2021 AUSTRALIAN HORTICULTURAL TRIALS WEEK RECAP

2021 AUSTRALIAN HORTICULTURAL TRIALS WEEK

7 – 10 DECEMBER DECEMBER

PRESENTED BY

A look back at the 2021 Australian Horticultural Trials Week

For four wonderful days in December, NGIV, Australia’s top breeders, growers and allied businesses, delivered the 2021 Australian Horticultural Trials Week presented by Powerplants. This year’s Horticultural Trials Week took place between 7 – 10 December.

“The general sentiment was that the 2021 Australian Horticultural Trials Week was a great week and visitor numbers were certainly u on last year. There were some beautiful exhibits, stunning new plant lines, and whilst the weather wasn’t always as bright as the flowers, it didn’t stop the visitors from enjoying the exhibits,” says Craig Taberner, CEO, Nursery & Garden Industry Victoria (NGIV)

The week started off as it traditionally does with a very busy NGIV Trade Day on Tuesday. Trials Week got off to a great start with guest of honour, The Hon. Mary-Anne Thomas MP, Minister for Agriculture and Regional Development, cutting the ribbon at Ball Australia to officially open the event.

The next generation of horticulturalists, studying at Swinburne, were treated to educational tours of exhibitor sites. And industry members enjoyed the opportunity to relax and socialise at the Wednesday Trials Week Celebration Dinner, sponsored by Garden City Plastics.

Having adapted their offering for Trials Week 2020 to accommodate travel restrictions for interstate visitors, exhibitors were well prepared to deliver a range of digital experiences for interstate parties that did not wish to travel. Video tours and live presentations were deployed to ensure everyone could enjoy this year’s event.

Ball Australia

Ball Australia knew that trials this year would require the same protocols and diligence as in 2020. Not wanting to let customers down, it was front of mind for the team who pull our Trials Week together, to make sure customers were exposed to a maximum collection of new varieties and choices that wouldn’t disappoint.

‘You Can’t Stop the Flowers’ was the theme being re-enforced and Ball was conscious that despite the last two years of restricted visitations, customers would see ‘Colour’ as the standout for this year’s Ball Grower Trials.

Again, virtual on-line visitations gave interstate customers a front row seat of what was on display, focusing particularly on the ‘What’s New’ collection. Several new releases: Begonia ‘Megawatt – White Green Leaf’, Heucheras in six colours and Coleus ‘Spitfire’, all added great interest.

Two strong performing petunias with outstanding colour appeal: Petunia ‘Circus Sky’; a vibrant-rich pink with white speckles giving the flowers a celestial appearance and Petunia ‘Bee’s Knees’; a refreshing, bold, look at me yellow, will delight home gardeners in spring 2022.

The Coleus ‘Heartbreaker’ was used as a central display making up a Christmas tree and was a constant talking point, with customers impressed with seeing a product used in a different, creative way.

Minister Thomas breaking ground with Carl Van Loon, Director of Powerplants, watching on

To make information quickly accessible for customers, whether they were on site or online, Kate Grant, Ball Australia’s Marketing Manager said, ‘we wanted to promote a more sustainable and responsive way for customers to access and download key product information, so QR codes that linked to corresponding information flyers were displayed throughout the trials. Customers could access key information in a timelier manner’, she said. ‘Our new release; Calibrachoa ‘Starjump Hot Pink’ that was included in our ‘What’s New’ catalogue was a great hit and the QR codes allowed customers to know all they needed to know quickly.’

External garden bed layouts were changed up, planting some staple varieties in different locations to previous years, which allowed customers to see performance and how well the pants managed in a different position.

“We had a great week”, said Tony Collins, Ball Australia’s National Sales and Marketing Manager. “Despite the usual all-weather conditions, we were very pleased with the quality of this year’s displays. The response from our customers was terrific, taking the time to step away from their businesses and experience all the colour and excitement of BGT21.”

Greenhill’s Propagation Nursery

“We have had a very positive response from our customers on the new products showcased at PlantFest 2021.This year PlantFest was completely virtual. We had put so much effort into reducing our risk of COVID impacting our team and business that we thought opening up for visitors could undermine that hard work, and it was decided early to focus our efforts into a virtual presentation,” explained Leah Harrison, Director at Greenhill’s Propagation Nursery.

“We spent the week hosting online meetings where we shared our presentation with our customers and their teams and had conversations about the product just like we would in person. It was really encouraging to see so many businesses include team members in the virtual presentation that would not normally visit on site. There is nothing better than seeing, touching and feeling the plants in person but this was a fantastic alternative while COVID was a concern and most states still having travel restrictions in place.”

A group of horticulture students from Swinburne enjoying AHT21. u

REVEALED

NGIV are delighted to announce that REVEALED will be continuing at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show in 2022. Limited opportunities for members to exhibit new plants and products are available. For more information contact Lizzie Earl at NGIV on 9576 0599 or lizzie@ngiv.com.au.

“Having such a varied offering and a good mix of succulents, natives, exotics and perennials it’s hard to choose a standout plant as we had good interest across the board. But the Sempervivum SuperSemp ONYX which boasts large 20cm single rosettes in as little as 20 weeks, and the SuperSemp Onyx which creates a stunning geometric shape 5cm high x 20cm wide and boasts a stunning dark mahogany/black colour, were both big hits.”

