FLEMING’S APPLAUDS STATE GOVERNMENTS TREE INITIATIVES

In 2020, Greener Spaces Better Places (funded by Hort Innovation) reported that the Wyndham City Council (VIC) has Australia’s lowest recorded level of green cover with 5.4%.  In response, Wyndham commissioned a comprehensive review and developed an impressive strategy to rectify the issue. Rather than ignore the issue and cite growing pains, poor growing conditions and lack of funding, Wyndham embraced the challenge targeting 30% cover by 2030! Bridging the 24.6% would be a huge feat but they appear to be on target and should they manage to succeed, the City will effectively have reinvented itself as a pin-up council of what trees can really do for humankind.

Wyndham is not alone, there are many councils on a mission to improve their environment by simply planting trees, retaining trees and/or improving the health and longevity of existing trees.

This is something Fleming’s owner and career horticulturalist, Wes Fleming OAM, has been banging a drum for, for decades.

“We started the Chelsea Experience during the last drought, we were seriously concerned no one was gardening, no one was planting a tree as it was seen to be something ‘bad’ due to the lack of water. But we knew if people stopped planting, if we stopped being the Garden State, we’d have a Greenlife crisis on our hands,” Wes said.

“What we needed in the early 2000’s was action, and fast. The first Chelsea was more or less a bit of a fluke, but when I saw the media interest and how people really responded to our success with Jim Fogarty’s design in 2004, I realised we could put forth the idea of the importance of the hort industry at a time it was suffering most.

“And so we continued to take various designers and landscapers to London to bring that good news back to Australia and highlight how good our industry is, how important our industry is, and the value of green.”

“Around 2009 we could see we had a great opportunity to raise the ante and start talking about how green is so much more than just pretty.  I was reading about research projects that were proving quite clearly that greenlife impacted humans in an extremely positive way – almost holistically.” 

It is now well documented that increased trees and greenery in urbanised areas impacts human beings in significant and life improving ways.

To name a few:

• Increase carbon sequestration
• Reduced pollution/toxins people are exposed to
• Help regulate temperature and reduce global warming
• Improve physical and mental health
• Increase health recovery rates
• Increase work productivity
• Slow traffic
• Reduce crime
• Increase property and land value

“And now here we are in 2025 and it’s impressive to see the groundswell is now impacting grass roots change across the country,” Wes said.

The challenge, Wes says, is how to ensure we maintain this focus and achieve great results for the long term.

“As a tree grower and advocate for more trees in the environment, improved mental and physical health and a safe happier Australian community; my concern now is for making the plans our councils are aiming for, a reality. The problem we are now faced with is supplying the dream.”

A recent report from the Greenlife Industry Australia highlighted that of 224 wholesale nurseries with a reported annual turnover of $2-4M, only 70.3% reported being profitable in 2023/24. For the 221 nurseries with a $4M plus turnover 85.7% reported being profitable. This translates to 20% of Australia’s largest nurseries being unprofitable and unsustainable.

Fleming’s will be releasing a white paper at the end of the month detailing the complexity involved in tree supply, the level of expertise required to make this a reality and the challenges the production nursery faces to meet these exciting and long overdue canopy targets.

Visit Fleming's via the links below to learn more