Arderne Gardens

Arderne Gardens is a public park and arboretum in Claremont, Cape Town, located in the Western Cape of South Africa. It was established in 1845 by Ralph Henry Arderne, a timber merchant originally from Cheshire, England. In 1979, the park was named a South African Provincial Heritage Site. It is now a popular venue for wedding photographs. The 4.5-hectare park contains over 300 trees, six of which have been designated as Champion Trees by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The Moreton Bay fig near the park entrance is one of the largest trees in the country and is nicknamed the "Wedding Tree" by locals. The ponds in the garden are the source of the Black River which then runs underground beneath Main Road and the railway line before emerging as a canal. The garden is best known for the wide open lawn (sometimes called the "great lawn") surrounding a Norfolk Pine and a Japanese-style koi pond. Unlike nearby Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, the focus of the Arderne Gardens is the cultivation of exotic species.