Horticulture Connected Summer Volume 5 Issue 2

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

Summer 2018

News, analysis and trends in landscape, garden retail & edible horticulture

LESS IS MORE, MORE OR LESS

Patricia Tyrrell MGLDA on Bloom 2018

GLAS 2018 TRADESHOW PREVIEW Exhibitors and Learning Theatre presentations

SWARD FIGHT

Eugene Higgins and Mark O’Loughlin lock swards on artificial grass

EVOLVE YOUR THINKING

Colm Kenny explores why it’s time for an evolution in business thinking

Volume 5 Issue 2

2018

YOUR INDUSTRY, YOUR SHOW 31 OCTOB E R & 0 1 N OV E M B E R T HE N E C B IRM IN G H A M

EUROPE’S LARGEST ANNUAL EVENT FOR GROUNDSCARE PROFESSIONALS • Discover the latest product innovations • Connect with industry suppliers • Network with groundscare professionals • Receive 1-2-1 advice on your specific turf challenges • Update your knowledge on the latest trends • Progress your career with expert guidance • Celebrate achievements at the IOG Industry Awards

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Managed by the IOG

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EDITOR'S LETTER

THE COST OF EVERYTHING AND THE VALUE OF NOTHING

I

’ve always tried to adapt. Partly because I get bored easily and partly because I believe if you are not changing you’re standing still.

This year I thought I’d change things by taking a year away from teaching. I wasn’t really sure what I’d do, but believed it was the right thing to do. After discussions, I took a job with the biggest family owned landscape company in the country. The role I took on is loosely defined as business manager but encompasses a wide range of domains, including human resources, marketing, design, development, succession planning and a few other bits and pieces thrown in for good measure.

It’s been an amazing year and I honestly feel I have gained more than the company has. More important to me than the lifetime's worth of landscape knowledge I’ve gained is my understanding of the concept of value. Specifically, the value of people. My formative management training was with Dunnes Stores. A company which placed little value on people, at least not back then. They couldn’t have cared less for the staff. It’s one of the reasons I left. Such an approach had no place in a family run landscape business. I knew I’d be dead in the water if I tried. That said, I’ve had to curl my toes and bite my teeth not to resort to my shop floor mentality, and I’m glad I didn’t. You see, people are amazing.

They’re incredibly complex, yet incredibly simple. They have interests, things they do in their work, in their personal lives, they are passionate, fearful, strong, weak, vulnerable. They want to be acknowledged, appreciated and helped. They want to be listened to, invested in, they want boundaries, clear expectations, goals. They want to be part of something.

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

News, Analysis and Trends In Landscape, Garden Retail & Edible Horticulture

HorticultureConnected.ie

for daily news updates

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

Summer 2018

News, analysis and trends in landscape, garden retail & edible horticulture

SWARD FIGHT

Eugene Higgins and Mark O’Loughlin lock swards on artificial grass

EVOLVE YOUR THINKING

Colm Kenny explores why it’s time for an evolution in business thinking

LESS IS MORE, MORE OR LESS Patricia Tyrrell MGLDA on Bloom 2018

GLAS PREVIEW

Exhibitors and Learning theatre presentations

Volume 5 Issue 2

Unit 3, CTEK Building Riverside Rd, Carrickmacross, Co.Monaghan, Ireland +353 (0)42 966 3532

©WISAANU99/123RF

EDITOR BARRY LUPTON

Dunnes never taught me any of that, let me tell you. I’ve learned this through my experience this year. Yes, I have insight into people through teaching, but I’d not experienced it in a commercial context and most certainly not within a traditional family run landscape business.

Perhaps even more importantly than the value of individuals, I have learned the value of relationships between people and how company culture nurtures or destroys them. Over the last year I have learned that our industry has something beautiful, almost unique in this hectic world. It has a familial foundation, which bonds people together. Relationships in our sector are more than collegial. They are deep rooted and intertwined.

And while this intensely frustrates business decision making, it makes it clear that we are more than the sum of the tasks we complete for payment.

As I look to our predicted future of automation, artificial intelligence and reductionist corporatisation, I fear for our family. I fear that in the pursuit of growth and productivity, we will sacrifice what makes us beautiful and unique.

If there is one thing I have learned this year it’s that value is a difficult thing to count. Before you make any decisions about your business ask yourself what’s really important: what do you really value?

Rather than reel out what sits within this issue, I’d like to encourage those with something constructive to share to get in touch. We need new voices in our landscape, new ways of thinking and working, new ways of creating value in all its forms. If you have ideas you’d like to share, then drop me a line at editor@horticulture.ie ✽

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

News, Analysis and Trends

Editor: Barry Lupton Printers: Turners Printing In Landscape, Garden Retail & Edible Horticulture editor@horticulture.ie Print Run: 3,500 copies News Editor: Joseph Blair Distribution: Readership of 10,000 across joseph@horticulture.ie - 087 921 2044 Ireland to businesses and professionals in Creative Director: Tanya Gilsenan the following sectors: tanya@horticulture.ie Landscape Architects / Garden Retail / Editorial Assistant: Koraley Northen Florists / Nurseries / Greenkeepers / Advertising Sales: Anne Marie Browne Sports Surfaces / Local Authorities & annemarie@horticulture.ie Parks Departments / Machinery / Recruitment: Emma Blair Education / Edible Horticulture emma@horticulture.jobs Cover image: Fingal Co Co's garden at Publishers: Horticulture Connected Ltd HorticultureConnected.ie Bloom 2018. Photo: Koraley Northen

Summer 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS NEWS

03

Horticulture news

DESIGN

34 LESS IS MORE, MORE OR LESS Respected Landscape Architect and garden designer, Patricia Tyrrell MGLDA shares her insights on this year’s Bloom in the Park show gardens

BORD BIA

06 All the latest news from Bord Bia

TEAGASC 08

All the latest news from Teagasc

INTERVIEW

38 P ARK LIFE Barry Lupton talks with Les Moore, head of Dublin City Parks Department

LANDSCAPE

10 I RELAND’S WATERSCAPES, A REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL LANDSCAPE FORUM 2018 Ruth Minogue and Terry O’Regan share their thoughts on another successful National Landscape Forum

EDUCATION

41 MEETING FUTURE NEEDS: A VISION FOR HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION John Mulhern, principal of the College of Amenity Horticulture, National Botanic Gardens reports in from the recent Teagasc conference: Education Vision

CONSTRUCT

13 E VOLVE YOUR THINKING Landscape estimating specialist, Colm Kenny provides some sage advice for those thinking about the future of their business

EVENTS 16 H orticulture trade events RETAIL

18 GROWING PAINS Independent retail consultant, Liam Kelly asks if the time is right for a code of practice for Irish growers

NURSERY

20 FLEXIBLE SOLUTIONS TO PLASTIC PROBLEMS Teagasc nursery stock/ornamentals advisor, Dónall Flanagan explores the issue of plastic in the nursery sector and highlights a number of potential solutions coming on stream

22 G ATHERING MOMENTUM Independent consultant and Horticulture Industry Forum coordinator, Stiofán Nutty brings us up to date on a range of HIF and related initiatives that are starting to gather momentum

GLAS FEATURE 25

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Exhibitors and Learning Theatre presentations

IN PICTURES 42

Bloom, Teagasc

FRESH PRODUCE

45 D ON’T TAKE SPUDS FOR GRANTED Lorcan Bourke, business analyst at Bord reports on the 10th World Potato Congress, Peru May 2018

INSIGHT

47 C UT THROUGH THE BS Terry O’Regan examines some of the finer points of trees in relation to design, demolition and construction as captured in BS 5837:2012

49 S WARD FIGHT Eugene Higgins and Mark O’Loughlin lock swards on the subject of artificial grass

RESEARCH

52 PLANT GROWTH PROMOTING BACTERIA – THE FUTURE OF HORTICULTURE? Dr Karen O’Hanlon, chief scientific officer at nadicom GmbH shares findings from recently completed research which points to the potential of bacteria as a replacement for pesticides

JOBS 55 L atest jobs from Horticulture.jobs

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

HORTICULTURE NEWS

01 / NEWS

INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS FOR IRELAND’S GARDEN DESIGNERS Garden designer and founder of Outside Options, Alan Rudden received a gold medal for his Life is Rosé by Santa Rita ‘Living la Vida 120’ garden at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show which ran from 3-8 July. Only seven gold medals were awarded out of a total of 31 gardens exhibiting at what is the world’s largest annual flower show. Alan was the only Irish garden designer to exhibit at the show and the only recipient of a gold medal in the world gardens category.

He told HC, “I am really thrilled to have received a gold. It has been a lot of hard work, in intense heat, to get the garden built to the standard expected at a show like this. There are some truly stunning gardens here, and for ours to be classed among the top is a huge honour.”

Another success on the international circuit was for Billy Alexander, who won a silver gilt medal at the 2018 Chelsea Flower Show. The garden showcased a collection of ferns grown at Billy and his wife Penn's nursery, Kells Bay House and Gardens in Kerry. HC spoke to Billy when he exhibited at this years Bloom in the Park. “It was an amazing experience to exhibit at Chelsea. The medal win was very much welcome, but what feeds and nurtures me as a designer and nurseryman is the reaction from visitors to the exhibit. Also, we set out to bring this underutilised range of plants to a bigger audience and I can happily say that we achieved that.”

Also active on the international scene, selected by a jury to represent the North and South of Ireland in the Jardins de la Paix, were Ian Price and Peter Donegan. Launching in October 2018, this summer will see the start of the build of the Jardins de la Paix (Gardens of Peace), a series of perennial gardens on the theme of peace in the Hauts-de-France region which will pay tribute to the countless deaths on French soil between 1914 and 1918, and bear witness to the number and diversity of the countries involved in this conflict. The pair will create a garden at the Château de Péronne, Historial de la Grande Guerre in the Somme region of Northern France. With two stays already completed, Donegan and Price will next take up a residency in the Somme region, to see the gardens’ designs and construction to completion.

HC ASKED GARY GRAHAM OF BORD BIA TO COMMENT ON THE INCREASING SUCCESS OF IRISH DESIGNERS ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE "Alan Rudden’s performance at Hampton Court this week and Billy Alexander’s performance at the Chelsea Flower Show in May reinforce my long-held view that when it comes to garden design and horticultural prowess, the Irish can compete (and win) with the best in the world. It was this firm belief that gave me the confidence to seek support for the creation of Bloom back in 2007 so that the Irish public could experience and enjoy these Irish masterpieces up close and personal at an Irish garden show.

Designers like Diarmuid Gavin, Paul Martin, Elma Fenton, Mary Reynolds and the Schurmann’s (who gave up Germany for Ireland) have clearly demonstrated our ability to shine at international level. JJ Costin’s garden at Expo 1991 in Osaka Japan was an early indication of what was possible. Gold medals achieved by Frazer McDonagh and James Comiskey at RHS Tatton Park are further demonstrations of the Irish skill set. Orla and Paul Woods gold-winning display at Chelsea in 2006 provided the impetus for the development of Bloom’s nursery and floral pavilion. Paul Martin deserves a second mention here, for his Singapore achievements. I may be missing other names from the long list of luminaries who should be mentioned and for that I apologise.

I was struck by a number of facts at Hampton Court this week. RHS judges, major exhibitors, journalists, top British garden designers and contractors all speaking of Bloom in glowing terms and of equal standing with the top RHS shows.

While constantly striving to innovate and improve, Bloom has come a long way in its first 12 years. Alan’s mammoth achievements in scoring a gold at Bloom and gold and best in show (world category) at Hampton within weeks of each other set him apart from all other garden designers working on both sides of the Irish Sea this year. Not only was Alan’s garden a best in category winner, he was also awarded the special RHS Tudor Rose plaque, which is only awarded to the winners of two categories – Show Gardens and World Gardens. So not only is Alan a recipient of one of the seven gold medals awarded, he is, in effect, the joint winner of the overall best in show at Hampton Court. Supported by Santa Rita, a committed and highly supportive sponsor, Alan and his team have done us all proud. On behalf of everyone in Bord Bia and all the Bloom garden designers who will recognise his huge achievement in 2018, well done to Alan Rudden!" ✽

Summer 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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NEWS / 01 SALTEX BUILDS ON THE SUCCESS OF ITS REVITALISED SHOW AT THE NEC BIRMINGHAM Saltex is the leading turf management event for groundscare volunteers, professionals and manufacturers. It offers you a world of limitless opportunities to discover the latest industry trends and innovations, enhance your education and learn from industry experts over two days at the NEC in Birmingham. This year it also offers a fantastic live networking opportunity for landscapers and gardeners. Lawn Care Legends, a Facebook community created in July 2016, and now it's a thriving online community with over 3,000 worldwide active members. It is primarily a group for all landscapers and gardeners to showcase their work and knowledge and ultimately to support each other. The majority of group members are based in the UK, Ireland, USA, Australia and Canada. Every day on average, the group sees 4060 individual member posts and approximately 4,500 engagements, from likes to comments.

Conversation topics can be anything from recommendations on products, preferred machines or brands and their pros and cons, or even marketing your business or pricing a job. It is open to professionals and aspiring professionals, and encourages the positive

aspect of sharing information. HC loves to visit this trade event for the sheer variety of landscape and sports turf sector exhibitors, all under one roof. Also the ease of visiting this international show via direct flights to Birmingham, it’s just a 10 minute walk from the airport to the NEC exhibition centre. More at iogsaltex.com ✽

GEANEY & O'NEILL OFFERING TURF REPAIR AND RENOVATION MACHINERY SOLUTIONS Geaney & O’Neill is a family run business with over 40 years experience in the sale and servicing of turf care equipment. Their customer base has grown over that time to include local authorities, golf courses, caravan parks, contractors, estates, tree surgeons, landscapers, health boards and hire companies. As drought conditions continue, the company has a number of turf machinery solutions including the Ecolawn Eco 250 Top Dresser, a walk-behind, self-propelled broadcast spreader.

It is designed for compost topdressing, sand topdressing, lawn restoration, renovation, soil amending and over-seeding. Also, the Turbo Turf HS-150 Hydroseeder is a seeding and fertilising machine which maximizes germination by mixing water, seed and fertiliser. This machine is ideal for golf course repairs, cemeteries, schools, construction, smaller lawn repairs and renovation. Find out more at thelawnmowerman.ie ✽

UCD HORTICULTURE EXPANDS IN CHINA Since 2016, UCD has had a programme in horticulture with the South China Agricultural University at Guangzhou. The first group of students on this 2+2 programme came from the SCAU College of Science. SCAU College of Horticulture has recently joined this programme. From September 2018 horticulture students from Yangzhou University will commence their first year in UCD on a 3+1+1 programme, graduating with a Masters degree in horticulture. More at ucd.ie ✽

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PLANTARIUM RETURNS ON 22 AUGUST WITH NEW EMPHASIS ON HORTICULTURE TECHNOLOGY In addition to over 300 exhibitors, suppliers will also be given more space to present and demonstrate new technology innovations. This will take place in Technology Square where a stage will be available for suppliers to hold short pitches throughout the day. Trade visitors will have an opportunity to visit the stands to get information before and after the pitches. This well established international event will include exhibitors from 15 different countries and trade visitors from 48 countries, underlining the international nature of the fair. Plantarium is also the leading wholesale market for tree nursery products in Europe. Plantarium 2018 runs from 22-24 August and takes place in Boskoop, The Netherlands. More at plantarium.nl ✽

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

CONFERENCE SEMINARS WORKSHOPS TRADE STANDS & ASSOCIATIONS CAREER PROFILES Q&A

BE INSPIRED: LISTEN TO & LEARN FROM LEADING INTERNATIONAL & IRISH SPEAKERS NETWORK WITH THE ‘WHO’S WHO’ OF HORTICULTURE, LANDSCAPE & GARDEN RETAIL

Find out more at www.Horticulture.Events Interested in Exhibiting, Sponsorship or Speaking Opportunities?

Contact joseph@horticulture.ie or call +353 (0)87 921 2044

BORD BIA / 02 GROMÓR 2018 GARDENING PROMOTION The gardening season got off to a slow start this year, with cold weather in March and April extending into early May, but the season is at least in full swing now, with both nurseries and garden centres reporting busy trade.

GroMór 2018 was launched in late April with a photo shoot and press release featuring campaign ambassador gardening expert Dermot O’Neill and model and mother of two Sarah McGovern with her children. GroMór 2018 is a nationwide campaign aimed at encouraging everyone to visit their local garden centres, buy Irish plants and get growing. Online results to date have been impressive.

On Facebook there is a weekly reach of 33,829 and the strongest SARAH MCGOVERN (GROMó R) AND HER CHILDREN engagement is on Instagram, with a reach of 5,628 but 2,552 ROBYN AND JUDE WITH DERMOT O'NEILL engagements from early May to early June. A feature of this this year’s campaign is a focus on three different garden designs: Birds and Bees was the theme on the May bank holiday, with Blooming Gorgeous for mid-June and Brighten up your Doorstep for mid-July. Each design has an attached plant list, with the intention of helping to provide more metrics on the effect of the GroMór promotion. To date for the season, nearly 10% of the website visits have been to the Birds and Bees design. Check out the website at www.gromor.ie or join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. An application has been submitted by Bord Bia to the EU, seeking co-funding for a long term promotional campaign for gardening, which if successful, will benefit all stakeholders. ✽

BORD BIA’S 2018 BREXIT BAROMETER RESULTS Bord Bia recently launched its 2018 Brexit Barometer report. It is a comprehensive survey of 117 Irish food, drink and horticulture companies, representing 48% of the sector’s exporters to the United Kingdom. The purpose of the Brexit Barometer is to assess the sector’s progress as it prepares for the UK’s exit from the European Union, and in doing so, provide a factual basis from which to inform company actions and Bord Bia programmes.

The 2018 Brexit Barometer questioned participants on Brexit readiness, along with six key Brexit issues that face the sector: ●S upply chain ●E merging risks

●U K customer relationships ●C ustoms and tariffs ●F inancial resilience ●M arketing diversification The Brexit Barometer concludes with a Brexit Plan Template, available to Bord Bia client companies, together with recommendations related to each of these six key Brexit issues.

