A speaker snapshot on the Australian Institute of Horticulture conference 'Pleasure, plants and place... an Australian identity' appears in the AIH News section of this magazine, but here Helen Moody reports on some aspects of particular interest to all Australian Horticulture readers.

It would be a rare reader of this magazine that doesn't have a vested interest in encouraging people to garden, and at least two sessions of the conference tackled the 'people' aspect of the conference title.
In a thoughtful presentation, journalist and managing editor of Gardening Australia magazine, Brodee Myers-Cooke, distilled 10 years of her personal collection of information, research and thoughts that examine the role gardens and gardening play in people's lives and minds.
She suggested that, as an industry, we need a new way of thinking about the garden, plants and landscape, and that the new way must revolve around people. She asked whether, like architects, we have been guilty of focusing on plants and gardens and leaving people out of the picture. Myers-Cooke said: "The no-work garden is as much a hollow promise as the self-cleaning kitchen". She said our challenge is to find ways to help people find the gardener within. We are helped, she argued, by four factors: studies show that gardening has a positive affect on our health; the love of plants and nature of plants and nature is a primal urge; Australian society is on the cusp of a new spiritual connection with the landscape; and people are cocooning, staying home and spending money on home-related items. So she said, "we must look at the pleasure side of the equation" and "talk about the sheer buzz of gardening". We could stress that a garden is a place for spirituality and renewal and an outlet for self-expression for the family. She suggested we could learn from the food industry, where the media has made cooking fun, and concluded that she looked forward to the day when the phrase "the hard work of gardening" is as anachronistic as "slaving over a hot stove".

Plants

Plants featured in numerous presentations. Some described the plants in their own patches, whether that was in tropical Queensland, Victorian herbaceous borders or in heritage landscapes. On a different tack, a session titled 'Extremely new plants' gave the audience an eye-opening insight into the breeding and marketing of new plants destined to be big sellers in the Australian and international market. Between them World Select Plants' Mark Lunghusen, Glenfield Wholesale Nursery's, Mal Morgan, and Yates Botanical's, Lionel Henderson, painted a scenario where the patience and passion required were probably greater than the financial rewards that resulted. They explained how targeted breeding programs aimed at very specific outcomes. These outcomes don't just relate to consumer demand for particular plant characteristics such as color or flowering time, but also at grower economics such as shaving production time, reducing labour input, the number of plants that will fit on a square meter of bench, and even having plants an exact size that will fit on the Dutch or Danish trolley system.
Lunghusen also discussed ways of protecting interest in the plants, the relationships required with growers in overseas markets and the importance of promotion. There is a large potential market out there, but you need to get a lot right to get into it. Morgan explained that his breeding program of Argyranthemun, Bazania and Arctotis is driven be lifestyle demands of modern gardeners who want plants that fit into small gardens, are easily maintained and have low water requirements. Using wheat breeding technology that requires breeding huge numbers of plants "because the larger the choice the preater the chance of getting lucky", Morgan explained that it has taken 12 years of work on some genera to breed successful cultivars.

Place

A panel presentation 'Avoiding horticultural hotchpotch - can we define an Australian style' provided amusement as well as food for thought. There was some splendid role playing from nursery owners, Tim Pickles of Tim's Garden Center, as the native purist and Michele Shennen of Michele Shennen Garden Design as the trend-obsessed gardener ("I'm going to Santa Fe and see another garden room coming up"). Landscape designers were represented by Helen Young (Helen Young Horticulturist), Michael Cooke (Avant Garden), and Peter Nixon (Paradisus). Horticulture Australia Limited's Sarah Pennell also added to the discussion. The panelists examined the no-plants garden, the formulized, clipped and controlled box-hedge-and-iceberg-rose garden, and the instant garden of the TV show variety.

It evoked some lively discussion from the largely design-oriented audience. If there was a theme that emerged from the session it was that there is not, and nor should there be, a single Australia style, that we are too self-conscious about looking for one and should just get on with it. There are no rules. Australia's versatility and its many influences should be reflected in gardens that take inspiration from everything and everywhere and not limited to the ideas of specific designers with predictable looks or styles. Some clear messages emerged from the session about the increasing business of designer-created gardens. They included:

He said the challenge for the design industry is to become more market savvy and to develop a greater ability to engage, listen and respond to clients.

Sustainability

There is no doubt that 'sustainability' is the horticultural catchcry of the new century. Whether we are talking about water conservation, dry tolerant plants, organic growing

or recycling, the word and the approach pops up everywhere. Several speakers at this conference suggested that it was important for professional horticulturists to raise consumers' environmental awareness. Jerry Coleby-Williams is a leading proponent of the sustainable, organic approach, whether in his work at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens or his appearances on Gardening Australia. His delivery The Victory Garden' took its inspiration from the allotment movement that developed in 19th century Britain and contributed to the war effort during the two world wars by providing basic foods during periods of severe food rationing.
Coleby-Williams argued that today there is a war in every nation and talked of battles against depleted soils, plant extinctions and genetically modified foods and suggested, "We should again consider how to dig for victory" and help stop the war from our own backyards. While he discussed some grand plans for "total landscape management", he also suggested that the victory garden could start small with all of us lowering our impact on the environment by designing ecologically sustainable gardens and rejecting pesticides. Once again the TV lifestyle programs came under scrutiny. Coleby-Williams suggested they are obsessed with quick images and give consumers false expectations. He urged us to educate people to work with nature and suggested that the 21st century Victory Garden would: