Alstroemeria Rock & Roll® Scoops Silver at Plantarium

AUSTRALIA has produced many fine rock artists from INXS and AC/DC to Jason and Kylie, but now a new musical sensation from Down Under is topping the charts in the Euro horticultural hit parade.

The Alstroemeria Rock & Roll® took its bow to the European horticultural industry at the renowned Plantarium 2011 show in the Netherlands where it hit all the right notes with the judges.

This striking new plant by Tesselaar International based in Victoria, Australia, scooped a silver medal at the 29th staging of the prestigious international trade show for the tree-nursery industry, which featured more than 300 worldwide exhibitors.

A delighted Anthony Tesselaar said: “It is a fantastic achievement. We have received a really strong response from everyone who saw the plant, with plenty of interest shown from consumers wanting to grow the variety. In particular, there was really strong interest from Dutch consumers who normally don’t like variegated plants, but in this instance they clearly did!
“The overall quality of the Plantarium stands was way up on last year, and I think both our stand and theme created some great comments.
“You know when your stand is getting attention because when we went to pick up our show tickets from the stand office and we mentioned Tesselaar, the lady said ‘love your stand’!”

Those comments were music to the ears of the triumphant Tesselaar International team as visitors recognised how Rock & Roll provides a stunning addition to any garden display.

Its yellow variegation matures to white with a green edge, and combines dramatically with dark red flowers which are produced repeatedly through to autumn, making a long-lasting cut bloom.

Rock & Roll’s growth, which reaches an eventual height and spread of 90cm x 60cm, is compact and clump forming.

With a sensational, eye-catching display of flowers and foliage which stand out in any surrounding, the Rock n Roll sits in horticultural harmony either in a garden, a pot or when used as a cut flower.

Alstroemeria Rock n Roll fact file

· Suggested uses - Mass plant in the home garden or in decorative containers. Ideal as a potted gift in spring / summer

· Growth habit - Compact, bushy and clump forming from underground shoots

· Flower size - 60-70mm

· Mature height - 80-100cm

· Mature width - 50-70cm

· Spacing - 50cm spacing

· Hardiness - Frost tender and deciduous in cold climates

· Flowering period - spring right through until early autumn

· Number of flowers - Masses of stems each with 6-12 individual flowers

· Flower Colour - Dark red

· Fragrance - None

· Foliage - Variegated green and yellow, with the yellow ageing to pure white

· Pruning/Pinching - Pull expended flower stems from ground to refresh foliage and promote new growth and flowers

· Light needs - Full sun to part shade

· Soil needs - Free draining friable soil, will perform best with plenty of organic matter incorporated

· Water needs - Average to moist, not boggy or very dry

· Disease tolerance - No specific diseases

· Pest issues - Susceptible to snails and slugs

· Special care - Protect in very cold and hot climates. Monitor shade levels as sun intensifies

· Botanical name – Alstroemeria

· www.tesselaar.com for more information

Fairy Magnolia Blush featured in NZ Woman’s Weekly

It was great to see the Fairy Magnolia Blush appear in New Zealand’s Woman’s Weekly magazine.

See an extract of the article below.

“Fairy Magnolia Blush is another of Mark Jury’s babies and the first release of a new range of compact-growing cultivars with increased flower colour and size.

If left to its own devices, it will grow to about 4m high x 2m wide. It’s fast growing, making it ideal for screening and hedging.

Being amenable to clipping and training, it’s also suited to topiary and espalier.

Fragrant flowers open from pink buds in spring and appear randomly until late autumn.”

Ohio Short Course show 2011

Another Ohio Short Course show has come to an end and as usual I was surprised by the continued innovation that appears at this show – it must now be one of the major shows on the calendar for most in the Horticultural Industry with attendees from around the globe visiting to see what is new or doing well in the US market.

Imagine my surprise to see a number of our Bonfire series either in mixed arrangements; used in promotional pieces for the Daniels Plant Food company that adorned pillars throughout the show and even in the mixed planters outside of our hotel – the Bonfire series continues to prove to be an extremely versatile product with multiple uses and certainly is the benchmark of all the Boliviensis varieties that suddenly appeared after Bonfire was released.

The merchandising displays this year hit a new level with fierce competition between entrants to show how best to display plants at retail.

Despite continually improving showcases of plants by the various companies exhibiting at the show - my vote for the best display overall was a display that greeted all on entering the show which had the attractive butterfly mix seen in the attached images.

I look forward to next year’s show and hope that the exhibitors continue to put the effort in developing showcases that demonstrate what can be achieved with the great new introductions many of us are releasing into the market.

Getting ready for a HOT selling season!