Topline outcomes included: ●7 4% of respondents believe they have made progress in preparing for Brexit outcomes ●8 5% are actively seeking to expand their business into new markets ●9 7% remain committed to Ireland as a supply base ●5 4% have tailored marketing strategies specifically for the UK market For more details on the survey visit the Bord Bia website at bordbia.ie ✽

WORLD POTATO CONGRESS 2021 In 2017 the Irish Potato Federation submitted a bid to the World Potato Congress to hold the World Potato Congress in Ireland in 2021. The bid was supported by Bord Bia, DAFM, Teagasc and the potato industry. The bid was successful and early planning has now commenced for the event which will be held in the RDS in May 2021. In March the winning bid was announced at the RDS by the Minister of State Andrew Doyle TD. Also in attendance were Romain Cools from Belgium who is president of the World Potato Congress, Liam Glennon the Ireland Congress Committee’s chairman, and Michael Hoey who is the president of the Irish Potato Federation. It is envisaged that 1,000 delegates, from developing and ROMAIN COOLS (WORLD POTATO CONGRESS PRESIDENT0; ANDREW DOYLE (MINISTER OF STATE AT DEPARTMENT OF developed countries across the globe, including growers, researchers, AGRIGICULTURE, FOOD & THE MARINE); MICHAEL HOEY (PRESIDENT OF THE IRISH POTATO FEDERATION) producers, traders, processors and manufacturers, will attend the congress. The Irish Potato Federation has also secured the simultaneous hosting of the Europatat Congress, which is the annual congress of the European association of the potato trade. Both events will become a week-long focus on the potato, the third most important food crop in terms of global consumption.

See also Lorcan Burke’s review in the Edibles section on The World Potato Congress, which was held in Peru recently. ✽

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

02 / BORD BIA STRAWBERRY SALES SOAR AS WE CELEBRATE STRAWBERRY SEASON The Irish public’s appetite for luscious red strawberries would seem to be insatiable as new Kantar World Panel figures reveal that we spent close to €96m on these delectable berries. This was brought about by a 5% increase in strawberry sales across last year when compared to the previous year. These figures represent a monster 10.5 thousand tonnes of strawberries sold direct into Irish households, and don’t include the volumes consumed outside the home, on-thego, in hotels, restaurants and through caterers. Released figures support the sector’s move from celebrating a traditional National Strawberry Week to generating excitement around strawberries throughout the entire Irish growing season (May to November). The campaign’s promotional activities kicked off with many strawberry related initiatives taking place either side of the June bank holiday weekend.

Celebrate Strawberry Season, in association with the Irish Soft Fruit Growers Association, and with support from Bord Bia and the IFA, aims to encourage the public to enjoy more strawberries throughout the whole Irish season. The celebration is supported by a public information campaign which includes innovative ways of including strawberries at all meal times throughout the day. The campaign uses TV, radio and social media channels to increase consumer knowledge and raise awareness of the Irish strawberries season, with competitions, primary school activities and an interactive website featuring delicious seasonal recipe suggestions. Keep an eye out for Celebrate Strawberry Season promotional packs in stores near you and visit www.bestinseason.ie for more specially created strawberry themed recipes. ✽

EU FUNDED PROMOTIONS

AMENITY EXPORT PROGRAMME

The EU provides funding (up to 80%) to support the generic promotion of horticulture produce and gardening activity. Earlier this year the EU put out calls for applications from member states for EU promotional campaigns supported by EU funds for 2018. Bord Bia, working closely with the potato and amenity sectors, submitted two applications by the deadline in April. One is for potato promotion over a two year period 2018 to 2020.

In addition, an application for funding from the EU to run a gardening campaign over the same period was submitted.

Let’s grow – With Plants from Europe is a promotions programme designed to increase the sales of garden plants to show that gardening can be easy and fun and highlights the health benefits of gardening. The campaigns will concentrate on digital advertising, social media and public relations. The outcomes of these two applications, if successful, will be known in October and will build on the ongoing promotional campaigns in these sectors. Bord Bia is currently running two EU funded campaigns in the horticulture sector, for mushrooms and potatoes. ✽

Bord Bia supports amenity sector exporters through the Amenity Export Programme. The Programme which is underpinned through mentoring support is targeted at amenity horticulture business owners, who wish to build on existing export sales or enter export markets for the first time. With the advent of Brexit and the importance of the UK market to exporters in this sector the support is being amplified and targeted where needed.

Nursery stock producers in Ireland are potentially faced with many challenges and opportunities as a result of Brexit. Whilst it is difficult at this stage to identify the extent of those challenges, nursery stock producers can in the meantime work on improving their business processes and improve their competency in marketing and sales, enabling them to be ready for future challenges. Some trials of the effects of lean productivity systems are being carried out to investigate their potential for the sector. The value of amenity exports increased to €17.9m in 2017, with hardy nursery stock being the biggest sector at €7m. ✽

FOOD DUDES AND 7 A DAY AT BLOOM The Food Dudes’ Healthy Eating Hub at Bloom allowed kids to experience the programme in a living classroom setting. Families learned fun facts about the Irish horticulture industry and learned how to improve their diet by filling up on some fresh fruits and vegetables.

Families were given the opportunity to engage and take part in one or more of our interactive educational tasks, including: ● Learning about seasonality and identifying what Irish fruit and vegetables are in season using Bord Bia’s Best in Season calendar ● Constructing a food pyramid and/or 7-a-day rainbow referring to Healthy Ireland’s new healthy eating guidelines ● Exploring sensory science and forming a personal sensory panel with simulating family food games ● Learning why ‘sometimes foods’ are bad and how to beat the Junk Punks by eating more fruit and vegetables every day ● Learning how to gradually achieve 7-a-day by eating ‘Just One More’ in a fun gastronomy filled demo. ✽

Summer 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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TEAGASC ezine / 03 HORTICULTURE RESEARCH BOOST AT TEAGASC ASHTOWN Teagasc's new development of horticulture, forestry and education facilities at its campus in Ashtown, Dublin were officially opened on Thursday, 17 May by Andrew Doyle TD, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Over €2.1 million has been invested in facilities including a modern glasshouse equipped with advanced systems for research, a turf grass academy, a horticultural utility building, a large multi-span forestry polytunnel and additional polytunnels and structures which have various specific uses. The other primary piece of infrastructure on the site is the mushroom research unit, which has 100m2 of growing area ADMIRING TOMATO VARIETIES IN THE NEW GLASSHOUSE DURING THE RECENT OPENING; PROFESSOR GERRY BOYLE to support a dedicated mushroom research programme. These new (TEAGASC DIRECTOR), MINISTER ANDREW DOYLE TD, DR NOEL CAWLEY (TEAGASC AUTHORITY CHAIRMAN) facilities underline a Teagasc commitment to the horticulture sector and complement already existing facilities on the Ashtown campus, including a conference centre and facilities associated with the food research programme.

This investment followed a decision taken as part of the Teagasc change programme which saw the Teagasc Kinsealy campus close and horticulture, forestry and education activities moved to the Ashtown campus, where Teagasc already has a food research centre. The investment was funded through the disposal of Teagasc assets and Teagasc funding from the government.

The upside to embedding the horticulture development department, and ultimately the horticulture research programme, in the Ashtown campus will be threefold: the opportunity to conduct research and development in new state of the art facilities will be more appropriate to current commercial requirements; the increased capacity that the Ashtown site provides to crosspollinate with the food research programme cannot be underestimated; opportunities to develop synergies with horticulture education and forestry colleagues on the site are evident. ✽

FRUIT RESEARCH: INVESTIGATING THE OPTIMAL NUTRITION FOR ‘MALLING CENTENARY’ STRAWBERRY IN TEAGASC ASHTOWN ‘Malling Centenary’ still continues to play a blinder in terms of a quality strawberry. Maiden crops and second year overwintered ones have cropped very well. The crop has so far performed very well under both regimes with good yields of very high quality fruit. At the moment the crop is continuing to produce new flowers and fruit.

This is very unusual for a June bearing plant whose fruiting season typically last for between six to eight weeks. This extension of the season may be caused by heating the crop, and may offer huge extra crop potential to those in a position to heat their glasshouses. ✽

RESEARCH DRIVERS It was interesting to read a recent research prioritisation document from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation which identified exciting new opportunities including robotics, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, health and wellbeing, smart and sustainable food production and processing, decarbonising the energy system, sustainable living, and advanced and smart manufacturing.

In the horticultural context, all of the above are relevant. Our ability as an industry to adopt and adapt existing technology in production and processing into our sector from other sectors will be paramount in the future. The dependence on labour in horticulture production will need to be reduced in the medium to longer term as labour availability is currently constraining growth in certain sectors.

Enhancing the innovative capacity of Irish based horticultural businesses along with their ability to diversify into new markets has become more critical, particularly in light of Brexit. Smart and sustainable food production is a key consideration in avoiding environmental impacts and satisfying a knowledge driven consumer who is set on buying products with sound environmental credentials.

In terms of health and wellbeing, as members of the Horticulture Industry Forum (HIF), we are well versed on the potential which exists for collaboration between the medical sector and the horticulture sector to improve public health and at the same time underpin fresh produce horticulture. If the Irish population ate the recommended daily intake of fruit or vegetables (560g), we would have a tripling of demand for fruit and vegetables (€0.75bn) and a major reduction in the estimated €1.64bn cost of obesity to the Irish health system. While large amounts of research funding go towards looking at the human microbiome, probiotics and gut health, significant positive impacts from increased fruit and vegetable consumption have been known for many decades and consumers are moving in greater numbers towards healthier options. ✽

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

03 / TEAGASC ezine MUSHROOM RESEARCH Teagasc’s new mushroom research unit was open to visitors on 17 May. The unit was completed this year by JF McKenna and is a scaled down version of a modern Dutch shelf mushroom production facility, with full environmental climate control and steam sterilisation. Current trials are mainly focussed on improving our understanding of crop genetics and trying to improve yield, particularly in the third flush. Teagasc is a world leader in MVX research and currently our disease research is concerned with how different varieties of Agaricus bisporus react to MVX infection. The mushroom research unit works hand in hand with our diagnostic laboratories where a disease diagnostic service is currently available VAL FARRELL THROWS A KEEN EYE OVER THE through our mushroom advisor, Donal Gernon.

MUSHROOM RESEARCH FACILITY AT THE RECENT OPENING IN ASHTOWN In terms of research direction, an opportunity exists to increase the sophistication and complexity of the mushroom product portfolio in the context of significant advances in mushroom science, particularly the completed genome sequencing of Agaricus bisporus. The genome sequence will expedite mushroom breeding for improved agronomic characteristics, but more importantly for a new product portfolio.

Ultimately, a strong focused research and development programme is required to build resilience in a sector which is exposed to external and internal economic factors such as the Sterling exchange rate, labour costs, and general increasing input costs.

There is an existing drive in the industry to diversify away from the single commodity based enterprise to look at new exciting future products, such as animal/human feeds and supplements, bioactive compounds, myco-packaging, mushrooms as a chitin source, biomedical (ABL lectin) and using mushrooms as a meat replacer in burgers and processed meat products.

From Teagasc’s perspective, we are interested in further analysis of the genes that we believe to be involved in controlling mushroom production, for example seeing what genes are turned on and off as the mushroom mycelium is colonising the compost. Having more information here could help reduce the crop cycle, leading to higher turnover of crops and better profits. ✽

NEW LEAVES RESEARCH IN CUT FOLIAGE The mild, relative frost free climate in Southern Ireland is ideal for growing lush, premium foliage and a unique product range has been developed in conjunction with Teagasc and Bord Bia at research stations in Kildalton College, Kilkenny and in Tralee, Co Kerry. Irish foliage now worth €6m in exports is harvested from over 150ha and sold to flower markets in the UK and Holland. Expansion in planted areas supported by the DAFM in past two to three years will see a doubling of the production base coming on stream in 2018/2019. Irish foliage is well positioned to capitalise on the recent surge in environmental accreditation JIM COSTELLO (FOREST PRODUCE LTD), being demanded by the multiples and Teagasc research on sustainable DANIELA BOLAND (FARHANA AFROZA), DR GERRY DOUGLAS (TEAGASC) production systems is crucial to progressing the industry and meeting the high regulatory and market specifications.

A major research program funded by the DAFM which commenced in 2017 in support of the industry is a collaboration between Teagasc, UCD and industry stakeholders. The work aims to identify novel foliage plant lines and optimum propagation techniques. In addition, epidemiology of key pests of foliage (tortrix moth and capsid) and diseases such as bacterial shot hole of Prunus is being gathered through intensive monitoring and survey work coupled with laboratory and field trials. Environmentally responsible measures will ultimately be sought for growers to tackle these critical issues in line with EU legislation under the Sustainable Use Directive. Given the parallels with the hardy nursery stock industry, results of the New Leaves work will be of benefit to the wider woody ornamental sector.

There is an opportunity to hear how this latest research work is progressing and to see at first hand some of the key foliage products at a field event to be held in Kildalton College on 15 August at 11 am. For further details contact Andy Whelton of the Horticultural Development Department at andy.whelton@teagasc.ie ✽

APPOINTMENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS: Last month Teagasc appointed John Spink as the head of 10-12 JULY - Flanders study tour – Innovations in nutrition, its Crops, Environment and Land Use Programme for a five weed control and irrigation. For nursery stock growers year term. Based at Teagasc Oak Park, Carlow, he will lead 15 AUGUST - Cut Foliage and Flowers – ‘Berries and Leaves the organisation’s national tillage, forestry, horticulture and for the Autumn Market’, 11am at Kildalton College, Kilkenny environmental, research and knowledge transfer programme.

24 OCTOBER - Nursery stock seminar at Ashtown, Dublin 15 John graduated with a degree in agricultural science from the University of Leeds before starting his professional career as a crop physiologist at Rothamsted Research. From Rothamsted he moved to ADAS based in Hereford in the west of England, where he worked for nearly 20 years, ending up leading the agronomy, crop physiology, crop protection and renewable energy work. In 2009 he moved to Teagasc Oak Park, and he became head of the crops research department in 2010. ✽ Summer 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

9

LANDSCAPE / 04

IRELAND’S WATERSCAPES,

A REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL LANDSCAPE FORUM 2018 THE LANDSCAPE OF KILLALOE

T

he title of the National Landscape Forum this year was ‘Ireland’s Waterscapes’, which facilitated presentations and discussions about our diverse waterscapes, from the peak of rain soaked mountains all the way down to rolling seas and more. The town of Killaloe-Ballina selected as the venue suggested the theme due to its location on Lough Derg, one of the lakes on the River Shannon, the longest river in the British Isles. The town straddles two counties, Clare and Tipperary, and has evidence of human settlement dating back to the Neolithic period.

There is evidence of human settlement and activity all along the River Shannon, and in the 1920s when Siemens constructed a hydroelectric power plant at Ardnacrusha, below KillaloeBallina, it a was the largest engineering project of its time.

This led to considerable water changes in the river and lake, and today there are other challenges including climate change, flood relief schemes, transport infrastructure, changing agricultural practices and the proposed water extraction project to serve the needs of Dublin.

This year’s forum marked yet another milestone in the LAI journey to link landscape and communities in a proactive engagement. The LAI team was led this year by Ruth which brought a fresh, lively enthusiasm, energy and openness to the tried and trusted forum formula. It augurs well for the future of this important people’s initiative now in its 23rd year.

The photographic exhibition ‘Faces and Places of Lough Derg’ was opened ahead of the forum. The landscape photographic project based on old images of Ballina-

10

Ruth Minogue and Terry O’Regan share their thoughts on another successful National Landscape Forum

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

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LANDSCAPE / 04 Killaloe were a welcome return to the multi-layered structure of the early forums.

The forum proper was opened on Thursday evening (24 May) by Willie Cumming of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, placing the forum at the centre of Ireland’s National Landscape Strategy. Terry O’Regan followed, drawing a direct line between the European Landscape Convention and our most humble waterscapes.

Mark Boyden closed the evening’s presentations with a relaxed exploration of successfully taking sustainable river management to schools and local communities. The evening’s activities concluded with a boat cruise on the dramatic waterscape Lough Derg, which set the tone for the following day’s deliberations.

Highlights of the busy programme on Friday included keynote speaker Jonathan Porter (Countryscape) describing the Scottish Natural Heritage project ‘Talking about our Place’; Eanna Rowe of Waterways Ireland, highlighting the importance of waterways for cultural heritage, tourism and recreation; and Mary Boland of Ormston House, who explained their art project in, on and of the River Shannon Mythological Water Beasts.

Frances Ryland discussed her research on the cultural value of coastlines in the context of the Irish Sea; and Daniel Norton of National University of Ireland explained ecosystem services research along the Atlantic coast. Tadgh O’Mahony (EPA) discussed the cultural value of wetlands and Cormac McCarthy (Waterways Ireland) discussed heritage of inland waterways and oral history projects around the river. He played a great recording from a man who had worked on the Ardnacrusha project where a hurling game was played between Irish (gaelic speakers from Connemara), German and local workers on the scheme.

Jan Yard provided fascinating insights on the photography project already mentioned and local historian Una Kierse

provided the historical development of Killaloe. Community engagement and river catchments were discussed by Ruairi O’Conchuir of the Local Authority Water and Communities Office. Brian McCarthy, Senior Planner with Clare County Council, explained the evolution of landscape policy at his local authority level. Dr Tadgh McIntyre of GoGreenex and University of Limerick and Caroline Madden of W2 Exchange discussed the development of Clarisford Park and the wellbeing benefits of green space. Finally, Nancy O’Keefe discussed built heritage of the waterways and gave an account of how her family restored traditional wooden boats on the River Shannon.

The action-packed programme continued in the afternoon with three field trips, to the town of Killaloe, to nearby Clarisford Park, and to the village of Mountshannon on the shores of Lough Derg. It would be impossible to report on the diversity and richness of these visits in this short overview but the lively workshops that followed the field trips effectively demonstrated the value of the hands-on strategy of the innovative landscape forum.

The National Landscape Forum is a vital element of the National Landscape Strategy. Its capacity to draw in partners and engage local communities in an awarenessraising and constructive two day programme was well illustrated by this year’s event in Ballina-Killaloe and plans are already in train for the 2019 forum.

The forum successfully brought experts together, from diverse corners of our landscape, and prompted talk of future forums on the state of our landscape and on more focussed events such as one day workshops or seminars on landscape training and best practice actions in landscape management.

Terry O’Regan may be stepping back a bit, but the landscape forum is proving that its strength lies in the fact that it is owned by those who are willing to not only seize the day, but to seize the day together. ✽

FORUM PARTICIPANTS BEING BRIEFED ON THE SEA EAGLE PROJECT AT MOUNTSHANNON, CO CLARE

12

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

© CONVISUM/123RF

05 / CONSTRUCT

EVOLVE YOUR THINKING Landscape estimating specialist, Colm Kenny provides some sage advice for those thinking about the future of their business

“You need to be flexible, to seek out adaptive and evolving strategies, you need to build networks, invest in knowledge and seek out expert advice”

W

e’ve spent the last few years looking behind us, wondering how we made so many mistakes and how we managed to overcome the challenges. Thankfully - at least in some respects - the challenges we face now relate to growth, expansion, investment and credit.

