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®.
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®.
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