Check out the start of the new Tropicanna campaign…
http://www.tytyga.com/product/Tropicanna+Canna+Lily+Bulb

(don’t forget to scroll down to the bottom too)

Success at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show

Well what can I say to fully describe another successful great year at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show.

This is still ranked in the top five flower shows in the world and continues to excite – it was especially nice to see our fabulous Tropicanna resplendent in the surrounds of Carlton Gardens as part of the normal planting palette.

Tropicanna continues to draw plenty of interest from gardening enthusiasts around the world and I think we sometimes forget how versatile this plant is i.e. it performs with low water conditions right through to boggy wetlands, and can be used in mass plantings in the landscape or as a feature in containers all with dramatic effect.

The images taken of the Tropicanna at the show should by all accounts not be looking their best in the Southern Hemisphere; but as no doubt you will agree they look stunning! The Show will be entering its 17th year in 2012 and is regarded as the largest and most successful horticultural event in the Southern Hemisphere.

Featuring the best landscape and floral talent that Australia has to offer alongside an extensive array of garden products this show is a celebration of Australian lifestyle and our great outdoors and I hope some of you may be inspired to visit next year. If you do, please make sure to look us up.

To see this years winners at MIFGS 2011, click on the link below:

http://www.melbflowershow.com.au/Award_winning_displays

Bonfire® Begonias and Festival™ Burgundy Cordyline Featured in Latest Online How-To Gardening Videos

Visit this link to read the latest news and watch videos, including one which shows you how to arrange a Bonfire Begonia.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/3/prweb8231111.htm

PR Web have picked up on these videos and have written a piece on their site. I'ts well worth a read.

Tropicanna Garden Combinations

Look at these beautiful container garden combinations featuring the original Tropicanna cannas along with the newer Tropicanna Gold and Tropicanna Black.
Tropicanna Black is now widely available to the market after being held back for a few years because of propagation issues.

Tropicanna Gold (top), torenia ‘Catalina Viva Blue; (bottom left) and Heuchera ‘Velvet Night’ (bottom right)

Tropicanna canna (original) at top; zinnias at middle left; lysimachia 'Nummularia Aurea' at bottom

Tropicanna Black (top); salvia farinacea (middle left), dichondra argentea ‘Silver Falls’ (bottom)

Tesselaar builds buzz for its brands via social media channels

A year after its entry into the world of blogs, Twitter, Facebook and mobile
marketing, Tesselaar Plants has built a large and engaged online
community of followers.

Many of Tesselaar‟s „Your Easy Garden‟ blog posts have been tweeted by
influential garden experts, with exposure to thousands upon thousands of
highly targeted gardening consumers. Just one such post – ways to garden
with children – was tweeted by several people with a total of more than
30,000 followers. Another post, chronicling a trip to Maui that inspired
thoughts about how to use tropical plants in cold-climate gardens, was
noted by About.com (with a monthly audience of more than 60 million!)

On Twitter, Tesselaar has hundreds of followers, with new ones joining daily,
and its company page on Facebook is “liked” by 613 people. Tesselaar has
also joined the mobile marketing movement by listing its products on the
GardenPilot smartphone application. And it has reached hundreds of
thousands of viewers online each year via Dave Epstein‟s how-to gardening
videos (featuring Tesselaar products) on Growing Wisdom.com, YouTube,
5min.com, Metacafe.com and many more web sites with millions of fans.

Recent data does show that social media marketing works. According to
Alterian, an international social media marketing company, social media marketing makes consumers
14 percent more willing to buy, 16 percent more reluctant to switch and 17 percent more likely to
recommend a certain product or patronize a particular company. And remember – social media isn‟t
just for younger audiences – it‟s for that older, target demographic that still accounts for the majority
of American gardeners. According to the Pew Research Center, in fact, it‟s used by roughly half of all
online adults between 50 and 64 years old (a 25-percent increase since 2009!)

If you haven‟t already -- we encourage you to follow Tesselaar on Twitter (@tesselaarplants) and to
“like” Tesselaar‟s Facebook page (just search for “Tesselaar International Plants.”) And don‟t miss the
weekly posts on Tesselaar‟s blog (at www.youreasygarden.com). Your comments are welcome, too!

Some points on the Australian Floods and now coming, a massive cyclone!

Queensland in Australia has faced some of the most dramatic flooding experienced in Australia’s history.

An area of Germany and France combined was under flood.

So much water fell in this most dramatic situation that there was even an inland tsunami as the huge inflow of water came down from the mountains. 30,000 homes were affected, 36 people died and parts of Brisbane were flooded.

Overall $AU30 billion worth of damage.

