Townsend's NurseryWonthaggi

Lois Townsend and family grow most of what they sell themselves at this Wonthaggi nursery, propagating on site rather than trucking in stock from wholesale growers elsewhere. The range covers exotics and Australian natives both — camellias, magnolias, fuchsias, hibiscus, gerberas, lavender and roses among them — with Townsend herself known locally for talking customers through reviving a struggling plant rather than just selling them a new one. The property sits under the turbines of the Wonthaggi wind farm, a landscape detail the family leans into rather than away from. It is a plant nursery in the traditional sense: no cafe, no giftware hall, just rows of stock grown for South Gippsland conditions and staff who know each plant's history. Open seven days except Tuesdays, 9am to 5pm. Worth the drive off the Bass Highway for gardeners after plants raised to handle a coastal, wind-exposed corner of Victoria.