From the files of Commercial Horticulture - NZ's Nursery Industry Magazine:
We seem to be cataloguing business closures more and more these days in Comm Hort. Noted in our February/March 09 issue are 100 year-old Fryers Nursery which closed in Invercargill. “We just weren’t doing well enough,” said owner Robbie Gilchrist. “It was a struggle to get through last Winter and since October/November the trend looked as if it would continue. I think everyone is feeling it a bit.” Also closing was Bell Roses in Auckland, following the passing of Laurie Bell’s wife June at Christmas. The Plant Shop in Blenheim has closed as has Etherington’s Nursery in Richmond, Nelson, although Geoff Etherington is keeping his extensive aloe collection and will continue to work on it. The Etherington’s have sold their “Gardens of the World” public display gardens as well.
While not closing, Alastair Turnbull has put his Talisman Nurseries in Otaki on the market. Talisman grows an extensive range of NZ natives, mainly of them of the rarer or more unusual species and cultivars, so it is to be hoped that this will continue under whoever takes over. We don’t want to keep losing specialist nurseries. Alastair, now 80, says he laments the fact that there are fewer plants now available for the serious gardener. “As garden centres will tell you, ‘if it doesn’t sell tomorrow we’re not interested in it anymore.’ Of course, there are many factors which come into it but it is a shame.” Our picture shows Alastair in his nursery.The Greenery garden centre closed in Ashburton without fanfare at the end of last year and that snuck under our radar. We hope to have more on this in our next Comm Hort issue, April/May. The Greenery was the front end of Millichamps Nursery which closed a year or so back, having been an Ashburton icon since 1886. It would be interesting sometime to compile a list of the old-established nurseries, garden retailers and suppliers who were still around hale and hearty in say the 1970s, but who are no longer with us today. But that would probably make us all too depressed.
The vegetable seedling boom continues
In our Feb/March issue we publish the results of a little survey we did at Comm Hort trying to gauge the extent of the return-to-home-vege-growing trends that seem to be sweeping the country, indeed the world. And everyone we spoke to reported big increases in vege and herb seedling sales, also fruit trees — the biggest lift in year-to-year sales being 211% noted by Pacifica Garden Centre in the Bay of Plenty.
Metallion changes hands
Aluminium high-class ornamental pot and planter manufacturer, Metallion Ltd of Wellington, has been sold to Metal Art Ltd also of Wellington. Comm Hort has had a long association with Metallion’s Trish and Alan Brown and will certainly miss them. They were regulars at Trade Days and their innovation, not only in their designs but also in their quirky ways of doing things, was challenging and inspirational. They named one of their pot ranges Karaka, because they launched it at one of the Trade Days we were then holding at the Karaka horse stables in South Auckland. Alan has now joined the Wellington City Council’s Waterfront Ltd as property manager. Good luck to the Brown’s and also welcome to Tracy and Carl Longstaff of Metal Art. You can see the combined ranges of Metallion and Metal Art on display at Auckland Trade Day 1 April.
Bits and Pieces
Plant breeder Keith Hammett has had his dahlia ‘Woodbridge’ (see pic) nominated for an Award of Garden Merit by the UK’s Royal Horticultural Society.
An importer in Victoria Australia brought in seed of what he thought was harmless Stipa lessingiana but it has turned Mexican feather grass, a major threat to the country’s livestock industry. Bio Security officials are busy trying to recover some thousands of plants that have been sold.Margaret Russell, former owner of Riverview Nurseries in Auckland, a specialist in ferns and daylilies, has popped back up in the industry after a 4-year absence as accounts manager for compost people Living Earth.
Some of the public have been complaining that their swan plants have been killing the very Monarch Butterfly caterpillars they were purchased to feed. That’s because they may have been sprayed with insecticides by (probably only a few) of the nurseries growing them or the garden centres selling them. Responsible growers and retailers say they don’t sell swan plants until spray withholding periods have elapsed.
Entries are now open for four major industry awards organised by the Nursery & Garden Industry Association. They are the Scotts Innovation Award recognising inventions of unique systems, practices or equipment; the Hortfert Young Achiever Award, open to contestants under 30 years old; the NZ Gardener Marketing Awards for excellence in advertising and promotions; and the Dalton’s Nursery of the Year, which is a two-yearly event. Have a look at the NGIA’s website www.ngia.co.nz for more details.
Work together to survive “My priority is to see our industry working together, networking and capitalising on the opportunities that abound,” says NGIA president Peter Fraser, talking about how to survive the current recession. “Gardening is the new buzz word,” he says. People today want “fresh, chemical free, flavoursome home grown products. Our industry has an opportunity to lead the recovery by advertising self-sufficiency, fresh-grown and the associated health benefits of gardening. Members of our industry need to be attracting as much attention as possible to gardening through media, family and friends.”
The first authentic Chinese Garden in the southern hemisphere opened in Dunedin recently. Eight years in the making and costing some $7.5 million, it celebrates the long association the region has with China dating back to the Gold Rush days when many Chinese came to NZ to try their luck.
We have more on all these stories in Comm Hort Feb/March issue. Why not subscribe today?
