December 09 / January 2010 . . .

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Garden trade generally buoyant
Trade Day dates confirmed for Christchurch & Auckland
New NZ Nursery Register now available
Winners of Nursery Register Questionnaire draws
Look out – here comes Woolworths
NGIA Conference 2010
NGIA changes at head office
Rao joins Lyndale
Sculpture exhibition returns to Auckland Botanic Gardens
UK garden retailers doing ok
More money to fight kauri dieback
Young Horticulturist of the Year
Obituaries: Peter Strik, Bevan Young
New native plant discovery
Vertical growing system has heaps of potential
German hort students seek work experience
Eco-Sourcing – Yeah Right!
Araucariaceae book published

Roller coaster weather but the trade generally buoyant
It’s now more than a year since financial markets went into a tailspin and triggered economic recession around the world. While it has been a hard year for most, things have certainly not been as bad as feared. In fact, many in the garden trade have been getting along just fine.

“August was huge, we were down a little bit in September, October was up and this month we’re well up.” 
That was the response from Vince Naus of Big Jim’s Garden Centre in New Plymouth when at the end of November Comm Hort asked him how things were going. And his comments were typical of others polled in our retailer survey, published in Comm Hort Dec /Jan issue. 
Retailers in general say the effects of the recession have so far been minor – and that the weather has far more influence on sales. 
And the weather has been anything but predictable. Spring got away to a wonderful early start but then colder, wetter condition returned.
Even so, retailers tend to look for the silver lining. Said Dave Clark of Décor Gardenworld Tauranga: “The nights have been cool with some people holding off on planting tomatoes because of late frosts, but that can be a good thing for us. It spreads the season.” 
What about the future?
When asked whether she felt positive going forward into 2010, June Beal (pictured), garden centre manager at Dunedin Mitre 10, said “Absolutely! Things can only get better. In fact we didn’t really notice a downturn. Sales are more dependent on the weather than the economy. As soon as the sun came out, so did the people.”
Another comment coming through was a perceived move by the gardening public away from ‘bland’ natives and back to more varied colour plantings. And grasses, said one retailer, “are dead.”

Trade Day dates confirmed for Christchurch and Auckland
Autumn Trade Days have been locked in at Wednesday 10 March for Christchurch, and Wednesday 24 March for Auckland.
The 10 March date coincides with the first day of the Ellerslie International Flower Show in Christchurch. Several people had suggested we should move Trade Day close to Ellerslie to avoid visitors and exhibitors having to make two trips. We polled previous exhibitors for feedback about holding Trade Day on 10 March and the result was 100 percent in support. 
People already intending to journey to Christchurch for Ellerslie can easily add a visit to the Pioneer Recreation Centre (75 Lyttelton St, Spreydon) for an hour or two to catch up on Trade Day – or vice-versa. People who had been undecided about whether to come to Christchurch for Trade Day or Ellerslie, now have a double attraction.
We will promote Christchurch Trade Day throughout the country, rather than just to the South Island as in the past. We’re sure we’ll be able to encourage many more people to make the trip than otherwise would have.
Click here to view the Christchurch Trade Day plan – and be sure to book your airfares and accommodation early to get the best deals. Give us a call on (09) 358-2749 if you’d like to discuss details.

New NZ Nursery Register now available
The 2009/10 edition of the NZ Nursery Register is now available. Price is $66+GST and you can order by clicking here. The 324-page Register carries details on all companies in or supplying the garden industry, including the plants and grades grown by nurseries and the products or services offered by manufacturers, importers or distributors.

