Editorial insights Rebecca Harcourt, Managing Editor
Welcome to Issue 61 of THE BOTANIC GARDENer. I’d like to acknowledge that I live and work in Copacabana, NSW, on the land of the Garigal Clan of the Wannanginni Guringai people, who are the ancestral custodians of Bulbararing, Allagai and Tdjudibaring, and pay my respects to their Elders past, present
Rebecca Harcourt
and emerging. The theme of this issue is Then and now – change and evolution within our botanic gardens. In researching this theme, I came across an article by Susan K Martin, published in April 2023 in The Conversation, entitled The public history, climate change present, and possible future of Australia’s botanic gardens. She says, ‘Can we justify maintaining water-hungry botanic gardens in an age of climate change and rising water prices? Perhaps such gardens are no longer suited to Australia’s changing climate – if they ever were. It is easy to argue Australian botanic gardens are imperial remnants full of European plants, an increasingly uncomfortable reminder of British colonisation. But gardens, and their gardeners, aren’t static. They are intrinsically changing entities.’ The latter two statements are certainly true, as the articles in this issue clearly demonstrate. One could even argue that botanic gardens are now essential in our fight against climate change, because of their evolving focus towards plant conservation and threatened species protection. Even our newer gardens have changed over their short life spans. Our feature garden, Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens, recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary in May. Curator Lisa Kermode describes how the initial plantings have grown and matured, with some self‑seeding and some searching for light as shade increases, and how the hard infrastructure has been softened by the presence of plants. I love the fact that she acknowledges two aspects that have not changed, the importance, passion and commitment of both volunteers and staff. I think this would be true of most if not all botanic gardens across Australia and New Zealand. It’s not just the plants that change in gardens over time. The way we use gardens is also changing. Even Victoria’s many heritage gardens, created with European ideas of beauty, reflected in their exotic plantings, are being used as refuges for local flora. As John Hawker, former Heritage Officer (Horticulture) with Heritage Victoria, says in this issue’s feature interview, ‘If your local garden isn’t growing your local flora, nobody else will.’
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THE BOTANIC GARDENer | ISS 61 Summer 2023
