Meer Plant wins Creativity Award at Floralies Ghent - Greenhouse Management

2022-05-14 06:11:26 By : Mr. David Hu

This ornamental plant exhibition, which had its first edition in 1873, forms the backdrop for 10 days of creations by national and international top florists, growers of ornamental plants and garden architects.

With a beautiful combination of bamboo, roses and water on their stand at the Floralien in Ghent, Meer Plant from Meer (B) made a flashy entrance into the tree nursery market. Meer Plant BV is a new addition to the Oprins family. The stand was shared with sister companies Plantentuin De Kleine Boerderij Merksplas and tree nursery Vista Verde. The international jury chaired by Laurence Machiels awarded the Creativity Prize to the presentation. The jury praised the "exceptional quality, top-notch creativity, exceptional execution, a feast for the eyes, a technical tour de force. And at the same time very soothing."

The exhibit featured Hedge-On, which is a new concept for ready-to-use rose hedges, as well as Naturosa a selection of newly bred, bee-friendly roses and Prunus lusitanica 'Tico'. Designer Tom de Houwer created a zen-invoking garden with the title 'eternal stream.'

He used bamboo as a unique background to present the hedge roses. More than 15 km of 7-metre high, split bamboo was bent in a wave motion to draw attention to the tube that held the roses in their original container above the stretched-out water feature. The scale of the 13-metre-long 4x4 (wxh) design, the visual movement of the bamboo, the sound of the falling water and the scent and appearance of the hedge roses created an immersive experience.

The Floralies are held once every four years in the Floralies' Hall in Ghent. This ornamental plant exhibition, which had its first edition in 1873, forms the backdrop for 10 days of creations by national and international top florists, growers of ornamental plants and garden architects.

The theme for 2022 is "My Paradise, My Worldly Garden." With less and less green space and public areas becoming more and more built up, cities often look like one big, paved surface. For 10 days, the goal of Floralies offered a counter image — complete with a dynamic, green and blooming presentation. The Floralies exhibit ran until May 8.

Metrolina Greenhouses will open its 2022 Summer Trials to the floriculture industry as part of the Southern Garden Tour in the first full week of June.

Metrolina Greenhouses will hold its annual Trial Gardens Open House for members of the floriculture industry from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 9.

The annual event is part of the Southern Garden Tour, which includes stops at Young’s Plant Farm in Auburn, Alabama, on June 7 and the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, on June 8.

Metrolina Greenhouses will also open the Trial Gardens to gardening consumers for its Home Garden Panel consumer research event on Friday, June 10. This event will only be open to advocate-level industry members of Metrolina Greenhouses’ Home Garden Panel to interact with gardening consumers in research discussions and focus groups.

This year’s Trial Gardens open house marks roughly 20 years since the operation began hosting its annual summer trials.

The Trial Gardens will evaluate more than 2,000 items:

Additionally, Metrolina Greenhouses’ research and development team has chosen heuchera to evaluate this year for its perennial genus trial.

Attendees should RSVP for the Trial Gardens at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e45aeae2ba64-2023 

This year Metrolina Greenhouses celebrates its 50th anniversary. Established in 1972, Metrolina Greenhouses has held plant trials for the past 40 years, beginning in the driveway at Tom and Vickie VanWingerden’s house. Today, Metrolina’s expert research and development team evaluates more than 2,000 plants in its Trial Gardens annually, and over 15,000 varieties in both public and private trials each year. The team’s work provides critical analysis of varieties that will grow best in the Southeast region.

For more information on Metrolina Greenhouses Trial Gardens, contact Kayla Gibson, Research and Development Manager, 980-266-0011. To learn more about Metrolina’s Home Garden Panel, contact Lauren Kenworthy, Manager – Marketing, Home Garden Panel, lkenworthy@metrolinagreenhouses.com.

Learn more about the operation at www.metrolinagreenhouses.com.

With the WatchDog, growers can receive real-time, crop-specific environmental data on their smartphone.

Spectrum Technologies has released the WatchDog 3230 Wireless Plant Growth Station. The WatchDog measures, records and communicates crop growing conditions in a greenhouse and sends the data to the growers. Through its single portable station, growers can receive real-time, crop-specific environmental data on their smartphone, including temperature, relative humidity and PAR Light from any source.