Winners of the Nursery Register Questionnaire draws
Thank you to all those companies who returned their Questionnaires for updating their details in the new Nursery Register and helping make it such a wonderful resource for the industry.
Those who responded within the timeframe went into a draw for 10 Comm Hort subscriptions or 10 complimentary ads. Here are the winners, as drawn for us by publisher of the Weekend Gardener, Rob LaHood & Kerry Johnstone Editor of Commercial Horticulture Magazine:
Free Marketplace Ads
Sciadopity’s Garden Centre
Bakerboys Wholesale Nursery
Oratia Native Plants
Gibbs Nurseries
Nikau Gardens
Living Décor Hire Plants
Larsen's Orchids
LA4 Landscape Architechts
Tasman Bay Roses
NZ Inst for Plant & Food Research

Free Comm. Hort Subscription
Kwan Citrus Nursery
Holstens NZ
Pacific Biofert
Kings Airfield Rd Nursery
BioAg Ltd
Glen Eden Mitre10
Plasma Biotech Solutions
Native Plant Centre
Black Bridge Big Tree Nurseries
Natural Choice Landscaping

Look out – here comes Woolworths
Major shake-up for the trade in Australia
In what looks likely to cause a major shake-up of Australian retail markets, and particularly affect the garden industry, giant US company Woolworths in conjunction with Lowes, the second biggest home improvement store operators in the world, have announced plans to set up in earnest in Australia.
They have already made a bold start by taking over major Melbourne-based hardware distribution company Danks, which also includes the Plants Plus garden centre chain.
Woolworths claim to have 12 sites in Australia already and are negotiating to acquire another 15. They plan to operate with 150 stores over the next five years compared to Bunning’s 250 stores and sales of nearly $6 billion. 
Woolworths will emerge as key distributors to almost 2000 independent retailers supplied by Danks, including 583 trading under the Danks Home Timber and Hardware, Thrifty-Link and Plants Plus retail banners.
There’s an excellent article about the Woolworths move in Comm Hort Dec 09 / Jan 10 issue.

NGIA Conference 2010
Next year’s conference of the Nursery & Garden Industry Assn (NGIA), will be held in Christchurch 28-29 July and is open to both members and non-members of the NGIA. The theme will be “Recipe to SucSEED”, ideas on ways to grow businesses.

NGIA changes at head office
Allan Criglington retired in November as ceo of the NGIA after six years in the role. 
His place has been taken by Waikanae-based John Liddle, former operator of Liddle Wonder Nursery, in the newly-created role of administration manager. 
John was selected from 40 applicants for the position. With 20 years in the industry, he is well known and has earned wide respect for his skills and knowledge.

Rao joins Lyndale
Rao Kamineni, after 10 years managing the Auckland Racing Club Nursery which closed in August, has joined Lyndale Nursery in Whenuapai as production manager.

Sculpture exhibition returns to Auckland Botanic Gardens
The Stoneleigh Sculpture in the Gardens exhibition has opened at the Auckland Botanic Gardens. 20 exhibits have been installed along a 1.8km trail. Nine of last year’s sculptors have returned with new creations.
The exhibition attracted more than 314,000 visitors when it was held for the first time in 2007 and this popularity has prompted the Gardens to extend this year’s display by a fortnight to 14 February 2010.
All pieces are for sale and range from $3000 to $28,000. 

UK garden retailers doing ok
Between January and September this year, a staggering 10 percent of all retail stores in the UK — 25,000 of 251,462 – closed their doors. 
But according to industry magazine, Horticulture Week, only seven of these were garden retailers and not all their closures were due to the recession. 
The Horticultural Trades Association also noted a 10 percent rise in annual garden centre sales indicating that the trade has done well despite hard times.
However, the survey revealed that 233 florists had been forced to close.

More money to fight kauri dieback
The Government will inject a further $4.7 million into a five-year programme to help kauri trees under attack by kauri dieback (Phytopthphora taxon Agathis), bringing total funding for the future management of kauri dieback to $9.8 million.
The disease is affecting trees in the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park and elsewhere in north of also Great Barrier Island. So far it hasn’t been detected farther south.

