Saudis to build the world’s biggest indoor garden
The largest indoor garden in the world is to be built on 10 hectares in the Saudi Arabian desert near the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Designed by British botanists and landscape architects, The King Abdullah International Gardens will cost an estimated 100 million pounds and feature the 400 million year history of trees, flowers and other plants from the Devonian period to the present.

Big programme to promote potato growing next year
Growers and garden centres, already reporting a renewed interest from customers in home vegetable planting, may well see a surge of interest in potatoes and potato planting because of a number of activities planned to celebrate the International Year of the Potato next year. The promotions, announced at the Horticulture New Zealand conference last month, are aimed to increase awareness of the potato as a food in developing nations and promote research and development of potato-based horticulture systems.

Montana Medal for book 50 years in the making
It took more than 50 years for author and botanical artist, Audrey Eagle, to complete a book that depicts every NZ tree and shrub, some of them now extinct, through 800 hand-painted images. Last month judges Dr Paul Millar, David Larsen and Morrin Rout awarded Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand the 2007 Montana Medal for non-fiction. They described the book as a “monumental work” and a “magnificent tribute to Audrey Eagle’s vision, perseverance and consummate skill as a botanical artist”.

Plants prefer their own kind
Research from McMaster University in Canada has found that plants of the same species share the human quality of altruism — unselfishness. In other words, always ensure that you put plants of the same species together in a pot as they will not increase their root growth at each other’s expense; whereas when two different plants share the same pot, each plant starts growing more roots in an endeavour to grab more water and any nutrients in the media before the stranger planted with it gets them.

Australian breeder to present many new plants at Trade Day
Bush Diamond, a new compact white anigozanthos (Kangaroo Paw) in the Bush Gem Series, is among several plants to be offered in NZ by Ramm Botanicals of NSW, who are exhibiting for the first time at Auckland’s Spring Trade Day 22 August. Ramm says it is keen to introduce their greatly-expanded range of plants to NZ growers and are releasing more than 45 new varieties including Pacific Series, brachyscome as well as ozomanthus, mandevilla, hardenbergia, and pimelea.

Council orders removal of ‘exotic’ Norfolk Pines
The Rodney District Council wants retired fruit tree grower, John Vallings, to remove several Norfolk Pines from his Muriwai farm property. John believes these Norfolk Pines should be allowed to stay — because they’re NZ natives. Graeme Platt of the NZ Botanical Research Institute in Albany, says he is prepared to support John’s claim.
He believes the Norfolk Pine, Araucaria heterophylla, evolved in the NZ region of Gondwanaland at least 120 million years ago. But it became too cold for it to survive in NZ and “it was forced on to Norfolk Island during the ice ages.”

Ex-Palmers man joins garden centre consultancy
John Russell, previously operations manager for Palmers Gardenworld, joined Brett & Associates earlier this year. The Brett international garden centre consultancy, based in Blenheim, has a large client base in several countries as well as NZ and offers a range of consultancy services from business planning, store layout and design, merchandising, signage to recruitment and people management, training, KPI monitoring and mentoring.

New nursery manager or Evandale
Karl Herman, previously the nursery’s production manager, has been appointed as nursery manager at Evandale Plant Production in Invercargill. Karl now 28, has been at Evandale for 15 years, “I love it. My family have owned nurseries and garden centres. It’s in my blood which is probably green. I’ve just always been passionate about plants”.

A great experience, says IPPS four-pack conference helpers
The call is going out early this year for young people in the industry to apply for the “four pack” positions for next years’ International Plant Propagators’ Society Conference which will be an international event held at the Langholm hotel in April. The successful applicants will be fully involved in the conference with particular responsibility to assist with the smooth running of the various activities and events.

Trees for Survival group aims to plant 60,000 trees a year
Wyn Blackie, a member of the horticultural department at Manukau Institute of Technology estimates she collects 90,000 seeds a year which are sown at MIT, then sold as seedlings to the conservation organisation, Trees for Survival, which last year co-ordinated the planting of 60,000 trees nationwide. By involving schools in the strategy, Trees for Survival says it teaches children about trees and their importance in the environment. The organisation has also developed partnerships with service clubs, councils, business sponsors and volunteers.

Students from overseas want more practical study options
An increasing number of international students coming to NZ are opting or more practical courses, rather than business courses, and this is boosting numbers taking National Certificate of Horticulture Level 4 courses run by the Royal Business College in Christchurch.

New nemesia and bracteantha
Three new Sunsatia Nemesia hybrids — Mango, Cassis and Guava — from Aussie Winners will be released in New Zealand in September/October. The Sunsatias have been bred to produce plants with greater vigour, more flowers and larger blooms. Also on its way, but in limited numbers from Aussie Winners, is Sundaze Bracteantha. These plants tolerate dry and hot conditions, are free-flowering and produce long-lasting blooms.

