The Eye-Catching Begonia BONFIRE® Choc Pink

We adore the Begonia BONFIRE® Choc Pink!

Like its sister flowers, the Begonia BONFIRE and Begonia BONFIRE Choc Orange, Begonia BONFIRE Choc Pink is an eye-catching flowering plant that is both drought tolerant and capable of withstanding the now regular torrential downpours in the UK.

It's easy to care for and is low maintenance. Begonia BONFIRE Choc Pink can be grown in full sun or partial shade, coming into bloom in late spring and continuing to shower gardens with a mass of flowers through summer until the first frosts of late autumn.

Have a look at our website for more details: http://www.tesselaar.com/

Back in Australia after 3 weeks freezing in the Northern Hemisphere

Have finally arrived back in Australia after 3 weeks freezing in the Northern Hemisphere.

Had the opportunity to visit Longwood Gardens during this trip which was great and saw some amazing material - especially this chrysanthemum which is a single plant trained in a style known in Japan as the 'Thousand Bloom'. The name refers to the number of blooms and the symmetry and beauty found in the perfect half dome shape. It has taken over 14 months for the plant to grow to this size and they have already started work on next year’s display material.

Also great to see some of our Festival Burgundy in the Conservatory at Longwood doing well in the tropical conditions.

Have also attached some other images taken at Longwood of the various parts of the garden and the last image of the green wall is apparently the longest green wall structure in the world – this is what they claim but I am yet to verify but it looked great.

PINK SUPREME – WINS TOP HONOR IN WORLD’s TOUGHEST TEST

Seventh FLOWER CARPET® ROSE – PINK SUPREME – WINS TOP HONOR IN WORLD’s TOUGHEST TEST for disease resistance


Pink Supreme also earns high marks in hot, humid Dallas Arboretum trials

Oct. 28, 2010 – Pink Supreme is now the seventh Flower Carpet rose to win the world’s top honor for disease-resistant roses – Germany’s coveted All Deutschland Rose (ADR) designation. One of Flower Carpet’s three new “Next Generation” roses (with an additional 15 years of breeding for heat and humidity), Pink Supreme also scored high in the Dallas Arboretum’s 2010 plant trials (known for putting plants to the ultimate test in extreme heat and humidity).

“I know of no other eco-friendly, easy-care rose program offering so much scientifically based, unbiased backing and endorsement,” says Anthony Tesselaar, cofounder and president of the Australia-based Tesselaar Plants (which introduced Flower Carpet to the U.S. in 1995 as the world’s first low-maintenance, prolifically flowering, disease- and pest-resistant landscape rose.) “That’s what happens when every plant you offer goes through such rigorous testing – 1,465 steps in all – before it’s brought to market.”

Anthony Tesselaar is particularly pleased with the ADR designation for Pink Supreme, which is now the third of the Flower Carpet line’s “Next Generation” roses to win the award (along with Scarlet and Amber). The original line’s Pink, White, Scarlet and Yellow have also won the designation. The ADR trials are conducted over the course of three years at a number of different test sites, each enforcing the ADR program’s famous ban on spraying or other chemical support. “We all know these are important measures as we look to minimize our impact on the environment,” says Anthony Tesselaar.

Pink Supreme also earned high marks in the Dallas Arboretum’s 2010 Trial program – internationally known as one of the premier places to test plants for extreme weather conditions, especially high heat and humidity. “Our tagline is ‘Trial By Flower – If We Can’t Kill It, No One Can’”, says Jimmy Turner, the Dallas Arboretum’s Senior Director of Gardens. The arboretum’s trial program annually tests 4,000 annuals, bulbs, perennials, trees and shrubs in search of the “toughest plants alive.”

“This is a variety that I was highly impressed with due to its flower power,” says Jenny Wegley, Research and Greenhouse Manager for the Dallas Arboretum. “Pink Supreme blooms its head off the majority of the growing season, with mid- to light-pink flower clusters that really make this variety popular.” Pink Supreme, she adds, also shows no signs of powdery mildew and takes a cutting well.

“This is why we’re so excited about the “Next Generation” line of Flower Carpet roses,” says Anthony Tesselaar. “As other brands continue to chase our original, revolutionary performance, our breeders have already spent 15 years taking it to the next level.”

Growing World Wide

I have been travelling for several weeks and life has been extremely hectic so I haven’t been able to provide a quick update until now on the highlights seen at the various shows / visits with our partners.
First up in recent travels was a visit to the Independent Garden Center Show (run by Nursery Retailer Magazine) which took me to Navy Pier Chicago, where Carex Everest was looking great on the Willoway Nurseries stand.





Also a highlight for me were the plantings in the Miracle Mile (Chicago always does a great job in their public plantings) as well as seeing Bonfire used in mixed container plantings at the front of a hotel I passed whilst on my morning run.




