There’s much more on all these topics in Comm Hort Magazine November – why not subscribe today!!

Industry loses a passionate powerhouse of perennials
Adele Penn, of Colorworx Nursery, Tauranga, one of the industry’s most enthusiastic and passionate nurserywomen, passed away on Thursday 18 October after the discovery 18 months ago that she was suffering from incurable motor neurone disease. Comm Hort staff extend their sincere sympathy to Dave and the family and the Colorworx team.

Carbon footprint research
The UK’s Horticulture Trade Association is funding a three-year research programme at Reading University to investigate the carbon footprint of typical garden plants. The project will investigate the positive environmental contribution that plants make in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Retail Round-up -- weather poor but sales hold up over Labour Weekend
“Whangarei was windy and cold, but we had our best ever Labour Weekend for 17 years”, says Trish Hosking, of Sciadopitys Garden Centre, “so we’re very happy. We spent the weekend running and for that matter the weekend before too.” This was the general concensus about Labour Weekend from GCs Comm Hort spoke to. Included in our survey were Rhys Gibbs of Nichols on North Road Invercargill and Nichols on Teviot Street, Sean Dixon of Old Stables Nursery and Gifts, Christchurch, new owners of Palmers Gardenworld in Palmerston North, Jenny Watts and Sharon Orchard, and Colin McPherson of Colin McPherson’s Garden Centre in Palmerston North. See Comm Hort Nov issue for full report on Labour Weekend trading.

Sciadopitys Garden Centre sold
Trish and David Hosking have sold Sciadopitys Garden Centre, Whangarei, to locals, Peter and Kris Ruddell.

Terry Hatch elected world president of the IPPS
Terry Hatch of Joy Plants, Pukekohe, is the new world president of the International Plant Propagators Society and will assume responsibility at the end of December. He and Margaret have just returned from this year’s IPPS tour in October, which started in Washington and ended with the international conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “The presidency comes round every eight years so at the board meeting as vice-president, it was inevitable that I’d get the role particularly as New Zealand is holding the international conference here in Auckland in May next year”, says Terry. He reports that all is on track for the Auckland IPPS conference with the New Zealand tour and most of the speakers and programme settled.

Changes at Allenton Nurseries
Lew Matthews, who has been general manager of Allenton Nurseries Ltd in Ashburton for the last six years took over as managing direction from Bruce McIlroy on 1 November 2007. Bruce and his wife, Philomena, continue as owners and directors of the company but Bruce’s main thrust will be with his busy Bentley and Rolls Royce Service Centre. Lew continues to handle the production of the nursery’s catalogue and general promotional work and from 2008 will be doing most of this work offsite. He will also work in an advisory capacity to the nursery management team.

Shifting a nursery no easy matter
Buying a nursery is one thing, but shifting it from Tauranga to Christchurch is another. Or so Greg and Jenny Tod found out after buying mail order business Parva Plants in July from its former owners, Ian and Barbara Duncalf. To read more you can find this story in this month’s news section.

New owners for importers Mercury Pots
Jenny Matheson and John Dallimore have sold their eight year old business, Mercury Pots Plus, Whitianga, to Waihekeans, Mike and Lorraine Jeffcoat. Mike comes from the financial world and Lorraine has been working on a couple of property projects which are now complete. Looking for something challenging and different but involved with gardening and landscaping, the pair are now busy coming to grips with the business and by Christmas will have move the pots and accessories from their Kopu depot to an Auckland warehouse.

Hilary Star swaps careers for a new role in teaching
This month the enthusiastic and always cheerful industry personality Hilary Star, after four years as sales manager of Plant Wholesalers in Auckland, took up a new position at Unitec. Her new role is teaching and managing the diploma in Not for Profit Management. Congratulations Hilary, and best wishes from Commercial Horticulture.

Winton Garden Centre in new hands
Sharron Kean is the new owner of Winton Garden Centre having taken over from Susan Johnston, who is now at Nichols on North Road, in Invercargill. Sharron has a farming background and describes herself as a very keen gardener who decided to “give it a go!” Since taking over, Sharron has bought in a good number of specimen maples, weeping cherries and birches which are selling very well, she says.

