Newsletter December 2011, Volume 42, Issue 4

President's Report

Hi there to all,

Spring has recently departed us here in Nelson but in the past week we have had terrible winds and now horrendous rain. It seems to have undone our recent work so I ask: when is summer coming?
Well what can I say about 2011? What an eventful year in one way or another. From the tragedy of the earthquakes in Christchurch to the victory of the All Blacks at the Rugby World Cup; it just goes to epitomize what can be achieved thru good planning, determination of rebuilding a city and a passion for our national game.

It goes to show that people make communities and together we do make a difference.

On the nursery front here in Nelson, the last few months have been spent keeping up with the erratic spring weather. Our staff have been busy transplanting, sowing seed and pricking out ready for next year's sales.

IPPS has been ticking over quietly. Our 2012 Cromwell conference organizing committee have held meetings and it all seems to be coming together quite nicely. Please keep these dates in your diary for 2012: 23-26 April for the pre conference tour leaving from Dunedin and 26-29 April for conference itself. Further details are in this newsletter or on the website.

Field trips are still ongoing with an Auckland anniversary weekend trip to Tutukaka looking interesting. Jeff Elliot is the contact for this one. Looking to early March we are planning a Field Trip to coincide with Ellerslie in Christchurch.

On a sadder note we take the time to offer our condolences to Peter Waugh on the recent passing of his wife Carol and to the family of Annette Officer; we are deeply sorry for their losses.

With Christmas less than a week away, I hope you all have a lovely break and are able to spend some time relaxing with friends and family. It will give us all a chance to recharge our batteries and come back in 2012 refreshed and ready to go.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and all the best for 2012.

Regards
Ian Williams

Conference 2012 ... High N Dry

Cromwell - 26-29 April 2012
The Cromwell Conference has a big emphasis on the future. Sustainable water use, drought tolerant plants and green roof technology will feature strongly. A visit to a winery water treatment rush bed, a green roof, a salt pan reserve and practical seed processing workshops are being planned. Some high calibre overseas speakers are itching to come to Central Otago ... so don't miss out!

Really exciting to see lots of people have booked accommodation for this really social, fun conference already!

Options include:

Golden Gate Lodge: Bed and breakfast $135 ($150 for two people) www.goldengate.co.nz
C arrick Lodge (really close and nice): Smaller studio sleeps 2, $125 www.carricklodge.co.nz
Colonial Manor (also close): Studios from $115 www.colonialmanor.co.nz
Even cheaper options at Cromwell Top 10 Holiday Park, www.cromwellholidaypark.co.nz

Remember to quote IPPS when booking to secure the special rates organized for you.

We will also be picking people up from Queenstown airport, so get onto the Grab a Seat fares - it is very cheap to get to the mainland. Conference finishes 12:00 noon Sunday. It takes 45 mins to the airport, so plan flights for 2pm onwards if possible. We will deliver groups back to Queenstown airport.

Don't forget Mark Brown's special pre-conference tour leaving Dunedin on Monday 23 April and heading via the Taieri Gorge Railway to Middlemarch, then onto Naseby, Ranfurly, Ophir (officially the coldest place in New Zealand), Thompsons Pass and then onto Cromwell in time for conference to begin. Limited to 30 lucky people, so be in - details follow.

Mark your diaries and get onto those leave plans!
Registration forms not too far away.
Warm regards from the 2012 committee.

Pre-Conference Tour - Monday 23 April to Thursday 26 April

Monday 23rd April

8.30am - Meet at Dunedin Historic Railway Station to transfer luggage to vans
9.30am - Taieri Gorge Train departs from Dunedin across the Taieri Plains then following the Taieri River in Central Otago. This is one of the world's greatest train trips.
11.35am - Train arrives at Pukerangi
Buffet car on train for morning tea. Vans meet train
Visit Sutton Salt Lake. 1.5 hour walk round trip. Introduction to Central Otago rock formations and plants
Drive through Middlemarch, Otago's own Wild West town and proceed to the Hyde
Hotel for lunch 1.15pm. Depart 2.15pm.
Drive through Kokonga, Waipiata, Patearoa to Clachanbarn - a garden of National Signifcance growing against the odds in a harsh climate and tenderly cared for by a character of local significance. Garden visit and afternoon tea.
Travel across the Maniototo Plains to Naseby approximately 6pm. Staying at Ancient Briton Hotel.
2 motel units, 1 with 2 singles, 1 with 1 double and 1 single. 12 ensuite rooms. 1 double room (share bathroom), 1 twin room (share bathroom).

