December / January 2009 . . .

From the files of Commercial Horticulture – NZ’s Nursery industry Magazine

-- Subscribe today – for more details just click on the Comm Hort Button on this page

Auckland Flower Show success
“A very good effort first time up,” was the general consensus about the Auckland Flower Show, held for the first time in November at Alexander Park Raceway. And the team of judges agreed the standard of displays was extremely high, handing out six Best in Show awards and eight Golds.
We have a full report on the Show in Comm Hort Dec-Jan issue with loads of pictures.

 . . . and Ellerslie looks good too
“Things are going very well,” said Kate Hillier, when asked about how planning were going for the Ellerslie International Flower Show, to be held for the first time in Christchurch in March 09. “We’ve got 18 exhibition gardens as well as our Starlight Marquee exhibits. And people in Canterbury are fantastic. We’ve already sold 20,000 tickets three months out. It’s great!” The Show runs from 11-15 March in Hagley Park.

What does the future hold in store?
With the world economic situation continuing to decline, Comm Hort asked three NZ nursery industry leaders -- representing the grower, supplier, and retail sectors -- to tell us what they see in their crystal balls for 2009, and their comments are published over two pages in the Dec-Jan issue. All felt the nursery industry was a good one to be in in times of recession but things were still going to get tough. “Looking forward to the next 6 to 12 months there is no reason to believe the industry will not prosper, particularly in the area of productive gardens such as potagers, vegetable gardens and home orchards,” said nurseryman Peter Fraser who is also chairman of the New Zealand NGIA.

“While recessionary times have traditionally been good for the gardening industry the benefits will not necessarily just fall into our laps — as always, those who operate with efficiency, enthusiasm, and who employ good business practices will be in the soundest position,” said retailer Peter Worsp.

“The biggest issue facing us really is worldwide price increases and the biggest test is how we (suppliers, nurseries, retailers) deal with this as an industry,” said Graham Saltiel, sales manager of potting mix producers Daltons.

This Aussie garden centre sells home brew
Finding add-on income streams for garden centres — first it was gift lines, then cafes, then pets, and for at least one Australian garden centre, now it’s home brew. Tom Lomer of Legana Plants Plus garden centre, Tasmania, is continuing to run the home brew section he inherited when he bought the business. “I think I’m the only garden centre with a home brew shop,” says Tom. “We decided to keep it going because you do have slow periods. Home brew sales pick up in the hotter part of Summer when we do get a little quieter.” It also gives the men something to look at and consider when the women come into browse, he says. There’s more on this in Comm Hort Dec-Jan issue.

Lancome voted Rose of the Year
The beautiful pink rose, Lancome (Delboip Delbard, France),.took the NZ Rose of the Year title at the Pacific Rose Bowl Festival 19-23 November 08, in Hamilton. The other winners are listed in Comm Hort Dec-Jan issue.

TV gardening show on the way
TVNZ’s new garden show series, based around the Ellerslie International Flower Show, began in December and TVNZ is looking at doing a 2009 Spring series if the present one gets good viewership.

Obituary: Georgie Gardner
Comm Hort Dec-Jan issue notes the passing of Georgie Gardner aged 73 on 4 December, a well-known nursery personality in New Zealand. Georgie started rose-specialist Avenue Nurseries with husband Phil a well-known scientist, nurseryman and mountain climber. They later retired to grow sub-tropical and new fruit varieties.

New-look logo and slogan for IPPS
A new logo and tag line – “Sharing Plant Production Knowledge Globally” – has been adopted by the International Plant Propagators’ Society. According to its international president, Terry Hatch, the new logo reflects the fact that the group’s focus has expanded beyond propagation and now encompasses the entire range of plant production activity. The Society now has 2100 members worldwide.

Promotions pull customers
A new bright-red Hyundai car was the big promotional prize at the Palmers Outside Thinking garden centre in Whangarei in December, the culmination of a series of promotions which had been successfully building store traffic during 2008. Customers had to spend $150 to go in the draw for the car. All the promotions, while aimed at bringing in more customers, were also designed to raise money for local charities.

In one, the city’s media editors had to drive around the garden centre on mobility scooters finding various items. Each time they found something, they had to donate $250 to a charity of their choice. Linking in-store promotions with charity money-raisers really works. Read more in Comm Hort Dec-Jan issue.

