Eighteen years helping sustain the Botanic Gardens
Dates not yet confirmed; active as secretary, 1991–2009
Near the hospital boundary of the Timaru Botanic Gardens grows a double-flowered English hawthorn.
Beside it is a plaque recognising Janet E. R. Street, secretary of the Friends of the Timaru Botanic Gardens from 1991 to 2009. The Aoraki Heritage Collection describes the tree as a memorial planted in her memory.
Eighteen years of service is firmly recorded. What Janet did during those years is not yet explained in the public sources.
A committee secretary commonly prepares minutes, manages correspondence and helps preserve an organisation’s continuity, but those ordinary expectations should not be presented as Janet’s documented duties until the Friends’ records have been examined.
What can be said is that she held the secretary’s position across nearly two decades. During that period, committee members, volunteers and Council staff continued caring for one of Timaru’s oldest public spaces. Janet’s contribution was considered significant enough for the organisation or community to record it permanently beside a living tree.
We do not know why that species or cultivar was chosen, who selected it or when it was planted. Those questions may be answered by meeting minutes, planting plans or the people involved.
Janet’s profile offers an important form of impact. Public places are not sustained only by landscape architects, head gardeners or major donors. They also depend on people who remain involved, keep organisations functioning and support work over many years.
The tree preserves Janet’s name. The next step is to recover the decisions, projects and relationships behind it.
Read the existing WuHoo stories: Janet Street and Her Hawthorn Tree
Sources
Aoraki Heritage Collection: Janet Street memorial tree
Confirms her initials, secretary’s role, service from 1991 to 2009 and the memorial tree.
WuHoo: Janet Street and Her Hawthorn Tree
Records the wording of the plaque and the tree’s location.