Tuesday 24th April

8.45am - 11am Curling. Suggest North versus South.
Drive to and tour Ranfurly Museum etc.
12 - 1pm - Lunch
1.30pm -2.30pm Falls Dam - Steve to investigate DOC reserve for plants worth a look at.
2.50pm - 3.50pm St Bathans Hotel - Ghosts and characters and a tour of St Bathans. Afternoon tea with Mike the publican.
4pm - Head back to Naseby via Wedderburn, arrive Naseby 6.30pm.
Dinner Nasby at the Ancient Briton Hotel

Wednesday 25th April Anzac Day

8.45am - Depart Naseby
10am - Omakau for Anzac service and morning tea. Cost approximately $10.
Then to Blacks Cottage at Ophir, one of the earliest properties settled in the area with an interesting layout and all in a part of New Zealand that has the lowest temperatures ever recorded. Please note, not many visitors get the pleasure to visit this property and meet yet another character of local significance. Lunch here
2pm - Depart and travel over Thompsons Track through old gold mining areas. 22 gates to be opened and closed! Not suitable for the faint hearted. To be investigated further.
Onto Golden Gate Hotel

Thursday 26th April

Bus to Remarkables Alpine fields
Remarkables Mountain Range. Once again not a trip for the faint-hearted. Some may wish to sit on the left side going up and right coming down. Alpine herb fields with a wide range of plants from Hectorella caespinosa, Aciphylla kirkii to Chionochloa macr. Arne Cleland may be available to describe the challenges of revegetating around the ski field area.
Warm clothing required (essential)

Field Trip - Tutukaka - Auckland Anniversary weekend

Saturday 28th - Monday 30th January 2012.

Camping out at Guy and Sandra Bowden's property - this is a laid-back field trip so bring your tent or caravan.

Take advantage of one of our member's slice of paradise with astonishing views, two minutes walk to an amazing beach, clear water and great fishing and diving. No dogs as there are kiwi on the property.
Saturday afternoon we will tour the nursery and bush area. Informal evening get together. Jeff Elliott will talk about tricks in propagation by cuttings.

Jeff will be there a few days earlier and it is fine for anyone to camp a few extra days.

Sunday boat trip around Poor Knights Island fishing through charter company. Guy will talk about vegetation on the island otherwise lounging on the beach. Sunday night BBQ and question and answer time.

A donation to Guy's bush fund would be appreciated otherwise no cost.
RSVP to jeff.elliott@clear.net.nz or 0800 394 946
Maps and video at www.tawapou.co.nz and http://www.tutukakacoastnz.com/index.php/2010/12/tawapou-coastal-natives/

Field Trip - Christchurch - Saturday 10 March 2011

Ellerslie International Flower Show and Field Day:

Start 8.30am at Moffatts Flower Company, an established and very successful flower grower.
Then onto Paul Clark's for morning tea and a look around his very boutique nursery. Then to finish, we go to the City Council nursery in Linwood run by Joe Cartman who has spoken at recent IPPS conferences.

This is expected to finish at midday leaving the rest of the day to go to the Ellerslie International Flower Show.

An evening restaurant meal will be arranged for those who want to attend and a van will be provided to get around the nurseries and the show.

RSVP to jeff.elliott@clear.net.nz or 0800 394 946
For tickets to show see www.ellerslieflowershow.co.nz

Vale - Annette Officer

It is with sadness that we also report the passing of Annette Officer in late October. Annette was a long time IPPS member who worked at Riverview Growers at Oamaru for over 30 years, before retiring with her husband Gordon to Twizel at the end of 2007.

Annette was a regular attendee at conferences and other IPPS events sharing her knowledge and experiences with other members.

Margaret Buschl of Riverview Growers contributed the following:
Annette was a lovely lady and passionate about her job as well as the people she met. She was a good organiser and was involved in organising the Oamaru and the Dunedin IPPS conferences. She was so involved in many other activities in the community as well.
Gus Evans contributed the following:
Annette always willingly volunteered whenever asked to help out at Conferences or Field Trips.
One lasting memory will always be when Annette and Gordon's son, played the bagpipes for an early morning wakeup call at the last Dunedin Conference.
Her contribution to our Society was outstanding. She will be very sadly missed by all her IPPS family.

