France’s great garden trade fair – Salon du Vegetal

Yesterday we drove to Angers for the Salon du Végétal, the massive annual exhibition for the garden industry. Unlike many similar trade shows in the UK, plants are particularly strongly represented by a large proportion of the 600 exhibitors. Around a quarter of them where from outside France – 13 countries in all – but sadly UK nurserymen were very thin on the ground: I spotted just three – David Austin Roses, who had French staff on the stand and were clearly open for business, Fairweathers Nursery (for liners and Agapanthus) and Whetman Pinks, who are also very active in France. It’s a pity because France is a very large market for garden products and their retail prices are higher than in the UK. On the other hand there were 50 Spanish exhibitors, 34 came from Belgium, with Italy and Holland each sending around 30.

A slipper orchid from the Garden Orchids range: Cypripedium regina

Around 15,000 trade buyers from 13 countries attend the three day event but again, Brits were remarkably absent ( I was told by the staff on one stand that they had chatted to Paul Rochford but disappointingly we did not meet up ). Still, I enjoyed myself looking at new plants on the market and making contact with a number of useful potential suppliers of plants and landscape materials. The highlight of my plant discoveries was found on the stand of Anthura, a Dutch company specialising in Phalaenopsis orchids, Anthuriums and hardy Cypripedium orchids. I had spotted Garden Orchids on their stand last year, but now they have really got their act together with superb packaging, I am sure they will be a best seller Europe-wide. Lady Slipper Orchid – Cypripedium calceolus – is one of Britain’s rarest flowers with only a couple of known clumps. I am now the proud owner of a number of plants of Cypripedium kentuckiense or Kentucky Lady’s Slipper, a less rare but stunningly beautiful American species and I shall be reporting on their progress throughout the season. Nights here in central France are down to -3°C at the moment, with clear, sunny days reaching around 13°C, so although they are said to be hardy down to -20°C I am taking no chances: for the time being they are staying under protection in their pots. The company offers five species of Slipper Orchid and I was told they have another 100,000 Kentucky back at the nursery – more than are said to exist in the wild.

Part of the Plant Planet stand

Another intriguing stand was that of Plant Planet. Their idea is to take plants threatened with extinction in the wild and popularise them to ensure their survival. To this end they use micropropagation techniques to create large numbers of plants, and amusing marketing campaigns to get them known by the widest possible clientele. Their range includes Red List plants like the Hawaiian Palm, Brighamia insignis, Gloxinia-like Sinningia leucotrichia (named Puppy Ears for its silky foliage), Euphotbia milii ‘Lucky Eight’ , Calathea ‘Network’ (a part which apparently thrives in the darkest corners of a house) and Sansevieria ‘Friends’, voted Student Plant of the Year for its indestructability.

Horticulture shows and wild February weather in France

February has been a wild switchback ride for gardeners in France this year. The month started off spring-like and I was nervously reporting the early flowering and growth of many of our plants. Then the cold weather hit us and temperatures plummeted to below -20C, hovering there for a fortnight. This damaged many plants, as can be plainly seen now that frost-free nights and warm sunny days have replaced the biting cold. It’s far too early to panic, but I am sure some of my choicest young plants will be lost.

Salon du Vegital show, Angers 2012

Amazingly, after floods in the south of the country at the end of the year, we now told that we are already in the middle of a drought, the likes of which have not been seen for decades. President Sarkozy has announced €1 billion of support for suffering farmers and growers after similar problems last year. With the French presidential elections to be held in nine weeks’ time, Sarkozy and all the presidential hopefuls have been at the Agricultural Fair in Paris this week. The exhibition is huge and attracts around 650,000 visitors annually – around 5 times more than the UK’s Smithfield Show – an illustration of just how important agriculture and horticulture is to the French people. Despite job losses there is a desperate need for staff in the industry; eight per cent of French voters work directly in the sector, with many more involved in the supporting industries, so it is still very important both socially and economically.

Gardenia augusta 'Crown Jewel'

We have recently returned from our visit to an important horticultural show in Angers, as noted in my last post. My main interest was in meeting growers and seeing what new varieties they were offering; I was not disappointed and have promised to spend much more time at the event next year. Many new varieties come to the market through the SAPHO organisation, which protects and distributes plants to propagators, who in turn supply the wholesale growers who grow the plants for garden centres and other outlets. We were excited about a number of their varieties, including a hardy Gardenia, best known as a scented houseplant. Gardenia augusta ‘Crown Jewel’ may not be totally hardy in the sort of conditions we have recently experienced, but it would be great in a pot on our classroom patio – want one! There are a lot of lovely new Hydrangea paniculata about and Sapho were showing Diamant Rouge, the most red variety so far available. Their new Corydalis x BLUE LINE also looks as if it might far a place in our garden, perhaps a swath planted under the Sequoia.

Corydalis x BLUE LINE

Garden Orchid is the marketing name of a selection of Cypripedium orchids which should do for the hardy species what the Dutch breeders have done with orchids as house plants. They are currently offered in five varieties and I hope to be trying them all and reporting back on progress.

