THE FORMIDABLE TEAM BEHIND LARKMAN NURSERIES

By Matt Ross

In December 2020, NGIV CEO Craig Taberner and myself headed for Lilydale to visit Larkman Nurseries, catch up with the owners Clive and Di and take in the recent developments they’ve undertaken.

Larkman Nurseries sits perched on a hill in Lilydale enjoying vast and glorious views across the Yarra Valley. Not only is it home to a major tubestock nursery, it’s also the home of Clive and Di Larkman. Both passionate growers, bursting with ideas and energy, I suspect living on site suits them down to the ground.

Clive found himself in the world of plants and botany by chance. As a Year 12 student he had picked seven of eight subjects for the following year of schooling. Pushed for one more, he chose biology, fell in love with it and never looked back.

Di Campaign was a farmer’s daughter, who had an appreciation of plants, nature and growing, as far back as she can remember. Di left the farm to live in Sydney where she attended Hales Business College. She worked for a range companies before spending seven years working for Estee Lauder. Di then moved to Adelaide with her first husband and three young boys. The two met and married in 1990 and Di moved from Adelaide, where she was working for Lasscocks Nursery in Adelaide, to Lilydale.

And together they make a formidable team; Clive, a qualified botanist with an understanding of how plants grow and business management and Di, with her appreciation of how to grow plants and office management.

The nursery itself is a hum of activity. Other growers come and go after depositing plants at the onsite commercial quarantine facility. Son and sales manager, Simon, zips around the place doing deals as he goes. And a small army of horticulturists tend to the real stars, the plants. And they certainly have their work cut out for them, Clive believes you can never have too many varieties, in any given year the nursery grows somewhere around 6,000 species.

“The customer comes first, whatever they want, we’ll grow it. We grow to demand, if the demand is for 500 of a particular plant, that’s what we’ll grow. We’re not in the business of growing too many or too few.” said Clive.

He’s also quick to apply his scientific thinking to growing to prevent waste, working out exactly how much fertiliser or water a plant might need, through carefully considered equations. If knowledge is power, Clive looks for every opportunity to apply it to help grow the business and the industry.

On meeting Clive, you quickly get the sense he has a thirst for life, for learning and for challenges. Not content with one business, he has six. Not happy with a piece of growing equipment, he will adapt it to suit his needs. Not convinced by existing botanical theory, he’ll conduct his own research.

He’s also a committed industry-man. He has been a member of most major horticultural bodies, this includes 12 years on the board of the International Plant Propagator’s Society, 10 years on the Australian Institute of Horticulture state council, 17 years on Primary Industries Training Board, three terms on the NGIV board, a life member of The Australian Lavender Growers Association, Chairman of Agribusiness Yarra Valley and Chairman of Victorian Agribusiness Council. If that wasn’t enough he writes regularly for several trade journals and is a member of the Horticultural Media Association.

“If you’re going to be in an industry, give back to it and change it. Leave your mark.”

Another reason for our visit was to admire the recent developments they’ve undertaken. Sparkling new greenhouses, spacious potting sheds, bespoke automation, and glistening solar panels. All a signal of their intent to continue growing, learning and leaving their mark on the industry.