It was fitting that the day Sue Gardiner received an email from the International Society for Horticultural Science acknowledging her work, which has enabled New Zealand to become a world leader in international apple breeding and genomics, was March 8 – International Women’s Day.
Gardiner was rewarded with a fellowship of the society and later that week she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.
She says it was an exciting week and it was a shame that her mother, who was a physiotherapist, was not around to share it with.
“I wish my mother could have been here to celebrate with me. She set a high bar for me as a pioneer career woman and leader in her own profession, in the days when few women had such opportunities,” Gardiner, now an Honorary Fellow at Plant & Food Research, said.
“Our family farm, near Waiau in North Canterbury, was isolated in those days and she taught me through the correspondence school until I was 10. Farm life enabled me to develop independence, which has been critical in my career.”
It was on that farm, which featured in Rebekah – Gardiner’s niece – and Dave Kelly’s on-farm story (Farmers Weekly, August 2019), that Gardiner’s interest in horticulture was first nurtured.
She says she was always interested in nature and not afraid to ask questions, while the large farm garden she grew up with cultivated an interest in plants.
At Otago University Gardiner studied animal and plant sciences, but it was plants that appealed the most, and she finished university with a PhD in biochemistry.
Her first job was at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) as a scientist then senior scientist, where she worked in a range of research areas, including lipid biochemistry, cultivar identification in pasture grasses and legumes; and from the 1990s genetic mapping in apples and then a range of other fruit crops.
During her time there the organisation was constantly changing – from DSIR Plant Physiology to DSIR Fruit and Trees, to HortResearch and now Plant & Food Research.
One of Gardiner’s most notable achievements is the development of an integrated marker assisted selection (MAS) platform for speedier development of new fruit varieties with targeted characteristics, which is currently utilised for several crops grown in NZ.
Key to developing marker assisted selection is the availability of DNA sequence of the genomes of each species, and Gardiner contributed to establishing these sequences for apples, pears and kiwifruit.
The MAS platform delivers information on the genetic potential of potential parents as well as enabling selection of seedlings with the combination of specific characters desired by industry and consumers.
Breeders then use the information to design crosses between optimal parents and select seedlings for observation in the field, as well as for sensory evaluation of fruit and storage tests.
Her work gives an edge to NZ producers, who can obtain fruit tailored for market needs faster than their overseas counterparts.
Gardiner says her job changed with the discovery of the kiwifruit vine disease Psa in NZ in 2010.
Like many of her colleagues at Plant & Food, almost immediately her research switched to kiwifruit as “things looked black” for the industry.
She says her work with kiwifruit has been extremely challenging, as the fruit has a much more complex genome structure than apples. Whereas apples have major genes controlling different characteristics, kiwifruit have multiple genes controlling the one character, such as Psa resistance.
When Gardiner began at DSIR 41 years ago after finishing her PhD, she was the most senior woman there.
“That’s improved slightly over the years but although there’s lots of women in technical positions, there’s not a lot in management positions,” Gardiner said.
She says the majority of fellows in both the International Society for Horticultural Science and the Royal Society Te Apārangi are men.
She thinks that is beginning to change and she hopes it will continue.
She says horticultural research in NZ has traditionally not been as well-funded as agricultural research, as the latter has always been able to attract more commercial funding.
However, NZ horticultural scientists have made significant contributions to fruit breeding, especially apples and kiwifruit, particularly the gold variety.
She has received multiple awards throughout her career, including the Science New Zealand Plant & Food Research Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017, the Prime Minister’s Science Prize in 2017 as a member of the Psa response team, and the Outstanding International Horticulturist Award of the American Society for Horticultural Science in 2009.
Although Gardiner retired at the end of 2019, she continues to have a connection with Plant & Food Research.
Her role as honorary research fellow there allows her to use her knowledge to help others, spending Fridays mentoring, and editing research papers and theses.
Her interest in plants extends beyond her career, as she and her husband have about 4ha at Aokautere, just outside of Palmerston North, where she grows and breeds rhododendrons as a hobby, along with Japanese irises.
Her garden, ongoing role at Plant & Food, and membership of a national rhododendron conservation group, keeps her busy.
