IPM Essen

Today’s guest post comes from Phillip Townshend, Global Operations Director for Tesselaar Plants. Phillip lives and works in Australia:

Last month, Rod Thorpe (CEO of Tesselaar) and I undertook our annual pilgrimage to Germany’s IPM Essen, one of the largest horticultural trade shows in the world and the venue where new products and design trends are previewed for the horticultural industry.

Usually, attending this show (whilst incredible from a design and innovation point of view) is something of a challenge for us southern hemisphere dwellers. We are coming off our summer holidays in Australia and have been enjoying the sun, sand and surf along with time with the family that’s especially well-deserved, since our business has us travelling for up to five months each year.

It can be hard to build the motivation to visit the bitter cold winter that accompanies this show, but the experience of past years and the fantastic plants and design features keep us coming back.

I am pleased to report that this year was no different, with 1,511 exhibitors from 43 countries presenting their innovations, products and services to the international trade public across approximately 110,000 square meters in 16 adjacent exhibition halls.

Over 57,000 visitors from all over the world attended the show.

For me, the highlights are always the fantastic floral displays and the quality of the plant presentation. For Tesselaar as an organization, participating as an exhibitor and talking to our peers keeps us at the cutting edge of the horticultural industry and abreast of new developments and design influences.

Attached are some quick snapshots taken during our time walking the halls, As always, the creative elements in design and presentation continue to inspire and leave me wondering, "Why don’t my plants look like that, and how is it I never think to mix those colors?" At least the questions in my mind support my wife’s comments each day whilst I am trying to match ties to shirts that I "should leave the design and color matching to the professionals."

  

Note: I loved the Princettia display and took this image for my seven-year-old daughter who is still very much a ‘Princess’ and would love a setting like this:
  

Here’s a display featuring the tropical flower anthurium:

And here,a green and pink, spring-inspired display:

And moving on to summer, here’s a water-wise collection of  succulents:

And back to winter - a lovely Christmas centerpiece!

As always, despite the bitter cold, I left this show looking forward to next year’s event and inspired to further attempt to improve my garden.