The upswing has buoyed optimism, but it is tempered by caution. Those who survived the recession are finding themselves back in the black, but worried about getting their fingers burned, if not fried. Those who forged their businesses during the last decade may be doing just fine but are hamstrung by credit issues and cautious lenders. Fortune favours the brave, but it’s achieving sustainable fortune that everyone wants.

BALANCING RISK AND REWARD

Every company wants to grow its business, yet few know how to sustain it for the long term or look beyond the next year, let alone the next decade. A business plan may have been compiled with great care, insight and planning, but the pace of market change and shifting risks, most of which lie beyond the control of the owner, mean the traditional strategy doesn’t cut the mustard anymore. Many an office has a well intentioned business plan resting on a shelf gathering dust. It’s time to rethink how we plan for sustainable growth. As your business grows it is imperative that your plans, your strategy and your objectives grow to reflect and exploit changing conditions. For example, your focus is likely to change from winning new customers to constructing profitable relationships and maximising growth with existing customers.

Existing business relationships often have greater potential for profit and provide reliable cash flow. Newer relationships may

Summer 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

13

CONSTRUCT/ 05 increase turnover, but the profit margins may be lower as you may have had to reduce your normal rates to get a foot in the door. It is a delicate balancing act trying to calculate risk and reward. Reducing rates to capture new business, especially when costs are increasing, is not sustainable.

I’m amazed how many companies chase turnover rather than profit. A successful strategy in any business should make specific reference to upper and lower rates. You should never sacrifice you profit for the sake of turnover.

NEW WAYS OF THINKING

Owners often think that following the same business model on a bigger scale is the strategy to pursue. This rarely produces sustainable growth. The canny and the creative among you are exploring new ways of doing business, cautiously of course, but in the knowledge, that doing the same thing will only ever bring the same result. The more contemporary strategic models are built on flexibility, cooperation and collaboration. Rather than the cumbersome, traditional company model, the vanguard is lean, they cut their cloth to suit the opportunity right in front of them. They build networks of closely related, symbiotic skills sets which aggregate when needed, but disperse when not, free from responsibilities of the traditional employer.

Just as important as planning for flexibility is accessing the right skill at the right time. My father drilled into me to always get the skilled people to do the job. Jack of all trades are never masters, and in his words, “Sure they’d have the job done while you’re still figuring out where to start."

BUILD A SKILLS NETWORK

Part of planning for the skill access is first identifying your own strengths and weaknesses. Truly successful business owners cotton on to this early. They acknowledge their shortcomings, don’t take it personally and fill the gaps with the best people possible. Broadly speaking, traditional landscape work is either hard or soft. It is an unusual company that is top of their game in both categories. Even if they are, they can run into trouble in the long term and find it challenging to expand. My advice for Irish landscape companies is to do what you do best and let others do the rest. The real challenges with this model are building trust, managing expectation, communication, respecting disciplines and the nitty gritty of operations. I suppose it’s no different from any relationship.

Finding contractors who could form such a relationship is the hard part, but I absolutely think this is something which should be considered by all. Perhaps there is a market for an online landscape dating service, where skills can be matched and relationships forged. Indeed, I have played matchmaker in recent years on a number of projects and all involved, including myself who was tasked with managing it, had a positive experience. Of course it won’t suit every project and contractor, but for smaller contractors it would be a sustainable way of expanding.

A small note to the above: while companies might be network based in the future, owners need to learn to delegate.

I see it all the time, the owner run ragged thinking he’s saving money by getting involved with everything himself, instead of focusing on the things he knows about and delegating the

14

other jobs to a specialist in that area.

Having a strategy built on flexibility and a responsive skills network is not enough on its own. Sustainable models need to continue learning to grow. They must have a knowledge investment component. Owners must be committed to continuous development, training and change. If you are not investing in training, you’re going backwards, at best you’re probably the biggest obstacle to the sustainable growth of your company.

We often hear about the importance of building the knowledge economy; the same thinking needs to be applied to your company. Yes, investment in training may show little initial return and there is always the chance you’ll training someone who then leaves, but if you’re planning for the long term you have no choice.

LEARN TO LISTEN

There are many in this industry who can be told nothing.

They know all there is to know. The most successful know the fallacy of this. I wonder how many business strategies in our sector have planned for advice. Just because it feels right doesn't make it right. Take my advice, get the right advice.

As most in the sector will confirm, nowhere is advice more important than in finance. When everything is stripped down, it’s a business and the most important thing to have right is the bottom line. Finding a contractor who is expert in both hard and soft landscaping is rare, finding one who is also excellent with finance simply doesn’t exist. Financial control is always important; it’s the difference between a company’s survival and its death.

That might sound negative, but the vast majority of busy companies are heavily exposed right now. One wrong step and any one of them can go under. A good finance person will help you make better decisions, they may well pull you back from the brink of immediate danger, but they will also help you to plan for next year and beyond. The smart companies still use gut instinct, but they turn to their finance person to make the final call. Some even have a good legal person on standby too.

I will finish as I began. The challenges facing us right now are not those which lie behind us, they are planning for sustainable growth in the future. Of course, I can say much more on this but the core message is simple: if you want sustainable growth, you need to be flexible, to seek out adaptive and evolving strategies, you need to build networks, invest in knowledge and seek out expert advice. ✽

COLM KENNY KENNY, MSCSI MRICS MILI is unique in Ireland in that he is both a chartered quantity surveyor and a Landscape Architect. He provides cost consultancy services to landscape industry professionals, technical advisors, contractors and facility management companies. He can be contacted on 086 874 4300 or by email info@landscapeqs.ie

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

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15

EVENTS / 06

EVENTSDIARY 04 - 05 SEPT FOUR OAKS

EVENT PROMOTION Promote your event to a wide network of horticulture businesses and professionals inprint, online & social. Find out more at www.horticultureconnected.ie/events

DON’T MISS!

The UK's premier show for ornamental horticulture. www.fouroaks-tradeshow.com ✽

05 SEPTEMBER ITB HORTICULTURE OPEN EVENING

19 JULY GLAS

Venue: ITB Blanchardstown, D15 itb.ie/studyatitb/horticultureft.html

GLAS trade show will showcase up to 150 exhibitors and attracts over 1,000 visitors from the horticulture, sportsturf, grounds maintenance and related industries.

Venue: Citywest Hotel, Saggart, Co. Dublin glasireland.ie ✽

06 SEPTEMBER FUTURESCAPE Design . Build . Maintain Venue: Edinburgh futurescapescotland.com

21 JULY GLDA SUMMER SOCIAL

Garden and outdoor living trade show Venue: Birmingham www.gleebirmingham.com ✽

25 JULY FRUIT FOCUS

18 - 19 SEPTEMBER LANDSCAPE SHOW

Technical event for the fruit industry Venue: Kent, UK www.fruitfocus.co.uk ✽

19 – 24 AUG INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY CONGRESS

DON’T MISS!

✽

23 - 24 AUGUST PLANTARIUM

22-23-24 August 2018

Boskoop/Holland The leading international tree nursery trade fair Register your visit via the Internet and Venue: Boskoop, Holland save yourself time at the entrance. www.plantarium.nl ✽

✽ WWW.PLANTARIUM.NL

02 - 04 SEPTEMBER SPOGA/GAFA Meeting point of the international garden world Venue: Cologne www.spogagafa.com/spogagafa ✽

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Where indoors meets outdoors Venue: London landscapeshow.co.uk ✽

26 - 27 SEPTEMBER NANGLE & NIESEN NURSERY OPEN DAYS Venue: Aherla, Co. Cork Landscape Management Professionals - 26th Sept Wholesale Nurseries - 27th Sept nangleandniesen.ie ✽

03 - 05 OCTOBER GROOTGROENPLUS International nursery stock trade fair Venue: Zundert, The Netherlands Grootgroenplus.nl ✽

26 - 27 SEPTEMBER EXPO FOR PUBLIC SPACE Venue: Netherlands www.openbareruimte.nl

✽

10 - 12 SEPTEMBER GLEE

Visit to June Blake's garden Venue: Blessington, Co Wicklow glda.ie ✽

Venue: Dublin iapb2018.com

✽

05 OCTOBER TEAGASC KILDALTON COLLEGE OPEN DAY Kildalton is the largest agricultural college in the country. It is a leading provider of training in Machinery, Agriculture and Horticulture. 10.00 & 11.00 am Venue: Kildalton Agriculture College, Piltown, Kilkenny ✽

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

06 /EVENTS 04 OCTOBER TEAGASC COLLEGE OF AMENITY HORTICULTURE Open Afternoon from 2.00 - 4.30pm Venue: Botanic Gardens, Dublin 9 Teagasc.ie ✽

22-23-24 August 2018 Boskoop/Holland

24 OCTOBER TEAGASC NURSERY STOCK SEMINAR

Register your visit via the Internet and save yourself time at the entrance.

Venue: Ashtown, Dublin 15 Teagasc.ie ✽

DON’T MISS!

31 OCT - 01 NOVEMBER SALTEX

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The leading turf management event for groundscare volunteers, professionals and manufacturers Venue: The NEC, Birmingham www.iogsaltex.com ✽ YOUR INDUSTRY, YOUR SHOW 3 1 O CTO B E R & 01 N OV EM B ER T H E N EC B IR M IN G H A M

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✽ 22 FEB 2019 - LAND BASED EDUCATION & EUROPE’S LARGEST ANNUAL EVENT CAREERS SUMMIT - www.horticulture.events FOR GROUNDSCARE PROFESSIONALS 23 FEB 2019 GLDA ANNUAL SEMINAR glda.ie ✽

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Join us at our tree nursery in September for an open day with the best of West Cork food, refreshments & hospitality. To reserve your place Phone 021 7331126 or Email info@nangleandniesen.ie

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14/05/2018 09:45

© BESJUNIOR/123RF

RETAIL / 07

GROWING PA I N S Independent retail consultant, Liam Kelly asks if the time is right for a code of practice for Irish growers

I

’ve had a somewhat turbulent relationship with certain Irish plant growers. That association began benignly enough back in the late 80s when I had my first introduction to them and what they do, but as I took over purchasing as part of my job and began to buy from them I became more and more frustrated at how many weren’t moving at the same pace as garden centres, who were just starting to operate as proper retailers. Many nurseries back then had a nostalgic view of what it meant to be a grower and were living in the world of, ‘But we’ve always done it that way…’ As a buyer my frustration with them meant that I had more than one altercation with various nurseries during that career and ended up distancing myself from many, while focussing on those who evolved with retailers from a product, logistics and marketing point of view. Some of these decisions were quite tough, as the people involved in these nurseries weren’t bad people and oftentimes their actual products were good but some part of the process from purchasing to delivery would repeatedly go awry, standards would drop and they would be delisted from an ever decreasing group of my preferred suppliers.

Up until relatively recently, standard practice among many nurseries was to grow plants they hoped their customer – in their mind the garden centre - would like to buy, but this was flawed reasoning of course, as the client they needed to please was one step further along the buying chain, the one who purchased that plant from the retailer - the ever knowledge-regressive garden centre customer. It’s worth pointing out again that not all were stuck in the past, many did change and began to supply what was needed by doing the reverse of what was then normal. They began each season by visiting garden centres and asking them what their customers wanted, how ordering could be made easier and how they could sell more product, to everyone’s benefit.

Nowadays, my work brings me into indirect – and often direct - contact with nurseries as part of the work I do with many retailers, from purchasing advice to the process of receiving in goods, and on through merchandising and selling, I am still very much hands-on and aware of the CC trolleys of plants arriving from various nurseries from around the island and beyond.

And the frustrating thing for me is seeing the same issues

18

that irritated me 10 or more years ago are still there among certain growers, and it’s making them in huge danger of becoming extinct as the mechanics of progress-favouring evolution mean that those who are stronger, better and faster will drive those vexing growers to being a forgotten listing in a dusty old tradeshow catalogue or a dog-eared ‘Looking Good’ list in the back of a filing cabinet.

So what’s the problem with these endangered growers?

Well, there are quite a few issues but they can be broken down into the oversimplified areas of ordering logistics, plant quality and product marketing.

CONVENIENCE Ordering stock should be the simplest of processes at this point, given how tech-bloated we are, and webshops should be becoming the norm for growers, where the garden centre plant buyer can see the actual product being offered and just needs to insert a retail price and a quantity and press ‘buy’.

They should be able to keep an eye on the purchase value and trolley count and then download the barcode information for inputting as a purchase order on the garden centres EPOS system, with the delivery arriving in a short few days. At the moment many nurseries do not make it this easy, convenient or time-saving to create orders, and these are the growers who may be left behind as garden centres consolidate the number of nurseries/suppliers they deal with based on the above mentioned convenience and speed of ordering. Those efficient suppliers will then increase their ranges to fill gaps required by garden centres and drive their competitors even further out of the market. This is not some future issue to worry about by the way; it is happening right now.

A purchaser-friendly spreadsheet is a minimum requirement these days, but it needs to be easy to understand, easy to complete and have fast-loading photos of the actual stock that will be supplied to the retailer including the colour label, coloured pot, etc.

Admittedly, webshops and the technology required need an investment in time and money but that’s perhaps where collective software buying, training and sharing of information amongst groups of growers should be focussed, with the help of funding from government bodies and consultation with plant buyers within garden centres, and other experts.

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

07 / RETAIL

QUALITY All too often, I have seen trolleys arriving into garden centres where up to a quarter of the stock is unsellable, where plants are too small, have been cut back before shipping, have finished flowering or are just poorly grown. Surely all nursery people at this point should know what constitutes quality in a garden centre regardless of how subjective that word may be. I’m unsure if there are external guidelines anywhere as to what constitutes quality with regard to plant stock suitable for retail – some might argue that, as with beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder – but to gain any sort of quality mark, especially if you have it on a label on a plant pot, you need to be able to tell saleable from unsaleable plants.

Garden centres need to take a portion of the blame too, as by not sending poor stock back to growers or contacting them about it, they are encouraging nurseries into an ever decreasing spiral of poor quality and into an ‘Ah, it’ll do…’ mentality. Perhaps guidelines should be set for what is acceptable and what is not by those in the wholesale growing sector – or those who advise them - in order to remove the subjectivity from the issue, and then the plant pickers, stackers and labellers working in nurseries should be trained in what constitutes a good plant and what clearly does not in order that these plants don’t end up on a delivery truck in the future.

It’s only when a garden centre stops dealing with a nursery that the owner realises that something is wrong, and by then it’s too late as the plant buyer in that centre has moved to a competitor who can provide the quality they want - and they rarely come back.

LABELLING This is another area that should be easy to get right, albeit with some investment and time, but many nurseries are still using small, generic tie-on colour labels for shrubs and perennials, and one or two ship plants with no colour label at all! This is understandable – perhaps - on very unusual plants or specimens but is unforgivable on common nursery lines.

This all smacks of detachment by growers as to where plant retailing is right now and where it’s going, as when plants are not in full flower it is the label that sells the product, and the bigger and better those labels are the better. We can moan about it and say it shouldn’t be that way, but there is no escaping from what is required in retail right now.

Applying the best practice principles of retail is crucial, and if that label tells the end user the benefits of owning the product combined with an appropriate image of the plant, you can go a long way towards selling it to a customer with minimum salesperson interaction. It does require a relatively substantial outlay but for many plant categories it is an essential part of moving a business forward and in line with what the retailer requires in order to make that sale. And, that investment is better spent on the actual plant label more so than on posters, banners or other detached marketing signage that are rarely used by retailers and languish on a shelf in a store or behind a desk more often than not.

Thankfully, practically every nursery now barcodes their plants but I’ve come across issues where labels peel off after a week or two, where barcodes don’t scan, and a

practice among some of still using poorly secured tie-on labels which fall off, so that till operators have an unscannable plant with no price – a major headache in retail.

All of this brings me back to the point of the necessity for a code of practice for nurseries, a list of what’s acceptable and needed - and what’s not - in the eyes of the garden centre, and therefore the consumer. This should be a relatively easy task and would just require some consultation with said garden centres, and ideally their customers, because as with life in general, communication is key. For example, how many growers contact their customers - the garden centres - and ask, ‘What are we doing wrong?’

It must be said that growers haven’t had it easy over the last few years with both the actual climate and the fi nancial one against them much of the time. The lack of cash fl ow and bad debts have also hampered expansion and investment but those excuses can’t be used for all failings. But it certainly plays a part in some, as does the psychological and physical effects that the last decade has played on the minds and bodies of all in the industry, which is something that needs to be discussed more openly within our sector - a topic for another time perhaps.

There are good growers in the country who don’t fall down on all of the above issues but those who comply with everything I mention are quite scarce. We have a wonderful heritage of growing in this country, some great personalities, excellent climate and a deep seated underlying love for plants. But I worry about some of the growers out there that they are being left behind. No one wants to see businesses fail, especially when much can be done to solve these issues.

Perhaps my opinion is irrelevant but maybe if you are a grower, and you’re annoyed by something I’ve written here, you might want to ask yourself, ‘Am I endangered?’ ✽

LIAM KELLY - Since establishing Retail Services & Solutions in 2007, Liam has become one of the most influential people within the retail side of Irish horticulture.

His knowledge of the mind set and ethos of those in this sector, combined with his problem solving ability, experience and hands-on work ethic, make him uniquely placed to offer advice and help to those who need it.

Key to his success is his knowledge of purchasing, pricing and sales combined with his understanding of layout, signage and merchandising, and how they interaction of these can lead to increased sales and profits.

His focus is on garden centres, nurseries, hardware and DIY stores, where discretion, honesty and unbiased opinion is crucial and appreciated by those who secure his services.

Summer 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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NURSERY / 08

©NBRIAM/123RF

FLEXIBLE SOLUTIONS Teagasc nursery stock/ornamentals advisor, Dónall Flanagan explores the issue of plastic in the nursery sector and highlights a number of potential solutions coming on stream

TO PLASTIC PROBLEMS “Not another article on plastic,” I hear you say. We have been bombarded for months on how harmful plastics are if not disposed of correctly. Disturbing images of plastic in our seas and damage to wildlife have hit a nerve with the public. There is a tangible sense of awareness of the issues that we face.

