Joanne Burgess from Wildflower Society of WA’s Northern Suburbs Nursery

Most people are content contributing their time to one volunteer task or role to make real, meaningful and positive change. Joanne is not one of those people and is volunteering her time to help with numerous sustainability, conservation and community causes across Perth and, importantly, she stays true to her values and inspires those around her.

Joanne is many things: a keen and experienced gardener, former Sustainability Officer at the City of Stirling, and more recently, is focusing her efforts on helping conserve, educate and green our neighbourhoods through volunteering with Wildflower Society of WA (WSoWA) at the Northern Suburbs Branch Nursery and Friends of Kings Park in the Growing Friends group. Joanne also volunteers as a dog walker with Pets of Older Persons (POOPS); helps promote active travel through her role as a casual Bike Education coach with People on Bicycles and volunteers her time to help with several citizen science projects that help wildlife including Birdlife’s Great Cocky Count; the Bird in Backyards Seasonal Surveys; the Aussie Bird Count and more. She is also adding to her diverse skill-set and is training to volunteer as a literacy tutor with Read Write Now.

Joanne has also supported the City to implement its Waterwise Verge Rebate Program, with the WSoWA being one of the participating nurseries in the program. Through this program, 100 households in the City will be transforming their lawn, fake grass or paving into beautiful, biodiverse and waterwise verge gardens.

Promoting the conservation and enjoyment of wildflowers in WA 

The WSoWA is a community of wildflower enthusiasts who are connecting over WA’s incredible biodiversity and wildflowers, and inspiring others to explore ways to conserve WA’s unique flora and help people create sustainable gardens. Established in 1958, the Wildflower Society of WA has made a significant contribution to help everyone to better know, grow, conserve and enjoy the wildflowers of WA.

Joanne explains that the south-west of WA is a biodiversity hotspot and many of the plants are endemic to WA.

Joanne remarked that “so many people are yet to discover and enjoy the unique and wonderful diversity of WA flora! With the south-west of WA being a biodiversity hotspot, and many of these plants rare or threatened, the flora needs our help.”

“The south-west corner of WA is one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. It is only 5% of the Australian land mass but one-third of all Australian flowering plant species grow here. The majority of these plants grow nowhere else in the world, and land clearing poses a huge risk of pushing many plant species into extinction.”

“Residential gardens and outdoor spaces have enormous potential to support our local flora and ensure that threatened plant species continue to exist.”

Conservation through Propagation 

The Northern Suburbs branch of the Wildflower Society of WA has a unique and wonderful nursery where WA’s flora, particularly the rare and unusual species, are the volunteer’s speciality. This is where Joanne spends her time helping to propagate plants from cuttings and seed and keeping the stock-plants used for the cuttings thriving.

The nursery is continually increasing the range of rare and threatened plants it propagates, to support the conservation and protection of these species. The volunteers only grow plants native to WA and many of the plant species are not commonly available or grown by other nurseries.

“By growing these plants and making them available for people to plant in their home gardens, we hope to preserve them and ensure that they don’t go extinct, as well as increase appreciation of the beautiful flora that WA has and support efforts to protect it.”, Joanne said.

Learn more about the services and activities our local Northern Suburbs Branch have on offer.

What’s happening in the nursery right now?

Did you know it takes six months to grow a plant from seed or a cutting?

This means the nursery is busy propagating plants to sell in September and October, which will be the last chance for people to get plants in the ground before it gets too hot.

The Northern Suburbs Branch is also planning for a relocation of the nursery over the next year or two to larger premises so they can grow more plants.

Benefits of Biodiverse Gardens

Gardens filled with local wildflowers provide homes, food, and places to socialise for wildlife and pollinators, as well as forming important stepping-stones or wildlife corridors between local reserves and waterways. Native plants are well adapted to local conditions, making them more suitable in the context of climate change.

“Native plants have evolved in local conditions and climate making them more resilient, waterwise and easier to maintain. By selecting the right species you can have flowers and colour all year round. Native gardens will still look beautiful with reduced water and increased heat.”

There are also many health and wellbeing benefits from gardening and connecting with nature.

“Just imagine if everyone on your street had a biodiverse and waterwise garden, how this could transform our neighbourhood streetscapes into a cool, green and liveable nature corridors helping the birds, insects, frogs and native animals to safely move and forage, which is really important for the long-term health of our urban bushland and fauna species.”

Get involved

• Volunteer your time to help conserve WA’s flora and vegetation communities through a local Friends Group, WSoWA (website and Facebook) or one of the many other incredible volunteering opportunities near you.
• Plant WA native plant species at your home: there are also many great nurseries offering native plants, find one that specialises in native plants or waterwise plants.
• Learn more about and connect with nature and local flora in your local area.
• Advocate for the protection of WA’s flora and vegetation communities.
• Spread the word, because together we can make a difference.

Upcoming Event: Plant Sale Day

The WSoWA’s Northern Branch nursery’s annual autumn plant sale is happening on Saturday 22 April, 9.00am – 2.00pm. There are approximately 300 species of native plants available for sale, from trees to groundcovers and everything in between – many of which you can’t buy anywhere else.

Joanne and many of the volunteers will be in attendance to help you choose plants suitable for your garden and provide advice and answer all your questions.