Antique Perennials has undergone many changes and challenges over the past 25 years. But the overriding ethos for both myself and my business partner Matt Reed has always been to collect and grow plants we love; to introduce more variety into the Australian market, and contribute to the slow but sure perennial wave as it continues to gain momentum. This was the germ of Antique Perennials and it is still at the core of everything we do.
In brief: A garden nursery in Australia
- What The informal display garden of nursery Antique Perennials, focusing on perennial planting.
- Where Victoria, Australia.
- Size A display garden of roughly
- 1,200 square metres within a nursery covering around seven acres.
- Soil Rich loamy topsoil.
- Climate Very distinct seasons. In winter temperatures can fall to 0oC, while in summer they can reach above 40oC.
- Hardiness zone USDA 10.
You’ll often find us shrouded in mountain fog digging and dividing stock plants or taking cuttings near the beehives that border the beautiful Kinglake National Park, with a backdrop of towering eucalyptus and the eclectic songs of lyrebirds mimicking our plentiful bird life. Acres of perennials, neatly placed, wait to escape their purple pots and populate gardens across Australia’s states and territories.
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Our story, and our collection, began with Matt. In the late 1990s, Matt and I worked together growing roses in the wholesale side of a large retail garden centre. He was my manager and had been
in the industry since the late 1980s. I had been working nights in hospitality, but always enjoyed gardening.
Feeling under-appreciated and bored of a monoculture, we could see a big gap in the market for perennials. In 2001, we decided to quit our jobs and try to fill that gap with interesting plants. Matt had already developed a decent collection of rare perennials, which was the foundation of our early propagation material.
For decades, we took our plants to collectors’ fairs for frenzied selling to keen home gardeners. Now they can come to us
Soon, we were planning plant-hunting trips to Europe and the USA, excitedly importing new plants through the Australian border system, hoping some would survive months of quarantine and the shock of an upside-down hemisphere. Many of the plants in our early collection were woodlanders, species of Erythronium, Fritillaria, Trillium, Arisaema and Meconopsis. Now, with a changing climate, we find ourselves drawn more towards Mediterranean plants.
Having breached the boundaries of Matt’s backyard, we bought the next-door block to house our growing stock. We started the business on a shoestring and it was a slow burn over many years to establish a foothold in the industry.
When people visit, we encourage them to sit for a minute, and immerse themselves in the colours, textures and movement of the space.
Then, in February 2009, the fast-moving bushfires that became known as Black Saturday were devastating for us – personally and professionally. Matt and I both lost our homes and belongings, as well as our business and plant collection. My partner and I had just finished building our house, with our own hands, over about three years. To begin again on so many levels was traumatic, emotionally and financially. Where to even begin?
Well, we began with fixing the bore so we could at least water the black ground, in case anything underneath had survived. Fences were next, and a new design for the nursery layout – we embraced the opportunity of having a clean slate – and then came irrigation, stock beds and weed matting.
Some of the plants survived against all odds and there was a huge outpouring from across the industry to help us gather back much of our collection. Having so much support drove us forward. Although this event is a big part of our history, we are not defined by it.
It is not the main story of Antique Perennials. Within a few years, with repopulated stockbeds, we had once again spanned every inch of our neighbouring house blocks and were battling for space. Work had become a frustrating balancing act oimiting propagation numbers, keeping our collection in check and disappointing our growing client-base with scant supply.
We had a pretty set list of criteria for any new venue: a flatter aspect to our previous site, with all-day sun, where our plants wouldn’t have to compete, plenty of room for expansion and access to water.
When eventually the perfect place came up for sale, flanked by a National Park to the south, it was a blank canvas ready for painting. In previous lives it had been used to sell spring water from the huge underground aquifer, and as a working potato farm that used the rich topsoil. Rebuilding the nursery this time was a welcome upheaval.
The new space quickly sparked the biggest and greatest evolution for our business: a need for employees. With roughly 75,000 potted plants to look after at any one time, our small but skilled staff base now allows us to supply retail nurseries, botanic gardens, country estates and landscape designers across the country.
Our display garden and retail nursery are relatively new additions to the previously wholesale-only business, but seemed like a natural progression. For decades, we took our plants to collectors’ fairs for frenzied selling to keen home gardeners. Now they can come to us.
8 new plants from the nursery
Useful information
- Address 3153 Healesville, Kinglake Road, Kinglake, VIC 3763, Australia.
- Tel +63 (0)404 006303/ (0)416 132965
- Web antiqueperennials.com
- Open Mid-September to mid-April, Sunday – Thursday, 10am-3.30pm. Wholesale nursery is open all year round.