Bevy of flower beauties launches Ellerslie 2007
In early September an array of beautiful ladies dressed as flowers, posed and paraded in the Toroa Room at Auckland’s Lanham Hotel to officially launch this year’s Ellerslie International Flower Show. The stunning costumes were created by award-winning wearable art designer Jenny Gillies of Christchurch.

Clopyralid herbicide to be taken off the retail market
Weedkillers containing the herbicide clopyralid will be taken off the retail market from 19 August 2008. However the deciding body, the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA), says they will still be available for agricultural weed control and commercial turf management use. Clopyralid can be found in a number of products used to control broad-leafed weeds in lawns, sports grounds, gold courses, field crops and forests.

Hort people from Europe keen to work in NZ nurseries
Agriventures NZ has for some years been offering a service under which trained people from Europe can come to New Zealand for work experience, mainly in agriculture, as part of the programmes for the International Agricultural Exchange Association. NZ president of IAEA, Andrea Chalmers, says “We also have overseas trainees who are keen to work in horticultural industries such as nurseries and orchards”. The trainees, who mostly come from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France and the UK, are between 18 to 30 and generally stay for between 6 to 12 months. For more information, freephone 0508 328 000.

Finalists selected for Young Hort of the Year competition
Eight sector winners have been found for the third year of the Young Horticulturalist of the Year competition.
The finalists are:

• Nursery and Garden Industry – Meredith Guy, technical manager of Gro-Pacific
• Hawkes Bay; Landscaping – Gavin Lodge of Ground Fix, Waikato
• Fruit sector of Horiculture NZ – Robert Humphries, Seeka Orchards and Packhouses, Tauranga
• Vegetable sector of Horticulture NZ – Jeff van Rijen from Waikato
• Arboriculture Association – Elena O’Neil of the Dunedin City Council
• Floriculture NZ – Louise Heller of Bloom Design, Christchurch
• NZ Recreation Association – Chris Vork, Pukekeura Park, New Plymouth
• NZ Winegrowers – Emma Taylor from Villa Maria, Hawkes Bay

New purple-fleshed potato
Crop & Food Research has come up with a potato with “attractive purple tones throughout the flesh” and is seeking expressions of interest in its further development. As consumers have become aware in recent years that colourful fruit and vegetables are better for you, the new potato is well positioned to capture the growing health-conscious consumer market as well as chefs and gourmet cooks looking for unique vegetables.

Waitakere City’s Big Green Roof
On top of Waitakere City Council’s new civic centre is the country’s biggest commercial building ‘green roof’. The year-old Waitakere Civic Centre sports a 500sq m “green roof” in a trial project aimed at providing information for other commercial building owners wanting to do something similar. Some 5000 plants were planted at 10 per square metre. The project cost approximately $200 per square metre including membrane, media and plants. See this story for more information.

New image for Liner Plants on the local market
Liner Plants NZ (1993) Limited, of Whenuapai, is re-branding itself for the NZ market as “NZ Liners”. The new short name is accompanied by a new logo, a new-look availability list and Kathryn Scott, the new local sales manager. With a strong focus on the local market, NZ Liners will be expanding its range of specialist plants both exotic and native. Growers can contact NZ Liners at 09 416 6981 for a copy of the new availability list.

Exchange programme possible
The Nextgen Group for nursery industry people under 35 is considering setting up an exchange programme for its members. AGM discussed inviting interested candidates to submit reasons why they should be considered for an exchange, initially within NZ. Nextgen membership has also now been extended to include anyone under 35 in any field of horticulture. In the next 12 months a membership drive will target LIANZ members and horticultural students at tertiary institutions.

New insect and mite database
A database is now available for those wanting to find information on New Zealand plants and their insect and mite herbivores. Plant-SyNZ can be searched by plant or by herbivore name to produce reports listing the herbivores associated with a plant or the plants on which a herbivore lives. It contains the names of 1386 plant species, 2482 herbivore species and 6209 herbivore host plant associations.

