By Megan Backhouse
Michael Hare has spent every Friday morning for the past nine years propagating plants. He and 35 other "Growing Friends" arrive at the Royal Botanic Gardens anytime from 7am to 11am and put in at least four solid hours of potting cuttings, dividing perennials and generally tending seedlings until they are large enough to sell.
By sale weekend they have amassed a couple of thousand plants that could be anything from Abelia to Zieria and most of which hail from the gardens themselves.
The Growing Friends volunteers have expanded the RGB's rare plants fair to a paid event that will include behind-the-scenes tours and panel discussions. Credit: Eddie Jim
These twice-yearly, two-day plant markets have become something of a gardening institution. Queues are banked up before the gates open on the Saturday and if there is not quite a stampede to the hostas, rhododendrons, penstemons and the like, there is a palpable sense of urgency to see all that's on offer.
By the close of business on the Sunday afternoon between 1500 and 2000 people have filed through, together spending $25,000 to $30,000 that is then used to support projects in the gardens.
Growing Friends volunteers propagate plants from the Royal Botanic Gardens to sell at its rare plants fair.Credit: Eddie Jim
But this year's spring sale is taking a different turn. It's a bigger, paid-entry event that will include not just the fruits of the Growing Friends' labours but also those by a string of other specialist growers, as well as behind-the-scenes tours and panel discussions.
Hare, who has been the convener of the Growing Friends for seven years, sees this Botanic and Rare Plant Fair as a chance for his group to attract a broader range of customers. Jointly presented by the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, the Diggers Club and the Melbourne Friends, the underlying philosophy remains the same – offering plants not available in many retail nurseries. But there will also be the opportunity to peruse the gardens' rare book room and herbarium, and to listen to panel discussions on such topics as whether eucalypts are the home gardener's friend or foe and what to plant in the "modern Australian garden".
The Growing Friends have, however, never catered to any particular gardening style but propagate – predominantly by cuttings and division, and occasionally by seed – a variety of species and cultivars that suit all tastes and many climates. There can be 25 different salvias in their catalogue, more than 30 vireya rhododendrons, 20 types of Kalanchoe, close to 10 sorts of Origanum. Some years back (though not at this month's sale) they had almost two-metre-high specimens of Ficus dammaropsis, the tropical fig with huge pleated leaves that can be seen just inside the gate at the bottom of Anderson Street.
"This is something we get only very occasionally," Hare says. "We don't keep the same things under propagation all the time. We are always on the lookout for new plants in the gardens."
While the Growing Friends don't walk around with a pair of secateurs snipping off whatever takes their fancy, they do take photographs so that RBG gardeners can take the cuttings for them. Once potted, the gardeners also house the pots for the six weeks or so it takes for the cuttings to strike. "They have a propagation house with humidifiers and special sprinklers, there's no sense in duplicating their facilities," Hare says.
But there is no holding back when it comes to duplicating their plants. Flick through past sales catalogues (which run to close to 40 pages) and you will find the likes of Camellia japonica, "Fimbriata", an old Chinese cultivar with double white blooms, or Deutzia scabra, "Pride of Rochester", a deciduous shrub with dark green leaves on arching branches or Schizophragma hydrangeoides, a deciduous Japanese climber with white lace-cap flowers in summer.
Hare, who has long been interested in gardening and joined the Growing Friends after retiring as a chemical engineer, says he enjoys getting plants to grow. "It's an interesting atmosphere and an amazing group of people. It's a very co-operative, good-humoured, hard-working group."
The Botanic and Rare Plant Fair is on Saturday and Sunday October 22-23, 10am to 4pm, Observatory Precinct, RBG Melbourne, $10 entry. Tickets to the panel discussions and tours must be booked and cost $30, go to rbg.vic.gov.au/botanicandrare to make a booking.