FLEMING’S NURSERIES: AUSTRALIA’S EVOLVING PLANT PALETTES

Leanne Gillies, Fleming’s Nurseries

Selecting future climate ready plants for Australian cities and gardens is a hot topic at present with various views and debates surrounding what should and should not be planted. While environmental awareness is relatively new, plant selection options have always been in a constant state of evolution.

Looking back to one of Fleming’s Nurseries early catalogues from 1968, the ornamental tree offering was limited to just Acer palmatum, Fraxinus, Betula, Ulmus, Liquidambar, flowering Prunus and Syringa.

By 1992, with a new generation at the helm and an increase in relationships with international breeding programs, the Fleming’s range dramatically increased to the point where the publication of a book was warranted. Just over 220 deciduous ornamental trees were described.

Leap forward 30 years, and the number of cultivars now being produced by Fleming’s has doubled, despite just 30% of the trees in the first book still being in production. Highlighting that superior options are superseding older varieties. Most long-term production nurseries will be able to offer similar reflections of the change that has occurred in their product range.

The key point is that reviewing trees that suit the current and future market, is a constant – it is always happening. The conversation may not always be as urgent and passionate, but the work is invariably happening behind the scenes. Breeders and growers lead a constant effort to improve on the current market standard.

Advances that are seen as desirable include unique and urban appropriate habits, pest and disease resistance, tolerance to urban conditions such as pollution, compacted soils, heat and drought and reduction in weediness and litter potential. The importance of having these characteristics reliably delivered places increasing importance on the need to move away from seedling grown trees and into asexually propagated cultivars.

The importance of cultivar propagation is so great that traditional methods of cutting, budding, and grafting are slowly being superseded by more modern methods such as tissue culture. This is gradually happening in the industry with little fanfare or awareness of those outside the nursery industry.

One of the immediate challenges for the tree supply industry is the decline in the active breeding programs that we have access to. Tree breeding takes time and great expense, with financial rewards essentially limited to the return of very modest royalties for each tree sold. As an industry it’s important for us to respect the role of breeders and financially support breeding programs to ensure new cultivars are emerging.

Going back half a century seedling grown Acer rubrum was the best option available for red maples. The introduction of Acer rubrum ‘PNI0268’ October Glory® in the early 90’s set a new standard, offering consistent spectacular fire truck red autumn colour and neat uniform habit. Such was the success of this cultivar in Australia that many nurseries, knowingly doing the wrong thing, invented new names for this variety to circumvent the obligation of making royalty returns. Well before Acer rubrum ‘PNI0268’ October Glory® reached Australia, the breeding was well underway to develop the next improvement. Finally, the results of this breeding program are available in Australia, in the form of Acer rubrum ‘Frank Jr’A Redpointe. This new cultivar is the equal of Acer October Glory® in terms of form and autumn colour. Where it sets itself apart is its tolerance and adaptability. Importantly in Australia, Redpointe is more heat and drought tolerant and

Acer rubrum ‘Frank Jr’ A Redpointe

is much more adaptable to soil pH. This cultivar will enable success with Acer rubrum in regions where they haven’t been an option previously. It will also be propagated almost exclusively using new generation techniques.

This example is just one of many hundreds of stories highlighting the dramatic changes that have occurred in the range of plant available over the last century. Today, there are many, many trees in various stages of testing to determine their suitability for our future urban conditions.

As an industry, we must continue to offer support for breeding programs, ongoing selection, and development to ensure our plant palettes continue to evolve and provide solutions for our urban forest plantings.