The problem of plastics permeates every aspect of our lives. I venture you may even be reading this with a disposal plastic coated coffee cup in your hand. But solutions are coming on stream, even for your disposal cup. Truly compostable disposable cups, made by the likes of Vegeware, are more common now. You might have unknowingly used them at Bloom, and these solutions are quickly spreading to horticulture. The overall global trend of environmental responsibility is seen to have greatest resonance with young adults and homeowners and a little more so with women than men.

A Global Data survey in 2017 found that “Customers are making more purchasing decisions based on climate change, environmental deterioration, biodiversity loss, and resource shortages.” A survey by Kantar of 5,000 UK adults in early 2018 found that 24.6% expressed “extreme concern about plastic packaging of groceries.” You could expect that the rate in Ireland wouldn’t be far off this. The big picture response from the EU has been to announce its Plastics Strategy that would see all plastic sold in Europe being either reusable or recyclable by 2030. Much will need to be done to get to this point but how much does horticulture need to do and what will be the cost?

Fresh produce has had to change in response to consumers’ and retailers’ demands. Loose packed veg and compostable packs are now on some supermarket shelves. Paper punnets and bags are creeping into use, for example on mushrooms.

Heat sealed fruit and veg packs are widely used as well as

20

lidded packs. Quality of produce is higher in sealed packs and there is less plastic to recycle. Changing packaging comes at a cost however, packing fresh produce using a heath sealer, e.g. Proseal, can cost up to €15,000 for a heat plate to fit the new package. Conor Green of Green’s Berry Farm says, “We have introduced 400g paper punnets on sale from the farm and they are very popular.”

Paul Brophy of Brophy Produce, one of Ireland’s key broccoli producers, says, “The alternatives to plastic have to be affordable, workable and ensure integrity of the produce.”

His company already uses a limited amount of plastic as produce is sold either in cellophane wrap or loose and both are delivered in returnable crates. Paul says of the future, “Plastic is being replaced, it's going to happen and when it does it’ll be quick.” One supermarket will lead the way but will no doubt not be long on their own at the front of the race. A prime example of recent change is Quality Green Producer Organisation. Their tomatoes are now supplied to Dunne’s Stores in a cardboard tray instead of plastic. David Currid, chairman of Quality Green, says, "The old plastic trays were clear and recyclable but Dunne’s wanted to move away from plastic and together with Total Produce we found a very similar cardboard tray.” The cost of the tray, David says, was less much than it would have been a few years ago, but not cheaper than plastic. This was a good fit and has been a winwin for the supplier and consumer.

Eoin Reid, owner of Fernhill Garden Centre, doesn’t think that plastic is a barrier to buying for his customers. “We try to educate our customers about how they can recycle their pots, trays and plastic. Some bring back pots for us to recycle or think we might reuse them.” One area of waste that Eoin has to deal with is the trays from bedding. “The marketing trays take up a lot of space and all our suppliers use different

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

08 / NURSERY

“Unfortunately, the government and recycling company websites don’t show plant pots being recycled and this could mislead some well meaning gardeners” ones. If they were all the same it would be really easy to reuse them a few times.”

At present plastic film from polytunnels can be recycled.

Deirdre Warren from Colm Warren Polyhouses says, “We recycle all off cuts and old plastic with a supplier in Northern Ireland. The plastic is segregated and baled in to tonne pallets and shipped once there is enough to cover transport costs.” Some co-ops organise recycling collection of plastic from tunnels and triple rinse pesticide containers. I’ve visited Belgian nurseries selling baled pallet wrap to local recyclers at a very worthwhile price; the growers were definitely happy with how much they could save by selling it rather than disposing of it.

Domestic recycling companies can help the home gardeners and food consumer. Panda, City Bin and others can recycle clean plastic, only of grades 1, 2 and sometimes 5 regardless of colour. Some black plastic can’t be segregated in automated systems and the type used in multipack bedding (grade 6). Unfortunately, the government and recycling company websites don’t show plant pots being recycled and this could mislead some well meaning gardeners. City Bin Company has an excellent simple guide for recycling, the best I have seen. Reusing instead of recycling can be viable too.

Florensis distributes young plants in Ireland through Goldcrop, and has been using returnable and reusable plug trays for many years. There is a cost to putting systems like this in place and there is no doubt that its a key hurdle. We as consumers hate seeing price increases and as producers know it will come off our bottom line. The government stepped in when plastic bags littered hedgerows and I feel it will take a similarly brave move from the government to bring us to the next level. A plastic tax has been ruled out by the EU but a deposit system is being used by some countries and considered by more.

Innovations are SHAUN appearing in the nursery HERDSMAN FROM MODIFORM stock and pot plant WITH PRODUCT sectors. Modiform Eco SAMPLES AT THE RECENT HTA Expert was launched this PLANT SHOW year at IPM Essen and can be seen in some UK Tesco stores. Speaking with Shaun Herdsman of Modiform, he says, "All our plastic is recyclable, but customers are looking for alternatives.” Their clear growing trays seen for a number of years in B&Q are made from 100% post-consumer recycled PET. The Eco Expert trays and pots are not suitable for growing plants but can be

used for marketing and the cardboard is easy for most retailers and homeowners to recycle.

There are sustainable label options too. For example, GROWCOON Floramedia offers one DISTRIBUTED BY KLASMANN DEILMANN made from cane sugar, another from recycled paper. Growcoon is an intriguing new pot or tray liner that is unlike any pot you will have seen before; it’s like a flexible plastic mesh rather than a solid pot. These are industrially compostable and are certified to completely break down into just water and carbon dioxide.

I’ve met Dutch nurseries using the plugs and they’ve been very impressed with the improved rooting rate and it helps with their MPS quality assurance assessments.

When it comes to recycling we know that very little of the potentially recyclable material in the world either gets to a recycling facility and even less of this gets recycled, contamination being a key problem. PET and cardboard have value post-use and these two streams already have a good recycling uptake. The quickest route to sustainability will be switching to these two options. I think this is a good new story. We in horticulture are well integrated in to a recycling system, it’s not a closed loop system but better than we give ourselves credit for.

ACTIONS POINTS – ●R eview where plastic is being used and if it can be

avoided or substituted, e.g. 1 for 6 or recycle; ●S et out on your website or social media which stream of

plastic you use can be recycled, e.g 1, 2 and 5; ●T alk to your customers, listen to their needs. Other

suppliers will be offering them sustainable options soon, don’t be left behind. ✽

ó

D NALL FLANAGAN B.Ag. Sc Com Hort M.Ag.Sc. Teagasc nursery stock/ornamentals specialised advisor. Dónall has been working with Teagasc since 2007 and in his current role since 2016.

He provides technical advice to the amenity horticulture production sector and is based in Teagasc Ashtown. You can contact Dónall at 087 703 5823 and donall.flanagan@teagasc.ie

Summer 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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NURSERY / 08

GATHERING MOMENTUM

Independent consultant and Horticulture Industry Forum coordinator, Stiofán Nutty, brings us up to date on a range of HIF and related initiatives that are starting to gather momentum HAMILTON LONEY AND BARBARA ERWIN BOTH VICE-CHAIRS OF THE N.I. FORUM AND STIOFÁN NUTTY JUST BEFORE A MEETING OF THE N.I. HORTICULTURE FORUM IN C & L MUSHROOMS, MAYOBRIDGE, CO DOWN

T

he HIF Full Forum spring meeting took place on the afternoon of 17 May in Teagasc’s new horticulture, forestry and education complex at Ashtown. That morning marked the official opening of these new facilities. There was a great sense of positivity at the Forum as this major development had clearly given a significant morale boost to everyone working in the industry. Minister Andrew Doyle, who had conducted the official opening of the new Teagasc complex, commented at the start of the Forum meeting that it was great to see that there were now over 100 horticulture students on the Teagasc campus.

Updates were provided to the Forum on progress with the HIF workplan that is set out, under four strands, in the Horticulture Industry Vision report. Teagasc leads the Creating Greater Grower Resources strand and is compiling an industry strategy for that will cover R&D, Advisory Services and Education & Training. The strategy is also likely to propose the establishment of a Technology Centre (TC) for horticulture similar to the one that had been set up for meat on the Ashtown campus. This strategy will be presented to the next meeting of the Forum.

Bord Bia leads the Market Opportunities strand and is working on initiatives to build on the recently increased Department of Health recommended fresh produce consumption target, from five portions to seven portions per day. Bord Bia continues to work on potential industry collaboration with the health sector to promote the benefits of fresh produce and amenity produce, to fight obesity and improve the mental health of the nation. Strong export opportunities are envisaged for organic produce by Bord Bia and it was therefore timely that this meeting heralded the attendance by the Organic Growers of Ireland (OGI) at the Forum with observer status. Una Wycherley will act as the OGI representative.

The IFA leads the Public Policy strand and updated on a number of areas including the launch of their Sustainability Charter to combat below cost selling.

It was interesting to learn that although the Charter did not receive extensive printed media coverage, the social media reach of the campaign was a success.

Given the increasing incidence of extreme weather, the IFA has been engaging with the insurance industry to explore better options for producers to protect themselves from this growing risk. The meeting agreed to develop proposals for

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

severe weather provision for the industry.

The recently announced new pilot work permit programme for the industry, whereby producers can apply for permits to employ workers from outside the EU, was welcomed by the Forum.

However, it was recognised that that this pilot programme would not solve the labour crisis and that the challenge of securing a sustainable supply of labour would continue for some time to come.

To help, the HIF is now developing a draft labour strategy for the medium to long term, which includes a survey of a representative sample of producers in both the edible and non-food sectors.

This work is being funded by Teagasc and the results will be returned at the next Forum meeting.

A very positive update on progress with the Greater Grower Collaboration strand was delivered to the meeting.

Since the beginning of the year, the DAFM has been hosting a series of seminars and workshop events on the benefits and practicalities of forming Producer Organisations (POs). On 13 June, the DAFM organised a further session with PO consultant experts Guy Claessens (Belgium) and Frank Corbally (Ireland) outlining how POs work and deliver for producers. The day concluded with a visit to Quality Green PO member Jim O’Rourke, Monsport Nursery, Swords, Co Dublin and participants got a first-hand account from Jim of how PO membership is contributing and working for him from a grower perspective. If you would like to learn more about POs and/or about the current PO pilot programme please contact the DAFM horticulture section on 01 505 8600.

In April, I was invited to present to the Northern Ireland Horticulture Forum on the operation and progress being made

08 / NURSERY STIOFÁN NUTTY has been

RANK CORBALLY, GUY CLAESSENS AND BARRY DELANY (DAFM) AT THE PO WORKSHOP ON 13 JUNE

by the HIF. It was evident that producers in Northern Ireland are experiencing the similar challenges to those being faced by the industry here. I’m delighted that we have established a strong line of communication between the two Forums on the Island and I believe that we can learn from and support each other. Brexit is just one area of mutual concern. The Northern Ireland Forum recently presented to the Northern Ireland Committee in Westminster, and although they have been refused a seat at a Northern Ireland Brexit body they are continuing to press for representation. Brexit poses a real

Institute of Technology Blanchardstown OPEN EVENING FANCY A BLOSSOMING CAREER IN HORTICULTURE? Wednesday 5th September 2018

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Part-time courses starting in September 2018 BN033 Higher Certificate in Science in Professional Horticulture Practice (Level 6) This two year programme is designed for those working in Horticulture with no previous qualifications or beginners wishing to enter the Horticulture industry.

BN310 Bachelor of Science in Horticulture (Level 7) This two year add-on programme enables the holders of a diploma or Higher Certificate in Horticulture to raise their qualification to an Ordinary Degree (level 7).

BN406 Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Horticulture (Level 8) This two year programme is designed for those who are already holders of a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture (Ordinary Degree) and wish to further their education by gaining an Honours Degree in Horticulture.

involved in commercial horticulture for nearly 30 years. In that time he has built an expansive experience and knowledge base across the horticultural spectrum. He has owned and operated a nursery business, an award winning garden centre, worked extensively in education and TV and was appointed as special advisor to the Minister for Food and Horticulture, Trevor Sargent.

In 2010 he was appointed as special advisor to the Minister for Sustainable Transport, Horticulture, Planning and Heritage, Ciaran Cuff e. Over the past four years Stiofán has facilitated and moderated 14 European and global conferences in Ireland, Brussels and the UK, he was appointed as coordinator of the Horticulture Industry Forum.

challenge to horticulture on both sides of the border and we will continue to work together to minimise the potential negative impacts and exploit any emergent opportunities. ✽

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COME AND SEE US AT GLAS ON STAND D9

GLAS FEATURE

19 JULY 2018

CITYWEST DUBLIN

Welcome to the HC GLAS Preview which will guide you to some of the best exhibitor stands at the show and also assist you to get the best out of your visit whether you are a business, professional or exhibitor.

Also come and meet the Horticulture Connected & Horticulture.Jobs team and some of our contributors on Stand E40. You can also pick up extra copies of this edition of the magazine for your colleagues who can’t make the show on the day.

A message from the Promoters GLAS is all about you, because first and foremost, it's your annual industry event, featuring the very latest products and services that can help you and your organisation. But this year it's more than that. It's about helping you make the most of your visit, where you can schedule meetings with select exhibitors in advance using our Meeting Request app.

It's about providing you with more hospitality spaces to take meetings, take stock of who you have yet to see, or to simply catch up with an old friend or colleague over a cuppa. It's about taking care of yourself and your colleagues with practical tips and invaluable advice from the likes of the Irish Cancer Society and their SunSmart campaign, as well as a talk from the Chartered Institute of Horticulture on professionalism in horticulture and a presentation on therapeutic horticulture covering stress management and wellbeing.

Find out more and pre register for the show and Learning Theatre events at glasireland.ie

Eamonn Maguire, Business Development Manager

GETTING THE BEST OUT OF TRADE SHOWS FOR YOUR BUSINESS Read the HC ADVISE articles below and why not pull out and take these 8 centre pages to the show ● Why it makes good business sense to send staff to trade shows ● Top 10 Do’s & Don’ts for exhibitors ● Get the best for your business at GLAS Looking for employees or to progress your own career.? Visit JobsInHorticulture.ie and Horticulture.Jobs or talk to AnneMarie at Stand E40.

Get the latest product and service news including Show Awards at HorticultureConnected.ie The next edition of Horticulture Connected is out Nov 2018.

Summer 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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GLAS FEATURE EXHIBITORS TO DATE July 5th

Alacarte Software Tailors L9

ALCI D40

Allied Irish Growers E4 Amour Nurseries F2 Arboricultural Association of Irl D42 Artificial Grass Company A11 Ball Colegrave K8 Beechill Bulbs E7 Belchim Crop Protection I18 Ben Vista Nursery E13

Bord Bia G5

Bord Na Mona F4 Brodericks A8 Cambridge HOK J8 Card Boutique L8 Caragh Nurseries D13 CAFRE Greenmount ST8 Chartered Institute of Horticulture E39 Citroen Ireland M5 & M6

Colm Warren Polytunnels J4 Container Centralen K2 Cropcare J2 Darlac I6 De Wild BV ST12 Deker Horticulture D17

Dept of Agriculture, Food & the Marine L18 Design By Nature ST5 Doran's Nurseries H2

Dublin Grass Machinery ST18 Dunne & Dineen D1 Ebtech Glasshouse Systems I3 Enrich Environmental E3 Etesia ST24 Evergreen Horticulture I4 Excelerate ST15 Falco A4 Fiat Professional Ireland M1 Flannery's Nurseries I16 Floramedia UK J1 Forest Fresh Ireland E15 FUSO Ireland M7 Garden Connect E27 Gianni Ferrari Ireland D35

GLDA L4

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Goldcrop E5 Gorse Lodge Garden Ornaments D21 Grassland A1 Greentek ST10 Groundwater Dynamics ST23 Growtrade The Irish Garden garden.ie E1 Herbst Software I22 Hortipak L16

Horticulture Connected / Horticulture.Jobs E40 Hozelock E33 Hygeia Garden Care G1

ICL D9 Institute Technology Blanchardstown C1

Irish Cancer Society L6 Irish Institute of Sports Surfaces ST6 Irish Farm & Garden Machinery B9 Irish Grass Machinery ST20

Irish Hardy Nursery Stock Assoc D41 Irish Recycled Products A3

Irritec D5

Isuzu Ireland M3 James Gibbons Recruitment L3 Javo D3 Jelitto Seeds E31 JF McKenna G6 Kavanagh Christmas Trees K6

Kellehers Christmas Trees Kildare L16

Kelly's Nursery / Readyhedge (Ire) F5 Kestrel Forestry E25 Killarney Christmas Trees D36 Kilworth Conifers I8 KSB Greenhouses ST14 L&K Nurseries H3 Landtech Soils E23 Leinster Turf Equipment A5 MacEgan Engineering B1 Martyns Grasslawns ST9 Maxstim B3 Mellifont Abbey Gardens I12 Michael McDonough Plant Sales ST4 MG Seed Company ST1 Midland Grass Machinery A7 Mr Fothergills I6 NAD H5 nadicom GMBH L11

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

Nangle & Niesen H6 Newey D33 Nightpark Nursery I20 Norman Emerson E9

O'Connor Nurseries I24 O'Dowd Nurseries F1 Opel Ireland M4

Peter O'Brien & Sons L14

PG Horticulture E21 Photo Import A9 Pilsen Skoda G8 & H10 Plantmore D29 PPC Labels E29 ProGrass J14 Quantil J3 Readyhedge F6 Real Trees B17 Renault Ireland M2 Rentes Plants F3 Retail Merchandising Showcase J9 Schneider Youngplants E11 Schram Plants G3 Shop Equipment Ltd (SEL) J9 Smiemans Projecten D25

SNRG Horti Structures I2 Soil Renew L7 Southern Machinery ST11 Syngenta FloriPro Services I10

Teagasc L18

The Emerald Group ST13 Thermofloor Garden Centre Construction A6 Tree Council of Ireland A13 TS Pumps & Irrigation B11 Tully Nurseries H4 TurfCare B7 Unichem ST26 Uniplumo H1 Velvit B13 VivaGreen ST2 Westland Horticulture I1 Whelehan Crop Protection I25

Whites Amenity I14

Wilson Machinery ST3 Woodpecker Environmental ST22 Woodstock Trees & Shrubs G4 XL ProBio ST7

Young Nurseries E17

*Stand with ST are part of the Sports Turf Village

GLAS FEATURE

HC ADVISE - TOP DO’S & DON’TS FOR EXHIBITORS The most important thing to remember when you are staffing a trade show booth is that you represent your company. Everything you do and say, even if it is not in the booth, reflects upon your company.

