Interview Recording
Interview Transcript
Simon Grant interviewed on 15 January 2026 by Tim Entwistle
Synopsis
This is an interview with a private gardener and plant collector, Simon Grant, whose collections of trees and shrubs are of international significance.
Simon’s lineage includes gardeners and he has gardened and roamed in the Australian bush since he was a child. Simon also married a gardener, Mariese, whose family included botanists and botanical researchers. Together they developed their large garden in the Southern Highlands of NSW.
Simon talks of the challenges entailed in developing the garden from pasture land and of the things he has learned along the way. He talks about his interest in growing rare and unusual trees and shrubs and how the development of the internet changed the way he gained knowledge and was able to connect with others who had similar interests. We hear of the transformative international conference on maples he attended where he discovered his own collection rivalled renowned collections overseas. This collection has helped to resurrect species facing extinction in the wild.
Simon describes his vice-presidential role in the International Dendrology Society and as president of the Highlands Garden Society. Through writing botanical articles, delivering lectures, taking field trips, giving impromptu dissertations to fellow bushwalkers and opening his and Mariese’s garden to the public, Simon helps to disseminate knowledge about plants and the importance of gardens.
Maintaining species diversity is an important theme reiterated by Simon. He discusses the risk posed to biodiversity by climate change, extreme weather and by fires. He also describes the less obvious risk of reduced space given to gardens and the declining interest in gardening. There is an increasing need to preserve the older gardens which often contain a greater variety of plants, some species of which may no longer be readily available.