Three Perspectives

... From Judi Harre - Display Houses and Fernery, Pukekura Park, New Plymouth

The first place we visited was Joy Nurseries, where we were given a tour by Terry, Pam and Lindsay Hatch. We were shown many unusual forms of native plants, some that had just been launched onto the market and some still being trialled. One of my highlights was to see the huge flotilla of Saracenas floating on the pond.

I could have wandered for days through this ecosystem of unusual and colourful stock plants and beneficial insect havens and container beds of well managed interesting plants.

My interest in permaculture systems for managing our environments, whether for commercial means or for leisure and lifestyles, was most satisfied by this site.

My tip I picked up for successful propagating was the use of honey as the hormone solution. I will be trialling this advice on all sorts of cuttings at the fernery.

Our next visit was Rainbow Park. We had morning tea, and then Nicola Rochester from Scotts gave a talk on new technologies, advances and trends in fertilisers. This was very informative and we are looking forward to the dual coated Osmocote (gradual release fertiliser), yet to be launched onto the market here in New Zealand. This GRF will have pesticides built into one of the coats of the fertiliser. Nicola also brought to our attention the need to monitor the environment by measuring the leaching of our irrigation systems and the impact of runoff on our waterways, and conservation of our water.

Well the big tree nursery was very interesting and they had a lot of Japanese maples all growing well on their drip irrigation. The highlight was the tour through the indoor plant houses.

When we were offered a free planter to take with us and a free plant to put in it, there was no hesitation to take up the offer. What a wonderful gesture by Andrew and I think he made lots of friends for life.

Rainbow Park grow all their plants in peat, rather than bark, and the controlled conditions of the heated houses were very high tech.

Especially the fogging system for applying the fungicides and pesticides overnight, meaning the staff did not have to handle any toxic chemicals, and the fog was disposed of by the vents opening several times before staff clocked on for work in the mornings.

I recognised many of the plants we buy in for the display houses such as Elatior begonias, Phalaenopsis orchids, Codiaeums, Caladiums etc.

Lunch was at Wrights Water Gardens. This was my highlight of the day. After eating a very nice lunch in the welcome shade of sun umbrellas, we explored an amazing garden laid out in an old quarry with all sorts of water plants, including water lilies, irises and reeds.

Next stop was P.F. Olsen Nurseries where we saw thousands of Pine tree seedlings and cuttings. The system was very automated and efficient although it was down at the time we visited. Plants were propagated for the high wood density.

The last destination was Kiwi Colour. This nursery had large grade trees, especially natives, and succulents, vireya’s and swan plants. It was incredible to hear that this nursery was run by only three people.

Terril Marais from Zonda Resources Ltd gave us a very informative talk on beneficial insects and integrated pest management. Things like:

• Monitoring pests and their life stages is one of the most important practises in IPM.
• Recognise what the pests are, life stages, I.D. the beneficial insects (predator mites).
• Don’t use broad spectrum pesticides as this causes an upset in the balance of good guys and bad guys, which have a higher tolerance of the pesticide than the good guys. Also use the right rates.
  As mites don’t like water, using a high water rate when mixing and applying pesticides help to counteract mite populations.
• Check chemical groups and rotate these groups so that plants don’t build up a resistance to the chemical. Applaud and Success are known as the fastest chemicals to build up resistance in the world here in New Zealand.
• Group plants that have the same susceptibility to the same pests together, to make monitoring and localised spraying easier.
• The main motto was to be ‘Proactive rather than Reactive.” Get in before problems get too big.

The day was really well organised and it was great that we did not have to travel very far between venues. We saw a broad range of nurseries each with its own unique style of production.

The weekend was topped off by the Auckland Flower Show being on at Alexandra Park, so many of us were able to visit while in Auckland. It was well worth it, and I have so many photos.

... From Liza Whalley, Propagator, Taupo Native Plant Nursery

Joy Plants, Pukekohe.

Arriving at Joy Plants on the fresh South Auckland morning, it was obvious that the property was a labour of love for Terry Hatch, Pam and Lindsay. As a nursery, Joy Plants is far from the industrial look of production and more a serene garden setting under which the plants are grown with ‘as little manual labour’ as possible. Aspleniums shelter beneath the trees along the fence line and receive little, if any, watering by artificial means and all the Clivias for breeding are planted in the gardens.

Terry Hatch entertained the group of us with his quips on the ease of growing in South Auckland and the myths that text books present, and although comical it seems that he may be onto something with the way the nursery is existing with the little staff numbers they can boast to have! A lot of interest was generated through the walk into the shade frame area with the ‘Largest Cutting in the World’, that despite being set in concrete and supported with metal poles, is growing and flowering!

It was fantastic to amble through the trees and see the old native bush flourishing, Tecomanthe growing in hefty stems up the trees and lots of healthy humus helping little ferns out on the floor. I think I can say on behalf of the group that Joy Plants is definitely an inspiration in the way that ‘simple is beautiful’, and that Terry and his team should be proud of the setting they have created to produce fantastic quality plants.

Rainbow Trees, Rainbow Plants

The trip to Rainbow began with a presentation on the way that fertiliser trends have developed over time, providing all us keen nursery folk with food for thought and an interest in what the world of plant feeding has to offer in the upcoming seasons.

Rainbow was a real eye-opener into quality and efficient production, especially for someone like myself that comes from a highly manual nursery environment. The property was well presented and in a structured layout, where everyone well appreciated the precise effort put in by the team at Rainbow to produce the class of indoor plants and trees that they are well known for.

Rainbow use solely peat as a growing media, which enables efficient watering and pest control as the system can be carefully monitored, and they are managing this well by using electronic methods.

The big glasshouses took all of us under their spell of beautifully presented plants, all thriving under the conditions, and an almost tropical scene of colour and foliage of indoor plants. For the suckers that love free ‘gifts’ of plants (who doesn’t!) there was plenty of delight in finding a pot to match their selection.

Tissue culture imported from overseas and within New Zealand is grown with sphagnum biscuits, once again a very good organisation to support simple as the way to grow! As a fresh face to the nursery industry, the whole aspect (and generosity) of Rainbow was awesome, and definitely a business to have complete satisfaction in developing and running as it currently is. There really is gold at the end of the rainbow, and I’m pretty sure that if we could have spent more there, the group would have set up camp and employed themselves!

... and from Michael Watts, Taupo Native Plants, South Auckland.

On Friday evening a few enjoyable drinks and dinner were had at The Counties Inn at Pukekohe. A few more drinks had by some than others as they found the 8am start rather too early.

Four rather interesting properties were to be visited (Joy Plants, Rainbow Park, P.F.Olsens and Kiwi Colour). The day included two informative talks, one by Nicola Rochester of Scotts and the other by Terril Marais of Zonda Resources, the producers of bumble bees and biological control agents.

This trip has 36 people enjoying a wonderful day in South Auckland. Lunch was had at Wrights Water Gardens, and morning and afternoon teas were kindly sponsored by PSP Athco and Hortfert. Thank you all for coming along and I hope you had an enjoyable day.