For 110 years, Yarralumla Nursery has contributed to Canberra being regarded as the 'garden city' through the propagation of millions of trees and shrubs.
"Early in Canberra's development it was realised that trees and shrubs would have to be raised locally if the garden city concept was to be achieved. This was in part due to the difficulty in successfully establishing plants that would succeed in Canberra's harsh climatic and soil conditions," said Minister for City and Government Services, Tara Cheyne.
"In 1914, Yarralumla Nursery was established to do just that. Since first opening its doors, it has become a leader in horticulture research and provides high-quality products to Canberra businesses and locals.
"Yarralumla Nursery provides a free Plant Issue Scheme which gives a plant allocation to new landowners in Canberra's new suburbs. The Scheme aims to help new landowners take the first steps to establish a sustainable garden with plants suitable for our local climate and soil conditions while beautifying their homes and suburb.
"Yarralumla Nursery also provides wholesale services to landscape and construction businesses, government departments, educational facilities, horticulture trade, primary producers, wholesale and retail nurseries.
"One of the most impressive resources that the Nursery has is its seed bank which has been used to create Canberra's tree canopy. The seed bank is a living record of every seed collected, purchased and stored at the Yarralumla Nursery since 1913.
"Yarralumla Nursery won the Employer of the Year Award at the 2024 Nursery and Garden Industry NSW and ACT Awards and is on track to become the first nursery in the ACT accredited by Nursery Industry Accreditation Scheme Australia.
"The team at Yarralumla Nursery are dedicated to innovation. They have made improvements to propagation facilities, automated systems, growing substrates, acquired new potting machines to increase efficiencies and even discovered a new variety of Hardenbergia.
"Yarralumla Nursery produces over 500 different native and exotic species and distributed over 300,000 plants last year and are still looking to improve their efficiencies and range.
"Today we are planting an Elm Tree called "Yarralumla Weeper". This is a species which Yarralumla Nursery has grown and distributed across Canberra since the 1930s.
"I look forward to seeing the dedicated team at Yarralumla Nursery continue to implement innovative solutions for the benefit of our local environment," said Minister Cheyne.