Nurseries busy potting up
“We’re busy potting up,” was the most common comment Comm Hort editor Kerry Johnstone heard when he rang around nurseries in late January for a report in our Feb/March issue. And while all were pondering an uncertain future as the economy continues to decline, most said they were just head down and getting on with things. People commenting were Guy Bowden of Tawapou Coastal Plants, Whangarei, whose into making timber sculptures these days (see Pic); KV Rao of Auckland Racing Club Nursery (“We sold out of vegetable seedlings completely. We’ve never sold so many. It was like a property boom!”); Paul Clark, Clark’s Nursery Christchurch “Everything is selling well. Touch wood. It must be my turn . . .”); Karen Hall of Islington Gardens, Blenheim; Cary Middeldorf of Signature Plants, Auckland.
Retail roundup800-900 people turned up at Palmers Garden Centre in Whangarei to witness the draw for a new car on 18 December, one of several promotions manager Damian Lutten (pictured with car) was running over Spring to increase store foot traffic and raise money for charities. Customers had to spend $150 to enter and in the end there around 700 entries from 600 individuals, some entering up to five times. In her retail roundup in Comm Hort Feb/March issue our correspondent Trish Hosking also talked to Rhys Gibbs of the Nichols Garden Centre Group, Dunedin; Helen Brown and Graham Haslam of Wanaka Garden Centre; Wendy Schick and John Davies of Tumbleweeds Coastal Plants, Matakana; Bill Robinson of Tikitere Gardens, Rotorua; and Vicki McInerney of Westflora Nurseries, Westport, who is finding a special vegetable display garden she set up is proving very successful in promoting sales.
Bromeliad Man – Andrew MaloyWe’ve got a great 4-page profile in Comm Hort Feb/March issue on specialist bromeliad grower, Andrew Maloy, who is pretty well known throughout the trade for his work with the IPPS, the RNZIH, industry training Trusts etc. Andrew traces his roots back to a tiny village called Saltcoats on the west coast of Scotland which he says, attracts only those holidaymakers who like ‘cold swims.’ In 1973 while managing a raspberry farm north of Inverness, Andrew had a chance meeting with a Kiwi girl who would become his wife and lead him all the way back to NZ. When he’s not growing broms Andrew likes nothing better than to jump into the couple’s camper van and head for the wilderness. You’ll enjoy this story.
Nursery Profile – D.J. ScottsIn our Feb/March issue Comm Hort profiles an unusual entity on the NZ nursery scene – D.J. Scotts, founded 20 years ago by Dennis Scott on bare farmland out of Whangarei. Since then this operation has grown into an amorphous mix that now employs resource management consultants, ecologists, landscape architects, urban designers, rural planners, and implementation specialists – as well as running three substantial production nurseries.
Our feature covers 4 pages. A feature of the nurseries is that most plants are grown on raised beds “for root-pruning and staff health and safety.” Our pic shows one such production ares.
Fiji and its Magnificent Kauri – Part 2The inimitable plantsman Graeme Platt continues his trip through the tropical forests of Fiji in search of Agathis macrophylla, the Fijian kauri. This is a continuance of his lifelong ambition to visit every member of the aracauriacea family in its natural habitat. His 3-part report concludes in Comm Hort next issue. Picture shows a Fijian nurseryman with his crop of Agathis macrophylla and mahogany Swietenia macrophylla.
The Charm and Challenge of Wineberry HybridsEugenie Ombler of Cromwell has been working with wineberry hybrids for more than 20 years and is now focusing on making six selections commercially available. In Comm Hort Feb/March issue we background over 2 pages this work and describe the selections chosen, with good pictures. Eugenie’s Pioneer Collection of wineberry hybrids, some of which bear fruit, are suitable for home gardeners and landscapers and can be used as hedging or for revegetation. Our picture shows Wineberry Kingsley Butler.
Regional Convention of the World Rose FederationNZ rose man, Hayden Foulds, brings us a detailed report of this Convention, held in Adelaide, and of the nursery tours that surrounded it in a 4-page feature in Comm Hort Feb/March issue. Great stuff for rose lovers. Our picture shows part of the the K&V Trimper rose garden which was on one of the nursery tours.
The Vertical GardenThere’s an excellent book out about the unusual practice of growing gardens up the walls of buildings, and Touchwood Books’ Peter Arthur reviews it for us in Comm Hort Feb/March issue. French biologist Peter Blanc, complete with green hair, is a pioneer of the new form of landscaping and goes into the subject in detail, accompanied by some wonderful pictures. You would love this if you are a landscaper. Some of our NZ buildings could do with a good coating of plants. Are there any of these vertical gardens in NZ? Give us a call if you know of any.
Defence mechanisms — the many ways plants fend for themselves
In Part 2 of her examination of this subject in Comm Hort Feb/March issue, our botanist Fiona Eadie delves deeper into some of the more sophisticated methods plants use to protect and defend themselves. Some of this information is very new, she says, as research is only now beginning to bring it to light.
What’s Coming Up
Comm Hort April/May issue will be covering the Trade Days in both Christchurch and Auckland, also the Ellerslie Flower Show being held in Christchurch for the first time. We’ll start the first part of an indepth look at Coprosmas and Graeme Platt will conclude his report on Fiji. Plenty more as well.