RNZIH Plant Raisers Award for Mark Jury
Plant breeder Mark Jury of Jury’s Nurseries, Waitara, has received the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture Plant Raiser’s Award.

Nursery Round-Up
Comm Hort’s survey finds retailers in good heart in mid-Winter. A 4-page report is featured in this month’s issue and includes comments from Stephen Major of River of Life Garden Centre in Kaitaia; Barry Mackie of Mackies Garden Centre, Central Otago; Carolyn Harris of The Girlz garden centre New Plymouth; Adrian McLeod of Fairfields, New Plymouth; Daniel Hart of Oderings Nurseries, Havelock North; Kathryn Perkins at Kings Plant Barn in Howick; Wendy Wild and Nic Preece of Wild Things Garden Centre & Florist in Darfield; Angie and Neil Sca of Palmers Levin;

Autumn award to Grove
Grove Mitre 10, Auckland, has won the 2007 Quality Growers’ award for best display in its Autumn is The Time For Planting promotion.

Personality Profile - Appleton's
Just south of Wakefield, near Nelson, you’ll find the largely open-ground tree production nursery of the Appleton family and the home of Eric and his son Robert Appleton, the subjects of this month’s profile. Eric was born in 1934 in Middlesborough, an industrial city in the north of England. Among his earliest recollections are during the war years when as a young child, his mother Vera and he would bike into the countryside and pick bluebells, primroses and also things like blackberries “to eke out our rations.”
These trips awoke from deep within the young boy his great and lasting love of trees and nature generally. Eric left the UK on 10 September 1956, and journeyed across the world on a 197cm, two-stroke, James motorcycle with little more than the bare necessities and his travelling documents, to eventually reach NZ and the start of a new life. Meanwhile, there was little doubt that Eric’s son Robert Appleton would be introduced early to horticulture, working in the nursery in his school holidays, he says, “as a matter of financial necessity.” You can read more on the Appletons in this months issue of Commercial Horticulture magazine.

Garden Centre of the Year competition to be reinstated
The Retail Sector Group of the NGIA, with the support of Yates NZ, is keen to rekindle the Garden Centre of the Year award, last held three years ago. The award was designed to raise industry standards, but more importantly to raise public awareness of the value of their local garden centre. It is also an opportunity for garden centres to evaluate their “shopping experience” through the eyes of professional but independent judges and for staff to evaluate their own performances and have some fun.

Hampton Court Flower Show
Jacqui and Robin Stubbs walk us through a show that is just “one rung down the status ladder from Chelsea”. Jacqui reports that ‘a strong theme coming through this year was the perceived need to involve and educate children about gardening and the role of plants in their lives’. For the full 4-page report and magnificent pictures, see this month’s issue of Commercial Horticulture.

Feature Plant – Proteas Part 2
Leading growers in Australia and New Zealand share their inside information on the plant in a 6-page illustrated article. Taking part are: David Mathews of Proteaflora Nursery, Australia’s leading producer of protea; Clive Larkman of Larkman Nurseries, another Australian nursery in Melbourne; Jenni Hyde of Morgan Fields, Lyttelton on Banks Peninsula; Diane Mason of Masons Nurseries; Freda Gibbs of Gibbs Nursery in Dannevirke; and Mary Duncan of Vibrant Earth in Nelson.

Confessions of a Landscaper
Landscaper Mike Mansvelt, of Plantation, New Plymouth, explains his landscape philosophy and plant choice in five different landscape designs he and his team have created. Pictures of each of the gardens along with explanations of his design philosophy are featured in this article.

Recruiting And Interviewing Staff
Report of a panel discussion at the recent NGIA Conference. The discussion was the best-attended event at the conference which means it is a significant topic for the industry.

Book Reviews
This month Comm Hort reviews “The Rhododendrons of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo” by Dr George Argent, Anthony Lamb and Anthea Phillips – “a beautifully-produced monograph describing 42 vireya rhododendrons from Sabah, mostly from the Mount Kinabulu area.” We also take a look at “The Wirtz Gardens” by Peter Taylor, which talks about the history of the gardens along with 490 colour photos of 57 private and public gardens by Chilean photographer, Marco Antonio Valdivia.

All About Fruit And Seed – Part 2
Fiona Eadie continues her series on plant basics, talking about the importance of the role of fruit in seed dispersal. The full 4-page story can be found in this month’s Comm Hort.

New Products And Services . . .
New products and services featured in Comm Hort this month include outdoor furniture crafted from old wood, new growing media from coir pith, flexible water bladders that can hold up to 30,000 litres, and a range of concrete garden accessories.

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

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