IPPS seeks young volunteers for 2008 conference
The International Plant Propagators’ Society (IPPS) is keen to hear from young industry people prepared to make up the 2008 four-pack, the team whose task it is to assist in running the annual IPPS conference. Next year’s conference is at the Langham Hotel in Auckland in May. The deadline for applications 18 January 2008. Phone 03 384 2339 or email nalinnz@paradise.net.nz.

Diamonds Forever rose marks 60 years in business
To mark their 60th anniversary, rose growers Matthews Nurseries of Wanganui have released a new rose called Diamonds Forever, a fragrant yellow hybrid tea.

Dunedin’s new tropical gardens
The Otago Museum opened a new attraction on 3 November – Discovery World Tropical Forest. There are almost 150 varieties of tropical plants from almost all of the world’s tropical countries. Phalaenopsis and paphiopedilum orchids, bromeliads, philodendrons, strelitizias, vrieseas, heliconia, ginger, hibiscus, ficus, musa, verbena and passionfruit are some of the subjects that have been planted. The forest provides the environment for the main attraction — the more than 1000 imported tropical butterflies.

Growing Spectrum’s Horticultural School
Comm Hort feature article: In the year 2000, Carol Fraser of Growing Spectrum Nursery at Kihikihi, opened a School of Horticulture in the nursery’s converted garden centre shop. It was the start of a successful enterprise now in its 7th year. Initially her school programme was 18 weeks but it was soon extended to a more useful 36 weeks. Class numbers vary between 10 and 13 with students coming from both the local area and as far afield as New Plymouth and Tauranga. A major proportion of the course is on propagation by way of seed, cuttings, division, budding and grafting across a wide range of plants. Students are able to monitor their plants right through the course. By the end of the year their observation skills are really honed, says Carol.

Appletons Tree Nursery Feature Nursery for November
Appletons Tree Nursery is situated in the Wai-iti Valley, some 30 kilometres south-west of Nelson. It produces four million trees a year and has developed some intriguing equipment to help it operate more efficiently. Started by Eric and May Appleton in 1968, the nursery has grown from its original 1.2 hectares into a 16 hectare ornamental nursery at Wakefield and the 45 hectare forestry nursery just under the flanks of Mt Heslington. Both sites have alluvial soils which provide good drainage.
The ornamental nursery supplies a huge range of seedlings. Its facilities include a 360sq m propagation house, 3000sq metre container and plug cell production tables as well as two large machinery and implement sheds. Appletons employs 16 full-time staff but this number swells by a further 25 staff during the busy Winter period when the trees are lifted and hand graded before being sent to customers all over the country with a proportion also being grown for export.
There’s a 5-page feature on Appleton’s in Nov Comm Hort.

Nursery Round-up
Kerry Johnstone talks to nurseries -- early Spring was great, they say, but then the colder weather returned and quietened demand. Covered in the survey were Graeme Humphries, Fiordland Nurseries, Te Anau who says: “People are buying more and more succulents and going back to the pebble gardens. Mulch and bark and low maintenance is in. Pungas too are popular.” Malcolm Cook of Designer Plants (topiary and standards), Tauranga says his most popular grades and plants are “the half metre and three-quarter metre stem. People are more interested in the conical shapes and clip balls. Syzygium, lemons, limes, cumquats, genistas Eugenia ventenati, and Metrosideros Springfire and Tahiti are our most popular standards. They’re good and hardy so in containers they can stand a bit of neglect. We released our PVR’d Syzygium Amber Glow this year. It’s one Richard Ware from Plant Production spotted in our nursery. Our label for this one was painted by an artist instead of having a photograph and it’s captured the colour of the plants very well.” Chris Boyd of Te Hana Nurseries, Wellsford who says “fruit trees have been very popular this year. People are definitely more health conscious and want to plant their own. Of course, citrus always sells but pip and stone fruit have also been strong, especially the older varieties. We always sell out of feijoas and guavas also moved well. Natives continue to go but the market for natives is tending to be quite competitive.” Lana Hope of Native Garden Nursery, Gisborne says when asked what plants are leaving the nursery in good numbers “because many of our reveg jobs for next year are frontline coastal plantings, it’s plants like coprosma, karo, pohutukawa, ngaio, flax, toi toi. Hebes and grasses which, say, three or four years ago were really popular, have declined considerably. It’s probably partly due to fashion and because people don’t know how to look after hebes to keep them compact. They leave them and they become straggly. Pittosporum hybrids just keep going and Griselinia littoralis for hedging and people also want lucida as well as puka for their glossy big leaves. Cordylines are also in demand. Astelias are another plant people really like and Corokia Geenty’s Green is still going well.” Plenty more comment in Nov Comm Hort.

