The new rear garden includes a hardy lawn area of TifTuf grass, pool and cabana, framed by rows of Waterhousea floribunda (weeping lilli pilli) around the boundaries of the garden to ensure privacy

Garden Design Landscape

In the swim

11/08/2025 By Lynne Testoni 313 Views 0 Comments #Tree, Botanic gardens, Garden Design, gardening, horticultural, horticultural industry, landscape, landscape design, Ornamental trees, Shade Trees

By Lynne Testoni

This elegant and classically designed garden proved to be an award winner for Inspired Exteriors.

An engaged, design-conscious client is always a plus, as landscape designers Inspired Exteriors found when they were engaged to create this beautiful garden in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs.…

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Business File Editorial

Reframing setbacks in business

11/08/2025 John Corban 324 Views 0 Comments #Tree, Botanic gardens, Garden Design, gardening, horticultural, horticultural industry, landscape, landscape design, Ornamental trees, Shade Trees

By John Corban

For many years, whenever something did not go well in my business, I would get annoyed or frustrated. That all began to shift about 18 years ago when I studied Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and was introduced to a powerful tool called reframing.

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A halved pod exposing the corn cob of cacao beans inside (Image: Caleb Roberts)

Plant Palette Plants

The case for cacao

11/08/2025 Caleb Roberts 369 Views 0 Comments #Tree, Botanic gardens, Garden Design, gardening, horticultural, horticultural industry, landscape, landscape design, Ornamental trees, Shade Trees

By Caleb Roberts

Botanical name: Theobroma cacao

Common name: Cacao tree or cocoa tree

Family: Malvaceae

**A beautiful red flush of growth on this cacao (Image: Caleb Roberts)**

Origin: With a long history in the Amazon basin, cacao was traded as a currency well before chocolate coins hit supermarket shelves.…

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Editorial Newsbuds

New research reveals a solution for Australia’s productivity slump

11/08/2025 admin 129 Views 0 Comments #Tree, Botanic gardens, Garden Design, gardening, horticultural, horticultural industry, landscape, landscape design, Ornamental trees, Shade Trees

Australia’s GDP could be boosted by up to $50 billion a year if supply chain data standards were improved, according to a new report.

A new research report from the Centre for International Economics and commissioned by GS1 Australia, the body responsible for the common retail barcode, reveals that industry use of supply chain data standards is quietly driving a significant share of Australia’s economic output, contributing up to $27.3 billion annually to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and could play an increasingly important role in reversing the nation’s lagging productivity.…

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The endangered Euphrasia lasianthera found growing in an open grassland in the Victorian Alps (Image: Alex McLachlan)

Australian Euphrasia Environment & Sustainability

Eyebright delight: Euphrasia in horticulture

11/08/2025 admin 310 Views 0 Comments #Tree, Botanic gardens, Garden Design, gardening, horticultural, horticultural industry, landscape, landscape design, Ornamental trees, Shade Trees

Alex McLachlan

Many Australian Euphrasia species face declining populations due to significant changes in climate, with rising temperatures in Australia’s alpine regions putting Euphrasia populations at high risk. Botanic gardens are actively working to conserve some of the rarest species, however much work remains before euphrasia can be considered truly safe from extinction.

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Dr Chris Brosnan (L) and Stephen Fletcher (R) in the University of Queensland laboratory (Image: The University of Queensland)

Editorial Newsbuds

Maxing out chemical-free crop protection with dsRNAmax

11/08/2025 admin 215 Views 0 Comments #Tree, Botanic gardens, Garden Design, gardening, horticultural, horticultural industry, landscape, landscape design, Ornamental trees, Shade Trees

A software package developed and validated at The University of Queensland can tailor safe, effective and chemical-free crop protection using RNA interference (RNAi).

The dsRNAmax software designs double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to target pest and pathogen species while excluding off-target species like beneficial insects.…

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Stall selling wild and farmed potatoes at the San Pedro market in Cusco (Image: Clive Larkman)

Plants Potato

Potatoes by the hundreds!

11/08/2025 Clive Larkman 293 Views 0 Comments #Tree, Botanic gardens, Garden Design, gardening, horticultural, horticultural industry, landscape, landscape design, Ornamental trees, Shade Trees

By Clive Larkman

The Colombian Exchange resulted in many foods from the New World becoming common in European countries, including but not limited to the potato. Like so many Solanaceae, this humble vegetable is indigenous to the plains of the upper Andes and the lower regions of Machu Picchu and surrounds.

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Editorial Editors editorial

Farewell message from the Editor

07/07/2025 Karen Smith 426 Views 0 Comments #Tree, Botanic gardens, Garden Design, gardening, horticultural, horticultural industry, landscape, landscape design, Ornamental trees, Shade Trees

This issue marks exactly seventeen years since Hort Journal Australia began in July 2008. I have been the Editor from the beginning. However, it is now time for me to turn the page to a new chapter in my life. It is difficult to summarise my experience in this small editorial.…

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Pellenc's battery powered mowers are built to pro standards (images supplied by John Fitzsimmons)

Editorial Industry Event

Equipment and services benefit landscapers

07/07/2025 John Fitzsimmons 398 Views 0 Comments #Tree, Botanic gardens, Garden Design, gardening, horticultural, horticultural industry, landscape, landscape design, Ornamental trees, Shade Trees

By John Fitzsimmons

Landscape design, installation, and maintenance involve creativity, materials, equipment, and skill sets provided as a service. As such, its enterprises also need complementary support on the supply side for materials, equipment and business services. This was all present at the annual Landscape Show 2025, presented recently at Sandown Racecourse in Melbourne by Landscaping Victoria.

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Plant Palette Plants

Plug-and-play plants for neglected sites

07/07/2025 Daniel Fuller 398 Views 0 Comments #Tree, Botanic gardens, Garden Design, gardening, horticultural, horticultural industry, landscape, landscape design, Ornamental trees, Shade Trees

By Daniel Fuller

Mass planting beds are favourable from a nursery and plant breeder perspective because less diversity will often equate to larger profit margins, even though they can be risky by having “all your eggs in one basket.” They are also easy for specifiers to use in designs, because it takes less research to source a single variety of plant that tolerates site conditions and can be replicated throughout large beds.…

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