DO ● Prepare engaging questions about your products or

service before the show; ● Create the right first impression in stand design, layout and

staff presentation; ● Encourage visitors to want to spend time with you. Offer a

glass of water or have spare seating for them to take a rest; ● Be friendly and not too pushy; ● See the person in front of you first and not the potential sale; ● Ask questions that stimulate thought and encourage

conversation in general; ● Relate questions to the industry, product/service and its benefits, or to a specific situation; ● Look like you’re enjoying yourself.

DON’T ● Be late to the stand or leave early; ● Sit, read, eat or drink in the booth; ● Badge-stare and then ignore that person; ● Use the telephone while visitors are around; ● Leave the stand unattended or leave without telling your team; ● Use inappropriate language, complain about the show or

about being at the show; ● Badmouth your competitors; ● Let the booth get cluttered and untidy.

COLM WARREN POLYHOUSES COMPLETES LATEST DESIGN AND BUILD PROJECTS

GLAS STAND #J4

Colm Warren Polyhouses has just completed the construction at Rentes Plants of a four bay greenhouse. The introduction of the new greenhouse increases their covered growing area to 1900m2 (four bay 38.4m x 49.5m). The CWP greenhouse was fitted out with motorised roll up side ventilation and automated roof ventilation linked to a weather station unit. Also for Bantry Marine Research, CWP has recently completed a 11.5m wide double trellis wide span structure, finished with insulated side panels on all four sides and insulated roof with PVC covers. Their expert team will be on hand at GLAS to answer any of your queries and offer free advice for your new project. More at cwp.ie

CHECK OUT THE EXPANDING RANGE AT O'DOWD ROSES & NURSERIES

GLAS STAND #F1

Caroline O’Dowd will be on hand with the O’Dowd team at GLAS, showcasing an ever expanding range of roses that now includes over 250 varieties. This range of fi ve litre poly bags includes hybrid tea, fl oribunda, patio, modern climbers, old fashion climbers, ramblers scramblers, and ground cover roses.

O’Dowd’s hugely successful range of vegetables packs will also be on display. These include nine-pack veg trays of lettuce and scallions, and pot veg of cucumbers, courgettes and tomatoes. Talk to them at the show, or ring them on 090 648 1455 and asked to be added to their weekly availability list.

GLAS STAND #E17

Specialist Perennial Growers Y 30 years in business Y Multiple Award Winning Nursery Y Bord Bia Awards ‘Grower of the Year’

Award Winning Wholesale Nursery Specialising in Perennials Alpines, Herbs and Grasses

Joe & Nuala Young Young Nurseries Ltd. Ballinanima, Kilfinane, Limerick

tel: 063 91035 l fax: 063 91500 email: info@youngnurseries.com w w w. y o u n g n u r s e r i e s . c o m

GLAS FEATURE YOUNG NURSERIES EXPAND RANGE WITH EMPHASIS ON PLANTS FOR POLLINATION The Young family will be showcasing a wonderful range of hardy perennials including Agastache ‘Little Adder’, Alstroemeria ‘Indian Summer’, Penstemon ‘Burgundy’, Allium ‘Millenium’, and Gypsophilia ‘Festival White’. They’re Ideal for a midsummer burst of colour in the garden and great for impulse sales. Nuala Young tells HC, “At the heart of this is the Bee & Butterfly range which is committed to providing customers with plants that will benefit the environment for everyone.” And Joe Young adds, “We continue our sustainability journey by reducing our use of chemicals as we bring on board new and proven biological controls, some of which are applied through our state of the art watering systems which have an emphasis on reducing our water usage. With the brand new expanded glasshouse now fully in production, Joe also says, “The Ebb & Flood watering system and shading have protected our plants from the extreme heat conditions. We plan in the short-term to upgrade all of our glasshouse facilities to these new and best in class systems.”

The production team will be on hand at GLAS to answer queries and advise retailers on their 2019 range options. More at youngnurseries.com

GLAS STAND #E17

TEAGASC SPONSORS LEARNING THEATRE AT GLAS 2018 Teagasc’s John Mulhern tells HC, “We are very aware of labour shortages in the industry, and through GLAS STAND the apprenticeship model we hope to provide a platform for a #L18 new generation of horticultural employees to work and learn simultaneously. We are constantly adapting our education offerings via Kildalton and the Botanic Gardens and are here to listen to both employers and potential students about their needs.”

Among other topics in the Learning Theatre, Teagasc will have talks on apprenticeships and update the audience on progress to date. Work has been ongoing with the industry to get two apprenticeship models on track, with a target delivery date of September 2019 still on the cards. To find out more visit the Learning Theatre or talk to the education team on stand L18. More at teagasc.ie

WILDFLOWERS ACHIEVE DAFM REGISTRATION Design By Nature has become GLAS Ireland's first DAFM registered STAND wildflower seed house. All of their #ST5 wildflower seeds are sourced, grown and harvested in Ireland. The seeds are then cleaned, blended and posted from the Crettyard Seedhouse. More importantly, Design by Nature’s Sandro Cafolla tells HC that all 180 species attract pollinators. There is a three year guarantee on all orders. Send photos to get advice and a free quote. Get expert advice from the man himself at GLAS, or find out more at Wildflowers.ie.

GLAS STAND #I2

GLAS STAND #D5

DESIGN & SUPPLY OF IRRIGATION EQUIPMENT FOR AGRICULTURE, GOLF COURSES, SPORTS GROUNDS, INDUSTRY AND LANDSCAPES

IRRITEC LTD Unit 22 Turvey Business Centre Turvey Avenue Donabate Co.Dublin

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

Ph : 01 8404033 Fax : 01 8405337 info@irritec.ie www.irritec.ie

GLAS FEATURE

HC ADVISE - GET THE BEST FOR YOUR BUSINESS AT GLAS 2018

Whether you are a retailer or a wholesaler, there are many advantages to attending trade shows. It’s amazing how shortsighted some business owners can be when it comes to taking time off themselves to attend relevant trade shows. Here are some reasons why you should go.

1. With even a quick glance around you will be exposed to new trends and products. It’s a great way to learn about what’s hot, what’s a fad, and and what the staple products are for your business.

2. You will be stimulated by new ideas and creative ways to support your business despite the economy, the weather, or the economy being good or bad.

3. Learn what your competition is up to without having to go to great lengths.

4. Your current suppliers are there to impress you. At the very least, attending a trade show allows you to benchmark price, quality and service against your competitors and keeps them on their toes.

5. Make sure the press attending the show knows about your business. Visit Horticulture Connected at stand E40.

6. Participate in educational seminars, networking events and surveys that only take place at trade shows. These will connect you to new people and potential new customers. A lot of business done at shows is by visitors around the periphery of these events.

7. Get the answers about a product or service there and then, from the people most qualifi ed to explain it to you.

8. Become educated on the wider horticulture sector so you can better support your clients and customers by being able to direct them to useful products and services that you don’t supply.

9. There are deals to be done. Trade shows cost time and money so exhibitors are always willing to do a fair deal on the day.

10. A good trade event should leave you and the whole team feeling energised about the future of your business. Have fun and enjoy the day.

GLAS STAND #I2

By CWP

GLAS STAND #J4

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NATIONWIDE CONSTRUCTION SERVICE AVAILABLE

Tel: 046-9546007 | Email: info@cwp.ie | Website: www.cwp.ie Colm Warren (Polyhouses) Ltd. (CWP), Kilmurray, Trim, Co. Meath

GLAS STAND #F1 BALLASALLAGH, MOUNT TEMPLE MOATE, CO. WESTMEATH

SNRG HORTI STRUCTURES WORKING TOGETHER FOR IRISH HORTICULTURE

SNRG Horti Structures has announced they will be working alongside two new companies with the aim of providing a wider range of products to the Irish horticultural industry.

Ebtech Glasshouse Systems supplies new and refurbished quality glasshouses within the UK and Ireland. Floor Van Schaik - Rack Solutions based in Holland ships their custom-made racking worldwide.

Steve Evans of SNRG tells HC, “We are so excited to be working alongside two reputable companies such as these, as their Irish agents. They provide top quality products to their customers and aim to deliver an outstanding service. As companies we have similar goals and work ethics, so not only do we hope to work well together but also ultimately provide a better service and product for our customers in Ireland.” SNRG is already an agent for Rovero, renowned manufacturers of polytunnels, based in Holland. “Our partnership as an agent for Rovero has been so successful that we felt it the right time to expand the services we offer.” To find out more about this and their complete range of products and services, meet the team at GLAS 2018. More at snrgstructures.ie

SPECIALISING IN ROSES VEGETABLE PLANTS SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN BEDDING PLANTS

Contact Caroline Phone: (090) 648 1455 Fax: (090) 648 2731 Mobile: (086) 819 7138 odowdroses@gmail.com

GLAS FEATURE ICL TEAM ON HAND TO ADVISE ON BEST ACTION FOR DROUGHT CONDITIONS FOR BOTH AMENITY AND EDIBLE SECTORS As Ireland Sales Manager for ICL, Colman Warde tells HC, “It has been an extremely stressful time for growers and the sportsturf professionals. We offer a range of specialty products that mitigate against the stresses that plants and turf are put under in these drought conditions. These include innovative technologies such as controlled and slow release fertilisers and a leading range of solubles for the specialty agricultural market. In the ornamental, turf and amenity markets they complete the offering with plant protection products and growth enhancers.” Colman and experts from ICL will be available throughout the day at GLAS 2018 to offer advice to both existing and potential new customers. More at icl-sf.com/ie-en

GLAS STAND #D9

IRRITEC SERVICES AND EXPERT ADVICE WILL BE IN HIGH DEMAND Irritec is a family run business, with an experienced hard working crew who operate from their own modern twin storey HQ in Donabate, Co Dublin. The company stocks a huge range of irrigation materials, available five days a week from their trade counter.

Paul Kunkels tells HC, “While the delivery of water and associated nutrients to plants and turf surfaces has always been the core business, our priority has always been water conservation and sustainability when deciding what systems and services to offer.

With an eye on the future we constantly review and update our product lines to ensure that we have the latest, best value and water saving equipment available.

New products we are selling are Wi-Fi and app based irrigation controllers and horticultural LED lighting.”

He goes on to say, “‘Irritec prides itself on its customer service and tries to accommodate each and every one of its valued customers in whatever way it can. The vast majority of new clients arrive via referrals, which I feel is the best way to connect with new clients, and it’s something I’m very proud of. The heart of our business is offering clients the widest range of irrigation products, which deliver water exactly where required and in the most efficient way.” Paul and the team will be on hand at GLAS to GLAS answer all your questions. But best hurry STAND as this business is in high demand in case #D5 you hadn't noticed. More at irritec.ie

Kildalton College GLAS STAND #L18

Piltown, Co. Kilkenny

Helping people grow careers in horticulture for 46 years

• • • •

QQI Level 5 Certificate in Horticulture QQI Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Horticulture QQI Level 7 Bachelor of Science in Horticulture (in conjunction with Waterford Institute of Technology)

Part-time Component Awards at Levels 5 & 6

Open D ay 5th Octo ber 2018

Kildalton College has an extensive horticultural unit for student training, including a commercial nursery, fruit and vegetable production unit, protected crops and sportsturf units, as well as

CHECK OUT www.teagasc.ie/education/teagasc-colleges/botanic-gardens Telephone +353 (0)1 804 0201or email botanic.college@teagasc.ie

16 hectares of established gardens and woodlands.

For further information: Email: Kildalton.college@teagasc.ie Website: www.teagasc.ie/training/colleges/kildalton/ Facebook: Teagasc Kildalton College Telephone: 051 644400 or 051 644407 @kc_horticulture

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

GLAS STAND #H6

Nangle&Niesen wholesale nursery

Irish grown mature & semi-mature trees

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6 REASONS TO MAKE NANGLE & NIESEN YOUR

FIRST CHOICE WHEN IT COMES TO SOURCING TREES

Quality - We pride ourselves on the quality of our trees and operate to the highest horticultural standards. We operate rigorous quality control systems throughout every stage of the growing process.

Range - Over 40,000 trees with more than 200 varieties to choose from including a large stock of mature and semi mature trees.

Experience - A history of over 40 years of growing and supplying trees provides a wealth of knowledge and experience unsurpassed in Ireland.

Reliability - Our proven track record means we can be trusted to give the best advise and service.

Plant Health & Biosecurity - Nangle and Niesen Ltd is committed to operating in a manner that promotes good plant health and biosecurity as far as it is reasonable and practicable to do so and will ensure that the Company’s suppliers are selected with

due consideration to plant health.

Price - All of the above allied to competitive prices and great value.

www.nangleandniesen.ie Rathcullen, Aherla, Cork Tel: 021-733 1126 l Fax: 021-733 1663 l Email: info@nangleandniesen.ie

GLAS FEATURE SPEAK TO THE ITB EDUCATION TEAM ABOUT UPSKILLING OPPORTUNITIES IN HORTICULTURE ITB is currently accepting applications for the part time courses in horticulture on offer at the college, with classes scheduled to begin in GLAS mid-September 2018. The part-time programmes are designed specifically STAND with those working in industry in mind, and delivered by blended learning. #C1 Online lectures are delivered live each evening (normally two evenings per week), and are also recorded so that the students may listen back for revision purposes or if they were unable to attend the live lecture on a particular night. In addition, students are expected to attend ITB on four or five Saturdays per semester. Relevant reading material is also available through Moodle.

One example of a recent student success was Geoff Wright from Longford, a final year honours horticulture student who recently won a merit award for his company titled "grO2" at this year's Student Entrepreneur Awards, held at NUI Galway.

Geoff pitched his idea for a newly designed plant pot that has the potential to result in drastic cost savings for wholesale container plant nurseries. Geoff tells HC, “No design for a pot currently exists that is suitable for automated production at scale, particularly for low-value herbaceous plants. My plant production process idea brings the benefits to wholesale commercial production - an industry worth €26bn in Europe alone.” He went on to say, "The horticulture syllabus at ITB is very broad and contains many enterprising and entrepreneurial subjects that have contributed to my reaching the finals of the 2018 Student Entrepreneur Awards." Call in to stand C1 to have a chat with the ITB staff about your future career in horticulture.

More at itb.ie/StudyatITB/horticulturept.html

HISTORIC TREE REPLACEMENT BY NANGLE & NIESEN NOW IN FULL LEAF Following a competitive assessment process in late 2017, Nangle & Niesen Ltd were appointed by Fingal County Council to replace the magnificent Aesculus x carnea ‘Briotii’ (red chestnut) which grew in The Naul, Co Dublin.

This iconic tree located in the centre of the village beside the Seamus Ennis Music Centre has been photographed since the mid 1800s and was a much loved part of the village’s character. Ronan Nangle says, “The council had to remove the tree for safety reason after it became dangerous, and it was decided to replant with a 45-50cm girth specimen Quercus robur (common oak) from our nursery in Cork. In November Aileen O'Connor of Fingal County Council came to Aherla to personally select the replacement tree. It was originally planted in our fields in 1989 and has been cared for and nurtured ever since, having been transplanted five times.”

On 19 December it was lifted, rootballed and delivered to the site the following day, for planting by Nangle & Niesen’s staff. A specialist soil and anchoring system was used along with a built-in watering system, and the tree was planted and secured. Having settled into its new home over the winter, the Quercus robur is now in full leaf and will provide a focal point for the people of The Naul and North County Dublin for generations to come. Ronan Nangle tells HC that it is these types of projects that keeps the team enthused, and the business was proud to be involved in such a historic project.

You too can have access to their expert advice at GLAS 2018.

More at nangleandniesen.ie

GLAS STAND #H6

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HC ADVISE - WHY IT MAKES GOOD BUSINESS SENSE TO LET STAFF ATTEND TRADE SHOWS

In any business you spend a lot of time and effort in training your team, and rightly so. Just like any infrastructure spend, it is one of your most important investments. Trade shows, conferences and training events show you care and are a progressive employer. Here are a few pointers to help your staff get the best out of GLAS and other tradeshow events.

1. Attend seminars and workshops. Tell them to chat to the speakers. If they are presenting a session, they are deemed to be an expert in what they are presenting. Find out who impressed your staff and why.

2. Tell them to find a mentor. Mentors don’t necessarily need to come from your own company. Finding someone else they can get advice from to solve problems will be a positive for your business.

3. Talk to the sales people on as many stands as possible.

They may want to sell your staff something they don’t need but tell staff to observe some of their techniques and how they can be applied to your own business.

4. Get them to attend networking events. The small talk can end up being the very thing that gets you the information for your next business lead.

5. They represent you and your brand. Give them business cards with their name and role on them. Get them to wear branded uniforms to the event. Just because it’s not an exhibiting fit for your business doesn't mean there are no sales opportunities out there for your business too. Make sure they know not to give sensitive business information away.

6. All work and no play. Treat them to an overnight stay before or after the event. Make it fun for them. Relaxing and enjoying a social night with the team will strengthen the team and your business.

7. Give them some time to share what they learned after the trade show. Whether one or all of the staff attended an event, it's important to set aside some time for the whole team to learn what they took away from the event.

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LESS IS MORE, MORE OR LESS Respected Landscape Architect and garden designer, Patricia Tyrrell MGLDA shares her insights on this year’s Bloom in the Park show gardens

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range, yellow and gold were the colours predominating at Bloom this year. Gold medals prevailed, particularly amongst the large garden category. Golden yellow were the colours chosen in Alan Rudden’s Santa Rita garden, Life is Rosé for his main structural features.

Also, orange and yellow prevailed in the Marie Keating Foundation SunSmart Garden, created by Peter Cowell and Monty Richardson to reflect bright sunny colours, and in Kevin Dennis’s Fruit Juice Matters Garden, where pots and planting echoed the theme.

Bigger sponsorship from charities and public and private sectors was notable this year. This allowed for the creation of some well executed gardens, particularly in the large garden category. This seemed to have a kind of knock-on effect on smaller gardens, which were much fewer in number than previous years. To me at least, this gave an overall impression of fewer gardens and possibly fewer designers getting experience at this level. That said, the quality was up so perhaps less is more.

GARDEN DESIGN CATEGORIES Bloom garden categories are divided into small, medium, large,

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and concept gardens. Once again Ruth Liddle presented a wonderful sculpture garden (in the feature garden category), this year in conjunction with Ken Folans. Always a source of inspiration, it would be lovely to see more sculpture used within the show gardens rather than all together in one place.

