Report By Hayden Foulds

A small but enthusiastic group gathered in Palmerston North on Saturday 2 February to tour the Manawatu area. It was good to see a couple of members brought some of their staff along to seek and share as well.

Our first stop was the New Zealand Rugby Museum where acting Curator Bob Luxford welcomed the group and gave an overview of the museum. The museum was established in 1969 and has over 30000 items in its collection although only 5% are on display at any one time. Displays range from the origins of rugby in this country through to a whistle and coin display that includes the whistle that has been used to start every opening match of the Rugby World Cup. A collection of New Zealand provincial jerseys and international team jerseys adorns two walls - I didn't know they played rugby in Guam and Switzerland! If you are in Palmerston North, then a visit to the Museum is highly recommended or if you can't make it, check out their very informative website www.rugbymuseum.co.nz

We then travelled out to Tree and Shrub Propagation where Helen Johnston welcomed us in typical IPPS fashion with a delicious morning tea of scones and muffins before taking us on a tour of her very tidy and compact nursery which specialises in growing on lines and farm forestry lines. A speciality is buxus and the cutting material for these is obtained from a large hedge planted in the 1880's. Farm forestry lines, mostly Eucalyptus are grown in root trainers held upright by a system of wires - no baskets here. The plants were also quite big and Helen explained that farmers like them this size as they do not get eaten readily or lost under the weeds. Growing on lines are rarely sprayed and there are few lines that need frost protection, so only tough hardy plants are grown here.

An enjoyable lunch was held at the Cafe Domain, part of the Ashhurst Domain and then we headed up to the Te Apiti wind farm via the Saddle Road and the new bridge that replaced the one lost in the February 2004 floods. There is a visitor car park at the top where we got right up and close with the massive turbines, each tower is 70m tall and the blades are 35m long. They are anchored by 375 tonnes (75 truck loads) of concrete each and there is approximately 48km of underground cabling and 21km of roads joining everything together. Check out www.meridianenergy.co.nz for more information.

It was then down the other side of the hill to our next visit, Graelynn Lavender Farm on the outskirts of Woodville where we were welcomed by Graeme and Carolyn Barrell. We picked the right time of the year to visit as the plants, all 10000 mostly Grosso were in full flower which made for a spectacular sight. Carolyn gave an overview of the operation which they started 12 years ago and are very passionate about producing high quality lavender oil which is made into a variety of products. With harvesting underway, we were able to see the whole process demonstrated to us which was very interesting. A few of the group also made some purchases at the shop, mostly the hand cream recommended by Graeme that can get any type of dirt etc off your hands and it does. Well worth a visit if passing through Woodville Ph (06) 376 5114 Email graelynn.lavender@xtra.co.nz

We headed back through the scenic Manawatu Gorge to our final visit, Starter Plants, where Eddie and Jan Welsh welcomed us with a lovely afternoon tea and drinks. Eddie then showed us around his nursery which has progressed greatly since our last visit as part of the 2003 Conference. All of the production is field based and mostly by division. The main lines produced are Agapanthus, Liriope, Phormium and Ophiopogon; not to forget Eucomis which Eddie breeds and spoke on at the conference last year. We also saw the fun parts of the nursery, the extensive vegetable garden and the ornamental gardens filled with a variety of plants. Along the Tiritea stream, Eddie has established a series of gardens featuring collections of plants from different parts of the world including Europe, North America and Asia which will be interesting to visit again as the plants increase in size.

Eddie and Jan then hosted the end of field trip BBQ at their home in Palmerston North, a good ending to a very interesting day of visits. Special thanks go to those who helped me put the trip together - Eddie Welsh, Helen Johnson and Ian Wightman (Oranga Plants) and those who hosted us on their properties.