“And Chorizema Fire Sticks. A brilliant, compact selection that presents very nicely in a pot. Large sprays of bright orange and hot pink flowers from mid-winter through spring and into summer. Full sun to part shade. 1m x 1m.”

Haars Nursery

Haars Nursery delighted guests with an outstanding showcase of their latest plant lines. Throughout the week they established many new connections, providing tours to retail, wholesaler and landscape customers, including some new faces not already in their direct network.

For those interstate parties who were unable to travel, Haars created a suite of video presentations, live digital tours and product catalogues, to ensure nobody missed out on their exhibits.

They also used Trials Week as an opportunity to educate and inspire their whole team, exposing them to new areas of plant genetics.

Two genus which were particularly drew people’s attention, included the new Kalanchoe Bi-colours and both the Dahlia Maggiore and Piccolo collections.

JD Propagation and Super Starters

“We always look forward to trials week at JD Propagation and Super Starters as it allows us to showcase our product lines and see new additions,” enthused Bobby Birch, Super Starters.

“Online Zoom meetings were in full swing and a great way to present our products to those that unfortunately could not attend. We also found we were able to spend quality time with those that did visit our Nursery for a guided tour. It is always good to catch-up with the usual crew, but this year we noticed many new faces seeing what we had to offer.”

“This years ‘Kaleidoscope of colour’ was exactly that! We had more on show and more colour than ever before. To see our new WOW plants grown out was fantastic with Rudbeckia’s, Echinacea’s and the curious Trifolium ‘Luck Red Stripes’ attracting plenty of interest. The new Dahlia Sincerity Rose Bicolour got plenty of positive feedback. But the showstopper was our Lavender Pink Queen sitting high on her thrown in full bloom.”

“Overall Trials Week is a very important event for the horticultural industry and one that we are honoured to be a part of.”

Majestic Young Plants

“Our Trials Week 2021 was held online due to the uncertainty of restrictions. We used this opportunity to present our newly introduced and upcoming products virtually via the Majestic and Australian Horticultural Trials Week websites.

We had showcased some of the high value, rare varieties that we have been recently bringing into production. We also presented a ‘Selections’ range for Succulents, Caladiums and Ozbreed products. Our standouts were the Succulent Selections and the Alocasia Azlanii,” explained Halil Sahingoz, Tissue Culture Coordinator at Majestic Young Plants

“As we continually expand our business, part of our focus is to build trusted relationships with new suppliers and breeders, while strengthening existing ones. We will strive to keep introducing unique high-value and common varieties to our product range, allowing both our Australian and international customers to stay ahead of the trend.”

Mansfield’s Propagation Nursery

“This year our numbers were up on 2020 and it was nice to see some new faces visit our exhibit,” says Julie Graham, Sales Account Manager & Marketing Coordinator at Mansfield’s Propagation Nursery.

“We tried to create a much more open exhibit this year that allowed visitors to slowly enjoy the different displays throughout our gardens.”

“We had displays featuring plants from Austraflora, Ozbreed, INSTYLE Succulents, Rootstock Services, Aloe-Aloe and for the first time we invited visitors to view a Tissue Culture Australia exhibit of plants produced from our tissue culture lab.

One of the standout plant lines with our visitors were the Mandevilla All Seasons Pink (PBR int.) and Mandevilla All Seasons Red (PBR int.).”

“It was lovely to open our doors to a group of horticulture students from Swinburne and gardening groups, it’s such a great learning experience for them and we take a lot of pride in sharing what we do with them.”

“Overall, we were delighted with AHT21 and we’re looking forward to an even bigger and better exhibit this year.”

Powerplants (Presenting Partner)

“Powerplants has a strong affinity with Trials Week as an event that centres around progress and innovation within the Horticultural Industry. We were proud to see a strong number of Powerplants customers represented in the Plant Exhibitors for the event, which included Ball Australia, Haars Nursery, JD Propagation, Majestic Young Plants, Mansfield’s Propagation Nursery and Touch of Class Plants,” said Simon Gomme, Director of Power Plants.

“As always, AHT was a highlight in the horticultural calendar and a wonderful opportunity to network with old and new friends from across the country. Bring on Hort Trials 2022!”

Looking ahead to 2022

“Exhibitors are really embracing digital content and appointments as a means of allowing all visitors to experience Trials Week,” says Craig from NGIV, “If Covid has taught us anything it’s the need to adapt our offerings and I have no doubt that increased digital scope has benefitted Trials Week, making it accessible to even more, and will continue to play a significant role in future Trials Weeks.”

“I was also thrilled to hear how many exhibitors are increasingly using Trials Week as a means to develop team knowledge and culture. I see that as something which is becoming part of the Trials experience. There’s a lot of work that goes into creating these stunning displays and it’s a real team effort and a lot of pride in the end results.”

“I’m hoping that this year Trials Week takes place in an environment which isn’t impacted by Covid, with all exhibitors having the confidence to open their doors and commit to some stunning displays. I’d like to thank all exhibitors and visitors to AHT 2021 for another fantastic Trials Week.”

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