According to the Bloom rules, concept gardens ‘provide a blank canvas without aesthetic, horticultural or size restrictions’. They offer ‘an enhanced sensory experience’ and are used for ‘conceptual, interactive or play focused exhibits or spaces devoted to raising awareness of important social, economic, humanitarian or environmental issues’. The Cambridge dictionary’s definition of ‘concept’ is a principle or idea. It would seem unlikely that any garden gets to Bloom without an idea or principle, so perhaps the definition needs to be more firmly defined. In other garden shows such as Chelsea and Hampton Court, there is more scope to define your gardens style or principles.

Other garden categories at Chelsea and Hampton Court include artisan gardens, world gardens, and gardens for a changing world and space to grow gardens. Understanding and interpreting gardens and their design and merit can be helped greatly by such categorisation and can also guide and inspire the designer in realising the potential for their ideas. It is confusing

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

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BLOOM SHOW GARDENS 2018

1. FBD INSURANCE’S DEEP PLAY GARDEN BY NIALL MAXWELL AND MARINA ANDREEVA, 2. ALAN RUDDEN’S SANTA RITA GARDEN - LIFE IS ROSÉ, 3. BARRY KAVANAGH’S GARDEN RESISTANCE, 4. TÜNDE SZENTESI’S GREEK THEMED MAMMA MIA, 5. KEVIN DENNIS’S FRUIT JUICE MATTERS, 6. THE SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD GARDEN BY ANDREW CHRISTOPHER DUNNE

PHOTOS: KORALEY NORTHEN

Summer 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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DESIGN / 09

“It seems a pity with so much space in the Phoenix Park that the garden area always gets so crowded” to find that Bloom gardens are not categorised as ‘concept’ in advance, but more as a retrospective and it is difficult to see why some of them would end up in this category.

A move towards more defined categories at Bloom and a broader range of categories would be, in my opinion, a positive development. There is often, possibly influenced by sponsors, a tendency towards the literal – ‘This is LITERALLY where you are.’ On a number of levels this tends to weaken a design. In all likelihood, there is probably no set of categories that will satisfy everyone but the current offering is badly in need of some reworking. Recreating a particular space or environment can become so challenging that we forget about the nuances and atmosphere that make it a garden. It can also lose the message which it hopes to carry as it does not speak to the viewer as anything other than what it ‘literally’ is.

A garden that is intensely literal can leave us cold. Nothing new to see here, no questioning, no mystery. At the other extreme are the gardens which try to be all things to all people with no unifying theme or idea. It’s interesting to look at the descriptions of the gardens and correlate this with design medals. The weaker the overall ideas, the less likely they were to end up in the gold medal category.

Amongst the larger gardens generally, the themes varied from the literal to the conceptual. Some were defined by location but had an underlying idea or principle. In Liat and Oliver Schurmann’s gold medal winning garden for FBD Insurance, you were literally on a roof garden, but they offered a strong fundamental concept of looking at nature at close quarters and from a different viewpoint, so elegantly fulfilling the theme of their garden. The structure and reflective water had echoes of their Bloom garden last year. The overall effect was magical!

A principle that we would all like to see more of was embodied in the collaboration between Fingal county councils and the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown, The Greener Way for Fingal (front cover), which included a swale and wildflower areas, using the principles of Sustainable Urban Drainage (SUDs) where water is slowed from entering rivers and thus prevents flooding. This has the added benefit of supporting more wildlife. It is great to see County Councils moving forward with these issues in a creative way.

The best in show garden and gold medal winner, and winner of the cutest kid’s award (I made that last bit up) was The Sustainable Seafood Garden. Brave and ambitious, this must have caused Andrew Christopher Dunne a few sleepless nights, trying to figure out how to recreate the interface between sea and land in a small space. It is wonderful to see sculpture as an essential part of a garden space and I loved the fish and the light and shadow play which brought them to life. The greatest

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challenge with this garden was creating a literal seaside space. Here you had to rely on people’s perceptions and memory to see it the same way. To me the non-tidal nature of The Sustainable Seafood Garden, the planting at the bottom of the quay wall and the surrounding woodland planting made it feel like the Clare side of Lough Derg where small harbours such as this can be found.

The final garden in this line up was Fruit Juice Matters by Kevin Dennis MGLDA. Heroic in it’s attention to detail and level of perfection - sourcing of appropriate furnishings such as those cool orange pots and not a hair out of place in that line of fescues in their slimline pots. Kevin’s adventurous approach to lines and angles makes for extremely interesting and modern spaces. Here the underlying ideas, perhaps even the squeezed carton of juice, produced a sunroom with seriously cool lines. For me, Kevin’s garden was conceptual in nature but if I were standing in front of this garden and asked to guess where I was it might be ‘literally’ at Chelsea Garden Show. Categories are not easy.

One of my favourite gardens at Bloom this year fell firmly into the conceptual garden category, FBD Insurance’s Deep Play Garden by Niall Maxwell and Marina Andreeva. Inspired by the vernacular in both the Irish and Russian countryside, it developed these ideas into a serene and modern space but with a distinctively Irish flavour. The subtle planting was drawn from an original palette, with textures that were inspired by wild planting: Ligusticum scoticum, Aruncus, Iris, Luzula and ferns. A striking bog oak sculpture by Brian O’Loughlin, sourced from the Kildare Gallery, framed by a twisted steel archway, was a focal point of this garden. The reflective water punctuated by angular ‘black holes’ led the eye through the garden and the light and shadow on the water and the walls highlighted the texture and outlines of plants such as the Valeriana officinalis and Eremurus. A well deserved gold medal.

Another conceptual garden which I really loved was Cornelia Raftery’s (MGLDA) gold medal winning No Limits GOAL’s Garden for Women. Created at short notice, it was a memorable garden. This garden celebrated the role of women in the developing world, highlighting some of the challenges they continue to face. The planting was a mixture of dry arid and lush tropical to represent some of the inequalities that women endure. The tall posts balancing colourful baskets reminded us of the traditional image of women carrying huge loads on their heads, and also served to acknowledge the strength and resilience of women.

Similarly striking was Barry Kavanagh’s garden Resistance for Trocaire for which he also won gold. Challenging in it’s brief to represent four geographical regions – Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Palestine and Ireland - Barry still managed to create a visually unified garden. The sculpture by Ciaran ‘Yohan’ Brennan of a young boy with scorched tree trunks as legs, surrounded by a circle of scorched trees was particularly arresting. This garden reminded us of the plight of human rights and environmental defenders in these countries where Trocaire works.

Tünde Szentesi’s Greek themed Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again garden won a deserved gold medal. Though falling into the literal category it worked really well, as Tünde had payed huge attention to detail and had a narrative going which made it feel like someone’s home and that they might appear

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

09 / DESIGN

PLANTING

The planting at Bloom gets better each year. The planting in a show garden should have the feeling that it grew there. We should be able to appreciate the plants and yet not see the soil beneath. The plants should be true to the environment they are chosen for and arranged with an understanding of how they can best support the fundamental idea of the design.

Alan Rudden won best planting award, and demonstrated that restraint and subtlety can win out over bright and colourful. Some designers are tempted by all those bright colours to create a ‘bedding scheme’ with unrelated plants which look pretty together and make a splash – a bit like a giant flower arrangement.

The natural look has also become very fashionable in show gardens influenced by our Chelsea neighbours, though we are in danger of succumbing to a messy interpretation of ‘the natural’, fuelled by the availability of wildflower meadow turves into which other perennials, shrubs and trees are then planted. This only works if done well such as in Dan Pearson’s Chatsworth Garden at Chelsea in 2015. Nature has her own order and if not carefully observed just looks messy and disordered. What makes a memorable garden? When you go to Bloom or Chelsea what makes certain gardens remain in your mind whereas others just vanish? You try and try to recall them, but they are not there.

“Without a strong concept a garden can lose its way and the various elements are not unified” A STRONG CONCEPT

Without a strong concept, a garden can lose its way and the various elements are not unified. This is the garden you can’t bring back to mind because your mind couldn’t interpret or read what it was seeing. Our subconscious is a hard task master. It has to be. It evolved to keep track of detail – the familiar and the unfamiliar. Patterns that make sense, those that don’t. Life or death. Knowing where to find food or water, knowing when you are potential food, it’s all in the detail.

Our need to make sense of the world means we are constantly looking for patterns, even if we can’t see the whole picture our brains are quite good at filling in the detail. This

is why nuance in a garden can work so well. We don’t need the whole picture, but we do need the pieces that we can see to have a strong concept or narrative underpinning them.

The garden needs to have unity and coherence. Too many elements that have no connecting thread mean that we can make no sense of the garden, and we switch off.

ATMOSPHERE

To me when people come and look at your garden and linger, just stand and soak up the detail, that is the greatest compliment. Complexity in a garden with richness of detail is important, so that people can relate to the garden.

It needs to tell a story, i.e. a reminder of holidays, an overgrown garden of childhood, the plight of refugees etc.

It is also to do with light and shadow, fragrances, sound and movement.And it needs a sense of mystery, not all instantly visible. There should be some elements of intrigue or surprise. If it is a garden, it belongs to someone. That someone’s personality should be in the garden.

The late Anthony Bourdain maintained you have to be a romantic to be a good cook. Perhaps it is the same for garden design. To immerse yourself in the theme/concept of your garden, to let your imagination run down various paths and add the layers of meaning necessary for it to be legible and memorable. Follow through on your concept, ask the hard questions, and be brave.

WHERE TO NEXT FOR BLOOM

It seems a pity with so much space in the Phoenix Park that the garden area always gets so crowded. One of the joys of Hampton Court is its openness. There is no jostling, or wheelchair users being swamped by crowds.

Plant sales are a highlight for gardening enthusiasts and a perfect opportunity for nurseries to show off their wares.

Providing outdoor sales areas for individual nurseries would allow people to really enjoy the plants and purchase at their leisure. Garden clothing and furniture are only a tiny portion of what’s on offer in the pavilion. A lot of it is unrelated. It is a garden show. The food section is all about food. The garden section should be all about gardens. I believe that the introduction of more design categories and well-defined categories would push designers to be more adventurous.

Conceptual gardens, artisan gardens, narrative gardens, gardens celebrating a book or artist, why not? It doesn’t have to be all of these every year, but it would add extra interest and variety and push the boundaries to create more interesting gardens. ✽

PATRICIA TYRRELL is a Landscape Architect, garden designer, horticulturist and gold medal winner. She can be contacted via her website at living-landscapes.com

PHOTO: VINCENT MCMONAGLE

through the door and burst into song at any minute. A simple idea really well executed.

Gardens that appeal to children are few and far between at Bloom so I’m sure they were drawn to the Enchanted Wood garden by Peter O’Brien MGLDA, for which he won silver gilt and best in category. What child (or even adult) wouldn’t want a garden retreat such as this magical treehouse? And what a treehouse it was with a bed, seating and a lookout.

Despite this being the smallest garden size, Peter managed to create a natural stream with a really clever trompe-l’oeil archway and a drawbridge over to the enchanted treehouse.

Summer 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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INTERVIEW / 10

BARRY LUPTON INTERVIEWS

LES MOORE

PARK LIFE

Barry Lupton talks with Les Moore, head of Dublin City Parks Department

L

eslie Moore’s name will be familiar to most people working in Irish horticulture. As the head of the parks and landscape services at Dublin City Council, he has responsibility for green infrastructure which encompasses almost every

PHOTO: TANYA GILSENAN

aspect of the sector. Parks, gardens, urban spaces, 60,000 trees, meadows, sports grounds, leisure facilities, woodlands, coastal areas and burial grounds are just some of the areas which fall within his remit. He is also deeply involved in the UNESCO Dublin Bay Biosphere Partnership and the Dublin Mountains Partnership, two inter-authority agency projects which are both significant for the conservation of the natural heritage of the city and recreation.

The decisions he is charged with making have significant impact on our sector, and on how our capital’s residents engage and perceive horticulture. I caught up with Les recently to gain a greater understanding of his work and perceptions of the sector.

What inspired you to pursue a career in horticulture?

Initially I had thought of studying forestry but wanted to use my drawing skills and interest in design. The landscape horticulture course had been established in the agriculture faculty in UCD and that is where my interest in horticulture began.

What were the significant career milestones in the journey to the head of parks and landscape services?

My first employment was with Dublin City Council under Michael Lynch who had a very strategic view of developing regional parks around the city. He acquired historic demesnes such as Marlay, Malahide, Ardgillan, Newbridge, Cabinteely and other parks such as Corcagh and Shanganagh. It was great being part of that team.

I joined South Dublin County Council in 1994 under Dr Christy Boylan, and that was an exciting time as a new local authority where there was the opportunity to develop parks which were basically green fields. In SDCC we utilised water courses and availed of funding for flood protection to develop ponds and wetlands in Tymon Park, Corcagh Park and

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Rathcoole Park as well as the town centre park in Tallaght.

With Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, for eight years I led the planning, design and development of a number of significant improvements to parks and gardens, notably the flagship parks where amongst other improvements I developed tearooms in Killiney Hill Park, Cabinteely Park, Marlay Park and the People’s Park, Dun Laoghaire. The Japanese Courtyard Garden in Cabinteely Park was a project of which I am particularly proud because of the excellent team effort involved in designing and constructing the gardens and tearoom there.

I joined Dublin City Council in 2012.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your work?

It’s seeing people and families enjoying the parks that we have developed or improved. It is amazing the value people get from their local park whether it is for rest and relaxation, playing sport, using one of the now 55 playgrounds in the city, attending an event or enjoying the markets and tearooms.

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

10 / INTERVIEW

Conversely, what are the most significant challenges you face on a day-to-day basis?

For me personally the biggest challenge is keeping the paperwork up to date as there is so much work going on and my team is quite stretched.

Landscape Architectural practice in Ireland has come a long way in the last 20 years but some would say it still has a long way to go. From your experience, how do you think the Landscape Architecture community can improve what it does?

I think the Irish Landscape Institute has become very active in partnering with other parts of the landscape and horticulture industry. I know their new president Kevin Halpenny has an ambitious schedule to get landscape practicioners at a professional level, working closer together with clear and defined standards.

Over the years I’ve had the quality of landscape planning submissions described to me as ‘A mixed bag at best, of little worth, a mishmash of illconsidered cut and paste nonsense, architects playing with green markers…’ expletives not included. What’s been your own experience? And if things are bad, how can they be improved?

I would say that there is room for improvement in terms of landscape submissions. However, I think in many cases the Landscape Architect’s work is constrained by the scope or brief given by the design lead, which inevitably is an architect or engineer.

In Dublin City Council we are employing a lot of Landscape Architect consultants to deliver our capital projects and we find their work excellent. They work closely with my own inhouse team which is highly skilled and we like to think that we are fostering young Landscape Architects to give them experience on show piece projects.

There has been a lot of coverage regarding the potential removal of established urban trees to facilitate transport infrastructure. Having a deeper understanding of the value of trees, the wider horticulture community is fearful of any tree loss.

What is your take?

There is an on-going dialogue with our engineering colleagues about transport improvements and how this impacts on the historical integrity of the city streets (which in many cases derive from a medieval layout) and street trees. If it means adding five minutes onto a commuter journey to conserve a street of mature trees, is that a price worth paying? There are some parts of the city where people are very protective of their trees, to the extent that it is difficult to remove even potentially dangerous trees. In other parts of the city people complain about the shading and leaf fall and would like to clear fell the street.

We are trying to educate people as to the value of urban trees and even our drainage engineers now appreciate

the importance of trees, particularly the tree pit and the capacity of soil to attenuate localised pluvial flooding.

Following from the last question, can you outline the top line strategic objectives for Dublin’s urban trees?

Our main objective is to employ a tree officer to deliver on the city tree strategy that we published in 2015. I hope this position will be advertised soon.

You have built an understanding of what works and what doesn’t in the Dublin landscape. What are your top five preferred trees and shrubs for use in urban contexts?

I think there are so many site specific issues that need to be addressed that it is difficult to say. The London plane (Platanus) obviously is still an excellent tree in the city and Lime trees (Tilia) can be pruned into shape very successfully in very formal situations such as in front of the GPO. Perhaps with the warming climate we ned to try some more exotic species. I know Gleditsia is becoming more popular. In terms of planting, we are moving more towards perenniels and pollinator friendly species.

One clear way to capture how well our green infrastructure is valued is to follow the money.

Can you outline how funding has increased or decreased over your career?

It is not always about increasing funding. Sometimes delegating responsibility or an organisational change can improve the efficiency of what we do without additional funding. I have found that if you can demonstrate that your existing resources are being well used, the business case for seeking additional resources to deliver clear and specific objectives or outcomes will be well received.

One could be forgiven for thinking that if the current government had its way, our parks and green spaces would be operated as pay-as-you-go private entities. Is there some truth in this, and if not, what is the funding model going forward?

Parks will always be free to access. The development of tearooms in parks has raised the issue of commercialisation of parks but I think in every case where we have developed tearooms the local community is very appreciative of the added value these ameities provide to their local area. However, the tearooms, markets, concessions and commercial events do bring income into my department which does support our expenditure.

Through your experience of taking on graduates and students, what is your opinion on the quality of design and horticultural education in Ireland?

I think there has been an unfortunate loss of skilled gardeners coming through the traditional horticultural colleges and everyone now wants to be sitting at a desk

Summer 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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INTERVIEW / 10 drawing up plans for gardens. The traditional skills of a hands-on horticulturist and gardener have value and a place both in the private and public sectors. We have been employing gardeners recently and I think this will be apparent in how city parks and public realms are presented.

In terms of a Level 8 qualification, we are still getting excellent graduates from different sources and often with a number of courses completed. The horticultural element of their training is not what it might have been in the past, but perhaps that is the way of the future. Provided that the parks team has a complement of the necessary skills including horticulture, we will remain relevant to delivering on the key objectives of local authorities.

Can you provide some examples of how new ideas are being explored and experimented with in Dublin’s parks and green spaces?

Increasingly we are leaving railed parks open at night time as we have found that this reduces the level of anti-social activity. When gates are left open it is easy for the Gardai to enter at will and monitor the situation which would not be the case if gates were locked. In the recent past parks staff have been attacked when closing gates and asking people to leave, so this new practice also avoids that potential hazard. Any new parks such as Weaver Park, Cork Street and one planned for Bridgefoot Street are designed with no railings or gates.

How have perceptions of public horticulture and green space changed over the course of your career?

How would Dublin change if you were given carte blanche to fulfil your highest horticultural aspirations?

They are a core part of the green infrastructure of the city which is so Important from an environment and health and wellbeing perspective. Biodiversity is also key to what we do, both in the design and management of public realm. Whlle maintaining an excellent standard of maintenance of parks and public realms, our work is now much more focussed on improving the parks and their facilities for sport, play and recreation. A significant part of my team is engaged in project design and management.

