A return to vegetable gardening?

Garden retailers report that a cooler, wetter start to Summer this year has been good news because it’s meant people have been able to keep gardening longer than normal. Common themes reported to Comm Hort about sales into early Feb were that roses have been selling steadily and the trend back to vegetable gardening is continuing.

“Shrubs, colour vegetables, especially lettuces, cabbage, broccoli and silver beet are our major sellers,” said Greg Diack of Diack’s Nurseries Invercargill. “Vegetable and fruit gardening is popular. We’ve bought in a lot more edibles this year,” said Kaye Reardon of Williams Mitre 10 in Wellington.

“There’s a definite swing to vegetable and fruit tree growing . Smaller sections mean people are espaliering fruit trees and also citrus such as mandarins. We’ve also held pruning and fruit tree growing seminars during the Winter and it’s catching on well,” said Adrian McLeod of Fairfields, New Plymouth.

NGIA optimistic about 2007
“The NGIA is really looking forward to this year,” says its president Lance Bills.

Things that are going well for the Association and its members he notes are the new gift card scheme, the revamped Let’s Go Gardening magazine, the Cool Kids Grow programme in schools, and the PTL trolley system.

A highlight of the year will be the combined NGIA / LIANZ (landscape industry) conference in June. “We’re expecting a very good turnout, possible 250 or more.”

You can get more info on this, and the NGIA generally, from its website www.ngia.co.nz

IPPS conference programme
This year’s IPPS annual conference will be held at the Quality Hotel in New Plymouth 26-28 April. It’s a big one and you can make a week of it by taking in the pre-conference tours to Mt Taranaki, Pukekura and Pukeiti Parks, and the Coast and islands.

New strains of phytophthora found
Landcare Research, ENSIS and HortResearch, using DNA-based methods, have identified several previously unrecognised species of phytophthora in New Zealand which are associated with ill-health and death of kauri and other trees.

One in particular, phytophthora kernovia, previously known only from Cornwall in the UK, was found under diseased cherimoya trees and from soil under kauri in Northland.

Angela is back
Angela Moon-Jones, formerly with Tui Products and more recently in real estate with her husband Rob, has joined Fairfax magazines as advertising manager for The New Zealand Gardener.

Native plant seed collector fined
Simon Vallings of Forest Floor Nursery was fined $800 plus $200 costs in December after he decided to change his plea from not guilty to guilty to a charge of taking native seed from DoC administered land. But, he says, its was worth it. “It costs $250 per concession to collect seed now and I’ve been collecting for 10 years so it’s only $85 per year.”

Trinity Roses for sale
Lloyd and Ann Chapman of Trinity Farm Roses in Otaki, well known for its range and quality of its old-fashioned roses, have the business on the market.

Palmerston North Rose Trials
Six new roses with the potential to grace the gardens of New Zealand for many years to come have been recognised with awards at the New Zealand International Rose Trial Grounds in Palmerston North.

Winner of the premier award was an exciting new rose called SOMlinone, bred by Rob Somerfield of Glenavon Roses, Tauranga. There’s a full report on the trials in Feb Comm Hort.

New buttercup identified
A rare alpine buttercup with large yellow flowers has been identified in North Otago mountain ranges.

Landcare Research botanist, Dr Peter Heenan, has named it Ranunculus acraeus (pronounced a- CRAE-us).

FEATURES IN COMM HORT FEBRUARY 2007
PERSONALITY PROFILE – SAM McGREDY
A truly international figure in the world of horticulture, rose breeder supreme Sam McGredy, tells his story.

NEW MICHELIA SELECTIONS
They could make michelias rival camellias, says Mark Jury.

THE FANTASTIC POOR KNIGHTS ISLANDS
Join Kerry Johnstone on a trip to this horticultural treasure

FEATURE NURSERY – JORDAN’S OF TINWALD6
At 133 years, Jordan’s is now one of New Zealand’s oldest nurseries

FEATURE PLANT – PSEUDOPANAX.  PART 1
A profile of one of New Zealand’s best-known native plants

HOW THINGS MIGHT BE IN 2026
John Stanley looks into his crystal ball and finds good news for independent retailers

NURSERY MANAGEMENT
Work-experience student, Peter van Rijssen, compares the nursery scenes in New Zealand and Europe

WIND POLLINATION
Fiona Eadie continues her series on Plant Basics

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.