When Suzanne Kingsford found out she would receive an Order of Australia OAM, for her service to horticulture, her first reaction was to ask "why me?"
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Mrs Kingsford developed a green thumb more than 80 years ago, after her grandmother gave her a plot of earth, when she was four years old.
Suzanne's childhood memories are filled with the scent of sweetheart roses that grew in her grandmother's backyard.
Suzanne used to pick the roses and put them in a vase.
One day she stuck a stem into the ground and it grew.
"I was hooked," said Mrs Kingsford.
Mrs Kingsford has dedicated her life to the preservation of heritage roses and taught countless people natural gardening practices.
"I'm trying very hard to get people to understand you can grow things naturally," Mrs Kingsford said.
"There is a rose for every position and climate.
"Instead of fighting nature we have to go with it."
Suzanne said people fell in love with pretty pictures and fashionable plants rather than what was suitable for the climate.
"I like to grow things naturally and share the garden with other people," she said.
"I think the aim [of gardening] is to beautify the world."
Suzanne Kingsford is a life member of the Rose Society of NSW, a regional delegate at the National Rose Society of Australia, a member of Heritage Roses in Australia, and the co-owner and co-founder of Roses and Friends Nursery in Fitzroy Falls. She has also received numerous awards for her work with roses.
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