Dharini Marinkovich

It was while Dharini was completing a Bachelor of Science at the University of Auckland that she discovered an interest in plants. Later while working at Seedling Systems nursery, she discovered plant breeding which appealed to her because of its scientific and practical components. Dharini enjoys all aspects of running and maintaining plant breeding programmes.

Dharini worked for several years with notable plant breeder and RNZIH President Dr Keith Hammett as an assistant plant breeder working with Clivia, Dahlia, Dianthus, Helianthus, Polyanthus and sweet pea. In this role, Dharini assisted in several areas of these breedingprograms from hand pollination, evaluating and record keeping, through to maintaining parent germplasm blocks.

In 2017, the International Plant Propagators’ Society – New Zealand Region (IPPS–NZ) chose Dharini as the recipient of the Western Region Exchange Scholarship. Dharini travelled to Canada and the United States in October 2017, first visiting nurseries around Vancouver before continuing on to the United States with further nursery visits in Washington and Oregon before attending the IPPS Western Region’s conference in Wilsonville, Oregon.

Dharini served on the RNZIH National Executive from 2017 to 2020.