Vale - Carol Waugh

It is with sadness that we report the passing of Carol Waugh, wife of our Past President Peter Waugh. Carol passed away peacefully on 21 November after a long battle with cancer. Carol was one half of the horticultural supply firm, Carann Agencies, started by Peter and Carol in 1986 and would be known by most IPPS members. Carol was not one to be in the limelight and was content to stay in the background although she supported Peter wholeheartedly in all his endeavours during his time on the IPPS committee and also with his commitments to IPPS Australia and Japan. Messages can be sent to Peter on peterwaugh@clear.net.nz .

Volume 60 - Combined Proceedings

This is on its way to members, the book having been posted in the US on December 7th. The CD's will be posted before Christmas.

Volume 57 (2007) has now been uploaded to the PubHort website and Volumes 58, 59 and 60 will be uploaded over the coming months. Future volumes will be added shortly after the CDs and books are made available.

IPPS Dunedin Field Trip October 2011

Report by Jeff Elliott - On the weekend of 15th October we headed to the balmy climes of Dunedin to sample their Botanical delights.

The first day started at the Dunedin Botanical Gardens. We were greeted and given a tour by the curator Barbara Wheeler. The gardens cover 28 hectares and are recognized as New Zealand's first Botanic Gardens, although there is only a matter of months between Dunedin and Christchurch Botanic Gardens. Great things are planned for their 150 year celebration in 2013.

Several of the collections within the Gardens have gained recognition of international significance, the most recent to do so was the Camellia Collection.

We walked our way around, up and over the gardens in typical Dunedin weather, cool, drizzly and moist. This didn't curb Barbara's enthusiasm, it was just proof of the gentle climate which helps them grow an extremely wide selection of plants, including collections from Africa, the Mediterranean and other areas that the average person would consider too warm to attempt to replicate in Dunedin.

There were many features of the Gardens worthy of comment, but perhaps the most striking feature of the Gardens is that while they have historical significance they are continually improving, upgrading and developing new areas within the Gardens. Bequests had helped in a few specific areas. The Clive Lister garden was testament to this, where a bequest had lead to the development of a garden, purposefully screened off with Bamboo and other soft foliages to create a very tranquil area.

The Mediterranean Garden was a more recently created effort, with impressive dry wall stone work, and a collection of mainly seed derived plants of Mediterranean origin. What was striking were the perennial plants appearing as bright and eye-catching as many of their modern-day, selectively bred peers. Lithospermum, Iberis, Rosemary, Lavender and Phlox all showed this.

Doug Thomson, far right, has us all in the palm of his hand

Another feature of the Gardens is the very large and impressive rock garden, the determination of the Gardens founders is evident by the sheer weight of rock that was placed to from this great area.

We made our way to the Rhododendron Dell, a part of the Garden that has been established for a very long time. The curator of the rhododendron area, Doug Thomson, had kindly volunteered to give us a tour. His natural passion for rhodos was evident.

The top of the dell starts with a beautiful open area of mown lawn, interspersed with garden of Acer palmatum trees, underplanted with masses of both deciduous and evergreen azaleas.

Mark Brown, (centre) organized the weekend field trips, and thanks Barbara Wheeler, (right) for our tour of the Dunedin Botanic Gardens.

Gradually you work your way down into a mixture of cool narrow gullies with large growing rhodo species such as arboretum, macabeanum and grandes. Here you walk under the canopies of these huge plants and see the fantastic array of gnarly branches and beautiful barks, a feature not too often associated with rhodos. This is interspersed with more open areas with smaller growing varieties planted in large borders. A collection of hybrids bred in NZ lines the Cherry walkway.

The collection is always expanding, with Doug showing us his latest seedling raised species planted in areas as natural attrition, or judicious removal of underperformers, allows.

From the Gardens we headed out to Lanarch Castle, a place I hadn't visited since a child, and was eager to see again. The History of the Castle is a tapestry of good and bad fortune, and of periods of neglect and repair.

Fiona enjoys her Certificate of Appreciation

Fiona Eadie, who is in charge of the Gardens, was our tour leader. She has overseen perhaps the most extensive rebuild of the Gardens after a long period of neglect.

The Castle's position on the hills above the Otago Harbour are a challenging environment but an excellent garden has flourished. The large front lawn has been maintained as a open, formal area, perhaps the most imposing feature the archway, covered in wisteria, being fairly continually grazed by fat wood pigeons. This frames a beautiful view of the Harbour below.

