Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
Birchgrove Nursery has been a Tamborine mountain fixture since 1981, but Michele Taylor has owned it for 13 years now. Today she shares her stories on being part of an iconic mountain staple.
by Kyle Hitchmough
You seem have a few specialties, like a focus on roses. Can you tell us more about that?
We specialise in roses, magnolias, rhododendrons, maples… With our roses we always have the favourite base range and we add to it with the new releases that are coming through. David Austin roses, Delbard roses, lots of old-fashioned and perfumed varieties as well. Most people, when they’re buying a rose, want something that repeats flowering. The perfumed roses grow well in Queensland, so that’s what we try to aim for.
What’s your most popular plant?
It’s seasonal. This time of year, it’s not roses, it’s camellias because they’re in flower and everyone wants colour through winter. We specialise in deciduous and blossom trees. Most people gravitate towards the English-style gardens on the mountain because that’s the style that suits the area. We do speciality natives as well, though.
What goes into your role as owner here?
Jill of all trades and master of none. I drive tractors, forklifts, do the ordering, displays, serve customers… what don’t I do? I do it all! And I enjoy it. All of our staff are versatile, they all do everything, that way it’s not monotonous. Every day changes here.
Do you find you get more of a specific kind of client than others?
Most of our clients travel quite a distance, the people who want English-style gardens, more formal than tropical. It’s all classic, formal, timeless kind of garden design. That’s where the camellias, magnolias and roses come in, for people who don’t want the tropical look.
Do you also educate people about plants? What kind of advice would you give someone just starting out with gardening?
We’re very happy to help our customers with information when they come in, with garden design or planting information, plant identification, all those little things. Where we can help, we will, such as do they have a blank canvas or an established garden that they’re trying to rejuvenate…everyone’s different. We work with their needs and what they like. Some people like perfumed, herbal veggie gardens, others are into edibles or ornamental gardens. Everybody’s different, and it really comes down to the personal choice of the customer. If someone came into me and they didn’t know where to start, I’d say number one, is it a blank yard, or does it have established trees, what do you want to keep, what don’t you want to keep, and what needs do you have? You have to work with what people want.
You also have a café here. How long has that been a part of the business?
The café’s been here for eight years. It creates more of an outing and an experience. People can come and relax, do a bit of shopping, have something nice to eat, sit by the fire in wintertime. This place is a real mountain icon for people from Brisbane and the Coast. They often come up just for an outing, because it’s somewhere nice to just go and look at nice things and chill out.
How long have you been interested in plants?
I’ve always loved gardening. I didn’t actually study horticulture until I’d had a nursery for six years. Just from reading labels and my own gardening experiences, it grew from there. I just love plants. I still find them really interesting and I’ve been doing this for nearly 30 years. You still never know it all.
Are you a local? What’s your opinion on the Tamborine Mountain community?
I’ve been on the mountain for 13 years, I lived at Canungra for over 20 years before that. It’s a very close-knit community. There’s been a lot of new people but it’s still very community oriented. When we’ve had events like cyclones and COVID people have banded together. It’s a very nice community up here.
The Tamborine Mountain area can be heavily affected by droughts and other extreme weather. How has that affected your business?
Very much. Everyone’s on tank water up here. When we’re having dry spells, people don’t really garden too much. In times like we sell drought-tolerant plants and natives, banksias, just your main rainforest species. People tend to come in looking at those sorts of things for their gardens.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
Making the world into a more beautiful place. My ethos is trying to leave something nicer behind than I found it in the first place. I guess that’s my life’s philosophy for myself. Trying to make people feel good, enjoy their lives more, makes the world more beautiful.
\What do you think Birchgrove Nursery provides to the area?
It’s a place for people to come and meet, especially with the café, and make friends. I have a big base of regular customers who come in. Some people come in daily, I’ve had one couple come in every day since we opened! A lot of our customers become really good friends, and because it’s a small community you just develop really good relationships with people over time. Different times we help each other out. When we had Cyclone Oswald it just annihilated us. I had different customers pull up the driveway and they said “We’re going to stay here and help you until it’s all cleaned up.” They came in every day for two weeks and helped me. We have a really great community up here.
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