His work had practical relevance to farmers and orchardists in building their understanding of these factors and taking account of them while making a living from growing and harvesting plants.

[7] In 2000, Bieleski published an article that highlighted the importance of understanding how phloem transports are manipulated to achieve good yields in horticulture and noted that examination of the plants' behaviour, provides insight into senescence and cell death.

The study concluded that more research could establish further the contribution "[that] greater relative abundance of pinitol leaves makes to dryland habitat survival.

A further conclusion was that studying the senescence of flowers offers a model that has much in common with fruit ripening because the process often happens quickly and in naturally occurring well-defined climacteric stages that are not too affected by ageing behaviour from storage of waste materials or exposure to weather.

Bieleski explained that he was involved in the establishment of the group before 1977, "[as he saw it] ...to keep the 'scientific' aspect of true botanic gardens from being swamped into a general 'pretty park' development.

"[13] He presented on this topic at a workshop held by the Royal Society of New Zealand on 19 November 1991 and stressed that it was important for scientific journals to be clear about their areas of specialisation and attract quality contributions, "[because] the publishing of science is a totally integral part of scientific research, part of the intellectual process of science - converting data to knowledge.

"[20] He was awarded a DSc by thesis by the University of Sydney in 1990,[4][21] and he was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to horticultural science in the 2010 New Year Honours.