Everlasting Ideas: Gardening for the Future

Everlasting Ideas features horticultural expert Josh Byrne together with Kings Park staff discussing the future of gardens and green spaces in a Western Australian context. With keynote talks, panel discussions and Q&A sessions with our experts, this free event will also feature stallholders covering all things environment and landcare.

Head along to the marquee near the everlasting meadow off Lovekin Drive to hear talks from Sue McDougall, Digby Growns and Josh Byrne on creating climate resilient gardens that support the health of the Swan and Canning Rivers, selecting resilient WA native species and working with the environment when tending our gardens.  

There will be a special Q & A panel in the afternoon with Kings Park Abor, Nursery, Botanic Garden and Science members on hand to chat and answer your questions. The Kings Park Botanic Garden team will be available to answer your native gardening questions all day and will be joined by SERCUL with a focus on their growing local plants and fertilise-wise programs.  

DPIRD can answer your pest questions and help us learn more about the biosecurity issues we should all be aware of, while the Kings Park Science team will be highlighting some of their incredible research and conservation work and will be joined by the Plants in Space team.

This event will be held in a marquee at the corner of Lovekin and Forrest Drives, opposite the Yorkas Nyinning Building.

Everlasting Ideas Program

10.00am – 10.15am  
Welcome Address     
Presenter: Sue McDougall     

10.15am – 10.45am
Natives in Pots and Small Spaces 
Presenter: Sue McDougall  

11.00am – 12.30pm
Our Resilient Gardens
Presenter: Josh Byrne 
◾ Helping Perth residents develop climate resilient gardens while supporting the health of the Swan and Canning Rivers. 

1.00pm – 1.30pm
Breeding Plants for the Future
Presenter: Digby Growns 
◾ Hear from Senior Plant Breeder, Digby Growns, on what’s next when selecting and breeding resilient native plants for the future. 

1.45pm – 2.30pm
Plant Professional Panel 
Lead: Sue McDougall  
◾ Sue McDougall leads an audience Q&A session with Digby Growns, alongside Kings Park staff Ali Smith (horticulture), Amanda Shade (nursery), Ashley Jenkin (science) and Chelsea Payne (arbor). 

Presenters

Sue McDougall 
Sue McDougall took up the role of Director of the WA Botanic Garden in late 2021. Sue has dedicated her life to inspiring gardeners on the benefits of green spaces. She grew up in marginal farming land in SW Western Australia and developed a passion for WA flora long before she knew you could have a real job growing native plants rather than wheat. Since purchasing a disused nursery when she was 19, Sue has gone on to work in horticulture production, landscape planning and design and garden media for more than 35 years.  

Josh Byrne  
Delivered by ABC TV Gardening Australia presenter and environmental scientist Josh Byrne, the audience will discover how to create diverse and productive gardens despite the challenges of climate change. He’ll demonstrate clever ways to save water, increase biodiversity and support the health of our waterways. 

Digby Growns 
Digby Growns is the Senior Plant Breeder at Kings Park and Botanic Garden and manages programs in the breeding and development of Australian plants. He is responsible for the release of over 80 new varieties of native plants including the first blue flowered Anigozanthos, the hybrid Chamelaucium ‘Pearlflower’ series, and 25 new Grevillea hybrids including the commemorative plant for the Centenary of the ANZAC’s, ‘RSL Spirit of ANZAC’.  He leads research into new technology developments in plant tissue culture, biotechnology and plant breeding. 

Ali Smith 
Ali Smith has been part of the Horticultural Display team in the WA Botanic Garden for 14 years. She is passionate about creating resilient, ornamental, fauna friendly gardens using WA native species. 

Amanda Shade 
Amanda Shade, Manager of Living Collections, manages the Kings Park nursery, growing plants for use in the Western Australian Botanic Garden collections, other gardens throughout the parkland of Kings Park, bushland restoration projects, trees for use within the park and threatened flora for translocation and conservation projects throughout the state.  Within the Kings Park nursery Amanda co-ordinates the maintenance of valuable plant collections in containers and develops important propagation and growing trials for a range of WA plant species. 

Amanda also oversees the seed centre, herbarium, collections management database and coordinates the horticultural trainee program, as well as collaborating with the Kings Park Horticulturists to plan and select species for inclusion in the Botanic Garden in-ground collections. 

Chelsea Payne 
Chelsea Payne is the Curator of Arboriculture for the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority, based at Kings Park. She leads a passionate team of qualified arborists who strive for industry best practice tree stewardship, with a focus on evidence-based tree management in a world class Botanic Garden and urban parkland. 

Chelsea has a strong focus on the conservation and protection of Western Australia’s incredible botanical diversity, and the development of resilient urban landscapes which rise to meet the challenges of a changing world. 

Ashley Jenkin 
Ashley is a Masters by Research student with Edith Cowan University and Kings Park Science who specialises in pollination ecology. Her particular focus is on native insect pollinators and how urbanisation impacts their interactions with Western Australian flora. Ashley’s current research centres upon developing improved methods to diagnose pollinator-related causes of plant reproductive failure. This research is vital to protecting vulnerable areas of native vegetation within our cities, especially as we face global pollinator declines. 

Ashley is a strong advocate for promoting native pollinator resilience across cityscapes, and a passionate science educator for the local community.