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.