The Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show blooms once again

By Gabrielle Stannus
 

More than 103,000 people attended the 2022 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, presented by Scotts Osmocote. at Carlton Gardens and the Royal Exhibition Building from 30 March to 3 April. Attendance for the five-day festival was comparable to pre-pandemic numbers and exceeded the expectations of not only the organisers, but also the production and retail nurseries exhibiting their plants and plant products.

Diaco’s Garden Nursery

“It is really great to be open again,” said Mario Diaco, Owner and General Manager of Diaco’s Garden Nursery of the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show (MIFGS).

“It is great to have been able to build the stand and create a great atmosphere,” said Mario, “And having the people come back through the doors, it is just great to see people back in and passionate gardeners around.”

Mario and his staff were super busy when I visited their stand, with customers keen to pick up his latest plants.

“They are absolutely loving everything that we have got here on offer from cactus to succulents to indoor plants,” said Mario, “Edible fruit is very popular as well with blueberries and raspberries proving extremely popular this time.”

Not missing an opportunity to take advantage of sales at the Show, Mario ensured that a great range of pots were also available to complement Diaco’s plants.

“So I think when you look at indoor plants, cacti and succulents, ideally a lot of people do keep (them) in pots. So what we like to offer here is get your plant, pop it in the pot, it looks great and away you go!” Mario concludes.

REVEALED

Meanwhile production nurseries exhibiting in the Nursery & Garden Industry Victoria’s (NGIV) ‘Revealed’ precinct were making the most of the opportunity to test out their new plants on a new audience.

Kiwi Hebe

The Haars Nursery stand was a riot of colour featuring dahlias, pelargoniums, bidens, chrysanthemums, kalanchoe and calibrachoas.

“We took an assortment of products to start educating the end customer as well as our growers that everything that comes in from overseas, we renew from tissue culture every two years. We are so fixated on high quality hygiene and cleanliness to make a robust plant at the end,” says Kylie Balmain, spokesperson for Haars Nursery.

Kylie says that the chrysanthemums received a lot of attention from customers, with their compactness and colour making them an excellent choice to help celebrate Chinese New Year.

However, it was a variety of Kiwi Hebe from Danish breeder, Queen Genetics, with a compact habit that caught my eye despite it being tucked away at the side of the display.

“These hebes have just come out of trial. They have (a) really interesting transition of colours through the colour scheme,” says Kylie.

It will probably be a year before this mildew tolerant, disease resistant hebes makes its way onto the market for the consumer.

“We are building up the motherstock and it is in production, so we are full steam ahead with it,” says Kylie.

Petunia ‘Pink Diamond’

At the Ball Australia stand, we saw Osteospermum ‘Sunshine Beauty’ and Petunia ‘Pink Diamond’ on display.

According to Ball Australia’s Marketing Manager Kate Grant, showgoers were really drawn to this petunia from Japanese breeders Miyoshi.

“It has got a beautiful, vibrant colour with the white tea edge, and the petals have that lovely, pointed sort of diamond edge to them, which is where the name ‘Pink Diamond’ comes in,” says Kate.

Petunia ‘Pink Diamond’ (Petunia x hybrida) is a profusely flowering petunia possessing huge, fully double pink and white blooms. Its soft, trailing nature and habit makes it suitable for use in hanging baskets, pots, containers, garden borders and edges. Kate claims that it has a lovely height to it (~25 to 30cm), and that its width is contained to about 35 to 40cm meaning it provides lovely, soft coverage without getting out of control.

Petunia ‘Pink Diamond’ will come onto the market in spring, when it will be branded in conjunction with the National Breast Cancer Foundation with 20 cents from every label sold going to that charity.

Plectranthus ‘Velvet Lady’

Readers will probably already know Plectranthus ‘Velvet Elvis’ which has been on the market for about five years now. It has now been joined by Plectranthus ‘Velvet Diva’, ‘Velvet Idol’ and ‘Velvet Lady’, the last of which was on display at the Touch of Class Plants stand.

“The consumer will see a difference in a stronger growth habit compared to what has previously been available (in plectranthus),” says Mark Harrison, Director, Greenhills Propagation Nursery of these three varieties, “They are all compact, each variety having good basal branching. They do not need to be trimmed (repeatedly) to be kept in good condition.”

Mark also says that these varieties have a longer flowering period than other plectranthus, starting to flower in midsummer and finishing at the end of autumn.

‘Velvet Lady’ tops out at 40cm, spreading to a width of around 50cm. It has large plumes of bright and cheery pink flowers, and stunning green leaves with purple undersides that provide year-round interest.

Mark, says that showgoers were really drawn to the vibrant pink flower of ‘Velvet Lady’, the vibrancy of which he claims has not seen on a plectranthus to date.
 

Zepeti® rose

When is a rose not a rose? When it is a Zepeti®!

Kim Syrus from Corporate Roses is the Australian agent for the Meilland International, rose breeders based in Provence in the south of France.  He spoke to me about this unique compact rose.

“The reason this (rose) is special is its growth profile is completely different to any other rose that has been bred in that it is (a) very upright grower. And it only grows to about 40 centimetres high and around 25 to 30 centimetres wide. So we like to say that if you think of an English Box then you have got something with red flowers!” says Kim.

Kim claims that with its natural, upright habit, the Zepeti® rose is almost the ultimate bordering plant, and it does well on balconies and in courtyards too. The Zepeti® can take high humidity, frost (-6°C), and dry heat and has a high disease resistance.

“We are saying this is what the public wants. If we did not know that before, we do know now, having spent two days at MIFGS, listening to people coming over saying ‘Wow, we want small compact plants’,” Kim concludes.

So it seems that the Zepeti® rose will fit just as well on your hedging bench as it will your rose bench!

Interested? The Zepeti® rose will be on the market this spring.