Young Horticulturist of the Year 
Caine Thompson (pictured), a viticulturist at Mission Estate Winery, Taradale, and representing the winegrower sector of the horticulture industry, emerged winner of the 2009 Young Horticulturist of the Year competition at the finals held in the Auckland Botanic Gardens in November.
Landscaper Erin Farrow (28), of Mt Eden Auckland, was second and nursery manager Pip McVicar (24) of New Plymouth, the NGIA’s Young Achiever 2009, was third.

Peter Strik – azalea expert
The New Zealand nursery community lost a great character on 30 September 2009, with the passing of Peter Strik of Strik’s Azaleas, Otaki.
Peter was born in the Netherlands, 3 August 1949. His father was a grower of vegetables who later moved to the emerging market in house azaleas. 
In 1969, aged 19, Peter took the opportunity to immigrate to New Zealand following his brother, Hugo. He arrived with no money and only a limited understanding of English, but set about making a living for himself. In 1981 following a trip back to Holland, he set up a greenhouse in Days Bay Wellington which was the start of what was to become Striks Azaleas.
Peter is survived by his wife Sandra and two sons.
We have a full obituary in Dec09/Jan10 Comm Hort.

Bevan Young – garden centre innovative pioneer
Bevan Young, formerly of Young’s Garden Centres in Invercargill, and one of the real personalities of the industry, passed away 20 October, aged 86. 
Harry Young, Bevan’s father, started selling plants in his Invercargill shop in the Depression. Bevan went to Canterbury University and trained at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. At 21 he returned to Invercargill armed with a horticultural degree, and took over the running of the store. 
A trip to USA made Bevan aware of the potential of the garden centre trade and in 1964 he bought the Lynwood homestead at the north end of town turning it into a modern garden centre holding a huge gala-style opening day in 1965. A second garden centre was opened in Tay Street in 1978.
Bevan was one of the first, if not the first, to put plants into pots. He put them into liver pails and was the first to move from boxes to punnets. He was one of the first to use hydroponics in his glasshouse at Lynwood.
He also set up the Greenworld Group in the 1980s and put faxes into each member’s store when fax machines first came out to improve communications. He was importing products like pots, hoses, watering cans well before anyone else. He started selling Flymo motor mowers and got into hardware in the garden centre, something unheard of then.
In 1991, Bevan and Bet sold their business and retired to Queenstown living there for 13 years before moving to Christchurch.
Bevan is survived by Bet and their three sons, daughter and six grandchildren. 
There’s a full obituary in Comm Hort Dec09/Jan 10 edition.

New native plant discovery
A ‘new’ NZ native plant, discovered by chance by nurseryman Geoff Davidson of Oratia Native Plants and Sharon Graham of the Native Forest Restoration Trust, while on a walk in bush north of Auckland, has turned out to be a parahebe and officially named Veronica jovellanoides because of its resemblance to Jovellana. 
Its more common name though is likely to be Hebe Bamboozle, a nickname given to it after botanists spent more than 80 hours fruitlessly trying to find it again in the bush. It was eventually re-discovered, however, and Oratia Native has been propagating it for sale.

Vertical growing system has heaps of potential 
An innovative greenhouse hydroponic vertical growing system shown here looks to have tremendous possibilities as a means of growing more food in limited space. 
Paignton Zoo Environmental Park in the UK has installed the Canadian Valcent VertiCrop system to provide vegetables for its animals which chomp through thousands of pounds worth of food each year. 
The system comprises 70 rigs of eight levels each with two different size trays which are automatically loaded and unloaded. Automation also deals with the plants’ recirculated water and nutrient requirements.
The trays revolve on a continuous loop system giving plants changes in light and shade during the day.
Vertigrow can produce 11,000 lettuces and other vegetable crops like spinach and mizuna every three to four weeks as well as strawberries and cherry tomatoes. 
According to the manufacturers, crop yields can be boosted 20 times with water and nutrient requirements cut from 15 to 5 percent compared with traditional horticultural methods. 

