Henry and Sarah Hopkins sailed from Gravesend on the Heroine on the 17th April in 1822. Almost five months later on the 10th of September they arrived at Hobart in Tasmania on the other side of the world. It had been a difficult passage, bad weather forcing the passengers below deck for three months, some were very seasick. Under these conditions strong friendships were formed with other passengers. George and Martha Clarke remained close friends for life even though the Clarke’s continued on to Sydney and then New Zealand. Four days out of Hobart Sarah gave birth to a son, they called him Henry.

In 1804 Lieutenant Colonel David Colllins chose Sullivans Cove as the location for Tasmania’s first permanent European settlement. The cove had a narrow sandy beach with a rivulet flowing into the north east end. There was also a small island connected to the beach with a sandy spit at low tide. The new settlement was named Hobart Town.

By the time Sarah and Henry  with their new born son arrived at Hobart Town in 1822 the island was connected to the mainland by a causeway. Further reclamation meant that by the mid 1820’s substantial stone warehouses for merchants had been built. These beautiful sandstone buildings can still be seen on Hunter Street, we will point them out to you when you join one of our colonial house and garden tours.
Learn more of this interesting family history on a Summerhome Heritage House and Garden tour in Hobart. Meet Henry and Sarah’s great great great granddaughter as she guides you through her beautiful private house and garden.

In the center of the garden is this large specimen of Cupressus funebris, commonly called the chinese weeping cypress. Planted trees which are said to be 800 years old grow at Black Dragon Pool Mountain Temple near Kunming, Yunnan, China. It’s conservation status is listed as vulnerable to threatened. Cupressus funebris is generally regarded as the botanical source of Chinese cedarwood oil and is highly regarded for furniture makeing.

Early plant collectors in China observed it to be a noble looking fir-tree with weeping branches. It’s long and slender branches hanging down perpendicularly and giving the whole tree a weeping and graceful form.

It is reputed that the ‘willow pattern’ tableware we all know so well originates from this beautiful weeping cypress.

We have three Cupressus funebris growing at Summerhome, the largest is situated right in the middle of the garden. There have always been gardeners working in Summerhome garden and for many years they sat under the weeping cypress for their breaks.

Mr Seager was the main gardener when I was a child. My grandmother would make up a tray with teapot, small jug of milk, cup and saucer and a plate of food. I would be asked to take it down to Seager’s tree. I must admit that for many years I thought the cypress was called a ‘seagers tree. Or was it named after the Seager family who lived in Deptford England where Henry and Sarah Hopkins lived before they moved to Tasmania in 1822 .

The family also called this Cupressus funebris the ‘gardeners tree’. If you join a Summerhome house and garden tour you will see why the gardeners liked to sit there for their breaks. It’s a lovely sunny dry spot in the winter, cool and shady in the heat of summer.

When I was a child this small back gate led to a very exciting area. The pathway is steep and the cobbles can be slippery when wet so take care when on a house and garden tour. This gate from the cobbled yard leads to what is left of the farmyard. The stable is still there but some of it has fallen down and the wooden back section has disappeared altogether. Fifty years ago it was very exciting to explore with ladders up into the lofts, peer through the holes for tossing down the hay and slits in the walls which we felt sure were for shooting at bush rangers. Maybe they were for ventilation. There was a tack room with a fire place and above that a room where the stable man lived which also had a fireplace. Stalls for horses, a room for a carriage, and in the back section another large cobbled room.

The whole farmyard was enclosed with stone walls, some brick, some mortared with sandstone coping and a long section now gone was of brown drystone. I loved collecting eggs from the fowl house, lifting the lid of the egg box and hoping there was not a hen sitting there. The stable had a section where a man milked a few cows and nearby my Father had a smoke house for smoking meat. Beyond this farm yard were paddocks where the cows spent the days with a few horses. There were fields further around the hill which were reached by a formed road called the cow lane. Most of the farmyard and fields are now only a memory because suburbia has encroached closer and closer.

Summerhome is only a fifteen minute drive from the centre of Hobart so it’s really quite amazing the estate of twenty five acres of rural landscape still existed within the city limits in 1972.

This beautiful wooden gate divides the cobbled yard from the garden. This design of gate is not common in Tasmania but I have seen it once before at the entrance to a country church. I can imagine heavy goods for the house being delivered through this gate to the kitchen and cellar. Not that long ago in Hobart when milk was delivered to the house the milkman would come through here early in the morning and leave the milk on the kitchen table. If you should join a tour of the house and garden we hope you will admire this charming heritage design gate.

