Southern People Southern Treasures

Conference 2006 - Dunedin, 27-30 April 2006

Around 150 people attended a busy conference and we will add to this page as reports come in.

Out and About Thursday Night

After a light meal on Thursday evening the conference broke into three groups for a tour of Dunedin city in a double decker bus and a guided tour of the legendary Speight's brewery.
The brewery tour gave us an insight into the gravity brewing process, the history of the Speight's brewery and how some of the original beers brewed in the early days had be recently revived using the original Kauri brewing tanks.

The tour was great and the anticipation grew, “sampling time” Give a group of Nursery industry people six self-serve taps of beer to try and they don't need a second invitation. Five were good and the sixth generated a bit of debate. I don't mind drinking beer and eating chocolate but chocolate flavored beer!!! After sampling each and re-sampling just to confirm which was best we had to make way for the second group. All and all a great start to a well organized and very informative and entertaining conference.

Shady side of fern propagation by Paul Michael

Notes by Josh Tabley

Paul has worked very hard to perfect the art of fern propagation and at the Dunedin conference he was kind enough to share this passion and the art of fern propagation.

All ferns are propagated from spore and there are 10,000 spores per gram; fern spore is collected in plastic bags, and the seeding season starts in November and goes right through to May. As scarid fly is a major pest on ferns, steaming propagation mix is very vital and also propagation trays are sterilized with meths before use.

Once spore trays are sown, they are covered with a sheet of plastic and left in a germination chamber for 3-7mths. When spores have germinated they are moved from growth chamber to a cooler environment for hardening. When ferns are ready, they are planted into plug trays.

Paul commented that it's important to select pesticides and fungicides carefully as ferns are very sensitive to chemicals and irrigation is best run on computer to control moisture and humidity levels to create optimum growing conditions for the ferns.

A whistle-stop Chelsea experience by Carole Scholes

Mike Watts writes

The trip was undertaken in May 2005 to visit and see the clematis exhibited, how it was grown and what new varieties were coming through.

One day was great to look around; two would have been brilliant, at least that way you would not have been asked to leave, as they wished to close up. It was suggested if you plan on going, join the RHI , so you can take advantage of the members only day; crowds would not be so big then.
An excellent range of slides was shown of the experience, especially the clematis, with an amazing range of colours and sizes available. Slides of perennials, vegie displays and gardens were amazing.

To do justice to the clematis and other displays, you really needed to be there and experience it. If you ever get the chance, go; it's great to see the efforts of other people and help you with your own plans for future display.

Flip floppin’ in North America

Jill Reader reports on Steve Newall’s conference paper.

All members who attended the Oamaru conference will remember Steve Newall's great talk about his exploits harvesting alpine seed from remote places of the South Island (remember the vacuum cleaner?)

In Dunedin he was back to tell us about his seed collecting exploits in North America. Over a few months Steve clocked up 17,500 miles in a rental Buick, heading out from San Bernadino to some of the better alpine plant areas around Arizona and Wyoming. The main difference between here and the States, Steve explained, was that there were fewer species over there, but big numbers of plants (a restricted area containing Visceria alpina was roughly the size of NZ), as opposed to New Zealand's larger number of species with fewer plants.

Slides of the local scenery showed a vast array of changing landscapes, ranging from the aptly-named Mirror Lake to the bristlecone pines atop a 14,200 ft mountain, complete with a paved road to the summit. The stark landscape of Wyoming was similar to the McKenzie country only magnitudes bigger, with even a few sheep there to complete the picture. Local knowledge of weather patterns helped him plan his seed collecting expeditions, as there was a predictable daily pattern in many mountain areas, with big variations in temperature and usually a daily thunderstorm.

And the plants themselves Erythronium grandiflorum, a mass of yellow flowers just after the snow melt, Trollius, Yucca elata, Caltha, Lillium columbianum, Aquilegia caerula, Eritrichium, Geum rossii, Polemonium viscosum and Claytonia megarrhiza.

A stunning selection of alpines growing in amongst some wonderful landscapes. Steve has created a niche market with his alpine seed collecting, and having seen pictures of where these were collected, it would be hard to imagine a better job.

Friday Morning’s Field Trip

Bronwen Rowse reports ...

Always start the day with a great breakfast. We did that at the Otago museum and when we could draw ourselves away from the food we were able to visit and be guided through their Taonga and Southern Treasures, Southern People collections. These were displays of the collected heritage of Otago and presented in a lifelike and stimulating manner.

Buses took us up the road to the lower entrance of the Botanic Gardens; these are the oldest botanic gardens in New Zealand, established on this site in 1868 and real development started when Mr Tannock was employed as Curator. Our first mission was to plant a ceremonial tree and this was ably completed by Terry Hatch amidst much joviality. The specimen planted was Cornus "Greenvale" which is a chance seedling found at Greenvale, notable for having a large flower and late in the flowering season, Propagated and donated by Denis Hughes

We were split into groups for a selection of tours.First up the hill to the Rhododendron collection, with glimpses of the harbour and city through the trees

The gardens are in themed collections and include the first New Zealand produced cultivar Marquis of Lothian. The plantings are in layers with canopy trees including oaks and plagianthus with rhododendrons and smaller shrubs below then herbaceous perennials below and at the front of the beds. They are an exciting mix of colour, form and texture.

