By Jesse Graham
TWO Upper Yarra Valley Garden Club stalwarts have been rewarded for years of work, receiving coveted awards from the Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria last week.
UYVGC members Kevin Hince and Bob Shelden received John Pascoe Faulkner Awards for Outstanding Service to Horticulture on Monday 17 October at the group’s monthly meeting.
President and secretary of the RHSV, Don and Jennifer Rickerby, handed the awards to the two recipients, who both told the Mail that the award had caught them by surprise.
“I didn’t know, it was a very well-kept secret, the whole thing,” Mr Hince said.
With 12 and 18 years at the club respectively, Mr Hince and Mr Shelden both have a passion for gardens, with Mr Shelden being involved in horticulture his entire working life.
Starting off in the Education Department, Mr Shelden said he taught students, apprentices and adults about horticulture around Melbourne – when retiring, he and his wife Kathy settled down in the valley and joined the club.
Mr Shelden now presents a garden program on Yarra Valley FM 99.1 on Wednesdays from 11am-noon.
Mr Hince has held a number of positions in the garden club over the years, and regularly opened the gates to his garden to support community groups.
He said he joined the garden club “as soon as we moved up here”, and that he had always been interested in gardening.
“I always did like gardens, always had a garden wherever we were,” he said.
“It’s a really good club – all the activities they run, and that sort of thing, it’s all been very good.”
The two recipients were nominated for the John Pascoe Faulkner Awards by the club, with the awards being approved by the RHSV.
“I believe it takes 10 to 12 months of investigation before they’ll hand you an award,” Mr Shelden said.
“I didn’t know anything about it until Monday night – it was a conspiracy behind my back, but a very nice conspiracy.”
Mr Hince said that he and his wife Jan had moved into a new house, and so had a new garden to work on for a project.
“It’s only a small block, so we’ll see what we’re going to do with it,” he said.
