After retiring from a career in chemistry and food flavour development, Jennifer Peters was simply looking for a volunteer opportunity close to home. Living across the road from Melton Botanic Garden, volunteering there seemed like an obvious choice. Despite having very little horticultural experience, she soon found herself helping to build the garden's plant records in IrisBG
Today, Jennifer plays an important role in documenting the garden's collections, mapping plants and locations, and developing resources that support both staff and visitors. In this Community Spotlight, she shares her journey into public horticulture, the IrisBG tools she relies on most, and why curiosity and a willingness to learn can take you further than you might expect.
When did you know you wanted a career in horticulture?
I never planned to work in horticulture. I studied science at university, majoring in Chemistry, and then worked in this field. When I retired, I was looked for a few volunteering opportunities. As I live across the road from the Melton Botanic Garden, this was an obvious choice.
During the time I approached John Bentley, the garden had just purchased IrisBG. He was looking for someone to enter data into the system. I have a good working knowledge of using databases, so I volunteered for this task. When I started, I had a very limited knowledge about plants (I did one unit of botany in year one at university), other than creating new gardens at two properties that I lived in.
Donna Thomas at the Ballarat Botanic Gardens was already using IrisBG, and she was a considerable help during the early days. I also relied heavily on the available IrisBG Knowledge Library tutorials and online sites like Plants of the World Online.
What IrisBG function do you rely on most in your work?
I find the ability to map plants and garden locations in the system the most useful function.
The IrisBG Accession screens is where I spend the most time. Here, users can add a lot of information for each plant, and this content is then available for our team to refer to. Each plant is accessioned with its correct botanical name. Also included with the botanical name are synonyms, common names, web references, and photographs. This information now loads into Garden Explorer to assist visitors in the garden.
Which IrisBG report or feature do you find most useful?
The garden is a collection of plants from many different parts of the world, with each area having a dedicated group working in it. Keeping up-to-date records gives the various garden leaders accurate information about plants in their areas. The ability to formulate a report for each garden area tells the leaders what plants are growing , what has died and possibly what plants are not suitable, what may need replacing and what is missing in their collection.
What excites you most about the future of public gardens or plant collections?
As I live opposite the garden, I see the garden visitors walking around admiring the plants. I have noticed many younger visitors which bears well for the future of the garden.
What’s one thing most people wouldn’t guess about you?
The one thing that most people would not know about me is that I am a flavourist. A flavourist is someone who develops food flavours for use in foods and drinks you buy from the supermarkets.
What’s a recent project you’re especially proud of?
The recent project that I am proud of, with some assistance from others in the admin team, is the development of the Melton Botanic Garden User Manual.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
As someone who had limited knowledge about horticulture several year ago, I would recommend that anyone starting out should ask lots of questions and listen to any advice received. I found that I learnt more this way than from reading. The one book that I referred to often, when I first started, was a book on plant nomenclature.
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