2009 Conference Report - Field Trip

Saturday dawned a very cold morning in Hobart with snow clearly evident on Mt Wellington which overlooks the city and is only 9km away; it certainly felt like it!

Many conference goers headed to the Salamanca markets for some retail therapy, while others after their bribe of a breakfast stayed behind for the AGM which was all over and done with very quickly!
It was then off to the markets for the rest of us to spend an hour or so walking around the markets with its wide variety of food, produce, crafts and Tasmanian souvenirs before boarding the buses to nursery visits.

There were three separate visits being made so one had to choose carefully which bus one got on as a lot wanted to go to the nurseries 'up the hill' rather than to the Botanical Gardens or Cracknell's state of the art tomatoo greenhouse and Granton Plants. I was lucky enough to get on the desired bus and so we set off through the suburbs of Hobart and started the climb up into the foothills of Mt Wellington where it was not getting any warmer or drier.

Our first visit was to Jubilee Nursery and it was fortunate that the other two nurseries to be visited were within walking distance, so everybody could visit the others at their leisure. The nursery is run by Ted Cutlan and Joy Stones who specialise in the rare and unusual, including a large selection of deciduous plants, rhododendrons, camellias, conifers and Australian plants. The selection and quality were as good as anywhere in New Zealand and once we had looked around the retail area, it was out back to the propagation house which was full of rhododendrons under mist.

Next door we went to Plants of Tasmania which is run by Will Fletcher and specialises in Tasmanian plants by mail order and retail sales. It also has an extensive retail area which was well laid out with a wide range of plants grouped by type i.e. groundcovers, grasses and sedges and large trees. One almost felt one was back in New Zealand with many of the Tasmanian plants resembling close relatives from home. Some of the Australians brought plants while the Kiwis would have shopped up a storm if we were allowed to take stuff home with us!

Our final visit and a welcome one at that with morning tea was Island Bonsai, a recent sideline business developed by Will Fletcher that specialises in Tasmanian plants grown as bonsai. Much of the local flora makes excellent bonsai specimens and a look around the large collection confirmed this with some very interesting plants on display.

All the buses then headed across the Tasman Bridge and out past Hobart Airport to Westland Nurseries where the group tucked into an extensive lunch in one of the nurseries crop covers, before touring the nursery and demonstrations that had been arranged.

Westland is the largest nursery in Tasmania and grows a wide range of plants from house plants and flowering lines through to trees and shrubs up to specimen grade, which are sold all over Tasmania and they also do retail sales from the site.

Covering 12 hectares, the nursery is run by the Vander staay family of Tony and Rose Vander staay, brother Henry and Mark Vander staay representing the 3rd generation. Originally established by Tony and Henry's parents in 1956 in the foothills of Mt Wellington near Hobart, the nursery was destroyed by fire and so the nursery was relocated over 7 years to its present site.

The group was then split up and taken on a tour of the nursery; those with the owner Tony had an entertaining and informative tour, with many interesting ideas and innovations along the way. I'm sure all of those who followed Tony around picked up many ideas to take home to their own nursery. Starting with the outdoor production beds, we then saw the new shade house with its retractable roof and then the growing-on line area. We then toured some of the indoor houses and the large tree area before coming to the irrigation pond. Westland have been using water from the local council treatment plant to irrigate the nursery which has been giving outstanding results.

The toured then moved to the indoor growing areas and potting shed where the Demtec potting machine was in operation. This is a recent addition to the Nursery and has allowed for increased efficiencies although some potting is still done by hand. There has also been a move to bar-coding pots as they are potted on, although this has caused a few headaches for the staff. The propagation facilities formed the final part of the tour and Westland propagate around 60% of the plants it produces, with the rest brought in as liners from the mainland.

Around the nursery, various propagators were demonstrating their skills including Ian Williams (Appletons) on budding and grafting, Ian Tolley (Tolley Nurseries, SA) demonstrating knife sharpening and Michael Gleeson (Castle-Lyn Nursery Services, NSW) who convinced many to throw away their secateurs and instead use a grafting knife when making cuttings to make the whole process quicker and produce excellent cuttings (See September newsletter for article).

It was then back to Wrest Point to get ready for the convention dinner that night ...