If you look at the conservation plans we have published for Merrion Square and Mountjoy Square (and other historic parks) where improvements are underway, the new parks we are developing, the parks we are refurbishing and the greening of streets such as St Nicholas Street and High Street (at Christchurch), I think that we have set ourselves an ambitious programme that together with the employment of more gardeners will see the horticultural presentation of the city better than ever. ✽

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11 / EDUCATION

MEETING FUTURE NEEDS:

A VISION FOR HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION John Mulhern, principal of the College of Amenity Horticulture, National Botanic Gardens reports in from the recent Teagasc conference: Education Vision he need for land based education and training is going to intensify. That was the core message at the recent Teagasc conference - Education Vision – meeting future needs - which took place on 5 June in Kilkenny. Issues such as sustainability and climate change, smart technologies, changing consumer requirements and future policy direction all have profound implications for future knowledge and competence requirements. At production level, the pressure to be efficient, competitive and business oriented will intensify and further drive demand.

Speaking at the conference, Teagasc director Professor Gerry Boyle stressed that “The next generation of young farmers will need to break with traditional views and conventional wisdom to fully maximise the potential of their farm resources.”

Head of education in Teagasc, Tony Pettit stated that the future will see fewer, but better educated land based professionals. The Teagasc Education Vision consultation noted the existing strengths of Teagasc. Tony emphasised however that “Future Teagasc education pathways and curriculum content will need to enable learners to meet wider and deeper skillset requirements. While technical skills will always be crucial, personal skillsets such as problem solving, and learning to learn, will be of equal if not greater importance in the 21st century.’’Frank Murphy, Teagasc curriculum development and standards unit manager,outlined how the Teagasc education pathways are evolving. He highlighted that a Level 6 advanced certificate in agriculture should be the minimum qualification for entrants to the sector, with a Level 7 apprenticeship in farm management as the target Teagasc programme for future farm managers and owners. Alan Jagoe, a dairy / tillage farmer from County Cork and member of the Teagasc Authority, highlighted the issue of generational renewal as a major challenge for the land sector. He said, ‘‘Land mobility will be vital to sustaining the land sector but the land sector needs to able to offer attractive, viable career paths to attract new blood.’’

The 250 conference attendees also participated in seminars relating to professional development, learner work placement, gender diversity in land sector education and careers, and

JOHN MULHERN has worked with Teagasc for more than 17 years, primarily in an educational capacity. He is the current principal of the College of Amenity Horticulture, National Botanic Gardens, Dublin.

the implications arising from ‘smart agriculture’. Well known broadcaster and consultant Dr Maureen Gaffney reiterated the importance of fostering personal competence in agricultural education and the importance of internal farm family discussions on potentially sensitive issues such as succession.

In particular in relation to horticulture education, Teagasc will develop specialised training opportunities for specific horticulture sectors including commercial mushroom production, greenkeeping and sportsturf management.

Teagasc will also expand part time and blended education options for horticulture education and training. With an eye on future learning strategies and mechanisms, the teaching staff at the Botanic Gardens are currently working with a software company to develop a new digital platform to facilitate a more blended approach to learning. We would hope to pilot this with current modules next semester. The aim here is to be able to offer online based learning to a broader audience in a blended approach whereby learners can do the theory at a time of their choosing and the practical learning will be done on site in Teagasc Botanics or Ashtown research site.

Teagasc is also developing two horticulture apprenticeships as part of its education vision.

Apprenticeship is defined as a programme of structured education and training which formally combines and alternates learning in the workplace with learning in an education or training centre. It is a dual system of on-the-job training and off -the-job training. Key requirements for new national apprenticeships are that they: ● are industry led ● are at least two years duration ● contain a minimum of 50% on-the-job training ● prepare apprentices to work autonomously and

competently in a specific occupation ● involve a contract of apprenticeship ● provide a salary for the duration of the apprenticeship

(on-the-job and off-the-job).

Teagasc hopes to have two horticulture apprenticeships ready for enrolment with industry in September 2019.

The effectiveness of apprenticeship schemes in bringing young people into work is recognised by the EU Commission. The European Framework for Quality and Effective Apprenticeships (EU Commission, 2017) initiative to boost apprenticeships forms part of the EU New Skills Agenda for Europe, adopted by the Commission in 2016. The Commission views apprenticeships as strengthening ‘the link between education and the labour market’ and providing the ‘combination of technical, transversal and soft skills that employers are looking for'. ✽

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IN PICTURES / 12

PHOTOS: KORALEY NORTHEN

BLOOM IT TAKES A DIVERSE RANGE OF PEOPLE TO CREATE BLOOM IN THE PARK WHICH HAD OVER 119,000 VISITORS THIS YEAR. ABOVE: DOMINIC O'DONOHOE (SANCTUARY SYNTHETICS) LEFT: KEVIN HALPENNY & GEMMA CARR (FINGAL CO CO)

PETER O'BRIEN

MIKE KEEP (SHADY PLANTS)

PADDY O'NEILL, KIERAN DUNNE, WEIT RENTES, LARRY DORAN

PAUL MAHER, ANDREW WILSON, KAREN FOLEY (JUDGES)

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GARRETT BUCKLEY (BLOOM TEAM)

MIKE NEARY (BORD BIA)

NICOLA HAINES & RUAIRÍ Ó DÚLAING (DLR CO CO)

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

ROSS CAREW (ALCI)

12 / IN PICTURES

PHOTOS: KORALEY NORTHEN

BLOOM BUILD ABOVE: NURSERY - ORIGIN GREEN BUILDUP RIGHT: NURSERY - KELLS BAY GARDEN

OLIVER & LIAT SCHURMANN BUILDUP (LAURA O'MAHONY)

NIALL MAXWELL & MARINA ANDREEVA GARDEN BUILDUP (26 MAY 2018) (MARINA PLANTING)

DECLAN BLACKMORE (SUMERHILL LANDSCAPES) & ANDREW DOYLE (MINISTER OF STATE AT DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD & MARINE) LEFT: RACHEL DOYLE (ARBORETUM) & TÜNDE SZENTESI

MARK O'LOUGHLIN (SANCTUARY SYNTHETICS) & MARK & LOUISE GREGORY

CAROL MARKS & AILISH FORDE (BORD BIA) WITH MINISTER ANDREW DOYLE

EVENING@BLOOM

PHOTOS: JOSEPH BLAIR

BARRY KAVANAGH BUILDUP (26 MAY 18)

TARA McCARTHY (CEO BORD BIA)

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IN PICTURES / 12

PHOTOS: KORALEY NORTHEN

LAUNCH OF NEW RESEARCH FACILITIES AT TEAGASC ASHTOWN

THE HORTICULTURE COMMUNITY WAS OUT IN FORCE TO CELEBRATE THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF TEAGASC'S NEW RESEARCH FACILITIES AT ASHTOWN IN MAY. ABOVE: PROFESSOR GERRY BOYLE ON PODIUM LEFT: VAL FARRELL (IHNSA)WITH JIM O'MAHONY & JOHN MULHERN (TEAGASC)

ROSS MCMAHON (NAD) & EAMONN MAGUIRE (GREENTECH SPORTSTURF)

PADRAIG TULLY (TULLY NURSERIES); ANDREW DOYLE TD; PROF GERRY BOYLE (TEAGASC); MARTIN TULLY

MARY REILLY & JULIE CARROLL (TEAGASC) PHOTOS: JOSEPH BLAIR

BLOOM 2017 GARDEN - JOHN MULHERN, ANDREW BRESLIN, COLM NEILL, LOUISE JONES, PADDY SMITH

DR NOEL CAWLEY (TEAGASC CHAIRMAN) & GERRY BOYLE (TEAGASC DIRECTOR)

COLMAN WARDE (ICL) & NIALL DUNNE (UNICHEM)

BARRY DELANEY (DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE), DERMOT CALLAGHAN & PROFESSOR GERRY BOYLE (TEAGASC)

EAMONN KEHOE (TEAGASC)

13 / FRESH PRODUCE

DON’T TAKE SPUDS FOR GRANTED Lorcan Bourke, business analyst at Bord Bia reports on the 10th World Potato Congress, Peru May 2018

T

he 10th World Potato Congress was held in Cusco, Peru on 27 to 31 May 2018 with congress themes exploring biodiversity, food security and business. This congress is held every three years in a different host country across the planet.

Depending on the local hosting country, the themes of the event are usually set by the local country or region. Previous host countries in the past decade have been China, Scotland and New Zealand. Maybe some readers are wondering why you would even have such a congress for one crop.

Well, the answer lies in the fact that after wheat and rice, potatoes are the third most important crop providing food to humanity, and as such they are grown in almost every country on the planet. While more maize area is actually grown, the maize crop is not uniquely used to feed humans, with sizeable areas grown from both animal feed and bioethanol. Of course the other huge human interest in potatoes is their sustainability credential. It takes 100 times less water to grow them than rice, which has been particularly noted in Asia and parts of the planet being pressurised to sustain ever growing human populations. So here’s the large irony of this highly nutritious crop: it seems that the wealthier more developed your society becomes the more likely you will substitute potatoes with alternative carbohydrates and/ or you will switch from the healthier cooking formats of fresh potatoes to consuming them as crisps or chips. Any statistics I’ve reviewed on the matter in the past decade show increased

THE WORLD POTATO CONGRESS FLAG HANDOVER CEREMONY TOOK PLACE IN CUSCO, PERU WHEN JUAN JOSE RISI (VICE-MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION, PERU), PRESENTED THE WPC FLAG TO LIAM GLENNON, (CHAIRPERSON OF THE 2021 WORLD POTATO CONGRESS ORGANISING COMMITTEE) IN CUSCO, ON 29 MAY 2018

growing of potatoes in less developed countries to provide food, with a gradual decline in fresh potato consumption occurring in developed western economies.

But back to Cusco and the Irish interest. From 24 to 27 May 2021, Ireland will host the 11th World Potato Congress in Dublin. The Irish Potato Federation (representing Irish potato packers and merchants) succeeded in promoting Ireland as a suitable venue for this event in 2021, beating off contenders from the southern hemisphere and our Dutch neighbours. The Irish Potato Federation will be supported in the organisation of this event by Bord Bia and Teagasc horticultural teams and hence our presence at Cusco, to see how the Peruvians do it. With this mission two representatives from the IPF, three from Teagasc (Oak Park Potato Breeding programme), and myself representing Bord Bia attended the congress.

CUSCO AND PERU Many people asked me since my return, “What was it like out there?” and my consistent answer has been that as a country, Peru was like walking onto another planet in terms of everything being just so different. If one of the themes of the congress was biodiversity, we struck a rich vein of practical experience. It was my first experience of travelling in a developing country and I realised that the first thing that hits you is your own observation of human experience within the country. Cusco is the largest city in the Peruvian Andes, perched 3,500m above sea level. My hotel promotional literature boasted proudly of access to oxygen tanks and masks in reception, and they were there. Cusco for me seemed to be a ‘one stop shop’ of Peruvian Andean culture. The town itself was a model of Spanish architecture, with two major cathedrals dominating the town centre, at either side of six segments of a fabulously well-kept park with a fountain and a statue of an Inca

“Of course the other huge human interest in potatoes is their sustainability credential. It takes 100 times less water to grow them than rice”

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FRESH PRODUCE / 13

PICTURE 2. BARBARA JONES, (IRISH AMBASSADOR TO PERU, WITH IRISH DELEGATION ALONG WITH WPC AND INTERNATIONAL POTATO CENTRE PERSONNEL AT THE WORLD POTATO CONGRESS CUSCO, PERU. LORCAN BOURKE, (MANAGER FOR FRESH PRODUCE AND POTATOES IN BORD BIA) IS PICTURED ON THE FAR RIGHT OF THE PHOTO

warrior at its centre.

If a culture is to be judged by its gardening and ornamental space, this is a very rich culture indeed. My town walks in the following days would reveal this to be true as I found another town park or green open space was always around the corner. Markets and selling seemed to take place around these parks, but I was struck by how many times I saw groups of young teenagers under dance instruction. Dance and ritual seemed to be a constant pursuit of the locals. The parks were alive with people at all times with communities actively using them for various activities. One smaller park I saw which struck me was one that seemed dedicated to educating the townspeople on the names of the trees, shrubs and flowers of the region.

THE CONGRESS The congress opened on Sunday and went right through until the following Thursday.

The immediate thing to strike me was the onus on the host country to create interesting potato related content to engage delegates for five days. The delegates were from all over the world and included the top potato research scientists, knowledge transfer people, traders and merchants.

The whole reason for the congress being held in the Andes was that potatoes as a plant species had originated in this region. In my experience and reading of the situation, potatoes seem to fit one of two roles internationally. In many less developed countries they are grown as a highly valued nutritious carbohydrate to provide staple energy to the population. In more developed western societies fresh potatoes are reached for as a comfort food, an old friend but carrying a much more traditional cuisine association. In this role they are often much loved, but are forced to battle it out with the invasion of competition foods available in the modern day marketplace.

In Peru, they took on the former role, providing sustenance to a large part of the population in their everyday lives. My lasting memory of this conference will be many papers and research projects exploring the rich genetic heritage of potatoes in the Andes. With over 4,000 recorded LORCAN BOURKE is business varieties and analyst with Bord Bia. If types, of every you have any questions or shape and colour, comments on the content of Peru has to be the this feature you can contact genetic home of him at the potato. CIP, lorcan.bourke@bordbia.ie the international potato research body based in

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

Lima, undertakes much varietal research to support the cultivation of potatoes worldwide, releasing potato varieties of high genetic potential to the world. Over all days of the congress the three themes were visited time and again from many different angles. A clear picture emerged of a crop of huge potential to solve many of the planet’s increasing population problems and sustainability goals. The rapid adoption of the potato in China in particular is manifest to the crops’ merits to maximise food production with the least use of environmental resources.

Scientific papers were presented and information exchanged over the few days between many of the brightest minds on the planet, which is at the very core of the WPC. My main interest was in the papers discussing how to ‘position’ potatoes in the minds of modern consumers and how to bring them to life in an exciting (and delicious) ‘foodie’ way. A scientific field trip to a potato research station on the last day brought me into the heart of Inca culture. The research station was perched high up on Inca terraces going up the side of a long wide expansive mountain valley. Ice capped mountains reached up out of the surrounding valleys. The stone walls of these huge terraces seemed to provide a very real link between the past and the future of the potato in these lands.

About half the delegates were brought on a tour of this research station, while the other half visited Potato Park, which celebrates Peru’s cultural links with potatoes. The research station provided a fascinating whistle stop tour of 20 individual science based projects, where everything from frost tolerance to nutrient augmentation were being bred into new varieties.

Over the course of the five days, I met potato people from all over the world people who had dedicated their lives to solving world hunger, people who sought world domination of the processed crisps and chips markets. I met the top research scientists, potato growers, chefs and marketing people from every nation. My conclusion: we probably have the best food crop in the world available to us. It’s my job, and the job of every potato industry engaged person, to tell the people of Ireland, just what they actually have and never let them take potatoes for granted. ✽

14 / INSIGHT

CUT THROUGH THE BS Terry O’Regan examines some of the finer points of trees in relation to design, demolition and construction as captured in BS 5837:2012 PHOTO BYTERRY O'REGAN - ‘AN ALL TOO TYPICAL SCENE ON IRISH CONSTRUCTION SITES’

I

n my preceding article ‘What is a Tree?’ (Horticulture Connected, Spring 2018) I promised that I would elaborate on how to build on the resource that is BS 5837:2012 and also share some of my misgivings about the standard.

Before moving on to my elaboration and misgivings, I would first of all urge all of you to consider the dirty, wriggley, unseen, underground rooty bits in the thoughts called up by my simple ‘What is a tree?’ question. This is vital if we are to take BS 5837 seriously.

For those still in the dark, BS 5837:2012 covers trees in relation to design, demolition and construction.

Some years after I qualified with my degree in horticulture from UCD, I received a phone call from Leo Curran, my botany lecturer. He was interested to know what my thoughts were on my experience of the degree course in UCD. I told him that I thought the course lost sight of first principles far too early in the process. Experience in the real world had forced me time and again not to refer to the mass of data that had been churned out at me, but to go back to first principles for answers.

By the early 1990s as I began to realise that the day to day practice re landscape and landscaping in Ireland was a blundering fiasco, I saw the need for a clear policy and strategy approach. And again when I became engaged with the European Landscape Convention in the mid-1990s I saw the vital necessity of having a coherent structured approach to tackling serious issues. My subsequent work in SE Europe and Kosovo in particular reinforced my conviction that one must clearly set out one's stall at the start of any strategic document and keep the core objectives in mind at all times throughout the process.

“The planner who in the majority of Irish local authorities has no qualified tree professional to consult may all too easily be hoodwinked” In my experience, BS 5837:2012 does not stand up to scrutiny. It’s not a perfect publication, but it does potentially provide a common ‘hymn sheet’ for all involved in design, demolition, construction and development planning to sing from, and a basis for working together towards a better outcome for the present and future tree population.

With regard to working together, it is worth noting that the foreword to the standard states that BS 5837 “provides recommendations and guidance for arboriculturists, architects, builders, engineers and landscape architects. It is also expected to be of interest to land managers, contractors, planners, statutory undertakers, surveyors and all others interested in harmony between trees and development in its broadest sense.” That is reasonably all-embracing, if a bit limp and uncertain in tone. I would respectfully suggest that those who should turn to BS 5837 for recommendations and guidance should include all of those politely invited to find the standard ‘of interest’ especially the planners, statutory undertakers and surveyors.

British Standard 5837:2012, Trees in relation to design, demolition and construction – Recommendations is at

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INSIGHT / 14

“There is a temptation to cherrypick and rush to the handy bits that will make a planning submission sound good” 50 pages, not a large document. There is a temptation to cherry-pick and rush to the handy bits that will make a planning submission sound good. Place ‘In compliance with BS 5837:2012’ in a prominent location on the ‘landscape’ drawing, along with plenty of tree symbols. Add a few paragraphs under the heading ‘tree survey’ with references to root protection areas. Insert a statement somewhere that all existing healthy trees will be retained. Provide a tree protection plan with promised protective barriers indicated and illustrated. Whatever you do, don’t show any tree symbols on the services drawing where sewers, drains, kerbs and hard surfaces are probably slicing left and right through root protection areas.

The planner who in the majority of Irish local authorities has no qualified tree professional to consult may all too easily be hoodwinked – especially if they already have been told that BS 5837 may only be of interest for them!

