page_title: Lawrie Metcalf
hierarchical_section_title: Lawrie Metcalf
caption_attribution_description: English: The daughter and granddaughter of Lawrie (Lawrence James) Metcalf at the entrance to his eponymous herbarium at Christchurch Botanic Gardens, New Zealand
context_page_description: Lawrence James Metcalf was an internationally recognized New Zealand horticulturalist, botanist, conservationist and prolific author of gardening and plant identification books. During a lengthy career, Metcalf popularized and advocated for the planting of native or indigenous plant species in both public and private gardens and pioneered their propagation techniques. In 1991 the British Royal Horticultural Society' recognized his work on the cultivation of New Zealand's native plants, by awarding Metcalf the Gold Veitch Memorial Medal.
  Metcalf was a global authority on the ''Hebe'' genus, which is indigenous to New Zealand. Hebes are planted widely around the world in public gardens with temperate climates
  Up until the 1990s, most landscape and public garden plantings in urban and suburban areas around the world tended to be dominated by non-native or introduced species. Over the last century, some of these introduced plant species escaped from gardens to invade agricultural habitats and parks and protected areas. Many ecosystems and habitats in New Zealand have been impacted by invasive plants such as gorse.
context_section_description: Lawrence James Metcalf (1928–2017) was an internationally recognized New Zealand horticulturalist, botanist, conservationist and prolific author of gardening and plant identification books. During a lengthy career, Metcalf popularized and advocated for the planting of native or indigenous plant species in both public and private gardens and pioneered their propagation techniques (horticulture). In 1991 the British Royal Horticultural Society' recognized his work on the cultivation of New Zealand's native plants, by awarding Metcalf the Gold Veitch Memorial Medal.
  Metcalf was a global authority on the ''Hebe'' (plant) genus, which is indigenous to New Zealand. Hebes are planted widely around the world in public gardens with temperate climates
  Up until the 1990s, most landscape and public garden plantings in urban and suburban areas around the world tended to be dominated by non-native or introduced species. Over the last century, some of these introduced plant species escaped from gardens to invade agricultural habitats and parks and protected areas. Many ecosystems and habitats in New Zealand have been impacted by invasive plants such as gorse (Ulex). The management of Gorse in New Zealand costs millions of dollars annually. 
  As the Assistant Curator (later Assistant Director) of Christchurch Botanic Gardens, Lawrie Metcalf founded and expanded its International Seed Exchange programme. Botanists and horticulturalists exchange seeds internationally for the purpose of preserving genetic diversity ex situ in a Seed bank, of which the best known is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. 
  After spending more than 20 years at Christchurch Botanic Gardens, Metcalf became the Director of Parks and Recreation at the Invercargill City Council until his retirement in 1992. During his retirement Metcalf wrote many popular books on identifying New Zealand plants, and on native plant propagation and gardening, a number of which were revised and reprinted.  
  In 2017, the Herbarium at Christchurch Botanic Gardens was named in his honour. The Lawrie Metcalf herbarium contains many dried plant specimens collected by Metcalf during his time as Assistant Curator and Assistant Director.
caption: Daughter, Victoria Metcalf and granddaughter, Briony, outside the Lawrie Metcalf Herbarium in 2018
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