FEEDBACK
Have you run any successful promotions lately that you would like to share with other businesses? If so we’d love to hear about them. Please flick us a note to news@nursery.net.nz and we will contact you for details

Now it’s cool to be a gardener
No doubt about it – there’s a huge swing back to home vegetable growing. It’s an international phenomenon with garden centres around the world reporting big increases in seedlings and seeds. We carry several of these reports in Comm Hort Dec-Jan issue.

One of New Zealand’s major seedling growers, Evandale Plant Production, says it is being run off its feet with demand. “Since September we’ve gone into flat-out mode and it’s stayed that way ever since. Vegetable sales in September were 40 percent above last year and for October, they could be as much as 80 percent,” says manager Peter Brass. “And gardeners are definitely extending the range of plants they grow. Not long ago people would only grow the lettuces Webbs Wonderful for Spring and Triumph for Winter. Now it’s lines like gourmet salad, cos, Buttercrunch Red, Oak Leaf, Green Frills and the extremely good seller, Drunken Woman, as well as Tom Thumb and hearting lettuce, El Toro.”

We’ve heaps more on this subject in Comm Hort Dec-Jan issue – subscribe today – just click on the Comm Hort button on this page.

It’s been a great Spring for most in the NZ garden trade
Our ring-around of nurseries and garden centres occupies six information-packed pages of Dec-Jan Comm Hort and the general feedback from the trade is positive. Everyone is reporting increased sales of vegetable seedling plants. Sales of fruit trees are also up. Colour lines are always in demand and native plant popularity is also holding up.

One thing garden centres will have to be careful about re the return to grow-your-own veges trend, is to do everything possible to ensure their customers are successful and don’t have too many failures. Otherwise they might just give up. Karen Wood of California Home & Garden in Lower Hutt raises this issue. A “huge percentage” of her customers are keen to plant food crops, she says. “But will they continue next year, or will it all become too hard and they’ll go back to the supermarket? You can’t win sometimes.” Belinda Guthrie of Shotover Garden Centre in Queenstown says the weather down South can defeat gardeners too. “Some people are on their third lot of tomatoes. We seem to be having a frost every other week.” She agrees there can, however, be a fine line between customers persevering or giving up in disgust. This season though she seems to be on the winning side, she says.

FEEDBACK
What’s your feeling about this home vegetable growing phenomenon? Do you think it will last? Is the trade doing enough to help their customers be successful vegetable gardeners? Drop us an email to news@nursery.net.nz

Nurseryman takes Young Horticulturist of the Year Award
Jason Greene, sales manager for Rainbow Trees Auckland, in November became the first nursery industry representative to win the Young Horticulturist of the Year competition. Jason competed against representatives from seven other horticultural sectors to take the title. From a prize pool of more than $40,000 he received prizes exceeding $20,000, including overseas travel to further his horticultural interests and a Leadership NZ management course. Jason plans to use his travel prize in 2009 to visit his company’s suppliers and some of the larger nurseries in the UK and Holland.

Second and third places went to Jim Smith, technical manager for Satara in Tauranga representing the Fruit Sector of Horticulture NZ, and Toby Potter representing the Vegetable Sector of Horticulture NZ.

We have a full report and pics of all activities in the competition in Comm Hort Dec-Jan issue.

Nursery of the Year Award on again
Growing media manufacturers, Daltons, in association with NGIA, will again be running the Nursery of the Year competition again in 2009. Entry forms are now available. If you have any queries, please contact Frances at the NGIA Ph (04) 918 3511.

Gardening Gift Cards in supermarkets
The NZ Nursery & Garden Industry Association has added a Gardening Gift Card to the Gift Station stands that are set up in more than 400 supermarkets and other stores throughout New Zealand. The Card will be redeemable only at NGIA Member stores.

Diack’s first 100 years
The Diack family of Invercargill celebrated their nursery’s centenary late last year and Comm Hort Dec-Jan issue carries a feature article on the nursery, its history, and what has made it successful over such a long period. In 1908 Colin Diack, aged eight, went to the grocer’s shop in Ratanui in the Catlins where the family was then living to buy some cabbage seeds for his vegetable garden. The grocer said, “Son, I’ll give you the packet of seeds and you bring me the cabbages to sell in my shop and I’ll pay you for them.” Colin was happy with this arrangement and supplied vegetables to the store, marking the start of his dynasty’s involvement with horticulture. Read all about it in Comm Hort.

