Lyndale NewsBrief - March 2010

European Winter

The European season, opening with the horticultural show in Essen, Germany, saw a number of Kiwis make the mind-numbing trip to review what has become the most significant show in the European Calender.

This is the third year I have attended the show, which for us is more about renewing contacts and eye balling people and plants, who are regular e-mail authors and subjects respectively.  Yes, networking at its finest, set in a venue that takes some 3 days to do it justice.

It's a show that is so large, that after a couple to three days of looking, you start to think that you have it sorted and know what there is to see, when suddenly you chance across something significant that you have walked past three times and have not noticed.

I was once given the advice that it is good to go to such an event with a definite project in mind so that you can research the subject and come up with a recommended outcome/purchase decision.

This is good advice for any show, none more so than when it is such a vast event. The IPM Essen show is set against the backdrop of a Europe emerging from Winter, except this year Winter was still in full swing. Snow falls were significantly happening to the point that when we left Germany to begin the trek home, all the flights were delayed whilst giant water cannons with heated water blasted all the leading edges of the planes wings and elevators to get rid of ice build ups.

Photos taken outside the show look like someone shot images in black and white film, as there is absolutely no colour. Stark contrast to the colour and glory of so many plants in bloom forced to strut their stuff outside of their natural season, surrounding you inside the venue.

Consequences

I am fortunate that jet lag is not something I suffer from. I can and do sleep reasonably well, even crammed into the ever-reducing space that is a feature of "cattle class" travel of today.

One of the consequences of flying for 25 hours to the other side of the world is that you can choose to see a heap of movies in that time.
While on the subject of movies have you noticed that they get longer every time someone remakes it?

For example King Kong, a pretty simple story was 100 minutes in 1933; 134 minutes in 1976: then a whopping 187 minutes when our very own Jacko let the big ape loose in 2005.

This becomes important when you're picking which movies you can view in a given time. The why, I suspect, is all about money.

I know it is kind of shocking to bring money into the equation when you are talking about Hollywood films, but I suspect the durational bloating effect can be traced back to the fact that that the average budget for a Hollywood blockbuster these days is about a squillion dollars, so if you are going to throw that kind of money at a film (special effects, etc) it better damn well end up on screen whether the film needs it or not (which it usually does not).

Show stopping plants

Hydrangeas are big in NZ and are getting bigger. Europe is no different - it just does them better and there are more of them.
We have some of the best new forms, which have created a real buzz in Europe. The You Me series, which come from Japan, are sensationally different and can be grown to such effect that they can stop a show goer in their tracks.

We also saw for the first time a new compact (read: ideal for container growing) Hydrangea paniculata "Blonde Bombshell". This plant does live up to its name and is stunning. Watch out for "Blonde Bombshells" in the future.

Hydrangeas continue to be very hot sellers in NZ, which is good news for growers, as they are not difficult to grow well.

However you do need to over-winter them if you want to produce great plants with masses of blooms.

That means planting in Autumn while there are still pre Winter establishment possibilities in these deciduous beauties. I know you probably are short of space, but Autumn sales will kick in soon and you could do a lot worse than fill the space created with Hydrangeas. They will make good sales in late spring and into summer 2010/11. 

An interesting plant on display this year came from a breeding program in Ireland. It is a Phormium no less.

This gorgeous plant would have to rank as one of the very best phormiums to appear on the market yet.

Phormium 'Black Adder' is sensational! It has the blackest foliage yet and one cannot truly appreciate how dark it is until you line it up with say, Phormium 'Black Rage' and Phormium 'Platts Black'. Then you see just how more Black it is.

Kind regards
Malcolm & The Lyndale Team

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