Jane Edmanson remembers friend and colleague, Bette Nichols, who died this week.
Victorian members of the HMAA will remember Bette and Ian Nichols as Ian was a founding member and both were Life Members. Ian died in 2005 and Bette has just passed away quite peacefully in her 90s.
She will be remembered as she was keen gardener and loved meeting up with all the HMA members, especially at the Yates annual lunch along with MIFGS. She and Ian were terrific nursery people. Their original nursery in Park Road, Cheltenham had an amazing range of plants and offered great service. People (of a certain age) still talk about buying plants from their nursery.
I have kept in touch with Bette over the years as she came on many of my garden trips overseas. She loved travelling. She was a great support to Ian, who was the original talkback gardening expert on radio 3AW.
Bette had very fond memories of the flower shows that were held at the Royal Exhibition Building at Carlton way back in the late 1960s and ‘70s. There are so many wonderful stories that came from ‘old’ nursery people that are always good to hear.