German hort students seek work experience
Now back in Germany, horticulturalist Anne Humburg, who has spent two periods working in New Zealand nurseries, is preparing an information booklet aimed at encouraging German horticultural students to come to New Zealand for work experience.
Nurseries, garden centres, landscaping companies, orchards, vineyards are invited to send their contact details to Anne to have them listed in the booklet.
Most of the young people she has in mind will have finished their apprenticeships in various horticultural fields. Based on her own experiences, Anne believes New Zealand is an ideal country for students to work in because of its wide and diverse horticultural industry.
“I am absolutely into New Zealand plants and really miss them since returning to Germany,” she says. “I want to create my own little New Zealand garden here and see how the different species do in our German climate.”
Anne’s contact is anneperpace@email.de 

Araucariaceae book published
Just published is “Araucariaceae – Proceedings of the 2002 Araucariaceae Symposium” held in NZ by the International Dendrology Society. It is A4, 546 pages with colour and is priced at $200. We have a review of the book in Comm Hort Dec09 / Jan10. It’s available through Touchwood Books or give us a call on 09 358-2749.

Eco-Sourcing – Yeah Right!
Retired nurseryman, Ken Davey (pictured), believes eco-sourcing is a very inexact practice and in the end doesn’t deliver what its proponents claim it does.
We publish his somewhat controversial comments in Comm Hort Dec09/Jan10 issue and you can read them by clicking here.
Have some thoughts of your own on this subject? Please send them to commhort@nursery.net.nz and we’ll include them on this website.

FEATURES IN COMM HORT DEC 09 / JAN 2010 Edition

Feature Plant — wonderful wisteria
Comm Hort begins an in-depth look at wisteria, a tough and versatile plant that is so spectacular when in its full glory in Spring. It’s easy to grow, say the nurseries we contacted, demand from the public has remained steady over the years.

Feature Nursery — North Harbour Big Trees
On the old highway, just a few kilometres north of Albany Village and within easy commuting distance of Auckland, North Harbour Big Trees Co is ensconced in an area of lifestyle blocks and hilly farmland.
Here John Kraft and his team run the 4.2 hectare property on terraced slopes holding thousands of container-grown trees.
A strawberry grower before he transmogrified himself into growing trees, John was raised in nearby Coatesville, so has not strayed from his roots.
This Comm Hort feature looks at this well-run and established nursery and its philosophy for success.

Feature Nursery – Rotomanu
Setting up this nursery near Lake Brunner on the rugged West Coast of the South Island was a real challenge, says manager Stephanie Tideswell. But the nursery has brought a new lease of life to the closed down Rotomanu Primary School, whose property and buildings it now occupies.
Some of the challenges? “Frosts, rain, wind, and sandflies so big you wouldn’t believe . . “ 
The nursery focuses on a plants likely to do well locally, but offers a wide range from herbs and grasses to shrubs and even up to white pine, totara and rimu.

World Rose Convention
Hayden Foulds reports: “In June, while the rest of NZ braved what became a very cold and wet Winter, I travelled to Canada to participate in the 15th World Rose Convention in Vancouver, British Columbia. Despite the convention being very expensive for the Kiwis, 17 made the trip and joined 550 other rose enthusiasts from 24 countries for a week of lectures, tours, a rose show and social events plus some great Canadian hospitality.
The convention was hosted by the Vancouver Rose Society on behalf of the Canadian Rose Society. The American Rose Society also held their National Rose Show as part of it.” 
Haden provides a full report with great pics in Dec-Jan Comm Hort. 

Mitre 10 Mega Nelson
Now three years old, this is a box store which has managed to present a “niche feel.” The management place great emphasis on teamwork, and it is paying off.

Home remedies – do they work?
Our resident botanist, Fiona Eadie examines some ‘home remedies’ in her Plant Basics column in Comm Hort this month.
Among them are: using willow extract as a substitute for commercial rooting hormone;
sticking a piece of copper wire through the stem of tomato plants to prevent blight;
using beer traps to catch slugs and snails.
Do these remedies work or are they old wives tales?

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