IPM Essen

The following guest post is from Phillip Townshend, global operations director for Tesselaar Plants. As Phillip continues to travel around the world, checking out the latest in plants and garden products at horticultural trade shows, he sends in these occasional reports (which either make me jealous because of all the cool plants he's getting to see or jealous because of all the tropical weather he's experiencing). This time, since he's traveling to IPM Essen – one of the world's largest international plant trade shows held in Germany, which has about the same cold weather as where I live in Rochester, NY – I only get to be jealous of the plants. But of course, before he left, he had to tease me about enjoying all that sun and heat in Miami:

Well, it's 2011 already – heading off to Essen again.

It seems like barely 12 months since my last blog about heading off to the Essen show, and as you have no doubt seen in the news, this year has been a little easier to depart Australia given the horrific floods we have had recently. These floods, of course, come on the back of 13 years of drought in Australia. As the old adage goes" "It never rains, it pours …"

Seriously though, there are multiple charities looking for donations to support the victims of the floods, some who only recently had rebuilt their houses after devastating bush fires in Australia.

To give you some impression that despite all of these challenges how much we love our part of the world, I thought I would include an excerpt from a poem about Australia communicating the challenges, yet beauty, of the place we live:

"My Country" by Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968)

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Anyway, it is that time of year again when I have to tear myself away from summer in Australia to visit the cold of the Northern Hemisphere. Fortunately, this year I have been able to ease into the transition by visiting Miami (to attend the Lowes Perennial Council meetings at Costa Farms), where I must say the weather is fantastic at this time of year (see pictures below from the Costa Facility in Miami, where they put on a great show and hosted all attendees to a level where none of us wanted to leave – especially those heading to colder climates, where they have what I like to call the “white torture” (snow)).

As you can imagine, no one can visit Miami without going to see the magnificent sights of South Beach, and after 34-plus hours of traveling, I was not disappointed to arrive and find that there was a classic car show (a passion of mine). The phenomenal weather also made visiting a delight, as did the fantastic Art Deco buildings that always are a sight to see, either during the day or at night when the neon is fantastic:

Note: Should anyone in the Miami region require the services of a highly skilled (and some say witty and attractive with a devil-may-care attitude – although none that I have heard) operations director for a horticultural company – all offers will be considered. Qualifications include cigar afficiando, mojito appreciator and a dress sense that fits with the linen pants and loud shirts of Versace.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Despite the cold conditions, I am looking forward to attending IPM Essen again this year to see what’s new in horticulture and the cutting edge trends in the industry. I will blog some thoughts on what I see that captures my imagination  and attention on arrival.

 -Phillip

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.