Winter Walk Highlights at Royal Botanic Garden Sydney

This winter, we invite you to embrace the season. Rug up, don your thick socks, and get outside. Though the weather may be cold and grey, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney offers a refreshing, revitalising escape.

Here are some of the best spots to take in the greenery, yellow leaves, and captivating winter blooms. 

As the weather cools down, you can rely on Camellias to start putting on a colourful show. Enter via Woolloomooloo Gate across from the Art Gallery of New South Wales and head straight to find the Camellia Garden.

One of the gorgeous flowers you can see here is the pink cup-shaped bloom of the Camellia amplexicaulis, which also uniquely has bright red new leaves and apple-like fruits after flowering. Originally from Vietnam, this species is extinct in the wild but survives in cultivation.

Look out as well for the Golden Camellia, Camellia nitidissima, which you’ll recognise by its warm yellow flowers, as well as many other colourful and distinctive varieties.

Camellias were first introduced to this botanic garden in 1823, and Australia has long been an important centre for Camellia breeding, meaning that there’ll be plenty of blooms to brighten your day here across all the cooler months.

Did you know: There’s probably some Camellia in your house right now. Camellia sinensis is the plant we have to thank for many forms of tea from including black, green, white and oolong.

The Camellias surround a lawn where you can also spot the majestic Ginkgo biloba, opposite Rathborne Lodge. Its common name is the Maidenhair Tree as its leaves are similar to those of the Maidenhair Fern. Its distinctive fan-shaped leaves might strike you as a bit like butterflies with their wings open.

In late June you'll want to get in quick as the Ginkgo's leaves turn a beautiful bright buttery yellow. They soon start to fall in the wind, creating a vibrant glowing carpet on the ground. The whole spectacle of colour can come and go in about two weeks, so if you manage to catch it take your time to experience it.

Ginkgoes are fascinating trees. Ginkgo biloba is the last remaining survivor of an ancient order of Gingoaleas, seed bearing plants around 270 million years old, which means Ginkgoes both predated and outlived the dinosaurs. These plants are famous for their longevity, with many examples of planted and wild trees thought to be over a thousand years old and the oldest recorded specimen dated at 3,500 years old. Both its cooked seeds and leaves have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for hundreds of years for a wide range of conditions, adding yet another layer to its remarkable story.

You’ll find other Ginkgoes in the garden on the walkway near Botanic House and out near the Spring Walk.

Seek out the winter sun in the Succulent Garden, where you'll be transported into a dazzling world of plants shaped by some of the driest environments on earth. Experience the weird and wonderful ways these species from half a world away have adapted, survived and thrived in extremely challenging conditions.

Wander through vibrant zones featuring Africa’s colourful Aloes and spiny Euphorbias, then journey to the Americas to see striking Agaves, towering Joshua trees and giant Furcraeas, so slow to bloom they were once called 'century plants'. You’ll also spot true cacti here, including the iconic Golden Barrel cactus.

Bathed in warming sun, the garden glows with bold colours and sculptural forms. You’re invited to slow down, soak up the beauty and marvel at the ingenuity of these spiky species. Look closely and you might spot the seed pods and flowers, which birds like to visit for sips of nectar.

This July, your crisp, bright winter's day can become magical with a visit to the Millennium Cherry trees bursting into bloom. Head to Botanic House/Farm Cove Eatery and continue along the path to the left of the pond to find them.

As the Prunus ‘Yvonne Mathies’ show off their fuchsia coloured petals, it’s a spectacle to behold. These flowers often host lots of buzzing bees and provide a favourite snack for some of our rainbow lorikeets.

These striking trees are hybrids of the Wild Cherry (Prunus avium) and Taiwanese Cherry (Prunus campanulata). They were bred by Graeme Richards at the University of Western Sydney to create a flowering cherry for warm-climate gardens (like ours!) and they’re named after academic, garden historian and nurserywoman Judyth McLeod’s mother Yvonne.