Horticulturist, author, and advocate for Australian native plants, Roger Elliot AM joins Cass Dowding on The Sentimental Gardener to explore how a lifetime of noticing — from childhood bushland to decades of fieldwork — can shape the way we understand the natural world.

From early days learning under mentors like Edna Walling, Jack McLeod, and Glen Wilson, to co-authoring alongside David Jones the landmark Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants Suitable for Cultivation, Roger has spent more than sixty years asking: How do plants, people, and place shape one another? And what grows when we care with curiosity?

In this episode, they talk about:

• the "web of life" Roger saw long before ecology had a name
• the quiet, essential partnership of Roger and Gwen
• how nurseries, fieldwork, and mentoring shaped generations of plant lovers
• and why caring for plants is inseparable from caring for people

A gentle, generous conversation about legacy, relationship, and the slow work of cultivating a life with meaning.

— SHOW NOTES:

See extensive show notes over at The Sentimental Gardner - Rodger Elliot

Visit the Australian Garden at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Cranbourne to see one of the landscapes Roger helped shape.

Music by Hayden Schueler @vereyagardening Audio Engineering: Tom Dowding Production and Editing: Cass Dowding

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