Chris and Maries Plant World, Company

In 1995 Chris Lucas and Bill Peeters paired up to create a small one acre plant nursery on an old junky site in Emerald Victoria. They named their nursery Wandin Gully Tree Farm. Wandin Gully Tree Farm employed locals and stocked a small range of roses, shrubs and trees. Chris had been involved in horticulture for most of his life and previous to Wandin Gully Tree Farm had successfully run a farm tree mail order business and a tissue culture business which he further developed in the United States, Chris employed Bill in his farm tree business as his buyer. Chris had written and published a book on Paulownias & Tagasaste and together with his wife Marie wrote and published an annual newspaper called The Farm Tree News which went out to around 100,000 farmers and they sold up to half and million trees per year. . Chris has an incredible passion for plants and has a real love for showcasing and marketing plants. Chris completed many fun and interesting photo and marketing projects for plants such as Gunnera mannicata 'The Giant Amazon Perennial' and Paulownia kawakami 'The Sapphire Dragon Tree'. In 2000 Chris & Bill decided to go their separate ways. Bill continued to own and operate Wombat Gully Plant Farm in Hoppers Crossing & Geelong and Chris continued to operate Wombat Gully Plant Farm in Emerald. To differentiate the businesses Chris developed the trading name 'Chris & Maries Plant Farms' seeing the introduction of Marie in the television and radio ads. Marie had studied dance and singing for many years and brought a fresh lively approach to the ads. Over the last few years Chris together with his team have worked really hard and now own and operate four retail stores Carrum Downs, Campbellfield, Traralgon, & Bendigo and have developed some of the most popular plant promotions which have become household names such as Neighbours-Be-Gone® Trees, Silver Stirling™ Pittosporum & Aussie Outdoor Palms, to name just a few.