Nestling into the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney is a little known nursery run entirely by volunteers. Lovingly referred to as the 'Growing Friends' Nursery', this quiet achiever has grown over the last 8 years to produce an income last financial year of just over $70,000.00, which is returned to The Gardens via The Friends of The Gardens.
The initiative started with a handful of volunteers very keen to propagate plants from the living collections within the Royal Botanic Gardens. It started out a day a week and grew to include Mount Annan for the Australian plants being requested by customers. The volunteer base for all three Botanic Gardens, Mount Annan, Mount Tomah and Sydney is over 50 people and growing.
The nursery in Sydney operates 5 days a week and on the second Saturday morning of every month, for those not able to make it to the opening times of 11.30 to 2.00 every day.
What these figures don't reveal is the passion and enthusiasm the volunteers have for their job. The teams are really ambassadors for The Gardens, the face that greets a lot of visitors to our Gardens. Outside the nursery when we are collecting cutting material and seeds, dressed in our distinctive green aprons or inside the retail nursery when clients come in looking for something special, they can count on a smile and helpful information. They can nearly always find what they are looking for or something else!
Our product range is specially selected from plants in the Gardens collection that has been rigorously passed through a system of identification for weed potential, inter Botanic Gardens restrictions or Plant Breeders Rights. Our plant list is changing over time due to demand and our growing ability to propagate difficult species and ones that the regular nursery trade don't find economically viable to produce. This allows us to have some unusual plants and 'old fashioned' varieties long lost from everyday cultivation.
Our signature plant is Dichorisandra thrysiflora or Blue Ginger but we have a large range of Bromelliads, Australian plants from Mount Annan, Succulents and Cacti and now producing more from the Herb Garden.
Our plant list is available on line on the Gardens website:www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au
follow the links to Friends/Plant list
We are not up to mail order just yet, but maybe this is an avenue we could consider down the line. Quite frankly 10 years ago nobody could see a nursery operating within the Royal Botanic Gardens either.
I have been involved with the Growing Friends nursery from the beginning and love every minute of it. Now I coordinate the volunteers for Growing Friends working with our Volunteer Coordinator for the Friends. My day is Wednesday and I look forward to showing you around when you come in!
Come and visit us in our nursery from 11.30 - 2.00 Monday to Friday and from 9.00 - 1.00 on the second Saturday of the month
You can always make contact through the Friends office during office hours on 9231 8182
Tim Jackson FAIH
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