Bill Allan, of Allan's Nursery, shows us round his garden

Hamish Geale talks to retired Allan's Nursery founder Bill Allan, who is donating a garden full of pumpkins to the Salvation Army.

Transcript

00:00 It started in 1964 in Glenelg Street.

00:05 Our biggest customer then was coals in Brisbane Street.

00:11 And we used to grow a quantity of giant polyanthus.

00:18 And very often I couldn't get into coals so I'd wheel them on the barrow down Brisbane Street

00:24 and people would follow me down and want to buy the ones off the barrow before we went into coals.

00:31 This is a Norfolk Island pine.

00:35 We've grown them from seed.

00:40 And hopefully these are about two years old now.

00:45 Yeah, this is a Pansy storm cloud.

00:50 We've been breeding it for a bit over 13 years.

00:55 So it's got some lovely colours in it, striped petals.

01:02 How many pumpkins have you got here in your front yard?

01:06 In weight it'd be over half a tonne, probably close to three quarters of a tonne.

01:14 So I've been giving some to the bowls club and my family of course.

01:22 And I'll keep a few back but Salvation Army will get about well over half a tonne.

01:29 How do you reckon you're going for weight?

01:32 Oh, it's alright.

01:35 And are they probably some of, I suppose, a Launceston's best pumpkins,

01:39 like considering that you're probably Launceston's most famous gardener?

01:44 I wouldn't say that.

01:46 That's a nice thought.

01:49 Thank you.

01:53 Thank you very much.

01:55 Thank you.

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