The portable station has an integrated solar power system and has Wi-Fi or cellular radios, making communication simple. Growers can also view the current environmental conditions on their smart phone with the WatchDog Mobile App.

The WatchDog comes with additional sensor ports to optionally measure soil moisture, EC and temperature, or additional PAR light sensors to measure conditions at different crop heights.

“With this new wireless station, growers have a portable environmental station to move from crop to crop or to a different greenhouse to track the key growing conditions,” says Mike Thurow, president and CEO. “Growing high quality crops consistently and profitably is the goal.”

Armstrong will guide SePRO's R&D initiatives as has joined SePRO as the director of research, regulatory and innovation.

With a focus on expanding its pipeline of sustainable technologies, SePRO, industry leaders in the aquatics, turf, ornamental and specialty agricultural markets, is gaining new leadership. Dr. Joe Armstrong has joined SePRO as the director of research, regulatory and innovation to guide its R&D initiatives.

Armstrong earned his Ph.D. in Weed Science from Michigan State University.  Armstrong comes to SePRO from Corteva Agriscience, where he served in several capacities, most recently as the technology characterization leader for Discovery Herbicides.

“Dr. Armstrong is a highly accomplished scientific leader with a proven track record in customer-centric problem solving,” said Dr. Tyler Koschnick, president of SePRO Corporation. “His industry experience with a wide diversity of plants and crops will certainly lend an enormous advantage to our research and development priorities. I am eager to watch his vision unfold at SePRO.”

In his new role, Armstrong will explore existing customer needs to provide structure to future R&D strategies, resulting in a robust pipeline of technologies. “SePRO is well known for its innovative solutions,” said Dr. Armstrong. “The opportunity to join this team of scientific thought leaders is extremely exciting. I am looking forward to collaborating with the R&D team to develop solutions that will not only meet the unique and complex needs of our customers but will advance the SePRO mission as well.” 

The report provides plant and seed brokers/distributors, growers and retailers an insider view on crop trends necessary to make business decisions based on insights from the plant breeding community.

Created by industry, for the industry, the new 2021-2022 Crop Trend Report from National Garden Bureau fills the information gap that many in the plant industry have been requesting for years – a historical view of crop performance.

As part of its mission to ‘Inspire, Connect and Grow,’ National Garden Bureau is pleased to offer its inaugural 2021-2022 Crop Trend Report that will provide plant and seed brokers/distributors, growers and retailers an insider view on crop trends necessary to make business decisions based on insights from the plant breeding community.

Unlike Market Research firms that glean information from public sources, this is a historic moment where the Crop Trends presented in this report are based on data provided by the very same companies breeding, producing, and marketing these crops. You cannot get any closer to a reliable source on crop trends than the NGB Crop Trend Report.

The data used to compile this report comes from the three Breeder-Producer Market Share Surveys National Garden Bureau has been conducting for the past 30+ years. From this information, NGB has taken the opportunity to create a high-level summary of crop trends for the benefit of all channel partners.

Commentary for each crop has been provided by the survey participants who are subject matter experts. The commentary underscores the trend line with insights on breeding direction and market changes.

In this inaugural year, the 2021-2022 Crop Trend Report includes details on 20 annual crops, 14 perennial crops, 10 shrubs, 12 edibles and two seasonal crops.

2021-2022 Crop Trend Report Table of Contents

Possessing these details will allow NGB, their survey participants and Crop Trend Report purchasers to guide the dialogue about our industry’s health and vigor.

This 2021-2022 Crop Trend Report is now available for purchase by horticulture industry segments as outlined in the pricing list below.

To obtain the member discount, please consider joining National Garden Bureau to support the industry’s only non-profit ambassador for gardening. Five different membership tiers are described on the NGB website. For more information on membership, please contact Diane Blazek or Membership Coordinator Gail Pabst.

To purchase the 2021-2022 NGB Crop Trend Report, please email Diane Blazek your intent to purchase. NGB will then send an invoice for payment. Once payment is received, NGB will forward a PDF copy of the 2021-2022 Crop Trend Report.

For more information visit www.NGB.org.