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A passion for Australian Native Plants and a need for a change in direction brought Alex and Barbara Hansa up from the south to the Sunshine Coast. With little
knowledge of horticulture but much determination they started Fairhill Native Plants in 1975 and delved into a then little explored market.
The selection of Australian plants suitable for the region seemed to be non existing at the time. The plants from Victoria and N.S.W. didnt like the humidity of the
sub-tropics so their reliability was in question. Eventually a plant list emerged suitable for our climate augmented with some palms and foliage plants from exotic
places to keep the bank manager happy.
Grevillea Robyn Gordon was the first of the tropical hybrids which was soon followed by an ever increasing and still continuing selection of what now constitutes an
important section of the Australian Native Plant industry. The interest in Bush plants like Eucalyptus, Callistemon, Melaleuca etc. was very strong in the 80 and
early 90 but seems to have diminished in popularity for the home garden at the moment.
Then came the exiting time when tropical rainforest plants were introduced into the range. Rainforest plants are after all the sensible plants to grow in the
sub-tropics!! Unfortunately only relatively few of the many beautiful varieties are now excepted by the public, amongst them the popular Syzygium Bush Christmas
hedging plant, one of our introductions.
Grafting Grevilleas was another important milestone along our journey. We experimented with more than 100 varieties before we settled on the now very popular range
which added to the 40 or so varieties already in production at the time.
Grevillea Golden Lyre Syzygium Bush Christmas Grevillea Cooroora Cascade
As our expertise grew we started to hybridise Grevilleas and Grevillea Golden Lyre was born and subsequently G.Cooroora Cascade both of which have taken the market
by storm.
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