Flecker Botanic Gardens

02/04/2025

It's time for our first plant sale of the year!

Come down to the Cairns Botanic Gardens this Easter to take advantage of our 2025 Easter Sale.

We have a lot of begonias, cordylines, medinillas, aroids and heliconias this time round... as well as a good selection of flowering shrubs and trees, hoyas, goeppertias, creepers, gingers and more.

DATE: Sunday, 13th April, 2025

TIME: 8:00am to 12:00pm

LOCATION: Cairns Botanic Gardens (Saltwater Lake Depot)

See you there!

IMPORTANT: Please note that our Easter Sale is not at Fleckers like our other big sales. It is at the Saltwater Lake Depot which can be accessed from Greenslopes St. (just follow the signage).

Look in the comments for the map of the location.

09/11/2024

A beautiful hot summer day in the botanical gardens of Cairns, North Queensland.

17/10/2024

Quassia amara is a beautiful small flowering tree reaching about 6m in height. Endemic to tropical South America, it produces long panicles of red flowers and unique foliage that appear as "leaves growing upon leaves". A great garden plant that tolerates a fair amount of shade. It is currently flowering at Fleckers.

04/10/2024

Such a beautiful example of the blooms in the Gardens in Cairns, North Queensland.

Medinilla miniata is one of the most beautiful plants in the Medinilla genus. It's an erect, tropical shrub that can be found growing in trees in the tropical rainforests of the Phillipines.

It has huge, deeply veined leaves and produces pendulous panicles of scarlet-red flowers throught the year. Each flower has a yellow stamen and blue pollen tubes that contrast to the scarlet petals.

On your next visit, check out our large specimen in the conservatory.

06/09/2024

Bold Gold

Saracca thaipingensis (Yellow Ashoka Tree) is a commonly grown tropical tree here in Cairns. Endemic to South-east Asia, it is the tree that Buddah was supposedly born under.

Reaching a height of 24 metres, it produces huge clusters of bright yellow flowers which emerge from the old wood of the tree's trunk and branches.

Saracca thaipingensis is not only a great feature plant in a tropical garden, but also attracts bees and butterflies.

You can currently buy a tree from us at our Saltwater Lakes depot at our Wednesday morning plant sale.

Saracca thaipingensis - $12.00

02/09/2024

Beautiful canopy 🌴

You may be forgiven for thinking this beautiful plant is a tree fern, however it is the very large and majestic Giant Fishtail Palm (Caryota obtusa).

Native to mainland South-east Asia, this palm can reach up to twenty metres in length, with feathery leaves reaching five metres long. Unfortunately, like many large palms, this species is also monocarpic, meaning it will die soon after flowering and producing fruit. The inflorescence on this palm can reach six metres long, holding hundreds of thousands of flowers.

You can see our Caryota obtusa near our bamboo garden on Collins Ave.

01/09/2024

Our Pandanus ornata is truly a magnificent giant. One of the largest pandanus on the planet, this usually unbranched screwpine is from the coastal forests of the Malay Peninsula, Borneo and Sumatra. It produces a single crown of incredibly long, dark green leaves. Pandanus ornata is truly a very imposing and very fast growing plant.

01/09/2024

Not only is Tahina spectabilis one of the most impressive palms in the world, it is also one of the rarest and is considered critically endangered; less than a hundred specimens exist in the wild.

Endemic to a small area of northwestern Madagascar, it's range is only 12km²! It was not discovered until 2007, and was described the following year.

Tahina spectabilis reaches a height of 18m and individual leaves can be up to 5m across! These palms will not flower until they are at least thirty years old, and sadly they will die soon after.

The Cairns Botanic Gardens were very lucky to receive two specimens just over a decade ago. Because these palms in Madagascar are now highly protected, and the ones in Australia are only young, it will be at least another twenty years before seedlings of this palm will become available to the public.

Our two Tahinas can be found in the Fitzalan part of our gardens.

22/08/2024

Come down to see us at the ever popular Carnival on Collins annual street party this Father's Day.

This sale, we'll have a huge selection of heliconias and cordylines, as well as a good selection of medinillas, gingers, aroids, begonias, flowering trees and shrubs and much, much more.

Sale starts at 9:00am sharp.

See you there!

20/03/2024

The Rainforest Heart 🌿🌴

20/03/2024

Friends of the Cairns Botanic Gardens pre-Easter sale - MARCH 24

This year, the Friends of the Cairns Botanic Gardens are having their big Easter Plant Sale at their Saltwater Lake nursery site, instead of the normal location in Flecker Garden. The map below shows the location of the sale, and also parking on Greenslopes Street. Signage will be put in place to help direct visitors to the nursery.

The sale starts at 8:00am and ends at 12:00noon.

But wait - there's more!!!

This year, the Botanic Gardens has released a larger-than-normal range of heliconia and ginger rhizomes, some of which will not be available again for some time.

Prices start at $8 - these crazy offers are never to be repeated (at least not until the next FOBG sale later this year) - don't miss out - what are you waiting for?!
..for March 24 to roll around, I guess?! Happy hunting!

21/12/2023

Titan Arum update 4:20pm, December 21

The spathe is definitely starting to close up. It is difficult to tell what the state the bloom will be in tomorrow. Hopefully still open!