The purpose for attending the IGC show was to meet up with some of our US grower partners (the people that actually grow the plants we bring to market) and get our planning agreed for the upcoming season. It is always interesting in Horticulture working on the long lead times required to make plants available, and we can often be setting items in place so that we have plants ready for retail up to 3 years ahead of them arriving on the shelves of the various retail outlets that carry our programs.
After IGC, it was then off to meet with the breeder of the Flower Carpet® series of Roses (Mr Reinhard Noack of Noack Rosen in Germany) who has one of the nicest display gardens I have been to. Reinhard not only incorporates his own plants in the garden but has a fine eye for Garden Design and has some great complementary plantings that show how versatile Flower Carpet® is and how it can be used in various settings. If you get a chance when travelling, and the season is right, be sure to include a visit to the Noack Rosen trial garden on your itinerary.





After this it was off to the Plantarium trade show in Holland, for their annual horticultural event.
This trade show continues to get bigger every year and is well worth attending both from a trade and consumer perspective – the show opens on the last day for consumers and there are some great plant bargains to be had as exhibitors like ourselves try to minimise the amount of material we have to pack up by selling / giving away items.
This year our focus for the Tesselaar Stand was the preview of the new Begonia Bonfire® selections (released to consumers next year in Spring 2011): Bonfire Choc Pink and Choc Orange. Our grower partners excelled themselves with the display plants they supplied for the show and, with some great imagery from our photographer and nice display plants, we picked up 3rd prize in the Press Award for new products, for Begonia Bonfire® Choc Pink!
This is a fabulous plant, slated for release in early 2011, and has the same great growth characteristics as the original Bonfire but with a completely different look – blush pink flowers against dark chocolate / plum foliage.
Despite the banners having a model of quality in the image, that is me included in the picture of the stand looking a little less model-like but still resplendent amongst the Begonias and quite happy with how our stand looked for the show!




Finally, after a successful trip across multiple time zones, I returned home to wintry Melbourne just in time for the football finals – which hopefully my team will win again.... Go Cats.
And whilst the weather might be cold, it is the perfect time of year to see why we love working with the Magnolia’s that have been bred by the Magnolia Industry Icon Mr Mark Jury. Check out the blooms on the Black Tulip, the size of the bloom of Felix Jury and the flowering machine that is the recently released Fairy Magnolias®.

TESSELAAR AMONG FIRST PLANT INNOVATORS PURSUING MOBILE MARKETING WITH NEW GARDENPILOT®

Tesselaar among first plant innovators pursuing mobile marketing WITH new gardenpilot®

Web and mobile tool helps gardeners find and buy plants virtually anywhere

APRIL 22, 2010 – Almost every gardener has seen a plant in a nursery or someone’s garden and wondered – “What is that plant? Could I grow that in my garden? Where can I get it?”

Tesselaar Plants is helping to provide immediate answers to these perennial questions and more by listing its collection of plants with a powerful new online and mobile garden research tool called the GardenPilot.

The announcement marks a bold move by Tesselaar Plants to engage in the fastest growing area of marketing – reaching consumers via their mobile phone. According to Gartner Group, a leading technology analyst firm, mobile browsing is a widely available technology present on more than 60 percent of mobile phones shipped in 2009, a percentage Gartner expects to rise to approximately 80 percent in 2013.

“We’ve entered the age of mobile marketing because the always-on nature of mobile devices provides more timely communications than any other marketing channel,” said Anthony Tesselaar, company cofounder and president. “GardenPilot enables consumers to access vital information about our plants in seconds using their phone.”

GardenPilot is perfect for garden experts or those new to gardening because it features more than 13,000 beautifully illustrated plant information pages, along with helpful tips and advice from renowned gardening experts and plant breeders. Users can search for plants by category, branded collection or by relevant characteristics. For example, you can search for the award-winning Flower Carpet® roses or Carpet roses by navigating to “Roses” and scrolling through the A-Z list. You can also navigate to “Roses” and filter by branded collections, which will provide Flower Carpet roses as a choice.

While the tool is available as an iPhone application, any phone that has access to the mobile internet can access GardenPilot on their phone by visiting http://m.gardenpilot.com/.

Philip Townshend, Tesselaar International - review of The Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show

With the chocolate coma starting to fade, and the Easter Break well and truly over I thought it time to send a quick update on the Melbourne International Flower & Garden show which was held just prior to Easter 24 – 28th of March.

The Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show (MIFGS), held at the World Heritage Listed Royal Exhibition Building & Carlton Garden after 15 years is still an explosion of colour & design and remains the biggest annual flower & garden show in the Southern Hemisphere!

This year’s weather for the show was spectacular to say the least with mild autumn conditions showing the best Melbourne has to offer and I expect the attendance to be much higher than that of last year where 110,000 hardcore gardening visitors braved horrible conditions to attend the show.

