We love to highlight the nurseries from which we source our trees. This month I visited a wonderful community nursery in the Otway Ranges, and spoke to nursery Director, Arabella (Abby) Imhoff about the Shrub Club Community Nursery, Apollo Bay, VIC (est 2005).
Can you tell me a little about the group who looks after the nursery? We have two staff working in the nursery part time and a weekly propagation group who work every Wednesday morning to clean and sow seed, prick out seedlings and pot them on, weed, fix irrigation, take cuttings, etc. It’s a busy morning and we couldn’t produce the plants we do without those 20 – 30 volunteers, many of whom are very skilled and knowledgable in plant ID, propagation and irrigation! We have long term volunteers who have taken on specialist roles in the nursery. For example, one volunteer is a botanist who helps us ID plants and is working his way through documenting them all with help from a former professional photographer who photographs them beautifully for us.
How many plants do you grow annually? We grow between 150-200 species of plants (depending on orders and what seed we collect in any season). All up we can grow up to 50,000 plants annually. They range from tiny herbaceous ground covers to towering Mountain Ash Trees, ferns, sedges, grasses and rushes. We collect seed and grow plants from a very wide variety of EVCs and environments, including cool temperate rainforests, heathlands, open woodlands, riparian and swamp habitats. So many different kinds of plants!
What is your focus? Our nursery focuses on diversity. We try to grow species that don’t easily self seed and re-establish as well as the foundation species that create the structure required to bring in other species (whether it’s by creating shade, a wind break or a spot for birds to perch and bring in more seed). We also grow the more delicate species like ferns and ground covers that we can reintroduce to sites that are a bit more established, to increase the diversity. And we grow many eucalypts species.
What is the process? We collect seed throughout summer and autumn. Each week we head out with a few skilled volunteers to different spots all over the Otways. As well as collecting seed for all our species, we also like to collect several different provenances of each species – that allows us to supply plants for reveg that are as appropate as possible for the particular site and adapted to local conditions. Our volunteers help us clean and catalogue the seeds. We have two major sowing periods in early summer and in autumn. Some seedlings come up quickly while others can take many months. We prick them out when they start to form their first true leaves and pot them on the forestry tubes, then let them grow on for a few months before they are ready to be planted out.
Any interesting plants to make us aware of? We have recently grown Nothofagus cuninnghamii,(Fagus) or Myrtle Beech, for the first time. This is a very special species that is a bit of an icon of our cool temperate rainforests in the Otways. It grows naturally only in the deep, shaded gullies, and in very high rainfall areas. Nothofagus is special because it’s a relic from anciet times when Australia was connected to Antarctica in the super-continent Gondwana. Unfortunately, the Otways populations have been very severely impacted by logging, landclearing for farming, fire and myrtle wilt, a fungus that attacks the tree. We know it’s likely impacted by climate change also. We are exciting to be growing hundreds of Myrtle Beech at the moment and look forward to planting these out into some of the gullies where this species has been lost over the coming years. NB. We love the Fagus too, and have written an article solely on our search for the tree in Tasmania/Lutruwita. Link here.
What is your favourite thing about working at the nursery? We have the most wonderful community of volunteers that are incredibly committed to our landscape and the work we do. They are skilled, clever and together have created a beautiful, social environment at our nursery. It is a joy to work alongside them to help protect and restore our environment down here. I also pinch myself every time we go out to collect seed. We get to intimately know so many different plants and landscapes around the Otways, it’s a privilege for sure.
Thank you Abby in taking the time to answer my questions. And for those who are lucky enough to live in Apollo Bay and surrounds, you can find out more about the nursery here. New members are most welcome.
Writer: Colleen B. Filippa
With a background in Environmental Science, Colleen is the Founding Director of Fifteen Trees. In 2009, after 20 years in primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions, Colleen left the classroom to start the company. Fifteen Trees is a social enterprise assisting individuals and companies to reduce their carbon footprint by supporting community groups.
