The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne recently entered the 2011 RHS Chelsea Flower Show and will present an all Australian native-themed Show Garden.

The show garden is titled ‘The Australian Garden presented by the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne’ and tells the story of the metaphorical journey of water from Australia’s arid outback eastward through the rivers and gorges to the urbanised and humid east coast of Australia. The Show Garden is inspired by the Australian Garden at Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, which opened in 2006.

Melbourne-based landscape designer Jim Fogarty developed the inspiring design for the show garden which displays a combination of wall sculptures, water features, pebbled paths and rare native plants.

The Sand Dune Wall Sculpture forms the first half boundary wall of the garden and has been painted in Dulux Weathershield paint in Charred Clay colour. This colour was carefully selected as it matches the Red Sand Garden at the Australian Garden, which depicts the Australian Red Centre.

Dulux Weathershield paint is available in a wide variety of colours which can be used to complement the natural hues of the Australian landscape – it is also made to withstand the harsh Australian climate.

Dulux’s leading colour expert Andrea Lucena-Orr explained, “strong, earthy colours with natural appeal suit our Australian landscape. Colours like stones, taupes, mid tone browns, brown/reds, ocean blues, tans, beige, ivory, mustard and yellow/green are popular colours to complement our environment”.

Choose colours which work well with both interior and exterior features of the home and incorporate plant combinations to suit the overall colour scheme.

More information on colours to suit the Australian landscape is available from Dulux.