Living on the Margins
In Part 2 of our feature on the plants that inhabit the watery world of ponds, streams and bogs -- the marginals – we hear production tips and techniques from more expert growers and also talk to retailers about how they market these plants, what’s popular and what’s not.

Most people coming in store for ponds, pumps and plants know very little about what is required, says Hannah McCarthy who manages the water gardening sections of the Kings Plant Barn stores around Auckland, so having knowledgeable staff is essential. “I run a training programme for all staff who have anything to do with the water gardens. If staff don’t have the knowledge, customers don’t always come back.” Hannah also comments that ideally a pond should be at least a metre deep at its deepest part but in Auckland and Rodney by law it can only be 400mm. “At this depth and in full sun, it will become soup unless a filter is used,” she says. Other garden centres report increased interest from customers wanting to set up ponds and grow marginals.

So if you’re growing or selling marginal plants – you will really benefit from the expert advice in these articles from Comm Hort Aug-Sep and Dec-Jan issues.

Fiji and its magnificent kauri – Part 1
Plantsman Graeme Platt takes us on another of his tree-discovery trips, this time through the tropical forests of Fiji. This is a continuance of his lifelong ambition to visit every member of the araucariacaea family in its natural habitat. “So the purpose of our Fiji visit was to investigate as many aspects of Fijian kauri and its natural ecology as we could in the 12 days available,” says Graeme in this 6-page illustrated feature in Comm Hort Dec-Jan issue, Part 1 of a series.

“Like many members of the Agathis genus located under favourable climatic conditions, the Figian kauri, Agathis macrophylla (or Dakua Makadre as it is known in Fiji) is a tree capable of reaching enormous proportions. Huge specimens can exceed a height of 33m with a girth up to three metres or more at breast height. Their distinctive, barrel-like trunk and great heads of upward radiating branches, emerging above the forest canopy make these trees remarkably visible in their natural forest habitats.”

Graeme Platt is a world authority on the kauri and we are privileged to have him writing in Comm Hort.

Breeding bromeliads for New Zealand gardens
Andrew Maloy is a specialist NZ grower of bromeliads and an expert on the Bromeliaceae family of plants. This family consists of around 2400 species in some 59 genera with more species being added on a regular basis as they are identified in the wild. While the vast majority of these are native to South America, there are a few found in the southern states of America and one in West Africa. In this article in Comm Hort Dec-Jan issue, originally presented as a paper to the 2008 IPPS Conference in NZ, Andrew talks about the varieties suitable for NZ conditions and shares his invaluable experience with production techniques. “Architectural form, patterned foliage and colourful tones are the stand-out features of bromeliads. So what makes for great colour in bromeliads? Generally, the three main factors affecting foliage colour and pattern intensity in Vriesea cultivars appear to be genetics, age and light.” Andrew discusses each of these factors in detail and also talks about nutrition requirements and hybridising. Essential reading if you are growing bromeliads.

Defence mechanisms -- the many ways plants fend for themselves
“This may sound strange, but the ‘sedentary nature’ of plants explains a lot about the incredibly complex means by which they have evolved to cope with their natural environs. Unlike animals they cannot run away from predators, walk to water, or hide in a cave or a hole in the ground when conditions become too inclement in the cold of Winter or the heat of Summer. From the time the seed decides conditions are suitable enough for germination, the plant is anchored to that spot for its entire life span, which as we know, can be thousands of years.”  So says our botanist Fiona Eadie in her Comm Hort Dec-Jan article where she explores the many mechanisms plants have evolved to protect themselves. Interestingly, she notes that one of these – bark – “is pumped full of chemicals toxic to plant pests and diseases.” Because of that, she says, it may not be suitable to use as a mulch if you want that mulch to also provide a food source for the plants it surrounds.

Subscribe to Commercial Horticulture Magazine today – we’d love to have you on board. Click the Comm Hort button on this page for worldwide subscription rates.

Above is a synopsis of articles printed in Commercial Horticulture - Magazine of the Nursery Industry.

For information on Commercial Horticulture, including subscribing, please visit the Comm Hort Feature Page.