12th FJC Rogers Seminar 2018 on Goodeniaceae

The Goodeniaceae Seminar being run in October 2018 is to be hosted by Wimmera Growers of Australian Plants, APS Grampians, APS Vic.

The last Seminar run by Wimmera Growers of Australian Plants was in 2008 on Eremophilas and we had 385 participants from every state in Australia. We sold over 3000 plants of which almost all were unavailable in Nurseries.

Since their inception these conferences have been instrumental in promoting and introducing large numbers of new species into cultivation.

Speakers:

• Keynote speaker - Dr Kelly Shepherd from the WA Herbarium, and Neville Walsh from the Herbarium in Melbourne covering the technical aspects of Goodenacieae

• Hazel Dempster from WA on propagation
• Rodger and Gwen Elliot on the cultivation of Goodeniaceae including in gardens and pots
• Angus Stewart from Tasmania on the potential for breeding in the Goodeniaceae family.
  

Each participant receives a USB Stick with all seminar information and photo-guides to Goodeniaceae on a state by state basis. We believe the photo-guides collectively will be the most comprehensive "publication" to date on the Goodeniaceae family. 

Activities:

• Saturday's activities will be followed by an evening dinner and after dinner speaker 
• On the Sunday we will visit 3 large gardens close to the Grampians, each with an extensive collections of Goodeniaceae. 
• • Wartook Gardens - Royce & Jeanne Raleigh’s is a 5 acre garden with over 1,000 species of Australian plants including a very large collection of Dampieras and Lechenaultias. There are many other special plants in the garden that are simply not available in any nurseries. 
  • Panrock Ridge – Neil & Wendy Marriott’s garden is well known for its collection of a great range of plants including the living Grevillea collection and a wonderful array of Goodeniaceae and small Myrtaceae, many not seen in nurseries.
  • The Garden of Linda & David Handscombe - another extensive garden with a different range of plants to the other two.

In conjunction with the conference both host groups have been propagating plants for sale and hope to produce at least 3,000. Most of these are not available in any current nursery stock, so it will be another great opportunity for keen growers to add species to their gardens.

I hope that this gives you a greater understanding of what these seminars are all about, and that you will conclude as we do, that they go a long way towards upholding and promoting the aims of the Australian Plant Societies across Australia in a very practical way.