Located in Claremont, in Cape Town's Southern Suburbs, Arderne Gardens is a public park and arboretum best known for its remarkable collection of exotic trees. Established in 1845 by Ralph Henry Arderne, a timber merchant originally from Cheshire, England, the garden grew out of Arderne's practice of trading indigenous plant seedlings for exotic species carried aboard ships that stopped in Cape Town to restock supplies. Arderne was also one of the founders of the Cape Town Botanical Gardens in the old Company Gardens in 1848.

What began as part of the original Stellenberg Estate was developed by Arderne and later his eldest son into a garden stocked with flora from around the world, with many specimens sourced from Australian and New Zealand trading ships in exchange for local plants. In 1928, the Director of Parks and Gardens for the Cape Town Municipality persuaded the City Council to purchase a section of the property, and in 1961 this land was officially named Arderne Gardens.
Today the garden spans roughly 4.5 to 5 hectares and contains more than 300–400 trees, forming the finest collection of exotic trees in South Africa. Six of these have been designated as Champion Trees by South Africa's forestry authorities, including a Moreton Bay fig near the entrance — one of the largest trees in the country, affectionately nicknamed the "Wedding Tree." The other Champion Trees include a notably large Norfolk Island pine, a Turkish oak, a Queensland Kauri, an Aleppo pine, and a Cork oak. The garden's ponds feed the Black River, which runs underground before re-emerging as a canal, and the park is centred around a wide open lawn — the "Great Lawn" — surrounding a Norfolk pine and a Japanese-style koi pond.
In 1979, Arderne Gardens was declared a South African Provincial Heritage Site. Like many green spaces, it fell into neglect in the early 2000s, prompting the formation of the non-profit Friends of the Arderne Gardens (FOTAG) in 2004, which continues to work with the City of Cape Town to protect, maintain, and promote the space.

Open daily and free to the public, the gardens remain a beloved spot for weddings, picnics, and family outings — a quiet, leafy escape in the heart of Claremont, just beneath the backdrop of Table Mountain.