You can just see the conservatory on the right.

Many of our visitors enjoy the tour of the cobbled yard. It’s very sheltered with a tall stone wall on the Southern side. The garden plants which grow against the wall are hardy so they can cope with the heat and dry through the summer. There has always been a lemon tree and a very old pale pink rose which somehow survives the harsh conditions. A collection of herbs and bulbs fills the rest of the garden bed.

The entire yard is cobbled. The cobbles are smooth and even in shape and must have been carefully chosen. Between the servants quarters and the kitchen door a six feet wide pathway has been laid using flat dark coloured stone pavers. They look as if they have been split to leave a flat surface.

Near the back door which goes straight into the kitchen is a well which still has water in the bottom. I remember my Father and Uncle spent ages getting the pump to work. First they had to repair a wooden platform which is just above the water level. This entailed lowering my Uncle on a rope. Once the platform was done they could put a ladder down. I don’t know how far it is to the water or how deep the water is.

The pump did work for a while but that was many years ago.

If you come on a Hobart heritage house and garden tour to Summerhome make sure you look down the well and see the water way below glittering in the cool dark depths.

This is a beautiful specimen of Cantua buxifolia the sacred flower of the Incas. The flowers are full of nectar and hang pendulously waiting for a hummingbird to pollinate them. Visitors to the garden are quite often intrigued by this unusual shrub.

One day in Spring we had visitors coming for a guided tour of the house and garden followed by afternoon tea. I was working on a vase arrangement for the hall table. The vase was actually a shallow bowl and I had filled it with pale pink and white apple blossom. It looked gorgeous but needed something else as a contrast. As I wandered about the garden trying to find the perfect flower I passed the Cantua buxifolia which was in full bloom. I had never used it in a vase arrangement before but could see the bright colour was perfect.

As I tucked little clumps of bright pink Cantua among the apple blossom the vase arrangement came to life and glowed. It lasted quite well in the vase too. It’s very satisfying to discover a new flower in the garden which we can use for arrangements.

If you would like to explore this historic Hobart garden, please have a look at our Heritage garden tour.

Over the last two years we have enjoyed visits from several groups of people with an interest in heritage gardens and buildings in Hobart. As we have escorted our visitors on a tour of the garden and through the house it has been very satisfying to hear their glowing comments. They love the old roses and perennials in the garden and the friendly welcoming atmosphere of the house. Our visitors are amazed that the house and garden are still in such original condition. I think as the property has passed from mother to daughter there has been no desire for change. The next generation has been quite content to tend and nurture rather than impose alterations.

Our personal escorted tours were a great success and everyone loved the home baked afternoon tea. However we have decided that much smaller groups will be better for our visitors and the house. After much thought and planning we are now ready to launch our new “Afternoon tea at Summerhome” tours.

There are over thirty cruise ships coming into Hobart this summer and I am sure there are people on board who don’t want to go on a bus looking at the sights. We are offering a very different experience. Think luxury, comfort, exclusive, ambience, tasty home baking and personal attention. If this sounds like your sort of tour please have a look at our new page and fill in the booking enquiry form.

This is a vista of Summerhome which is only available for a short time of the year. Usually from here it is obscured by roses and deciduous shrubs which grow in the middle of the garden. A guided tour of the lower drive this time of the year reveals masses of white blossom and the soft pink new leaves of the Paeonia rockii which grows under the protection of the plums. The lower drive is also a great place to listen to the birds singing in the wilderness. They are hard to see but with a bit of stealth they can be tracked down and observed as they feed in the bush. It’s always fun to explore along the path through the wilderness. When we were children we sometimes found an echidna there or blue tongued lizard. Those were the days when Summerhome had 24 acres of paddocks running next to the bush.

We had just enjoyed the first day of Spring. Dusk had settled over the garden when Tiggy came rushing into the kitchen demanding our immediate attention in the cobbled yard. I thought she must want us to admire the moon. As we wandered out into the dark we discovered it was the perfume from the plum blossom which had caused so much excitement. It was gorgeous, quite heady and as Tiggy exclaimed “it was the smell of Spring.”

The leaves are glowing in the garden as the weather gets colder and the days become shorter. These Golden Delicious apples are small but very sweet to eat. It’s a lovely time of the year, clear blue skies and crisp nights. Some rain would be nice, the ground is incredibly dry. However dry leaves are very easy to blow off the paths and driveways before they are collected and used to mulch the gardens.