Major nursery group formed by Jornas
Jornas Ltd of Christchurch has expanded its operations by taking over Zealandia Auckland, Andersons Zealandia South and Valley Nurseries. Simon Thompson of Anderson’s Zealandia, is general manager of the new entity named Zealandia Group Ltd, comprising of these three nurseries.

Growing Spectrum is Nursery of the Year
One of NZ’s largest wholesale plant nurseries, Growing Spectrum, has won the Dalton’s 2007 Nursery of the Year title. The nursery’s victory was announced at the NGIA/LIANZ Awards dinner held in Nelson in June over the other three finalists—Tharfield Nursery from Katikati, Waimea Nurseries from Nelson and Ambrosia Nurseries from Christchurch.

Thumbs up for conference
The combined NGIA/LIANZ Conference, held in Nelson last month, has proven to be a success and “something we want to repeat”, says new LIANZ President Elle Anderson. Both organisations were thrilled with the outcomes of the conference and the interactions between the two associations. New NGIA president, Peter Fraser, is hopeful that the next combined conference with LIANZ will be in 2010.

Living Earth moves
After 18 months of arguing its case before both the Environment Court and the High Court, the media and composting company, Living Earth, was granted resource consent in late June to move from its four hectare Pikes Point site in Onehunga to Puketutu Island in the Manukau Harbour.

Morgans Rd changes hands
After managing Morgans Rd Nursery for three years, Grant and Donna Robertson have taken the plunge and are now owners of the 3.5 hectare, Blenheim-based wholesale and retail nursery. Grant says previous owners Lee and Dawn Gilbert “have created a nursery they can really be proud of, building it up from bare land since starting in 1987”. The nursery sticks mainly to natives, landscape and revegetation trees, shrubs and grasses and is mainly targeting the revegetation market.

Beach care group grows pingao
A group of environmentally concerned people from Dunedin’s Tomahawk Beach and Smaills Beach, south of Dunedin, have raised $30,000 to establish a nursery to grow pingao, or pikau, as the grass is called in the area. The group, which started about seven years ago to help mitigate the problem of erosion and sand dune blowout by cleaning up the beaches and planting pikau, raised the money from lotteries, businesses and private individuals. The nursery, sited on a group member’s private property at Moa Head, will hold some 4000-5000 plants.

Plant Production turns 40
It has been 40 years since Richard Ware of Plant Production in Napier elevated his part-time backyard propagating operation into a fulltime business. Richard, who studied the Dip Hort course at Massey, propagated for Andersons Nurseries for seven years and at the same time built up his own propagation nursery in his parents’ backyard, selling liners to large Wellington and Auckland nurseries. As his business expanded, Richard eventually found the hillside property where he established his nursery from, and estimates he has supplied 60 million or so liners around the country. Congratulations, Richard, on reaching this milestone.

Nursery Round-Up
Our ring-around finds nurseries them beavering away and, even though it’s still mid-Winter, already starting to get excited about Spring..Included in the survey are Nga Rakau Nursery, Bruntwood Nurseries, Bayliss Nurseries and Tropi-Folia

Conference Report
Kerry Johnstone presents a comprehensive report on last month’s NGIA / LIANZ Conference. The combined event included field trips to Appletons, Vibrant Earth, Waimea, Big Trees on Lansdowne, and Gardens of the World. A full 10-page report of the event features in July Comm Hort.

Bay Nurseries for sale
Brothers Kim and Kerry Thorns of Bay Nurseries in Richmond, have put their nursery and garden centre on the market after 33 years in the business started by their father, David Thorns. Kim and Kerry plan to continue with their property development business and other commercial investments once they’ve sold. They also have a small orchard growing apples as well as working with cherries and avocados.

Growz on U Garden Centre opens in Thames
Paul and Irene Green, who run a landscaping operation, All Garden Works in Thames, now also own a new garden centre—Growz on U. They are no strangers to the garden centre trade, having owned a garden centre in the 1970’s before starting Aeroview Garden Centre, now Aeroview Gardenworld, further down the road. Melanie Crean manages the new garden centre just out of town towards Kopu. It is a large family business with Paul and Irene’s son, Michael, owning half the business and working in the landscape operation. Daughter, Paulette, runs the office and another daughter, Lisa, manages the nursery that supplies many of the plants to the garden centre.

Bayliss buys into Growell
Ross and Lorraine Bayliss, of Bayliss Nurseries in Rangiora, have bought into Growell Ornamental Plants, the plant broking business owned by John and Terri van der Elst of Waitara, New Plymouth. Ross, who has 30 years in the nursery industry, says he’s “relishing the new opportunity while staying in the industry I enjoy so much”.

Feature Plant – Proteas Part 1
In July issue Comm Hort talks to New Zealand’s leading growers of proteas, once so popular, and now looking like making a comeback. Although they are one of the world’s most attractive plants, proteas have proven to be a difficult plant and last year’s Nursery Register listed only 25 growers in New Zealand. In this month’s 5-page feature we talk to Geoff Jewell of Te Horo Ornamentals and Tony White and Wendy Marshall of Protea Patch Nursery about the pros and cons of these spectacular plants.

Feature Nursery Lowlands
This month Comm Hort’s feature nursery is liner growers Lowlands Nursery, owned by Ian and Robin Frankhauser, and located at Tikorangi, just 15km from New Plymouth. “We’ve developed it as we’ve gone along”, says Ian; he and his wife began in 1987. Now the nursery turns out some 630,000 plants per year and is still developing.

Rhododendron Time
A look at one of Taranaki’s major attractions — it’s annual Rhododendron and Garden Festival. Each year gardeners throughout Taranaki throw open their gardens to visitors from around New Zealand and the world, and this month Comm Hort features pictures of some of these magnificent gardens.

Making Pineapple Lilies For The World
Eddie Welsh tells of his love affair with eucomis, the pineapple lily. A long-time tutor at Massey University (from 1980-1999), Eddie began his own nursery in 1995. A visiting Japanese friend of his, Mr Saito, saw a bed of gorgeous pineapple lilies in the South African collection of the Auckland Botanic Gardens and said, “Eddie — I want 5000 of those bulbs!” starting Eddie on what was to be a 12-year quest which would lead him into “making pineapple lilies for the world . . .”.

Gardening In The Year 2032 – A Prediction
Ian Clark, manager of the Canterbury Horticultural Society, takes an educated look 25 years down the garden path. Making predictions as to what may happen in the future is a pick and mix at best, and all we can do is look at the trends among the array of choices available, and try to see what may fit into the shopping trolley. To get a better idea of what is expected in the future, you can read this month’s issue.

How Things Are Across The Tasman
Mike Skegg brings us up to date with what’s happening in the Australian garden industry. Mike, ex-pat Kiwi and CEO of the NGIA of NSW and ACT, says the New Zealand industry can learn plenty from what’s happening across the Tasman, where the ongoing water shortage continues to dominate and distort. Summarising, he said: “the water situation is critical in all States. Advertising funds have dried up. Hardware chains like Bunnings with 40 percent of the market are dominating. Landscaping is growing. Everyone is talking pet care. The best operators are still growing because they’ve taken someone else’s market share. To survive, small operators in Sydney have to have a niche or they’re disappearing . . .”

John Stanley Says . . .
Is your plant manager holding your business back? asks this article. Are we recruiting the right people to manage the plant area? This critical department needs a person who has retail, managerial and horticultural skills. Are plant managers keeping in tune with consumer trends outside of the core product of plants? Or have they become engrossed in the product at the expense of the other skills required? John provides a list of pointers for improving plant management inretail.

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.