Rivers are receding with massive cleanups with over 10,000 mums, dads and kids all helping neighbours through this terrible disaster

Northern Victoria also had major flooding, not as dramatic as our northern neighbours, but currently a body of floodwater of over 3,000 square miles is moving through the river systems creating havoc in the river towns and major agricultural crops.

Today we see a MAJOR cyclone “Yasi”, equal to the power of Katrina in the USA, bearing down on northern Queensland town of Cairns 1,000 miles north of Brisbane. with winds expected of over 160 MPH, and of course, these major rain again on top of a major storm surge of 4-6 ft in the lower lying coastal areas is going to be dramatic. There is talk that up to 3 ft of water can be dumped in 24 hours as this cyclone hits the land.

This is a major catastrophe hitting the northern areas where they can receive up to 4-6 cyclones per year, but on top of what they have received with the massive wet weather, it is not going to be nice at all.

Our Journey to IPM Essen - Phillip Townsend

Well it seems like barely 12 months since my last blog about heading off to the Essen Show and you have no doubt seen in the news about the flooding in Australia. There are multiple charities looking for donations to support the victims of the floods, some who only recently had rebuilt their houses after devastating bush fires in Australia.

Anyway it is that time of year again when I have to tear myself away from summer in Australia to visit the cold of the Northern Hemisphere and fortunately this year I have been able to ease into the transition by visiting Miami (to attend the Lowes Perennial Council meetings at Costa Farms) on the way to Europe where I must say the weather is fantastic at this time of year.

They put on a great show and hosted all attendees to a level where none of us wanted to leave – especially those heading to colder climates where they have what I like to call the “white torture” (snow).

As you can imagine no one can visit Miami without going to see the magnificent sights of South Beach and after 34+ hours of travelling I was not disappointed to arrive and find that there was a classic car show (passion of mine) and phenomenal weather that made visiting a delight plus the fantastic art deco buildings that always are a sight to see either during the day or at night when the neon is fantastic

Garden Center Magazine on Black Tulip Magnolia

Look out for a great piece of coverage in this months Garden Centre Magazine.

Page.62 – Includes Black Tulip in a story by Sarah Martinez.

Black Tulip Magnolia is an upright smaller tree, growing to a height of 25 feet.

To read the article for yourself, go to:

http://gardencentermag.texterity.com/gardencenter/201101?sub_id=dE6eDvoVFSSj#pg62

Bushfires and Floods

We have gone from a drought country to a flooded country, nothing really new from our history of the nation.
The Major Flood areas are in Queensland and northern New South Wales. Qld is 1500-3,000 kms away, and Northern NSW is 1200 kms away
The area under flood is equivalent to ALL of Germany and France combined.
One town almost had what looked like an inland Tsunami going through it, at the end the town looked like a tornado had ripped it apart.
Two days ago they had the major flood surge through Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, with the river rising 4.5m – so downtown, water everywhere, and around 12,000 houses flooded in the city suburb areas there too, and 2,500 business under water, and another of the same amount partially flooded.
In Ipswich, a major country town of 155,000 further north, they had a river flood peak at 19m !! Those on higher grounds OK, those that built in the valley, not so good.
Most of this area flooded throughout Qld and NSW is farm lands, however over 27 major country towns are flooded, or evacuated. All this is causing many councils to now start rethinking about allowing buildings on flood or low levels plants. But of course people like to build by the rivers for the scenic views and think the 100 year floods are not going to be in their lifetime.
They are expecting the weather to dry out a little and they need 3-7 days for the water to dissipate to normal very high flood levels in all the river systems. And to think Qld has not had it normal monsoon time yet.
I was going to add some pictures here, but am adding this link. Just giving here a link of one of the many blogs Note that the person wrote this on the 7th January, 4 days Later, Lots of rain later, even Brisbane is now flooded.
http://diane-adventurebeforedementia.blogspot.com/2011/01/queenslands-floods.html

In Victoria we are having a good wet summer, really nice for all the plants after 13 years of drought. Some of the Victorian northern country areas have had some floods through them as we are getting some of the tropical clouds that normally stay in the north being pulled down the cooler Victoria state.. (last night it was still 24 deg at midnight) Even here we are seeing some areas of northern Victoria have had their monthly averages in one day. They are still talking though that Victoria looks like getting some sporadic heavy rainfalls coming from these major shift weather patterns, and so we will also continue to see more flooding in our state in various low lying areas. So we start off with an interesting year.
What was not very nice, some of the people that lost their houses in the bushfires last year, ended up have their new houses inundated from these floods.
Perth in Western Australia , over 1,500 miles to the west of us, on the other hand is now going through a major drought ( yes the weather pattern has changed at the moment) Had huge bushfires there while the floods were in Qld.
Took this photo 2 days ago in our gardens.