About 

Riverdene Nurseries is a family orientated business that was started by Noel and Virginia Jupp in 1956. Initially the business was started as an adjunct to the families grazing interests and concentrated on the production of Cyclamen seedlings for the nursery trade and in the cultivation and development of Australian Native Orchids. Indoor and foliage plants were later introduced to the business followed by a few selected Australian native plants. Over time the production of Cyclamen was phased out in favour of the more popular natives. When consumer interest and demand for Australian native plants began to increase, the owners used their long standing expertise with Australian natives to expand the nursery to grow large numbers of these plants.

The nursery continued to evolve and adapt to market challenges and requirements as they became apparent. The rapid rise in popularity of the ecological and revegetation movement presented an ideal opportunity to utilise a lifetime of knowledge and experience with Australian natives to meet market needs. As a consequence Riverdene has the means to produce hundreds of thousands of native seedlings to meet the demand for revegetation projects. The demand for other services such a Flora and Property Surveys was so high that the production of Indoor and Foliaged plants was reduced and simplified so the nursery could direct all its efforts into the production of Provenance Specific Native Seedlings to service the needs of numerous State and Local Government Departments including Local Councils, Catchment Management Authorities, Water Boards, Landcare and River Rehabilitation Groups.

Through all of this the nursery has always maintained a very active plant breeding, selection and development program. The production of large quantities of seedlings of the same species supports this program in that a surprising number of mutants arise and by careful selection and trialling a small number of these go into commercial production. The nursery is situated on the banks of the Allyn River which assures us of a constant supply of high quality water and also gives us the prefix ‘Allyn’ to the majority of our new varieties.