We visited the nursery area where plants are produced in small numbers for the collections and display houses, they produce tough, not soft plants, which are able to cope with the environment of heavy clay soils, climate and vandalism.

South African collection was next, this is a recent project. The soil had gypsum added and some topsoil applied before planting and the area has a gravel mulch and large hand selected and placed rocks. The collection is placed as the different geographic/vegetation style areas of southern Africa and the largest

representation is from the Fynbos and includes proteacea, restios, and ericacae, this area is the most like Dunedin in terms of climate.

We were treated to a boxed lunch in the empty curator's house and then off on buses to Waitati.

Friday Afternnon’s Field Trip

Garry Corner reports ...

After visiting the Botanic gardens we all headed to Waitati, 20km North of Dunedin.

The first stop was at a hall for a talk on establishing the Orakonui Ecosanctuary. This new sanctuary is a 230-hectare site and will have a specialised pest-proof fence running around the perimeter. With all the pests eradicated there will be a full restoration of the forest ecosystem, replanting with native species and the return of our lost birds, reptiles and bats. On the site of the sanctuary is a stand of Eucalyptus regnans with one being the tallest tree in New Zealand, (77m). On the list of species to bring back are; Kiwi, Saddleback, Kaka, Kakariki, Tuataras, Geckos and Short-tailed bats. All these species used to live in this area many years ago. This will be a great place to visit within two years to see New Zealand's native flora and fauna. With having an interest in ornithology it was an excellent talk and will be on my list of things to see at a later time. Afternoon tea was great, coffee and plenty to eat.

If you want to contact the Trust of the ecosanctuary details are below:

Otago Natural History Trust
PO Box 6425, Dunedin
Ph. (03) 477 5160 or 471 0532
Email: info@orokonui.org.nz
Website: www.orokonui.org.nz

From the hall we walked to Claire Brown’s Blueskin Nursery for a look around, plenty of nice plants to be seen and a good supply of Kings Seeds. After some people had bought some plants it was on the bus and back to Dunedin, foggy all the way back.

This was my first conference. I had an excellent time, meeting new people, and seeing new places with great company.

Setting up a nursery in China

Jill Reader reports on Clive Wallis's paper ...

After listening to Clive's talk about setting up a nursery business in China one could either be totally inspired by the prospect of a great challenge in a country with such huge potential or, perhaps more likely, daunted by the amount of bureaucracy and paybacks that are an accepted part of business there.

About 6 years ago, Clive, his lawyer, accountant, and 3 or 4 others took 45 plant varieties to Shanghai after strong interest was expressed in growing some of our plants over there. What they came up against was a very different way of conducting business with ever-changing goalposts and underhanders on everything.

There was also the challenge of growing plants in a different climate with temps up to 38 deg C factored with low light intensity and pollution. Trials were set up in different parts of the country across a spectrum of climate zones to try and overcome these challenges. To add to these challenges, a non-propagation agreement was broken by their local business partners, and Clive stressed that introduction of new plant material has to be ongoing because of pirating issues. To put these broken business agreements into perspective, he recommended the book “Mr China” by Tom Clissold as a sobering read for anyone contemplating doing business there.

Now 6 years later, they have a nursery (as a joint venture, which in China can be 100% owner operated) covering 30 acres and with the capacity for 1 million plants in production at one time. Nine prop houses and 56 tunnel houses contain plants such as Viburnum tinus, Cuppressus Gold Pillar and Blue Ice, Leyland cypress, lavenders and rosemaries. A huge hit with the locals is Photinia Red Robin, and they could sell millions annually if production space would allow. And with all going well, we just might see some of his nursery's Red Robins in the background when we tune in to the Beijing Olympics.

Saturday’s Field Trip

Ema Hewson reports ...

On the afternoon of the 29 April we set out to view some of Dunedin's Southern Treasures. The bus driver was a wealth of knowledge, pointing out the sights along the ride. The main highlight for the driver was the Otago Harbour Bridge!!

Our first stop was the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre, run by the University of Otago. Upon arrival we were given a lecture on seaweed by one of the students. Seaweed is a macro algae underwater plant; there are over 100 species in New Zealand. It provides an important role in the ocean as it provides food for marine life, habitat & shelter and oxygen. There are also benefits for humans; as a garden fertiliser, many health benefits, and is edible. We were recommended to sample some of the kelp chips provided, pretty tasty! We were then shown into the aquarium to view the marine animals where we were saw starfish, crabs, sea slugs, seahorses and more.

Our next stop was Larnarch Castle to observe the gardens; we did so with traditional Scottish mist surrounding the property! Margaret Barker, private owner and keen gardener showed us around the property (over 14ha). The garden has been a continuing project of hers since 1967 after Margaret and her husband made the castle their home. The rock gardens after being accidentally discovered (as they were covered with years of growth) have been rebuilt and the effort has been well worth it. We enjoyed the contrasts in the garden, from temperate rainforest to the herbaceous walk with fantastic flowers, and many other types of garden in between. It was a spectacular testimony to Margaret's hard work.