Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: Maggi Young on May 20, 2019, 04:48:24 PM
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Members will be aware, I am sure, of the former Wood Bank Nursery in Tasmania and of the Gillanders who ran it. It is my sad task to inform the forum that Ken Gillanders' wife, Lesley, has died.
We are most grateful to Sandra who has been in contact with SRGC friends on behalf of Ken Gillanders.
" Lesley passed away peacefully on Monday evening with Ken and daughter Sandra by her side. Lesley was at home happy with family until this past Saturday and spent only a short period with family in palliative care and was very comfortable. Dad asked me to let you know."
Sincere condolences to Ken, Sandra and the family on this sad loss.
Ken, a nurseryman for over 50 years (now retired) and his wife Lesley started Woodbank Nursery on a bush block in Tasmania. Woodbank Nursery specialized in rare, exotic, unusual and native plants. As their nursery and its reputation grew so did their spectacular gardens containing many rare plants. Ken and Lesley collected seeds in Chile, Ecuador, New Zealand, China, South Africa, and Lesotho.
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We are grateful to Ken Gillanders and the family of the late Lesley for this affectionate obituary to Lesley Gillanders.....
Vale Lesley Gillanders - horticulturalist, botanical artist
Lesley was born in 1932 in Swan Hill Victoria and moved with husband Ken to Tasmania in 1975 to start a specialist plant nursery. She shared 37 years at Woodbank Nursery with Ken, where her love of horticulture was displayed working alongside him as true partners in life and in business.
Ken and Lesley travelled widely over 32 years, being known for attending and speaking at international conferences and collecting and introducing plants to the horticultural industry. Lesley also contributed greatly to seed distributions of the societies she was a member of worldwide.
Lesley travelled to every continent climbing mountains to see plants in their natural habitat and collecting seeds including the sub-Antarctic islands. Her travels encompassed unique places including climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, the glaciers in Tierra Del Fuego, camping in the highland steppe of Kyrgyzstan, the Andes and the Rockies, bamboo forests in Japan, Easter Island, Canada, USA, UK, Ireland, NZ, China, Chile, Equador, Egypt, Bolivia, Peru, Lesotho, Kenya, safari plains in South Africa and the Galapagos Islands.
Lesley was also a gifted artist, and her beautiful botanical and bird watercolour paintings have been enjoyed worldwide, and recognised in many displays and competitions. She shared much with plant enthusiasts as a respected and recognised regular writer in numerous Australian and international botanical magazines. Her last article was published in April 2019.
Lesley passed away very peacefully in May 2019, and is survived by her husband Ken, 5 children and a tribe of grandchildren and great grandchildren.
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Lesley, surrounded by Fritillaria Imperialis in Iran in 2001.