Open Gardens SA Mother’s Day Weekend at Hilltop | 9 & 10 May 2026
Spend Mother’s Day weekend at this elegant garden with trees in all their autumn glory. Open Garden SA’s next garden will be Hilltop in Stirling.
Hilltop is a garden of trees and vistas, serene and green in the summer months but transformed in autumn to an unforgettable display of vibrant rich colour. The many deciduous trees scattered throughout the 9 acres of park-like garden become a stunning kaleidoscope of oranges, yellows, purples, reds and russet.
The garden is open 10am to 4:30pm on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 May 2026.
Activities:
- Walks & Talks at 11am & 2pm each day
- Devonshire teas, soup and crusty bread will be served undercover
- Plant Stall including preloved garden ornaments
- Art exhibition featuring SA artists themed on gardens and country life
- Gift stall with homemade preserves, gifts, flowers and preloved gardening books
- Raffle & Charity Auctions
Accessibility:
Wheelchairs can access some of the garden, including the food and drinks area.
Entry fees:
- $10 for adults
- $8 for OGSA members
- $8 for visitors with a pensioner concession card, health care card (NOT senior card)
- $8 for TAFE horticultural tertiary student concession
- FREE for under 18s.
There’s no need to book in advance. Simply pay at the gate upon entry.
Funds raised by the event will be donated to breast cancer research.
About Hilltop:
After the devasting loss of their beautiful Georgian house and garden in the Port Lincoln bushfires in 2005, Lindy and Richard spent three years searching for a place to rebuild their lives.
Eventually they found Hilltop in Stirling, a large garden with many mature trees, a lake and some fine stone walls. The garden had been originally developed by Alice Howard, the granddaughter of Sir John Downer who established Glenalta, the garden just north of Hilltop. In 2008, they moved in and Lindy immediately set about removing some of the declining trees and shrubs to create long vistas and improve the balance between open space and secluded corners.
Tall October Glory maples line the entrance drive which winds gently through the trees and opens to the striking Dutch Colonial house. In May these and the many other deciduous trees on the property create a magnificent autumn display with the greens of the huge evergreen trees a foil to their dazzling colours. A lawn terrace, stone walls and paths lead down to a little Italian pond with its charming bronze fountain and an informal woodland garden wraps around the sunken lawn. Large classically styled urns mark pathways and shade-loving plants including hellebores and autumn flowering plectranthus thrive under the canopies of the big old trees.
The courtyard garden links the front and back terraces and there is an elegant garden room, built in 2020 in the same architectural style as the house. In keeping with the theme, a small Dutch garden is being developed with abelia, rosemary, iris, lambs’ ears, Dutch box and a sundial which was one of the few garden ornaments which survived the Pt Lincoln bushfire. At the other end of the long pergola, a small pond is surrounded by sycamores, laburnum, Chinese elm, dawn redwood, and weeping Greenstead cypresses.
The garden extends past an old cottage to a lake and a stand of candle bark gums with an underplanting of native shrubs and grasses.
For more information and all enquiries please visit the Open Gardens SA website
What: Open Gardens SA Mother’s Day Weekend at Hilltop
When: Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 May 2026 | 10am – 4:30pm
Where: Hilltop | 9-11 Old Carey Gully Road, Stirling
Who: Everyone
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
Image Source: Open Gardens SA Facebook
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