Nursery Round-Up -- “Counter your carbon miles – plant a tree . . .”
Gus Evans of Gus Evans Nurseries, Waikanae says: “we’ve noted another interesting thing in recent months. Four or five people have come and told us they’re flying to England or wherever and they say “we want to plant some trees somewhere so can we buy 10 trees to plant.” So they’re feeling guilty? “Yes, they say it’ll make them feel a little better about their trip. They see it as a kind of carbon credit. I reckon the industry could exploit this big time. Remember the slogan “Plant a tree and save the world?”
We could have something like “Counter your carbon miles – plant a tree.” It’s worth promoting somehow. It would make everybody aware.”
Also spoken to was Hamish Prebble of Texture Plants, Christchurch, who says: “We’re just trying to keep up with everything – landscape designs and planting and getting potting up again for Spring.”

Auckland Trade Day Report
The showery, cooler day predicted for Auckland Spring Trade Day on 22 August didn’t eventuate but landscapers and retailers still downed tools and headed in force for the Auckland Showgrounds. In this 6-page article, Kerry Johnstone reports on Spring Trade Day at the Auckland Showgrounds along with various pictures of the event.

Skills and experience aplenty in new NGIA Board members
NGIA president Peter Fraser, now some three months into his term of office, here takes an opportunity to introduce his board and executive. He also briefly outlines a few of NGIA’s plans and his goals for the future.

President finds the industry optimistic and eager for Spring
In his new role as NGIA President, Peter Fraser of Growing Spectrum Nursery, Kihikihi, says he’s finding himself spending a lot more time out of his nursery than in it. He talks about how important membership is to the NGIA and how valued people are to the industry, “we need to tell people why they should belong to the NGIA”.

Nominations open for Garden Centre of 2008
The opportunity for customers to nominate NGIA member garden centres for the Yates Garden Centre of 2008 begins this month. Nomination forms are in September NZ Gardener, Weekend Gardener and Spring Let’s Go Gardening. Customers can also go on-line to www.ngia.co.nz. Nominations close 30 September.

Feature Plant – Proteas Part 3
The final in the series on Proteas. Landscapers and retailers share their likes and dislikes.

Feature Nursery -- Kingflora
This month’s feature nursery, is Kingflora. The Francis brothers run a diverse operation in West Auckland, growing everything from celery to cut flowers to hedging to topiary. Immigrating to New Zealand in 1968, the family have been growing celery even before they left their former home in Liverpool, England. We talk to John Francis about the nursery industry, “Larger wholesalers are catering to the retail chains increasingly under contract conditions leaving smaller nurseries like ours being squeezed. The alternatives are to either bale out or change focus and specialise in niche areas…” he says.

Don’t Tease the Roses
In this month’s nursery management section, Judy Pratt of Tasman Bay Roses says gardeners are losing roses because of incorrect planting practices, and here she outlines her concerns and suggestions for success. The trouble is, she says, planting procedures for bare-rooted roses differ quite markedly from potted plants.
With the former the gardener must spread out the roots but with potted plants, the roots and block of soil must be entirely undisturbed. And gardeners, who have been brought up to believe they must tease out the roots, have to be specifically told not to do so or they will risk killing the rose. Instead, the pot should be carefully removed and the contents gently placed in the prepared hole without any root-tweaking or breaking up of the soil. For more see this article.

Issues With the Naming of Phormiums
Because the multiple naming of phormiums is seen as a continuing problem in the nursery industry, the International Plant Propagators’ Society held a forum on this genius at its recent conference in New Plymouth. Several phormium growers brought examples of their phormiums for informal comparison and discussion, and this is reported in Comm Hort this month.

Getting the Best From Your Tissue Culture Lab
To get the very best out of tissue culture, nurseries must work hand in hand with laboratories. Antony Toledo, of tissue culture laboratory Multiflora in Auckland, has some good practical advice to offer in a three-page Comm Hort article.

John Stanley Says . . .
John talks about how increasing your shopping basket size can lift your average sales.

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

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