their Mt Wilson garden from a back paddock to a parkland

These pages: Dominic surrounded by his beloved tree peonies; Dominic constantly strives to grow the perfect peony; the garden is awash with colour; a bridge over the water feature. T he peony is the Chinese national fl ower, a symbol of beauty, perfection and prosperity. Traditionally, peonies were expensive to grow so they were exclusive to imperial gardens. Lucky for Dominic Wong, no such rules apply in contemporary Australia. He’s devoted the best part of 30 years to growing the perfect peony specimen.

Dominic grew up in the Malaysian city of Ipoh, famous for its tropical orchids. As the youngest in a family of keen gardeners he was accustomed to tagging along on visits to nurseries. From an early age, Dominic started his own garden from cuttings and plants his elders discarded. Little wonder that when he moved to Australia in 1988 and established a hairdressing business from his home in western Sydney, the fi rst thing he did was start a garden.

“If I had any free time between clients I’d dash outside and work in the garden,” he recalls. “In the end I’d used up all the ›

available space and I moved onto the nature strip.’’ His enthusiasm paid off as Dominic was rewarded for his eff orts with many awards culminating in a Garden of the Year gong from Your Garden magazine. About this time he also started growing tree peonies which, although notoriously diffi cult to grow, were better suited to the Sydney climate than their herbaceous cousins. “I love anything with colour,” he says. “So I guess it was inevitable that I would arrive at peonies which, although challenging, have a brief but brilliant display.”

Having “run out of room” on their 500 square-metre block, Dominic and his partner, Chris Styles, started looking farther afi eld for more space in which to build the garden of their dreams. In 1998 they found what they were looking for in the NSW Southern Highlands village of Mittagong, where they bought a 5000-square-metre vacant site. “It was a blank canvas,” Dominic recalls. “It allowed us to purpose-build a house with two discrete sections so we could run a B&B and live there without encroaching on our guests’ privacy. And it also gave me the space to build a garden from scratch

These pages: Even the chicken coop is covered in flowers; every corner of this garden is a delight; a splash of pink; poppy perfection; purple shades are true delights; fully blown roses add to the fragrant mix.

These pages: An Asian-inspired pavilion overlooks the water garden; flowers and vegetables coexist happily in the cottage garden; garden ornaments add a touch of whimsy; the garden is a rainbow of colour; irises guard a pathway down to the bird house.

and explore all the new challenges of a cooler climate.”

He began the garden before the house was fi nished and has been working on it pretty much constantly ever since. “It will always be a work-in-progress,” he says. “But it has allowed me to grow things I never could have dreamt of back in Malaysia and to create a space that draws attention and gives pleasure to visitors from all over the world.”

Dominic and Chris named their property Chinoiserie, a term used to describe a fusion of Asian and European infl uences, which perfectly describes their own home and lifestyle. They’ve used a neutral palette for their interiors and enlivened them with bold artworks, many with a Chinese accent. Peony motifs feature prominently, echoing the spring display in the garden, which becomes more impressive with every year. Even the breakfast menu is a cross-cultural melange with dumplings and other yum cha off erings alongside the more conventional bacon and egg options. Meanwhile, the garden is the drawcard in spring. At the time of this interview, visitors fl ocked in to see the fruits of years of hard work. Chinoiserie features many rare and unusual plants and also includes potager and alpine gardens, a water garden and herbaceous borders. There’s a chicken coop tucked in one corner supplying the freshest possible eggs for the breakfast table, and a willow-framed pergola beside a water course for enjoying sundowner drinks and soaking up the heady perfume of all those fl owers blooming at once. The