THE STRENGTHS OF BS 5837:2012 I suggest that the standard is an important step forward in attempting to provide an integrated guide to the issue of trees in proximity to buildings and structures old and new.

I particularly like Figure 1 on page 2 entitled ‘The design and construction process and tree care’ where the tree survey is right up there at the beginning of the project with the topographical survey, and trees have an integrated role all through the subsequent process.

The clear guidance on the measurement of the root Protection Area (RPA) is an advance on the old ‘dripline’ guesstimate.

For me, the tree categorisation method and cascade chart is a qualified strength in that it does provide some sort of basis for a common categorisation approach.

THE WEAKNESSES OF BS 5837:2012 I have already described one weakness in the fourth paragraph above where I suggest that there is a lack of clarity and understanding about who the standard is aimed at. The ‘Terms and Definitions’ would appear to be on the short side, bearing in mind that the majority of the target audience that one would hope to reach has had little or no professional training on trees.

There isn’t even a definition of a tree.

The introduction fails to adequately set the scene for the standard. There is a reasonably useful section banished to Annex A, puzzlingly entitled ‘General advice for other interested parties’.

In my opinion this ‘hidden’ piece of text should be central to the introduction. And to prove my point, in my earlier article an excellent piece on the ‘Extent and form of the root system’ is shivering at the outer edge of Annex A – A.2.2 – the authors of the standard patently did not have much time for the dirty, wriggley bits. I’m very uneasy about table A.1 in Annex A where

48

it states, ‘Minimum distance between young trees or new planting and structure to avoid direct damage to a structure from future tree growth’. If there is one lesson I have learned over the past 50 or more years it is to think very carefully about where you plant a tree in relation to structures, be they walls, roads, paths or buildings. The said table provides a range of minimum distances that seem irresponsibly close in my experience. It is difficult to reconcile the advice in this table with the radii of RPAs in table D.1 on page 40.

I have noted that the RPA is a strength, but the standard fails to stress that this is the very minimum area that might reasonably be expected to secure the long term survival of a retained healthy tree. In fact much of the standard is dedicated to providing excuses for incursions into the RPA. I mentioned above that the tree categorisation method and cascade chart is a qualified strength. I also have to view it as a weakness as it results in reports that are not easy to read and comprehend.

The term ‘Construction Exclusion Zone’ in section 5.5 of the Tree Protection Plan rings bells with me and sounds off sirens in a manner that ‘Root Protection Area’ could never match.

Yet ‘Construction Exclusion Zone’ is not even a heading in bold in the document.

CONCLUSION I suggest that there is a strong case to be made for the players and stakeholders in the relevant sectors in Ireland to produce an Irish standard for trees in relation to design, demolition and construction using BS 5837 as a starting point, but my lifetime experience tells me that this will take many years. In the interim there is patently an urgent need for a continuing professional development programme to inform and train all players and stakeholders in the responsible application of BS 5837:2012. ✽

TERRY O’REGAN, B Agr Sc Hort (Hons), FILI, MIoH, founder of Landscape Alliance Ireland, has served the landscape industry in Ireland for some 45 years and advanced the intent and aims of the European Landscape Convention for some 20 years.

He now divides his time between providing landscape consultancy services in Munster and working as a Council of Europe international landscape and heritage expert in Kosovo. He continues to promote and refine his ‘jargon free’ landscape circle methodology and is currently leading a pilot study on its use at local and regional administrative levels in Kosovo.

The LAI website will shortly be relaunched as www.lai-ireland.com. Contact Terry at terryjoregan@gmail.com or 021 487 1460.

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

© CONVISUM/123RF

14 / INSIGHT

SWARDFIGHT We’re using a lot more artificial grass than we used to. It’s on pitches, playgrounds, balconies, rooftops, gardens, road verges and everywhere in between. It’s a phenomenon and the jury is out on whether it’s a good thing or not. To help articulate this debate in public we decided to invite two wellknown and vocal garden professionals to share their side of the story.

Many thanks to Mark and Eugene for sharing their insights. We’ll be picking this debate up online afterwards, so keep an eye on horticultureConnected.ie.

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INSIGHT / 14 NOT SO FAKE NEWS Mark O’Loughlin, owner and operator of Sanctuary Synthetics, presents his perspective on why using synthetic grass may well be a sustainable option for the future.

"In my 17 years importing and installing synthetic grass, I’ve never tried to change anyone’s mind. In our marketing I bring its existence to people’s attention, lay out the benefits and let people vote with their feet. Fear not, concerned readers; of the 270,000 households in our Republic, we’ve only converted about 5,000 which leaves plenty left to go.

I should mention, we’ve transformed the grass for another couple of thousand trade customers including hotels, pubs, balconies, graves, and a few hundred national schools and crèches. Oh, and don’t let me forget the 24m2 we donated to Mayo mountain rescue team, which is installed half way up Croagh Patrick. A popular picnic spot when not a fi rst aid station, I’m told.

OK, so it’s plastic versus grass. I get it. But as our tagline says, 'No more muck, no more mowing, no more maintenance.' Well, very little maintenance, comparatively speaking. Think about that for a minute. No more 40 hours needed per annum with a petrol mower, giving off higher CO2 emissions than cars. No more no catalytic converters needed.

No rotten smelly cuttings dumped behind the shrubs or stewing in the wheelie bin. No pesticides required. Glyphosate anyone? No fertilisers required. And no floor cleaners either.

That’s a significant reduction in chemical use and pollution over the lifespan of a lawn.

I can hear you shouting at the page, "Mark, c’mon, it’s fake."

Indeed it is, but its appearance is continually improving. My Dutch suppliers - remember they will be first to be flooded when global warming kicks in, dykes notwithstanding - have an impressively lean and waste free manufacturing process.

"Yeah, but Mark, it’s fake, it’s not a natural thing like grass.”

Hmmm, a natural lawn? Now there’s an oxymoron. The beloved natural lawn is not natural at all. It’s a high maintenance, wasteful, energy and chemical hungry monoculture whose genesis lies in expressions of power and wealth over nature.

Something which filtered through the English Parks Movement and into the psyche of the European populous and beyond.

Lawns are the default garden element, an unnatural and labour intensive affliction. A natural lawn is a meadow.

I will make a concession; artificial grass is not biodegradable. No surprises there. But why single artificial grass out? Take a close look at modern gardens…the steel, the concrete, the reconstituted paving, the tarmac, the resin bound gravel, the pressure treated, chemical laden timbers.

MARK O’LOUGHLIN, can be contacted at his office on 045 901 970, on his mobile at 086 833 3255 or via email at mark@sanctuarysynthetics.ie.

You can also contact him through his website at www.sanctuarysynthetics.ie and also on FaceBook at www.facebook.com/sanctuarysynthetics

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Beyond the muck and the plants, very little is biodegradable, and unlike many modern artificial grasses, they’re not even recyclable. As technology improves, all artificial grass will be recyclable. More on that later.

In an ideal world we’d all be living some contemporary version of the Good Life, producing our own food and living harmoniously with our environment. We don’t live in an ideal world. We live increasingly busy lives, are time poor and have ever smaller houses with shrinking gardens. Mow the lawn?

Ha, you’d be lucky to have space for one let alone the time to mow it. By the time the average homeowner flops onto their couch at the end of the week – before they are called to do kids’ drop off s, organise parties, sports events and countless other free time demands – they have no energy or inclination to mow the lawn. For most it’s easier to draw the curtains and turn their backs on the garden. From this perspective, It could be argued that lawns discourage garden use, their endlessly demanding nature a cause of resentment. We take the demands away, allowing our customers to enjoy their gardens without the hassle. I’m always amazed how many of our customers really get into gardening once the onerous mowing tasks are removed. On that note, it has been interesting to see how Bloom designers are increasingly using artificial grass in combination with excellent planting.

Yes, its fake but it’s encouraging a whole new generation of people to use their gardens.

Please be aware I’m not defending Astro turf. We specialise in next generation multi-play surfaces and non-infill landscape grasses (the ones that don’t use rubber granules). I’ve always had reservations about rubber granules but that’s a debate for another day. We waste nothing. Offcuts become grave or balcony coverings. Smaller pieces become hairy green door or car mats, or samples. The rest is donated to and snapped up by Recreate Ireland to be recycled by kids and artists for arts and crafts.

I’m sure Eugene has spotted that artificial grass is a single use plastic. A by-product of the oil refining process, it is extruded onto spools of thread and woven into rolls of grass by the same machines that make carpets. Regrettably it is currently difficult to recycle. However, our grasses last twice as long as a typical Astro turf pitch, on average 20-25 years.

After that, it’s landfill. But several manufacturers have come up with grasses that are both recycled (minimum 90%) and recyclable. They are currently at a premium price. We’ve tried promoting this but so far with limited success. I think it needs government action to encourage uptake.

Meanwhile, I sleep quite soundly at night. Before sitting down to write this piece I leafed through our ‘book of testimonials’. The gratitude and satisfaction of past customers and their happy children are affirmation and motivation enough for me. Why not come to Grassland, our Naas HQ, and see for yourself?" ✽

“Beyond the muck and the plants, very little is biodegradable, and unlike many modern artificial grasses, they’re not even recyclable”

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2018

14 / INSIGHT THE TRUTH, NATURALLY Eugene Higgins explains why we need to turn our backs on plastic grass and embrace what comes naturally. "When I started out in landscaping in 2000, I wanted to trade under a name that would define my desire to take a more modern approach to gardening. I needed a simple phrase that would sum up the ethos of what I was about, and so Colour Green was born, a simple, short trading name and for me, a moral guideline too. I applied simple rules: no weedkiller where possible, less chemical based products, a no-no to slug pellets, and most importantly no plastic in the gardens I designed Synthetic grass was not something I ever envisaged as being part of the typical garden. For me, gardens are oases, where people and nature thrive. The idea of introducing an artificial version of grass is a garden crime of biblical proportions. The original concept of artificial grass was first devised in the early 1950s and was brought to the market by the Chemstrand Company. Interestingly, it changed name to Monsanto, and let’s face it, there are a few folks out there who see that company as having its own biblical connotations. The Ford Foundation also got involved. They had admirable aspirations in the 1960s to create year-round urban recreational zones that would allow children to play on more gentle surfaces than Tarmac and concrete. The crowning glory of this process was in 1966 when when the AstroTurf Dome in Houston USA was opened.

The future of this concept was bright and looked brilliantly futuristic, but we were naive. However, as we know, both time and reflection bring wisdom, and now plastic in all its forms is finally being recognised as a potential cause for ecological collapse. As a society, we have finally woken up and are now realising how the the fragile habitat we share with nature is being poisoned, strangled or choked into destruction. Our reckless disregard for the place we live in and for future generations is catching up with us.

Artificial grass is just part of this Doomsday story, but it’s a significant part. Synthetic grass may look and feel like the real thing. Some people simply can’t get past the fact that it’s plastic based. It is hailed by those who advocate it for for its water-saving benefits, but artificial turf has its own environmental drawbacks. It is a petroleum-based product that creates pollution and waste in the manufacturing process. And, while it is often made partially with recycled materials, it is not biodegradable. The vast majority of artificial grass will end up in landfill after its expected lifespan of 15-20 years. I use the word ‘expected’ because most materials used in the humid climate of Ireland rarely last as long as they should. I noticed a huge amount of actual grass poking up through an artificial lawn recently. That may have been down to poor installation but it speaks to its performance in Ireland. Secretly, I was delighted.

Critics point to synthetic turf as an environmental heater.

It absorbs heat and feels hot to the touch in direct sun. Pet owners give synthetic grass mixed reviews. It does not absorb animal waste, but is permeable so liquids pass through to the ground underneath. Some suppliers have reported a surge in business in recent years, with one company seeing a year-onyear increase of 50% since 2010. If this trend continues then there is a serious threat to the country’s wildlife that relies on gardens as a valuable food source.

Artificial grass provides no benefit to wildlife. Experts say

its popularity will only increase the decline in bird, insect and mammal populations across the country. Reflect on that when you make your next lawn choice. Grass lawns also matter in terms of the greenhouse effect. Plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. If you remove lawns, then you remove a significant carbon sink and oxygen producer. It’s negative for the environment no matter what way you cut it, or install it for that matter. Tim Rumball, editor of Amateur Gardening magazine has been quoted as saying, “This trend could even affect the atmosphere, as plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and a lack of natural grassland could affect the carbon levels in the atmosphere.”

Remember, when grass grows longer it attracts insects. If you have an artificial lawn these insects will be depleted and the whole of the food network will be affected, especially birds that rely on insects for their diet. Natural lawns also provide an interface between the atmosphere and the rhizosphere.

Covering over the ground slowly chokes the soil beneath.

Although it is typically designed to allow water to percolate through, because there is no root action the materials below often become compacted, leaving water to be displaced. You will find bees burrowing into natural lawns, which are a mix of grass seeds. Other insects will be in there too, and also worms which are incredibly important in terms of the ability of the soil to absorb nutrients and keep it structured, so that when you have heavy rain or drought you have a soil system which can cope. In an increasingly hard landscaped world, every bit of green is vital. To hand over our lawns is an abomination. An affront to nature from its own custodians.

Did you ever lift up a piece of grass and read the ingredients? No, of course not. Me neither. I do suggest you read the ingredients of artificial grass before you propose to use it. The padding is often made of recycled tyres, which keeps them out of landfill, but the petroleum-based artificial grass materials are complex chemical creations, the products of intensive and energy hungry manufacturing processes Finally, I’d like you to consider Amy Griffin, a college soccer coach in Seattle, who sparked a national conversation in the USA with her suspicions about the number of current and former soccer goalkeepers who had developed blood and other rare cancers. She points to all the goalkeepers that have played on artificial grass infilled with recycled rubber tyre crumbs, and to the fact that the recycled rubber tyres in question, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, can contain heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon black and other known cancer-causing chemicals.

My message to Ireland’s landscapers, gardeners and specifiers is to really consider the options. The people who will feel the impact of your decisions the most are the next generation." ✽ EUGENE HIGGINS is a garden writer and broadcaster. His CV includes The Mail on Sunday, Newstalk, The Afternoon Show, BBC's Room For Improvement and ITV’s 'Glorious Gardens. He is currently developing Garden Café, a radio programme he describes as the Top Gear type experience for gardeners.

Email: eugezne@colourgreen.ie; www.eugenehiggins.ie

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51

RESEARCH / 15

PLANT GROWTH PROMOTING BACTERIA

– THE FUTURE OF HORTICULTURE?

P

lant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPB) are free-living microbes that form specific symbiotic relationships with plants or can colonise tissues of plants. These types of bacteria are of particular interest to those in the horticultural and amenity and leisure sectors as they offer a viable and environmentally friendly alternative to pesticides.

This is of increasing relevance in the context of tightening EU policies and regulations which emphasise the need to reduce the use of chemicals in the environment. For example, Ireland revoked the license of 187 products between 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2018 and the EU, under Regulation (EC) No. 1107/2009, compiled a list of substances, presently 77 in number, identified as candidates for substitution. Other legislative measures include Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the Framework Directive on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides. These legislative measures give a specific status to non-chemicals and natural remedies and require them to be given priority wherever possible.

Understandably the interest in developing PGPB products for agricultural, horticultural and amenity uses has seen the establishment of a large number of research groups working on PGPB. It has been demonstrated that microbes have several advantages over artificial chemicals, in that they: ● are environmentally friendly renewable sources of nutrients and phytohormones; ● restore soil fertility ultimately improving plant health;

Dr Karen O’Hanlon, chief scientific officer at nadicom GmbH, shares findings from recently completed research which points to the potential of bacteria as a replacement for pesticides

However, the main resistance to the use of these microbes is the historic reliance on chemicals in monoculture patterned farming and the expectation of immediate effects which are often shown when using chemicals.

SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS Some strains of PGPB that have been used in an agricultural context and the specific benefits observed include: PSEUDOMONAS SPP. These provide more effective growth of the shoot, seeds and produces higher yields. They also provide effective metal sequestering and protect the plant against the toxic nature of cadmium.

● are safe for use by horticultural workers and amenity

users; and ● in addition to fighting disease, they can also alleviate

abiotic stresses.

52

BACILLUS SPP. These encourage antifungal activity towards Fusarium, auxin production, cytokinin production, phosphate solubilisation, and

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15 / RESEARCH produce siderophores, a more effective promotion of plant development when combined with nitrogen fixing rhizobia.

DR KAREN O’HANLON is the chief scientific officer at nadicom GmbH. She is responsible for carrying out the field trials using different rhizo power products across Europe. Karen previously worked as an ecotoxicologist in the Department of Agriculture and prior to this worked in the research field of microbiology and molecular biology for many years.

Contact details: Karen.ohanlon@nadicom.de Telephone: 087-9816569.

RHIZOBIA SPP. These enhance nitrogen fixation, siderophore formation, phytohormone production, indirectly promote growth, enhance biocontrol of pathogens and induce plant resistance.

AZOTOBACTER SPP. These bacteria utilise atmospheric nitrogen for their cell protein synthesis. This cell protein is then mineralised in soil after the death of Azotobacter cells, thereby contributing towards the nitrogen available to the crop.

Trials carried out using PGPB isolated from different soils in Ireland, containing Bacillus and Pseudomonas, treated onto vegetables, resulted in faster germination, bigger tap root formation and greener plants (more chlorophyll). Vegetable crops and grass were noticeably quicker at germination and vegetable crops were two to three days ahead in growth at four weeks compared to their untreated equivalent. This would be a key benefit in the context of grass production as it would result in less weed establishment at early growth stages. Tomatoes showed a 12% increase in soluble solids when PGPB were added to the crop. Below ground colonisation by Pseudomonas fluorescens also resulted in above ground heightened resistance to Fusarium. Bacillus subtilis was shown to be effective against the fungal disease chocolate spot. The application of PGPB in field trials also resulted in the attraction of beneficial fungi such as mycorrhiza which further benefits soil plant interactions.

The use of microbes as bio-stimulants, growth promoters,

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biocides, soil enhancers, enrichers and boosters is increasing due to their enhanced growth benefits and abilities to fight disease. Their importance within the horticulture and amenity industries will also strongly increase due to political and public pressure.

For the future, researchers have sufficient information on many PGPB and substantial libraries of bacterial and fungal strains, allowing for the substitution of different PGPB depending on plant and soil types. The biological properties of PGPB are currently being utilised to fight disease and to improve the quality of marginal and overused land. Biochar, compost and horn-meal are used as a sorbent for PGPB and are being sold in garden centres across Europe for use as a combined fertiliser. ✽

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