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Hard graft: backyard gardener claims world record for tree bearing 
ten different fruits
b. Use some of the key words above to complete these sentences. 
1. He and his wife shared a 
for classical music.
2. Unfortunately, our company does not yet have a very 
workforce.
3. We 
to reduce the number of cars driving through the suburbs.
4. David was 
with his exam results.
5. The blog was started ten years ago by two model railway 
.

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Intermediate
Hard graft: backyard gardener claims world record for tree bearing 
ten different fruits
Caitlin Cassidy
11 November, 2021
Behind a suburban home on a green 
Shepparton street, a small tree growing 
ten different fruits has earned a Guinness 
world record for the most types of fruit on a 
single tree.
The tree is the result of a decade of 
Hussam Saraf’s hard work, transforming 
his small garden in Victoria, Australia into a 
tropical oasis.
“The previous record was five fruits grafted 
onto one tree, so I decided to graft ten,” 
Hussam said. These were white and yellow 
nectarines, white and yellow peaches, blood 
and yellow plums, peachcots, apricots, 
almonds and cherries. “But Guinness told me 
the tree must grow five different species, not 
varieties of the same fruit.”
However, Hussam’s record tree was officially 
accepted for grafting plum, apricot, almond, 
peach and cherry.
Hussam told Guinness World Records 
his tree provided a message of “peaceful 
coexistence”; the colours, shapes and different 
leaves and fruits on the branches of his tree 
are a metaphor for diverse society, respect 
and acceptance.
Hussam opened his garden to the public in 
2016. He now has a following of gardening 
enthusiasts who regularly ask him for 
recommendations and advice.
The process of grafting is both simple and 
complex – Hussam’s tree started as a nectarine 
tree from seed. Slowly he expanded the tree by 
grafting the branches of other trees onto it.
“Every branch is a unique tree by itself,” he 
says. “And if I don’t eat the fruit, I give it to my 
neighbours. Relatives, friends come to the 
garden and taste it. They like the taste.”
Depending on the time of year, his garden 
flowers with coconut and banana trees, rosella, 
kumquats and noni fruit, as well as more 
common varieties like strawberries and sweet 
plum in pots.
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“It’s not just a garden; it’s a community,” he 
says. “I saw this tree as our multicultural 
community’s tree. The cultures we have
here – religions, traditions, all come together as 
one. My multicultural work and gardening work 
I see as one. I’m grafting it all together.”
Hussam arrived in Australia in 2009 from Iraq. 
Throughout his childhood, gardening was a 
regular part of high school, where students 
learned to graft figs.
In the school holidays, Hussam used to spend 
three months at his grandparents’ farm where 
dates, figs, citrus and pomegranate grew, and 
he developed a passion for gardening.
Since moving to Shepparton, Hussam has 
become a multicultural officer at the city’s 
biggest public school.
“The kids are excited. They’ve followed the tree 
on Instagram … The young generation is all on 
Insta,” he says.
“I wanted to give them an example to aim high. 
Don’t say it’s too hard; you can do it if you put 
in the hard work and have a target. Never say
‘I can’t do it’.”
Hussam isn’t satisfied with one record. He 
is trying to get more world records: the most 
variety of stone fruits on one tree, and the tree 
with the most apple fruits.
He also plans to enter the record for the 
longest lily flower, which usually grow between 
40 and 80 cm.
“My flower so far is 1.530 m,” Hussam said. 
“Some day, I also want to grow 50 stone 
fruits on one tree, each branch with different 
varieties. Why 50? Someone in the US did 40, 
so I want to do 50. It’s not easy.”
But most of all, when Covid restrictions ease, 
he hopes to break the record for the largest 
gardening lesson.
“I’ll need the help of the community for that 
one,” Hussam says. “The record is 280 people. 
I want 1,000.”
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Published by Macmillan Education Ltd. © Macmillan Education Limited, 2021.
Home >> Adults >> General English >> NEWS LESSONS
•PHOT
OCOPIABLE•
CAN BE DOWNLOADED
FROM WEBSITE