Fiona has done some research of the Gardens from historical records and photos. Few original specimens have survived, but what has are predominately Natives, Cabbage trees, a large Northern Rata and Red Beech and Rimu.

The Garden below and around the back portion of the Castle is a more rambling affair. Extensive stairs and viewing platforms have added to the enjoyment of the Gardens to the North side of the Castle. A huge plant of a golden form of Pseudopanax arboreus was striking, so much so we could spot it from the Harbour later as we travelled past later that day.

The day was capped of with a boat ride to the heads of Otago Harbour, where we floated under the Albatross Colony and watched the recently arrived birds test their wings out, above us.

Les Cleveland with one of his many
Daffodil Bulbs

On Sunday the Field trip continued at Les Cleveland's Property. Les has been a major contributor to Dunedin Amenity Society. Today this legacy is still evident with extensive plantings, particularly of rhodos at the entance to Dunedin City. He has also been a patron of the rail trail. He is also an extensive hybridiser of Daffodils and Rhododendrons. Les Cleveland wants to beautify Dunedin and hopes planting 30,000 daffodil bulbs will do the trick. So he just does it off his own bat, a humorous clever and very calculated man. Les Cleveland feels "Flowers in view do so much for people's feelings and pride in their city."

The Garden had a wonderful setting and great views.

Dunedin is set to host the International World Daffodil Convention in 2012 and Mr Cleveland hopes to have as many daffodils planted by then as he can.

Napier conference speaker DVDs

These will be sent out in January. In order to save costs, only one will be sent per company. The committee is looking to include some of the content on YouTube next year.

& attached to this emailing

Japan Region Pre-Conference International Tour - 20 Oct to 25 Oct 2012
IPPS Linked-In Site

IPPS Proceedings on PubHort Website

All IPPS members can now view abstracts from past combined proceedings on the PubHort website, operated by the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). All the abstracts through to Volume 56 are now online with Volumes 57, 58 and 59 to be added next year. A search box will help you find papers by a particular author or on a certain subject or plant.

To access the abstracts, go to www.ipps.org and go to the menu bar at the top of the page. Go to "Proceedings" and then click on "Proceedings on PubHort website".

In addition, all Option 1 members (those who get the Proceedings in book or CD form) are able to download 10 full papers free each year they maintain their Option 1 membership of IPPS. A total of over 32,000 pages have been included and each volume published in the future will be included as well, making this a great resource for IPPS members and another benefit of joining as an Option 1 member.
Option 2 members can download papers for the fees charged by the ISHS, currently EUR 12 or USD 18 per paper so it pays to be an Option 1 member.

All Option 1 members would have received an email from the International Office with further details on how to access the full paper text.

This is a major step forward for IPPS as a service to members and sharing our knowledge worldwide.
If you have any questions, please contact Glenys Evans or Shirley Ogilvy.

Buy, Sell and Swap

Anybody want, don't want, need, don't need anything?
Send details to Hayden - haydenfoulds@gmail.com

Thanks to these 2011 / 2012 sponsors

Newsletter Format

This newsletter is sent to all New Zealand IPPS members by email if we have your address or by post if you prefer. It's also available on our website - www.ipps.org.nz

Some members have experienced problems reading the email version and may prefer to receive a hard copy.

If you'd like to change the method by which we send your copy, please advise:
Shirley Ogilvy
Email sogilvy@clear.net.nz
Post 208 Narrows Rd, RD 2, Hamilton
Phone 07 843 4902
Fax 07 843 4396

Editorial Contacts

Hayden Foulds
2A Crewe Street, Pahiatua
P: home 06 376 8436, P: work 06 326 8500. F: 06 376 8436, M: 027 232 4589
haydenfoulds@gmail.com

Glenys Evans
PO Box 98, Waikanae
P: 04 293 2501, F: 04 293 5450
E: gus@gusevans.co.nz

Next Issue February 2012, deadline for copy 1 Feb 2012.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Visit www.ipps.org.nz

©2011 International Plant Propagators' Society - New Zealand Region
S Ogilvy (Treasurer)
C/- Bruntwood Nurseries, 208 Narrows Rd, RD2, Hamilton
P: 07 843 4902, F: 07 843 4396

Sent to [[address_firstname]] [[address_lastname]] at [[address_email]]
Unsubscribe here

Email newsletter by KingGrapes