By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
VISITORS came from far and wide to see one of the most popular private botanical gardens in the South East this week.
Attila Kapitany’s garden, in Narre Warren North, was opened to the public on Saturday with over 350 people coming from all over Australia over several days to inspect its beautiful flora.
Mr Kapitany, owner and co-coordinator of the garden, said the visitors were blown away by it.
“They were so surprised, they had no idea winter could be so colourful,” he said.
“They all wrote in our visitors’ book and the feedback was overwhelming.”
Mr Kapitany’s one-acre garden, which he and his wife Michele have been tending together for 11 years, holds over 10,000 plants spread out across a valley and bordering a lake.
Mr Kapitany, a renowned botanical author, said nothing made he and his wife happier than spending a day in their garden.
“Michele and I travelled the world for inspiration and everything in the garden is grown from seeds. We’ve seen everything in the garden grow from seedlings to flowering into maturity,” he said.
“We also use the garden to showcase how to successfully grow Australian native plants.”
Even though Mr and Ms Kapitany have worked in their garden for so long, the vast combination of colours and plants still impresses them today.
“There are waves and swathes of colours that run down the hillside through meandering paths to the vista,” he said.
“We had people coming up to us over the weekend and saying ‘it looks like Monet’s garden’.”
