High Tech Shares to Grow Fruit in New Demonstration Orchard

High tech shares might be on the downturn on the stock market, but they are going to show rapid growth and a bright future as an innovative gift to local horticulture.

LeVerne Hawken, who has had a lifelong involvement with commercial and hobby orchards, has donated his Hewlett-Packard shares to create a demonstration orchard at Malaspina University-College.

The orchard will be located at Malaspina’s horticulture center in East Wellington, and will be a living laboratory for students learning about fruit tree growth and maintenance. It will also display the many varieties of fruit-bearing trees, bushes and vines suitable for our climate.

“The shares kept on going down in value, and I wanted to make good use out of them before they went down any further,” LeVerne said. The orchard will also stand as a memorial to his late wife Adeline.

LeVerne loved orchards and fruit trees even as a small boy, growing up on the family farm outside London, Ontario. He later owned his own orchard where he first learned grafting techniques.

On retiring to Nanaimo, he joined the Horticultural Society and the Fruit Tester’s Association which collects and publishes information of fruit horticulture, and preserves old varieties of fruit trees which would otherwise be slowly dying out. LeVerne first encountered Malaspina through the grafting demonstrations he offered every year.

“This is a tremendous gift which will have lasting value to horticulture education in our region,” said Mike Girard, coordinator of Malaspina’s horticulture center.

“The students will design and then build the orchard, which will include pathways and plantings of varieties recommended by the Fruit Tester’s Association. We are hoping that eventually we will have espaliered trees of different designs, companion plantings of ground covers and perennials that will attract pollinating and biological control insects.

“We are very grateful to Mr. Hawken for his vision.”

Contact:

Mike Girard, G.R. Paine Horticulture Centre, 2324 East Wellington Road – 754-8756.
Roger Prior, Malaspina University-College Foundation – 741-2142.