Perennialle Plants

On the historic main street of Canowindra, inside a carefully restored heritage building, this is a nursery that has built its reputation on plants suited to the extremes of the inland climate — rare perennials, salvias and ornamental grasses bred to shrug off both frost and drought. What is sold here is grown here, in an extensive and unusual collection assembled over time, which means the range leans towards the genuinely hard-to-find rather than the mass-produced punnet. The building itself does double duty: alongside greenhouse tables of perennials there is an emporium stocked with tools, giftware, homewares and indoor plants, plus a cafe turning out good coffee, pastries and toasted sandwiches for those who want to make a proper visit of it. It is as much a destination as a shop — the sort of place worth timing a country drive around, open five days a week (closed Tuesday and Wednesday) between 8.30 and 4.30. For those who can't make the trip, a mail order service extends the nursery's reach beyond Canowindra, but it is in person, wandering between plant benches and browsing the emporium shelves, that the place makes most sense — a small-town nursery with a collection far larger than its address might suggest.