Highlighting the creativity and passion of Australia's top floral and landscape designers MIFGS is the showcase for the Horticultural Industry to preview a stunning array of inspirational displays, as well as environmentally-friendly ideas for the eco-conscious gardener.

As always highlights include the floral spectacular inside the Great Hall of Flowers, the Children's Garden with its animal petting zoo and numerous show gardens created by some of Australia's most lauded landscape designers – all of which left me wondering why I never see the design opportunities the professionals do when working in my own garden.

The outdoor exhibition of garden sculptures organised by the Association of Sculptors of Victoria, all of which are for sale and range in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousands; and floral masterpieces inspired all who attended, and especially popular with a large number of visitors were the massages, facials and hair styling at Garnier World – ideal after a long day of wandering around the show. I am sure the garden designers faced some simpler challenges than the consultants working at Garnier World did is some instances.

As always we at Tesselaar International were actively involved in the show with our hosting of the media tent and first showing of our new release Fairy Magnolia’s which made for great fun with a cupcake and pink bubbly launch opportunity with the media.

One thing that really surprised all of us was the absolute interest in the new Fairy Magnolias (not just the media, but also the public) who all loved the versatility of the plant (suitable for specimens, hedging or espalier) and how floriferous the plant was with a bud at every leaf axel.

In a nutshell the main points that people liked were the flower, light fragrance, the fact that it was a flowering bush that could be used for hedging, the year round lush green foliage and how quick the plant grows.

Anyway should you be planning a trip to Australia any time in the future try to visit during MIFGS as this is a spectacular celebration of the Australian lifestyle and our great outdoors with some of the world’s leading floral and landscape designers all in the beautiful Carlton Gardens with great food and entertainment for the whole family.

http://www.melbflowershow.com.au/ Link for further information / images.

We just had to post these brilliant films from http://www.growingwisdom.com/ and David Epstein in the US. Great small films about the Tesselaar International Flower Carpet Rose. Let me know what you think.

That is for pruning flower carpet roses

http://www.growingwisdom.com/index.aspx?pid=27&sid=1&cid=551

This for the “how great the colors are” video
http://www.growingwisdom.com/index.aspx?pid=27&sid=1&cid=461

This is for the mass planting video
http://www.growingwisdom.com/index.aspx?pid=27&sid=1&cid=460

This is for the overview of the rose
http://www.growingwisdom.com/index.aspx?pid=27&sid=1&cid=447

Glowing and Growing

Anthony Tesselaar's garden in the summer and his thoughts...

Strangely winter is the time I think most of summers past. Last year my garden looked glorious. I say this not in a smug way, but rather in gratitude because the reasons for all its beauty were out of my control: pleasant temperatures and ample, well-timed rainfall. All I had to do was to wander about outside then come inside to chant a mantra of sorts to anyone who was within earshot – “I can’t believe how much everything has grown”, or the other version of this which goes something like, “the plants are literally glowing”.

Glowing and growing – that’s all any good gardener wants, and I was lucky enough to have it happening in my garden because Mother Nature was being very generous. But then we all know she isn’t always so kind. Which is why it’s good to have a couple of aces up your sleeve, which I do. By way of explanation here’s an analogy...

You can read more on the Tesselaar website at http://www.tesselaar.com/

What women want: the rise of branded plants

From perfume to kitchen products, cars to white goods, groceries to running shoes, consumers are trained to buy branded products. The majority of products in the marketplace are branded. People buy brands because they want security, and trust: it’s no good having designer-branded shoes if the stitching is shoddy.

So what is so different about plants?

Tesselaar Plants was at the forefront of plant branding in the early 1990s, marketing the Flower Carpet® ground cover rose and the Canna Tropicanna around the world. While a growing number of plants are now actively marketed with a brand name, company founder Anthony Tesselaar believes that the gardening industry still has an old fashioned male viewpoint.

‘Men’s buying decisions are about practical solutions and cost. The gardening industry often sells plants based on the practicalities of size, height, colour, and cost, but buyers are looking for much more. Women are the end consumers of nearly all the major products bought in the world, and they think about how something looks, whether they have trust in the product, how easy it is to use, and how they feel about it. I have never heard my wife go into a shop and ask to see the cheapest dress. She will first see if it is right for her – this can mean brand, style, colour, size, fashion - and then, and only then, will she look at the price, to see if she can justify the purchase.’

But Tesselaar warns that a catchy name is not enough: ‘Not every branded plant is a good plant, and consumers know when they are being duped. A brand must stand for something, and deliver what it promises. A plants need to be tested for years to ensure consumers can trust it to perform, will buy more, and will recommend it to their friends. The more confidence consumers have that they are buying a product that will perform, the more profitable the industry will be.’