August 8th at 7pm PST
Redlands Church of the Nazarene
1307 East Citrus Avenue
Redlands, CA 92374
Andrew Hankey is a botanical horticulturist spanning a career of 30 years, developing and maintaining a botanical garden and associated nature reserve. He has an extensive resume of published articles and papers in technical, popular, and scientific journals on subjects relating to gardening, botany, and natural sciences. Over the years he has become highly regarded in his field and is regularly invited to present and speak to a wide variety of audiences.
He is most noted for his significant and broad influence over the development of the well-known and popular Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden (WSNBG). Andrew designed and constructed the Succulent Rockery, People Plants Garden, Cycad Garden, Forest Garden among others; the entire botanical garden is landscaped with exclusively with impressive collections of southern African plants. More recently he has overseen the design and construction of the Waterwise Display Garden, Children’s Garden and the Sisulu Circle. His brainchild the Geological Display Garden, which he designed and constructed drawing extensively on the network of professional Geologists which he assembled around the project, was well received and was coined as the first of its kind in the world at the time by the SANBI CEO Prof. Huntley. Most of these as well as other projects he personally conceived coordinated and implemented on the ground with the assistance of key administration and implementation team. Often these projects required significant logistics which required careful planning and organization and were often done with very limited budgets.
As part of his role at WSNBG Andrew heads up the threatened plant project at WSNBG, where he and his team perform various roles with regards to various threatened plant species. Andrew has been instrumental in driving the project to study and secure the critically endangered Albertina Sisulu Orchid (Brachycorythis conica subsp. transvaalensis) and secure the land on which the last viable global population remains.
During his career he has self-studied numerous plant groups and developed an in-depth knowledge for many of them. Andrew has established himself as an authority on the three taxonomically complex Hyacinthaceae genera Ledebouria, Drimiopsis and Resnova comprising the subtribe Ledebouriinae. He has engaged in taxonomic work in this group and has steadily been delivering his contribution toward the taxonomic understanding of this subtribe. He is currently reading for an MSc. on Drimiopsis through the University of the Witwatersrand.
Andrew has done extensive botanical field work in South Africa, travelling to remote areas of the country (mostly the eastern parts of South Africa) as well as neighboring states to explore and document the flora. Andrew has also been a guest lecturer for both the tree and wildflower modules for private companies that offer training for Field Guiding qualifications. He also took on the role as a Gauteng judge for the SALI National Awards for a period of five years.
His wide-ranging interests in natural sciences have lead him to develop a good base knowledge of various non-botanical fields including frogs, birds, fish, geology, snakes, and ecology.Andrew’s list of publications can be found here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrew-Hankey/publications
Gates Cactus and Succulent Society 