, a gorgeous creation and new-found inspiration. Really you’ll go from ‘zero to creative hero’ in one session. To us, Villa Floretti is a truly inspiring and soulful experience.

With every workshop experience you’ll enjoy picturesque views across the bay, complimentary Mornington Peninsula cheese tasting and local fruits and delicacies. Rain, hail or shine workshops will continue to run either among the fields or inside the barn. If you have 5 or more people, private customised workshops are available.

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This motto remains the foundation of their family to this day, passed on from father, to son, to grandson and beyond and the foundation of this wonderful local Pen garden nursery in Mornington at Tully’s Corner. We love visiting because Diaco’s staff have the time and the passion to chat with you, to offer valuable, practical advice for our gardening needs. Their team lives and breathes plants and gardening is their passion – their is no faking it here. Spring is a time of miraculous transformation in the garden. Once the soil gets warm enough everything begins to go gang busters and things can get out of hand quite easily. Take your garden back this spring, arm yourself with all that you need to clean away the winter wreckage and start fresh. What more could you wish for: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture your garden is to feed your body and soul.

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Like anything, it could have been be worse. The good news is, nobody got hurt, most of the gardens and the iconic yet historic house was saved. The bad news – the restaurant “Fork to Fork” and the executive offices housed above it, in the thatched roof, were burnt to the ground. Whilst a building was lost , time will heal all wounds and like the Phoenix, Heronswood, Fork-to-Fork and new executive offices will rise to fly higher, faster and longer. Until then, it’s  important that”Penites” visit Heronswood to show their appreciation, and support. With this in mind, a “pop-up” Fork-to-Fork has reopened on the pool lawn with incredible, billion dollar views, beautiful surrounding gardens, pool, umbrellas and marque for cover. It’s definitely our new – not-so-secret – spot to go to for lunch, coffee or rendezvous with special friends on the Pen. Below are some snaps taken today, Thursday, 23 January 2014. Stay tuned for more updates in the months to come.

Heronswood
105 Latrobe Parade, Dromana,
VIC 3936. Melways 159 C9

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Yet, standing atop a cliff with panoramic views from Shoreham out over Western Port Bay, Bass Strait, Phillip Island and ‘The Nobbies’, it’s hard to argue with him, or even really care if there’s a nursery with a better view somewhere. This’ll do just nicely, thanks.  It wasn’t the spectacular sightlines that attracted people to the nursery though. In fact it wasn’t even a nursery yet when passers-by began to take notice of the landscaping and plants Marcus, his wife and family were curating in the exposed coastal paddock. At that stage the garden was merely a small family hobby. For Marcus it was an escape; one far removed from, and more fulfilling than, his weekday life in an office working in finance. He says the nursery opened “by chance”.

But people did take notice and so it was that the idea to establish a commercial nursery on the family property was planted, propagated and blossomed into Nobbies View Nursery, which has now been open for around 20 years.  Setting it up and managing the nursery has been a labour of love for many members of the family, who each brought their own individual knowledge and enthusiasm, creating a unique character for the nursery as well as the sense that this was more than just a business.

Marcus’ children get excited to spend time there helping out. The nursery’s carefully planned layout and landscaping make it not only a place kids love to get around and explore, but a beautiful soothing place for adult visitors and customers to stroll through along various paths amongst the native and exotic plants.  Forget your warehouse or urban nurseries; Nobbies View has a more authentic feel because they display plants in their natural environment – nature. It’s a refreshing way to peruse or simply appreciate the flora on display.

So what was once a weekend hobby became a full-time, year-round effort. In autumn and winter plants are propagated to sell in spring and summer, which are – as you would expect – the busiest times in terms of customers. The nursery specialises in native and exotic drought-tolerant plants. Invariably, plants suitable for the peninsula also need to be tolerant of high wind exposure and climactic variance – meaning withstanding above average rainfall as well as periods of drought.

Marcus must also try to predict market trends and garden fashions. However, he says the ‘latest’ plants marketed by large retail nursery chains are just slight variations on something that’s been growing in old gardens for 50 years, so Nobbies View offer a wide and diverse range of plants that are tried and tested, and ideally suited to city, coastal and country gardens.

In all, Marcus says opportunities to sit back and relax are rare.  But that is probably because he has established such a successful business. The customer base is a diverse one, with local and Melbourne-based landscape clients and many loyal, long-time customers. It surprises Marcus sometimes how far people are willing to come to buy stock from him, including interstate and the occasional overseas client. In summer, local green thumbs flock to Nobbies View to rejuvenate holiday house gardens.

When he does get a chance to wind down away from the nursery, Marcus and the family don’t have to head far, making the most of the local beaches, bush walks and vineyards. Over summer they head down to the beach that fronts the nursery and set up camp for a while.  It’s hardly a surprise that they don’t feel the need to venture far. Check out Nobbies View – the nursery and the view – for yourself and you’ll see why.

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