Nurseries
Paradisia
History
Paradisia Nurseries is a specialised nursery with 3 large production sites and a retail nursery in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs.
The business was established in 1980 by three brothers Jeno, Attila & Tom Kapitany as an extension of their hobbies. Since early childhood all three brothers have shown a great interest in plants, gemstones and other collectable items.
We began by selling at market stalls and mail order. Public interest in our products grew rapidly and in 1982 Paradisia acquired a 14 acre site in Narre Warren North. In 1985 we opened our retail outlet Collectors Corner at Gardenworld, one of the most unique retail nurseries in the world.
In 1988 the company Paradisia Pty Ltd was formed and a 10 acre site acquired near Pakenham. This site allowed us to expand our collections, build our laboratory and begin our breeding programs.
In 2006 the company purchased a 32 acre site which now houses our large modern 14,000 m2 glasshouse and gives us room to expand for the next 10 years.
Today Jeno owns and operates Paradisia Pty Ltd and manages the three production sites under the name Paradisia Nurseries and the retail nursery; Collectors Corner at Garden World.
Attila Kapitany left Paradisia in 1999 to pursue a career in book writing and lecturing. Since then he has had a number of books published. The most well known is "Australian Succulent Plants". Attila is also famous for his amazing succulent garden in Narre Warren North.
Tom Kapitany owns and operates Crystal World & Prehistoric Journeys, a large retail and wholesale gem facility in Devon Meadows, and Australian Mineral Mines, a company he established to manage a number of mining leases throughout Australia.
Tom and Jeno together with 3 associates own and operate 'The National Dinosaur Museum" located in Nicholls A.C.T. This is a famous tourist attraction located in the Gold Creek tourist precinct in Canberra and may explain why people keep seeing dinosaurs roaming around the nurseries.
For over 40 years the nurseries have continued to expand both in size and product range. Paradisia is now one of the largest nurseries in Australia.
810 Springvale Rd Braeside Vic
810 Springvale Rd Braeside Vic
Upstairs gallery
Upstairs Gallery
Entry
Upstairs gallery
Paradisia Nurseries is recognised throughout the world for its product development and innovations.
Over 3 million plants are produced each year and distributed Australia wide. We export to various countries but this is becoming too difficult and expensive due to Australian government red tape and charges.
Paradisia employs over 130 full time staff. In total we have over 40,000 sq. metres of covered greenhouses
and glasshouses as well as 10,000 metres of covered outdoor areas.
We plan a further 16,000 sq. metres of development over the next two years.
Paradisia sources its diverse range of products from nurseries and habitats around the world. We use a wide range of methods to reproduce out plants including maintaining a large stock of parent plants for cuttings and seed work.
We operate a well-equipped laboratory for tissue culture and seed work, and also import significant numbers of seeds
from specialist growers around the world.
Paradisia maintains one of the largest quarantine facilities in Australia.
This allows us to regularly import varieties that have not been available before, as well as significant quantities
of plant varieties that are too difficult to grow or can’t be grown in Australia.
Paradisia continues to support the hobby industry through its world famous retail nursery at Collectors Corner.
Many of our staff are plant collectors and have a personal interest in our product range, which allows us to maintain
one of the largest collections of rare and unusual plants in the country. From these we develop the selection we offer
each year to our customers, some only in very small numbers, others in commercial quantities.
Paradisia also manages an extensive breeding program working with a number of plant groups.
We are best known for our cascading cymbidium orchids, with hundreds of new varieties released over the past 25 years.