By Mikayla van Loon
For the second time this year Knoxbrooke’s nursery in Mount Evelyn will be opening up its car park for its major plant sale having had an incredible spring growing season.
Knoxbrooke chief executive officer Annie Revell said it’s such a delight to be able to open the nursery to the community for four days next month so they can purchase some beautiful stock.
“We’re really delighted to be able to do it. We’re going to be having it run from the fifth to the eighth of December,” she said.
“We’re just going out with those four days because we actually think we can bring out the biggest amount of our plants at one point in time and just open them up so that everyone gets as much opportunity to get what they want from it.
“Because we don’t do sales through the nursery on a regular basis, this is when we really make sure we’ve got the peak of our stock that’s able to come out to people and just really showcase the nursery.”
Having always been known as the Yarra View Bushland Nursery, Ms Revell said come early next year the name will be streamlined to the Knoxbrooke Nursery, so when people buy from them they know it “supports people with diverse abilities to have real jobs”.
“Most of the people who come or come to our car park sales really just know us for our great plants, the huge range that we’ve got and of course, we also are a commercial nursery to the industry,” Ms Revell said.
“But what people might not really be aware of is that we are actually a social enterprise, and in fact, we’re the largest and most successful social enterprise nursery in Australia.
“We’ve had the nursery since 2000 but Knoxbrooke as a charity organisation, a not for profit, has been in business for 57 years now.
“So we’ve decided it’s time to take a step, to rebrand all of our social enterprises as the one name Knoxbrooke, so when people are buying from us, it’s really clear to them and to any new customers that they’re going to be supporting a social enterprise every time people do business with us.”
The nursery alone employs 75 people with diverse abilities, while Knoxbrooke as a whole has 143 supported employees currently working with them.
“We’re really proud of our Knoxbrooke team and the people that work with us, and some have been with us for so many years as well, that it really becomes a large family.”
As much as the plant sale itself is about selling plants and supplying top quality products to the community, Ms Revell said it is also an opportunity for people to walk in and see how a social enterprise functions.
“What’s really great is it allows people to see that it’s actually a meaningful job, not just something that’s tokenistic,” she said.
“They have their set rosters that they do, they have to take sick leave or holiday leave like all the rest of us, they get the expectations of anyone that comes to work, the highs and lows that everyone gets with a normal job, our supported employees experience all of that.
“It’s not just the outside work and nursery that appeals to people, which is why Knoxbrooke is so proud that we’ve got other social enterprises that can suit what people’s skills are and what their goals are in life.”
Ms Revell said as for the plants “spring has really sprung” providing a great variety of plants at an affordable price.
“The nursery is having its biggest year yet. It’s quite incredible the amount of stock. We’ve got the Aussie natives, the exotic grasses, hedging, you name them, we’ve been growing it, and it’s just looking gorgeous at the moment. The nursery is just sparkling,” she said.
The car park plant sale will be running from Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 December, opening at 8.30am at the York Road site.
To find out more, go to yvbn.com.au or call 9737 0400.
