Propagating friendship in the gardens

EVERY Tuesday morning, the growing friends meet in the Samuel Gadd Centre at the Botanic Gardens to propagate plants for their nursery.

The group is made up of volunteers of all ages who participate to share their love of gardening and to make friends.

Judy Milner has been with the Friends of Bendigo Botanic Gardens almost since their beginning two decades ago.

“We’re a good mob,” she said “and you’re always learning something as you go along, you’re learning about the plants and which ones are native and which ones aren’t.”

The cuttings used for propagation usually come from the gardens themselves to avoid introducing threatening pathogens.

“There are pathogens that get into the Botanic gardens, there’s one particularly bad one a fungal one that we haven’t got in these gardens but it’s spread in some botanic gardens and it’s been rather lethal, so we try and keep it discreet,” Ms Milner said.

The cuttings are treated gently throughout the propagation process, which involves trimming and planting, a period of seclusion from the elements in a hot box, and once roots have sprouted, time outside to harden to the weather.

Once established, the Friends’ sell the seedlings at their nursery every Saturday morning, with most proceeds going towards plants and projects for the gardens.

“We put $10,000 towards the garden for the future, another $10,000 went to the design for the central hub, so the money goes towards the gardens,” said Milner said.

Not all seedlings are sold in the nursery as some are propagated specifically to be planted in the gardens.

“We work in cooperation with the staff,” Ms Milner said. “The staff tell us what they want and they bring in the cuttings for us.”

Volunteer and group-nominated caretaker of the greenhouse, Lorraine Castles, said she joined the group because she has always loved gardens.

“I love plants, doing community things, like socialising, like raising money in a painless way where people are getting something for it, so it sort of met all of those things that I like doing,” she said.

The Friends’ of Bendigo Gardens also have bi-weekly botanic drawing classes and guided walking tours where visitors can learn about the heritage and plants of the gardens.

More information can be found on the Bendigo Botanic Gardens website.