NGIA’s Taranaki District Council re-formed
NGIA president Peter Fraser reports that following up on his visit to New Plymouth in September he met again with several Taranaki retailers and growers at the end of October. “The consensus was that they would get together more often and they are now re-establishing the Taranaki District Council which is a very positive move,” says Peter. The chairman of the TDC is Vincent Naus of Big Jims Garden Centre, Vance Hooper of Vanplant nurseries is the secretary and John Fiedler of Mountain Road Nurseries is the treasurer. “David Sampson of Cedar Lodge is a strong supporter and Geoff White is another who is getting behind the whole concept.

Garden Centre of the Year
NGIA has received 992 nominations from the public for its Garden Centre of the Year competition, with 104 members GCs nominated and 10 non-members.

Nursery industry needs to be prepared for climate change
During September the Government announced the general principles of its emissions trading scheme. In discussing the principles in Nov Comm Hort the NGIA says “It is likely that there will ultimately be an opportunity for the nursery industry in that the Government may allow carbon credits for the creation of permanent forests and arboretums, but until the rules are determined, it is difficult to assess the extra demand that could eventuate from these legislative changes.”For more information visit www.climatechange.govt.nz

NZ’s Unique Divaricating Plants
Comm Hort begins an in-depth look at these unique NZ plant forms, the people who grow them, and their uses in the landscape. Included is an article by Mark Dean of Naturally Native NZ Plants on the nature of divaricating plants. Mark says “Divarication is the twiggy-twisty form that plants exhibit in their branching structure. This form is easily seen in the common Corokia cotoneaster. Each branchlet is at an angle to the next, forming a twiggy intertwined mass. The leaves are small and are held inside the plant so that the outer form appears to be all twigs. Why we have plants with this characteristic is still a scientific puzzle. Some theories say it is a form evolved to protect the plants from the strong cold winds in this part of the world. Some such as David Bellamy, in his popular television shows, claim that plants developed this way to protect themselves from the browsing of moa. Whatever the reason the form is quite different and unique from plant forms in other parts of the world.” There’s much more from Mark on the topic.
Nurseries who produce divaricating plants and talk about their experiences with them in Nov Comm Hort include: David Hall of Signature Plants, Auckland. Lester Davey of Matai Nurseries, Waimate, Guy Bowden of Tawapou Coastal Natives, Whangarei, Blair Stuthridge of Arcadia Nurseries, Christchurch,

Sculpture In the Gardens
A new and already popular attraction at the Auckland Botanic Gardens is the Stoneleigh Sculpture Trail, an exhibition of 27 sculptures from many of New Zealand’s top artists. Comm Hort Nov issue has a 3-page illustrated feature on the sculptures and why the Gardens is getting into them.

Putting a $ Value on City Trees
It has been difficult in the past to put a value on a damaged or felled tree. If your neighbour hops over your wall and chops down a tree in your garden while you’re on holiday, what’s the value of that loss to you? This article in Nov Comm Hort looks at various ways UK authorities arrive at reliable figures.

Books
Books reviewed in Comm Hort Nov issue are “The (NZ) Native Plant Garden” by Dennis Greville and “Gardens of Europe – A Traveller’s Guide” by Charles Quest-Ritson.

Marketing New Plants Around the Worldz
Kiwigold is a NZ company formed five years ago to identify, trial and market new NZ plants around the world as well as bringing new plants here from overseas. The company’s Robert Bett describes the process in Comm Hort Nov issue. In its first five years, Kiwigold has introduced some 150 new varieties to the NZ market and currently has 60 New Zealand-bred plants being trialled internationally for overseas sales.

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

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