A real bottler

A QUEENSLAND bottle tree has found a new home at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne.
The 30-year-old tree arrived at the gardens on a semi-trailer, with special VicRoads permits required to transport it on a designated route because of its size.
The tree will eventually be planted in the Weird and Wonderful Garden in the second and final stage of the Australian Garden, to be finished late in 2011.
It used to sit next to Noel and Pam Minifie’s house in Kialla in New South Wales, but it started to develop its characteristic swollen trunk and grew too close to their home.
Mr Minifie met Cranbourne’s curator of horticulture, Warren Worboys, and offered the tree to the gardens.
“We’re delighted that our bottle tree has found a new home at the Australia Garden. We can’t wait to see how it will look when the Weird and Wonderful Garden is finished,” Mr Minifie said.
The director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, Chris Russell, said the arrival of the tree marked a landmark in the final stage of the development of the Australian Garden.
“Its distinctive shape is so Australian and it will be a real feature of the Weird and Wonderful Garden,” Mr Russell said.
The Queensland bottle tree is a native of the drier inland regions of southern Queensland. It can grow 10 to 20 metres tall and spread five to 15 metres.
The main feature of the tree is the massive swollen trunk that evokes the name bottle tree.
The Weird and Wonderful Garden will feature an eclectic mix of unusual and interesting native plants from Australia.