Peter Douglas, from Scotsburn Nurseries has organised and sponsored the Hanging Basket Competition at the MIFGS each year.When Peter first got involved there were less than 30 baskets entered; this year there were over 350 entries.Peter has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Horticulture from Burnley Horticultural College.Scotsburn was started by Fred Linton, who was a cut-flower grower. David Wood – Peter’s grandfather – was the son of a nurseryman and left school at 14 in 1929 and got a job as a florist’s boy in Balaclava, where he met Fred Linton.Fred offered David a job as a salesman at the Vic Market when he was just 17, which he did for around 20 years with a 5am start!It was a small business growing various cut flowers, including delphiniums, polyanthus, poppies, pansies, statice, sweet peas and others, which were all grown in the ground at the nursery in South Oakleigh. Over time the product range developed – people asked for vegetables and herbs – which were sold bundled into bunches and wrapped in newspaper.They then started growing the seedlings in wooden trays – nine dozen plants were grown to supply one hundred.The soil in South Oakleigh was very sandy and during the second world war government contracts were put out for growing vegetables which was seen as an essential service.After the war, in August 1945, David bought the business as he was looking for a bigger challenge. The first spring he had a contract order for tomatoes to be sent to Shepparton and there was a flood, he had to grow a second crop and so was paid twice!The soil for growing the seedlings was enriched with manure from elephants and camels from Wirth’s Circus in St Kilda. Topsoil was sourced from developing suburbs and varied in quality, leading to mixed results.Scotsburn grow for councils and cemeteries and have had problems with fungus which can get into the root system and kill the plants off eventually.In the 1960’s it was recognised that heat could kill some of these fungi and there are also effective chemical treatments that can be used.The late 1940s and ‘50s were very profitable for the company due to the post-war boom. In those days, Coles was a major retailer of garden supplies and plants later Kmart became a major customer.Dr Ken Baker produced a system for growing healthy plants in containers in 1957 focussing on nursery hygiene, cleaning up debris, disposing of unhealthy plants, sterilising containers with steam boilers to sterilise potting mix.Plastic containers, first introduced in the 1960s can now be recycled. These replaced the wooden, metal and terracotta containers of the past.Labels were originally hand written on icy pole sticks until a company developed pictorial tags in the 1960s.Recycled Class A water still contains heavy metals and fertiliser residues and needs to be filtered through wetlands until it is suitable to use. Currently, Scotsburn use fresh water from South East Water for their operations as they need to have the best possible quality.Sales drop during periods of drought as people just won’t buy plants when there are water restrictions. In the 1970s there was a growing interest in indoor plants which became very popular; Scotsburn imported ferns from the USA at one stage but their popularity did not last and they kept their focus on growing seedlings.The site in Keysborough was purchased in 1974, an area of ten acres with glasshouses and offices.After completing school, Peter enrolled at Burnley Horticultural College which he loved. During this time, the nursery was not doing well and Peter’s uncle came back to assist the business, as did his mother. They had two sites; the original one at South Oakleigh and the new one in Keysborough; South Oakleigh was sold to Sunshine Seedlings which now supply Bunning’s.Peter finished his degree, did some time overseas in Japan working at a cymbidium orchid nursery and started working at Keysborough on his return.Debco introduced pine bark into the potting mix with great success and started supplying the nursery so they no longer had to prepare and sterilise their own. Potting mix is specifically designed for container plants and is the only suitable medium in which to grow them due to its ability to allow air to circulate around the roots. These break down over a period of one to two years so plants need to have fresh potting mix or Pot Mate by Debco.Over time, the nursery developed and improved and gained accreditation from NIASA – the Nursery Industry Accreditation Scheme Australia - acknowledging that they are using world’s best practice in their business.They also have EcoHort accreditation – this is a best-practice program for environment management systems. During the drought of 2006-7 a number of factors adversely affected the business and things were tough. They grew natives, fuchsias and other plants such as daisies and cyclamen and focussed on the independent retailers, as Kmart had closed their garden centres and Big W also reduced their suppliers.Current issues are water management and cost, irrigation systems, fertilisers, pesticides and the increasing cost of growing media. Research is currently looking at recycling council green waste to provide potting mix.
