Ollerenshaw, Peter (fl. 1970s - 2000s)

Peter is the owner of Bywong Nursery, he specialises in breeding and development of Australian plants.

Bywong Nursery is located 30kms north east of Canberra, near the old gold mining settlement of Bywong. Peter and Jennifer Ollerenshaw started the nursery in 1984 growing a mixture of Australian and exotic plants, depending on customer demand. They specialized in propagating plants by cuttings which were mostly sold to the trade as tube stock (liners) in 42mm square pots.

In 1989, in order to supply "new" plants to their customers they decided to try developing their own. They were mostly interested in Australian native plants and as very little development work had been carried out on them, this looked like an opportunity to breed some new varieties.

From 2017 they stopped wholesale production and then concentrated on Australian plant development. They breed and selected new varieties of Australian plants and send them to propagation nurseries to be bulked up. Tube stock from these propagators go to wholesale grower nurseries around Australia. They then ship plants to retail nurseries, garden centres and "big box" stores.

Prior to starting the nursery he worked at the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) for 20 years in several roles, including Nursery Manager and Gardens Overseer. During his time at the ANBG he collected numerous herbarium specimens and matching cutting material for propagation.

For many years Peter represented the Nurserymen's Association on the Australian Cultivar Registration Authority (ACRA) based at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

Source: Pers Com M.Fagg, 2007
https://www.bywongnursery.com.au/about-us/
Portrait Photo: M.Fagg, 2009

Collecting localities for 'Ollerenshaw, P.' from AVH (2021)

Data from 3,399 specimens