Oratia Native Plant Nursery Wins 2008 Caws Weedwise Nursery Award
The Council of Australasian Weed Societies (CAWS) represents weed societies in Australia and New Zealand. It promotes the importance of weeds, and the people involved in their management and science, through education, awards, travel grants and publications. The New Zealand Plant Protection Society represents New Zealand on the Council. Each year CAWS presents two WeedWise Nursery Awards – one in Australia and one in New Zealand. The purpose of the award is to create awareness and generate positive publicity regarding invasive garden plants. The award goes to retail nurseries who:Voluntarily remove invasive plants from their nursery and stock lists, especially those sold by other nurseries
Sell indigenous flora
Ensure that their stock is correctly labelled
Participates in such schemes as “Plant Me Instead”
Educates customers about environmental issues, especially about invasive plants
This year Oratia Native Plant Nursery having met all these criteria (indeed exceeding all of them) was presented with the award. The award was presented by Dr Rudd Kleinpaste often known as the “Bug Man”, who gave a speech addressing biodiversity and biosecurity issues followed by another presentation by Dr Peter de Lange who noted the nurseries prominence in threatened plant research, conservation management and weed recognition. NZPCN members will already know of Oratia who in 2005 won the societies award for the best run Native Plant Nursery, and its owner Geoff Davidson who won the 2007 Life Time Achievement Award and is now a life-time member. Mr Davidson was also one of the first (2005) sponsors of the NZPCN.
Posted: 27/08/2008