Pollinating great ideas Plants for a passion, in pursuit of a dream Sharyn Veivers, Horticulture Assistant, Orange Botanical Gardens
We’ve all had moments where we’ve said ‘it seemed like a great idea at the time, but...’ For some it does work out – and for Sharyn Veivers it did! Now a horticulturist working at Orange Botanical Gardens in New South Wales, Sharyn could be described as something of a late bloomer. She reflects on the journey that led her to study horticulture in her 50s and found her on something of a personal pilgrimage to the 9th BGANZ Congress in Wellington.
Sharyn Veivers
At an early age I spent a lot of time with my grandmothers, this was the 1960s and 70s. Not a mobile phone or internet in sight. We would spend all of our time in the garden. Both grandparents were passionate gardeners, so the seed of my future passion was planted. I was taught how to grow plants from seed, the types of plants that grow from cuttings, aerial layering, marcotting etc., when to water and when not to, and how to create my own mulch. I couldn’t get enough of this plant stuff, watching things grow, and how birds, bees and other creatures worked together doing their natural thing. I am also related to Walter Hill, Kew propagation manager in the 1800s and founder of Brisbane Botanic Gardens, situated at Gardens Point on the Brisbane River. I grew up on 10 acres between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. My parents were also keen gardeners. Dad was a butcher. Chatting with a customer one day, he discovered he had a licence to import certain species from Asia and had a small nursery nearby. So, after allocating five acres of our property to a new project, we bought some tropical trees. Some of the trees we planted were Black sapote, Diospyros digyna, Purple Mangosteen, Garcinia mangostana, Carambola, Averrhoa carambola and Custard Apple, Annona atemoya. We also had the usual banana trees and avocados – and mangos, 17 of them.
THE BOTANIC GARDENer | ISS 53 SUMMER 2019/20
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