Archives

In this episode, Tim Park, manager at  Ōtari Native Botanic Gardens, speaking about how reintroducing the kaka beak plant into gardens in Wellington has brought the native kaka bird back from the brink of extinction.

This is a story of the mutualistic relationship between a bird and a plant, and it demonstrates a number of principles that can be widely applied within ex situ and in situ conservation.… Continue reading

Part 2 of the 2 part MIFGS series is even bigger than the first part. Join me as I make my way through a fair chunk of the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show.

MIFGS, a.k.a. the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, is back in 2022 after  a 2 year hiatus. I was lucky enough to attend for each of the 5 days, where I networked, volunteered, and interviewed people doing interesting things in the gardening space.… Continue reading

Shout out to Eucalyptus regnans! The Eucalypt of the Year for 2022, and also the tallest flowering plant in the world.

There’s been a technical issue that’s prevented us from releasing the fourth part in our eucalypt series, but don’t worry!… Continue reading

Are eucalypts widow makers? Do they poison the soil? Do they destroy buildings? We’re celebrating #NationalEucalyptDay by busting some eucalypt myths with Dean Nicolle, a botanist, arborist and gum nut that manages the largest collection of eucalypt species in the world, at Currency Creek Arboretum.… Continue reading

That’s exactly what we’re talking about in this episode with Dr Meg Hirst and Georgia Warren, who are running an exciting program at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria (RBGV) with participants from the public.

Make sure you subscribe to Hort Journal Australia so you receive a physical copy of the magazine every month to read

We’re celebrating #NationalEucalyptDay by discussing the chemistry of eucalypts and their oils with Professor Ros Gleadow, a board member for Eucalypt Australia and Professor of Plant Sciences at Monash University.

This is the second episode in our four-part eucalypt series – look forward to next week’s episode with Dean Nicolle about eucalypt mythbusting.… Continue reading

How can we keep bees ethically and sustainably while harvesting their delicious honey?

In this episode, Cormac Farrell, head beekeeper at the Parliament of Australia, explains what bees do, how they do it, and how we as humans can responsibly use them as livestock to obtain a yield for ourselves.… Continue reading

All throughout March we’re dropping an episode every week to celebrate National Eucalypt Day with Eucalypt Australia!

We’re kicking this 4 part series off with an introduction to Eucalypts with Linda Baird, CEO of Eucalypt Australia. We had a wide-ranging chat covering topics such as their unique flower structures, their benefits for native wildlife, and the contended title for tallest flowering plant in the world.… Continue reading

So you’d like to start, or progress your horticultural career? This episode with John Sheely, head gardener at Warrnambool Botanic Gardens, is designed to give you some ideas about the different career pathways you can take in parks and gardens, production horticulture, agriculture, and a range of other sectors within the horticultural industry.… Continue reading

We have some stunning native flora in Victoria, as well as around the rest of Australia, and many of the most beautiful plants you can imagine are at-risk or endangered. What if we brought some of those plants into cultivation in order to preserve them?… Continue reading

Ben Courtice is back to talk about pollinator preferences for flowers, with a focus on native insect pollinators. He’s an ecologist, botanist and bush regenerator that’s done his honours research on the button wrinklewort, an endemic aster in Victoria, and was trying to figure out why they were declining.… Continue reading

Hort Journal Editor, Karen Smith is back for a second landscape business episode, and this time she’s brought landscape business coach, John Corban along for the ride. He’s going to take us deeper into the world of landscape business ownership.

EPISODE LINKS
Landscapers Coach website: Click here

Contact John at Landscapers Coach: Click here

Dr Sam Grover is a lecturer at RMIT university and is president of the Victorian branch of Soil Science Australia. We go through some of the basics of soil science that every gardener, professional or amateur, really does need to know.… Continue reading

Have you ever wondered what it takes to start a landscape business of your own?

In this episode, Karen Smith helps us understand how we can start a landscape business of our own, including setting up your business, branding and marketing, employing staff, and more.… Continue reading

he Australian 2019-20 bushfire season is still fresh in our memories, but many people aren’t educated on how to plan for fire in their gardens. In this episode, Karen Smith interviews Lesley Corbett, author of the wonderful book Safer Gardens: Planning For Fire & Plant Flammability.… Continue reading

he palm family (Aracaceae) consists of plants that we can easily recognise, with their tall stems and crown of fronds at the tip. But did you know there are branching palms, and some that even climb as a vine?

Listen to this episode to take a closer look at these wonderful plants through a botanic lens.… Continue reading

How is the horticultural industry changing? In this episode, I chat about long-term trends such as workplace diversity, ecological awareness, the move from petrol to lithium-ion and much more with my mentor Karen Smith (who’s also the editor for this episode’s sponsor Hort Journal Australia).… Continue reading

Data may seem boring to the average gardener, but if you’ve been working with plants for long enough, you’ll have learnt the value of recording information (which is also known as data).

Whether you’re a pro working in domestic gardens, an urban forester who’s working with legacy trees, or even a home gardener looking for long-term success, you’ll find value in this episode.… Continue reading

In this episode, Dr Ian Smith is back to teach us how to encourage predator insects into our gardens so we can keep pest numbers way down naturally.

As an entomologist and ecologist that’s worked extensively with farmers where the stakes are pretty high, he actually knows what he’s talking about so I hope you have your notepad and pen ready to take notes.… Continue reading