Australian Institute of Horticulture Inc.Promoting Horticulture - the Profession of the 21st Century

#7/19

Botanica’s Plant of the Month, Lagerstroemia indica, Diamonds in the Dark, Red

In this issue:Our regional convenorsBotanica 2019 plants of the monthAIH Greenspace Award

aih newsletter

Dear Members and Valued Business Associates,

As 2019 draws to a close, it's timely to reflect on the many successes we've had this year at the Australian Institute of Horticulture. Thank you to each and every member of AIH for your support and collaboration around our great industry.

Over Christmas, we all need a good rest and so AIH will be closed from Friday 20th December and we'll be back on deck on Monday 6th January 2020.

On behalf of the AIH National Council, we would like to thank you all for your support throughout the year and wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

With our best wishes for the season,

Michael Casey MAIH RH and the AIH Team

A high-powered group of Sydney members met for our Christmas party on Saturday 30 November 2019. We met at the Cumberland State Forest information centre, which was an excellent venue. We are grateful to Tim Liston and Steve Davis for making the venue available and to Steve for informing us about the activities that take place at Cumberland State Forest - a wonderful resource now in an expanding urban area.

Our guest speaker was Mr Ross Rapmund, the manager of the Hornsby Shire nursery. Ross has excellent knowledge about remnant Sydney bushland and has contributed greatly as a producer and educator to the public and professionals, particularly during his time with Kuringai Council and Hornsby Shire. He has extensive involvement with bush regeneration and is currently assisting Hornsby Shire with significant components of the new Local Environment Plan (LEP), which is being formulated.

It is possible for our organisation and professionals to have input into the LEP. The LEP takes into account the objectives of the Greater Sydney Commission. We will be expanding on the great work being carried out by Ross, councils and the Commission in our conference in 2020. It is increasingly important for our senior professionals to understand remnant bushland, the linkages of remnant open space and interrelationships between plant communities and various ecosystems.

From our convenors

Wayne van Balen, MAIH RH,

gives a summary of Sydney’s

final meeting for the year.

Wayne was awarded the

prestigious, SILVER GUM

AWARD at the 2019 AIH

conference.

We gave a special thank

you to our Sydney

convenor, Chris Poulton,

for a very successful year

of great workshops and

thank you also to David

Ting who assisted Chris

on a number of occasions.

Sydney members Christmas party.

Sydney Group

The last meeting of the year saw us at the Gold Coast Botanic Garden. Our host was Alex Jakimoff, President of the Friends of The Gold Coast Botanic Gardens. Whilst walking through the gardens Alex spoke about their creation, the work done by the five, council staff and volunteers who give a total of twenty hours/week to look after part of the Gardens. Those passionate and too often overlooked volunteers are an essential part of why public places and gardens are looked after as well as they are. We also need to remember that those same volunteers have accumulated a wealth of knowledge which we, as a profession, need to embrace and welcome into our midst.

Alex and the Friends have an ambitious project they are currently working towards which is a new Regional Biodiversity Centre. It would be situated in the Gardens and would be a plus regionally for the Gold Coast city, the hinterland and beyond. This is what Alex had to say about it:

“The Friends are passionate about preserving and restoring the remaining natural environment of the Gold Coast Region, one of Australia’s biodiversity “hot-spots” which is one of only 36 on this planet. They have been working to develop a Concept Design for a Regional Biodiversity Centre located in the Botanic Gardens. This “state of the art” Interpretive Centre will showcase and celebrate the incredible biodiversity of the region, over 1600 plant species with 88 of them being threatened species. An exciting innovative centre would feature a structural timber design with high environmental sustainability and function as an information, education and research hub for visitors and students”.

Some of the many roles of such a Centre would be to educate local and overseas visitors, to create an educational forum for school children to learn about plant science, and to foster an understanding of the local flora and its interaction with the fauna.

Botanic gardens need to be supported, Botanic Gardens volunteer associations and professional organisations like AIH play a role in encouraging the different levels of government to concretely support those important botanical institutions

NSW north coast convenor and new AIH Fellow, Patrick Regnault, FAIH RH, gives a summary of the last meeting for 2019 at the Gold Coast Botanic Gardens.

Alex Jakimoff

Plaque acknowledging AIH donation, 2006.

Northern Rivers Group

Tom Lantry FAIH, RH and convenor for the NSW Hunter and Central Coast gives a summary of this year’s final meeting.

