Pegasus Post: February 04, 2021

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8 Thursday February 4 2021 Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz PEGASUS POST Sunday 21 MaRCh #Areyouupforit? 14km, 6km Community Fun Run Event EntER now www.city2surf.co.nz
PEGASUS POST Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz Thursday February 4 2021 9 Perfect job for an interest in nature Dean Pendrigh is the collections curator for the water garden, azalea garden and the pinetum in the Botanic Gardens and has been working there for the past 35 years. He talks to Ella Somers SKILLED: Dean Pendrigh tends to the plants in the Botanic Gardens. He has always had an interest in nature. A PASSION for nature led Dean Pendrigh to pursue a botanical career immediately after high school and he started his four-year apprenticeship at the Botanic Gardens in 1986. His apprenticeship included a brief scholarship to Melbourne, on his return he continued working at the gardens. Pendrigh said he has “always had an interest in nature” but it wasn’t until high school when his uncle introduced him to orchids that “really got me interested in plants and native plants as well.” He enjoys botanical work because every season is different and “something will be far better one year and not the other,” he said. “I like the biogeography and learning about where plants come from and how plants react to other plants and in different countries.” As well as maintaining the collections and keeping careful plant records, a large part of Pendrigh’s job includes tasks such as weeding, pruning, and cutting hedges. Watering takes up a lot of time as well because “a lot of my areas don’t have any actual automated irrigation so we do it by hand,” he said. Due to the names of plants changing frequently, updating and labelling records is a continual project and can be frustrating. “You get to know the name of a plant and then a botanist will change it,” Pendrigh said. “Sometimes you’ll change a label and then they’ll change it back to the original name.” Pendrigh said that while he gets a lot of good comments from people who come through the garden, “a lot of people don’t realise how much work is involved,” he said. In comparison to other trades as well, it’s not recognised as much as it should be. “There is a lot of knowledge that you need to know, and it takes a long time to build up that knowledge, especially that plant knowledge,” he said. “The names of plants you have to learn as well, it’s like learning another language.” Pendrigh’s passion for “everything botanical” has inspired him to travel to places across the world where interesting flora lives, including Africa. “They’ve got a very diverse flora,” he said. “It increased my interest in plants even more seeing them in their natural habitat.” He doesn’t have a favourite plant but if he had to name his favourite plant group, it would be plants from the southern hemisphere, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa in particular. “There’s some interesting links between the floras of those countries,” Pendrigh said. “And because I’ve seen them in the wild, you appreciate them a lot more.” One of the most interesting visitors that the Botanic Gardens has had in Pendrigh’s time was a visit from the Dalai Lama in 1992. “He planted a himalayan pine tree in my area,” Pendrigh said. Unfortunately, the tree was stolen a week after it was planted and neither the thief nor the Dalai Lama’s tree were ever found. The tree that now grows where the Dalai Lama’s one used to be “is one that I actually planted,” Pendrigh said. www.bigbrothersbigsisters.org.nz
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Pegasus Post: February 04, 2021

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