July 2017 was again a month with a lot of happenings; 4th of July was celebrated with American Flowers in the US, the first edition of Tendence Outdoor Living took place in Germany, Cultivate'17 in the US and Hishtil celebrated 10 years in South Africa. But more happened, see the overview below:
US: 4th of July celebrated with American flowers
During Independence Day in the US, red, white and blue flowers cannot be missed. The 4th of July also marks the final day of the third edition of the American Flowers Week. It's a week-long celebration of domestic flowers to raise consumer awareness and unite America’s flower farmers with the U.S. floral industry.
Desch Plantpak committed to recycling plastic:
When talking about the environment, plastic still seems to have a bad image. It pollutes the environment. However, it only does so if people are not taking care of it properly. "Everyone likes dogs, but no one likes to step in their waste. In order to prevent this, dog owners need to be trained to clean it up. The same applies to plastic", says Jan Willem Wieringa, Managing Director at Desch Plantpak. This packaging manufacturer has used recycled plastic for many years and recently started to spread the word of recycled pots and trays.
Germany: First edition Tendence Outdoor Living
Linking hardware and software. That is the aim of Tendence Outdoor Living, a zone that was added to the existing hardware event Tendence 2017 for the first time. The event took place at the Messe Frankfurt in Frankfurt am Main, Germany from June 24-26.
A look behind the scenes at Dutch Aeschynanthus grower Bert Schouten:
"Supplying flowering Aeschynanthus year-round is the biggest challenge."
"Even though green plants are popular at the moment, green Aeschynanthus do not sell without flowers", says Bert Schouten of Nursery Bert Schouten. According to him, supplying a flowering crop year-round is the biggest challenge when growing this 'Lipstick plant'. He started with 700 m2 of greenhouse space 25 years ago, but now utilises 36,000 m2 for the cultivation of this crop. Currently Schouten is one of the few Dutch growers to fully focus on this niche product. And for year-round availability of a flowering product, he started to cross and breed his own varieties in 2003. "It enables us to supply flowering plants 95 percent of the year, instead of 40 percent of the year, as we did before."
NL: Record harvest tulip bulbs
Never before have so many tulip bulbs been taken out of the ground in the Netherlands as this year, according to the trade organization Royal General Bulb Growers' Association (KAVB). Since 2000, the cultivation acreage of tulips has grown by 36% to nearly 12,000 hectares in 2017.
Kenya: AAA Roses expands Bellissima rose production with 10 ha
AAA Roses is expanding its one-year-old high altitude farm with 10 ha. By the end of this year, this Kenyan farm hopes to cultivate their Bellissima branded roses on 30 ha. The farm, named Chui farm, started the rose production in February 2016 and is focused on long stem and large headed new varieties that they mainly ship to the Netherlands. Due to the good reception of their brand and new varieties, they decided, already within 12 months of its first production, to expand the greenhouse. With this expansion, the total production area of AAA across all farms will increase to a total of 70ha.
Dümmen Orange acquires orchid breeder SOGO
Taiwanese orchid breeder SOGO has joined the Dümmen Orange family of businesses. With this step SOGO provides Dümmen Orange a unique entry into the orchid product group, at the same time broadening Dümmen Orange’s offering in tropical plants and more than doubling its tissue culture capacity. SOGO’s activities are focused on breeding and tissue culture based propagation of orchids for key markets like USA, Brazil, South East Asia and Northwest Europe. In combination with the R&D capabilities, the grower customer base and the distribution network of Dümmen Orange this immediately creates a broader portfolio of products for growers and their customers.
Hishtil SA celebrates 10 years in South Africa
On the 14th of June 2007, the first Hishtil Nursery in South Africa opened its greenhouse doors to farmers across the country. The first houses were soon filled and expansion was necessary. Hishtil South Africa now produces over 100 million seedlings, not just for the South African market, but all over Africa. We proudly work with established and emerging farmers.
Terra Nova contracts with Dümmen Orange to produce URCs
Terra Nova Nurseries has contracted with Dümmen Orange to produce Unrooted Cuttings (URCs) from Terra Nova private stock located at Dümmen Orange’s Central America facilities. The URCs will fulfill orders in North America and Europe. Following the announcement during AmericanHort’s Cultivate ’17 trade show and conference, official URC production will begin Oct. 3, 2017 (week 40) and thereafter continue.
Koen Bouten of Nursery Bouten about Cool Wave pansies
'A future-proof product.' This is how Dutch grower Koen Bouten of Nursery Bouten describes the Cool Wave pansy of PanAmerican Seed. In 2015, he started growing the varieties in this series and even though it is still quite a new product, the demand and prices are increasing year after year. "We want to keep it an exclusive product, so we do not want to flood the market with it", says Bouten. Besides that, the Cool Wave pansies seem to fit the current hanging basket trend very well. "In the spring season, they are high in demand, and this year we're selling our first autumn hanging baskets", says Bouten.
'Aloe vera farms keep increasing production'
Aloe vera is a plant which has been widely spread all over the world, in cultivation and now also in nature. The plant is known for its qualities for treating sunburn and also at the moment Aloe vera is used in drinks. Fleurizon is selling cuttings all over the world for many years now and owner Frank de Greef sees the market for this product increasing.