Central Coast Group The Hunter / Central Coast Xmas meeting very successful night. What a great night it was for all those attending who purchased a meal and brought it back to our meeting room. Everyone was asked to come along to our next planning meeting in February with a list of topics for walk and talks, guest speakers and seminars so that our yearly program can be set. Overall the group was please with what we had achieved this year, and a couple of new members also attended.This was meeting no 41 for the group and considering that we only meet 6 times a year we are doing a great job. I would like to thank the group for their support over this time.

Greenspace award presentation reveals urban tree

canopy dilemma.Recently I had the honour of presenting the AIH trophy for Greenspace Community award to the Lord Mayor and Parks and Gardens management group of the City of Stirling, Perth. The Coordinator of Sustainability, Clayton Chipper, was unable to accept the award at the annual Awards Night in September due to a late illness.

The Tree Trails project was nominated as it is an effective way of engaging with the public about the significance of trees in urban areas. The sad fact is that in this large, near city local government area, tree canopy is declining by 1% per annum. This is despite the council planting 10,000 trees every year and a serious buy in to urban tree canopy protection. The loss of tree cover is all happening in home gardens. Many blocks are cleared for subdivision, such as quarter acre ones, for three, roof-edge to roof-edge housing units with little room for any trees.

Urban heat is set to become the livability issue of the twenty first Century. The retention of tree canopy is a hot issue in every town and city in the country. It is vital that homeowners have a positive appreciation of the value of trees in urban areas.

Here is an exert from the Awards brief for the project submitted by the Council.

WA convenor,

Neville Passmore FAIH

RH and AIH Conference

convenor speaks about

the Greenspace Award,

2019.

“The Stirling Tree Trail event was launched in 2018 as an initiative to shine a light on the often-invisible benefits our trees provide and the importance of daily connections to nature in our urban environment. A fresh approach on previous tree-based education programs, Tree Trail aims to introduce a touch of magic and engage the whole community in a fun, experiential activity.

The self-guided trail around Lake Gwelup Reserve in 2018 and Carine Regional Open Space in 2019, activated 25 locations with signage and artwork created by local school students sharing unique and personal stories about the local trees. The trail also included interactive activities with the Eco Faeries, indigenous stories with Bindi Bindi Dreaming, to write a letter and post it to our trees along with a secret message to solve along the way. After completing the trail, participants were asked to submit the ‘solved’ secret message online via the City’s website to receive a personalised letter from the trees and seeds to plant in their garden.

The trail attracted approximately 4,000 participants, 2,500 messages to the trees and excellent feedback from the community. The Stirling Tree Trail was also recognised by Parks and Leisure Australia as joint winner of ‘Community Based Initiative of the Year’ at the WA Awards of Excellence in 2018. This success inspired the City to offer Stirling Tree Trail as an annual free school holiday event.”

Graham Harris, Cressida Cullity, Clayton Chipper, Neville Passmore (Australian Institute of Horticulture), Mayor Mark Irwin, Michael Byrne (Tree Guild WA),

Botanica’s Plants of the month for 2019

We are showcasing all our Gold Sponsors, Plants of the the Month

selected by Michael Anderson of Botanica.

Rhaphiolepsis hybrid Oriental Pink

Acmena smithii, Low and Leafy.

Gardenia augusta Buttons

Magnolia Princess Cleopatra

Hydrangea Miss Saori

Lagerstroemia indica, Diamonds in the Dark, RedInfinitini Magenta Lagerstoemia

Hydrangea Miss SaoriFestuca Beyond Blue

Upcoming events

Wayne van Balen, MAIH RH.

compiles the monthly events

calendar. Wayne was awarded

the prestigious, SILVER GUM

AWARD at the 2019 AIH

conference. CLICK HERE

Please Note: New Workshops for ACT and Southern Highlands are to be announced in the near future. We are also working on reinvigorat-ing activities in South Australia. Western Australia are focused on the wonderful conference programme coming up in September, then work-shops going forward will be planned. Regional Convener Patrick Reg-nault has been convening workshops in the NSW Northern Rivers and Qld Gold Coast with the assistance of John Mason. We are passionate to create a great programme for Brisbane/Sunshine Coast over the next 12 months and believe that a new group on the Mid North Coast (Taree/Port Macquarie) will be viable.

We are looking for members/affiliated groups to contribute to the AIH Newsletter and Journal. All contributions are welcome. Please send to the AIH Editor/Communications Manager, tempemac@gmail.com. Thank you.

Botanica’s plant of the month

Upcoming events

Lagerstroemia indica, Diamonds in the Dark, Red