An Honour for Jo
Iwas pleased to hear that Jo Dawkins had been acknowledged with the award of Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to horticulture in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June.
This award is well deserved by our hard-working Jo. It recognises not only her work for the Quarry but also her involvement with the International Plant Propagators Society for over twenty years. Jo held the office of NZ President, New Zealand’s International Director and lastly International President.
Jo has been working at the Quarry from day one and followed her own vision for the park when it came to planting. She has been instrumental in setting out and planting the various botanical areas and gardens and we largely have Jo to thank for the tremendous variety in those areas.
Jo is all about the plants. Ask her the name of some shrub you are admiring and she invariably rattles off the Latin name. Her knowledge of plants is extensive and amazing.
There was a time in the early days when the committee decided (several times) that we shouldn’t develop any further. The thinking was that we would never be able to look after it all if we kept taming the scrub further up the hill. Chas even drew a line one day and suggested, politely, that Jo shouldn’t make any more gardens beyond that line. Somehow these decisions and requests were bypassed, and Jo would labour on further and further up the hill, sometimes aided by her sister Mary, and encouraged by a number of timely donations of magnolias, maple trees, strelitzias (or bird of paradise flowers) and so on. I believe we are now all glad that Jo took no notice and carried on with her vision. In the years to come those magnolias and maples will look more and more magnificent.
Three days a week Jo can be found somewhere in the Park, beavering away at her latest project, or perhaps just talking to visitors in the Park, something she really enjoys doing.
So, congratulations Jo, on being awarded this honour.