The weather has started to turn it on recently. Beautiful days with temps in the 20’s and an abundance of blue skies and sunshine. Spring has officially sprung and I was reminded how much I enjoy warm weather! So myself and GG, my loves-to-explore partner in crime, took advantage of the beautiful day and drove to Araluen Botanic Park where their tulip season has just kicked off. It’s Yates Springtime at Araluen!
Araluen Botanic Park was founded by JJ Simons in the 1930’s and since then the Foundation has worked to maintain and improve the Park. You can read more about the Araluen story here and it’s an interesting one. I think that it is excellent that it has been so well cared for, for so long.
I’ve lived in Perth my whole life, but had never been to Araluen before. Always seemed a bit far away and I imagined it would be packed when we were there. I was wrong on both counts. It only took around 40 minutes to drive there, which wasn’t so bad, and while yes it was busy when we arrived around 11, they have traffic management in place during tulip season, so you are directed to available car bays by the friendly team (and they’ve recently expanded their car parks too) and there’s a lot of open space throughout the park so definitely enough room for a decent crowd to enjoy a picnic and a wander.
So we parked the car, eagerly donned a hat, grabbed the camera and off we trotted into the glorious sunshine. We wandered towards the gardens and you could see there are flower beds full of proud tulip blooms here, there and everywhere!
They do a spectacular job with it all. Some groups are all one colour and type, while others are a medley of shades and different beautiful varietals. I don’t often….. or have never I should say, head out to look at flowers, but I can fully appreciate the appeal of Araluen. It’s a real slice of colourful paradise as you walk around and see all the beautiful tulips in every colour of the rainbow.
These stunning violet ones…
Then deeper purple
Or stark white
And pretty in pink
Or vibrant red
And these ones are my most favourites
I recall seeing on Facebook how they have a day where volunteers come out to plants over 140,000 tulip bulbs each season. Their efforts are very much appreciated! Just tulips galore.
So you can either pack a picnic and find an available table or patch of grass to enjoy your lunch or during tulip season, in addition to their on site cafe, Chalet Healy Cafe, they also have a few pop up food stalls including T Sisters Fresh Food, Cafe Oranje, Sesame Cuisine, The Caffeine Machine, and The Farmers Wife.
On our visit, I’d not been quite so organised to be bringing along food, but a visit to T Sisters Fresh Food for some of their Nasi Goreng and a side of dumplings and it hit the spot very nicely. Plus it meant we could continue to happily explore the vast gardens without a grumbly tummy. We perched ourselves on a log and it was pretty delightful, just eating and soaking up the sun.
A new addition this year too is that you can find the Perth Hills Armadale Visitors Centre on site at Araluen. A great opportunity to hear more about different things you can do in the area and we are right in amongst their Spring Into Armadale festivities so well worth checking out the program for that so you don’t miss out on any of the action. You can read about my favourite events on the calendar here.
A visit to Araluen is a great way to enjoy the sunshine and it is a beautiful part of our fair state. I’m so glad I can now say I’ve seen their amazing tulips with my own eyes. Here’s a little Instagram story from my visit 🙂
The tulip season runs from August 19th to September 25th, though it’s expected to run into early October.
And Araluen opening hours are 9am til 6pm every day. Enjoy!
Note: This is a sponsored post for Visit Armadale.