Cypripedium

Salon du Vegetal growers trade fair

The 27^th edition of this internationally important trade fair opens its doors in Angers, France from 21^st – 23^rd February. Around 16,000 visitors are expected over the three days of the show which highlights the products of the 630 exhibitors, mostly French plant nurseries. Fourteen other countries are represented however, including eight from Britain under the COMMERCIAL HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIATION banner.

I shall be attending under my three hats: as a gardener designer and by default, plant buyer, I am interested in new trends and techniques and in discovering plant varieties long before they are offered in the UK; as a freelance journalist I am unofficially flying the flag for British horticulture and the Garden Media Guild while as an educator with the Garden Design Academy I hope to develop more contacts with the European horticultural industry. It could be a busy day!

I’m a sucker for new and innovative products and the section at the show featuring some of the best is called Innovert. Twenty-nine plants (and 19 horticultural accessories) will attract a great deal of attention; there are new Actinidia, Alstroemeria, Begonia, Buddleia, Calibrachoa, Clematis, Corydalis, Cyclamen, Dianthus, Gardenia, Hydrangea paniculata, Ligustrum, Limonium, Mandevilla, Petunia, Physocarpus, Primula, Quercus, Rhododendron and Rose, in addition to a red Potato and a lawn grass described as “self-repairing”. Pots, chemicals, tools and presentation systems make up the remaining new products, which also includes a fascinating green wall system from Belgium.

I shall be there on the first day and hope to meet a few other British horticulturists who have ventured out to see what is happening beyond the Channel.

Compost and Vectorworks

I have caught up on my marking for Garden Design Academy students and the weather is spring-like, so this morning after walking the dog in the woods I have been out in the garden. I’m not getting any younger so serious physical exercise is taken in little bites these days. The far end of the garden is an unattractive view for our B&B guests and my task for today was to begin the construction of a compost bin from the Sequoia and Beech logs I stacked last year. These are no longer needed for firewood since we discovered that the central heating boiler had been installed in such a way that the living room chimney is effectively blocked by the stainless steel boiler flue.

No matter: I am making composting bays against the back fence and once completed old carpets, which at the moment grace the site of the proposed log cabin, will be dragged over to line the floor and walls and prevent weeds pushing into the newly created compost. I hope you are following all this: I’ll be asking questions later. A compost bin made of staked logs will, in my humble opinion, be heaven on earth for bugs, beetles and other fauna, thus achieving a number of useful aims in one grand operation. As I say, I’m not getting any younger and half an hour or so heaving logs was enough for one day. The next task, the dog’s afternoon run, is to get back to my review of Tasmin Slatter’s manual on Vectorworks Landmark for garden designers.

It has taken me a year to extract a review copy from anyone but finally Nemetschek in the States have given me a copy of the 2^nd edition to play with. I didn’t get the CD which would normally come with it and this edition is based around Vectorworks 2010 while I have the 2008 version on my own PC, but I’m glad I persevered. I cannot in all honesty call it an easy read and my first attempt to read it like a novel ended in frustration at page 25. I have since started again and am using it as intended, following the instructions with my copy of Vectorworks and gradually working my way through the files and tools. A full review will follow, with luck before they publish the 3^rd edition.

We are pleased to have received the first press release on the Courson spring garden show  – les journees des plantes. This year it will be held on 14th, 15th and 16th May and for me the show is as unmissable as Chelsea was when I lived in the UK. Much more on this in further Blog postings. I regret to say that this year we were not able to visit the commersial horticultural show at Angers, le Salon du Vegetal. That was a pity, but we were busy earning a living at the time and salary earning oportunities dont happen too often these days.

We are also delighted to announce that this is the second month in a row that my former landlord, Wyevale Garden Centres, has not threatened to sue us in case we owe them rent. Over the past 18 months we have been harassed by really rather impressively qualified debt collection companies who are sure we owe Wyevale money but not sure why or how much. This was a feature of our time with Wyevale, who had an accounting system described to us by one of their staff as “not fit for purpose”. No doubt this little reminder, foolish in many ways, will have them threatening us all over again but after a while it becomes hard to care what they do. As on so many occasions in the past, we have pointed out their errors and they have disappeared for a while with no thanks and no apology. No doubt they will change debt collection companies in a year or two and we will have to go through this all over again. Gardening has its moments, I can tell you!

First Day of Spring?

Just a touch of frost this morning, but what a gorgeous day followed. After working on a clients plan for a few hours I needed little excuse to get out and enjoy the sunshine.

Walking the dog by the river, watching the swans feeding and socialising, we eventually reached the old mill, where Snowdrops – Perce-Neige -  Galanthus nivalis -   were flowering in huge drifts on a shady lawn.

Poodle posing in the Snow drops - the old mill at Chabris

A liitle more work done on the computor and we were out again, our excuse this time the need to do some planting in the little garden we have set aside for our ‘gite’ guests. We dug the soil (dreadful stuff dumped there by builders) and planted a little composition in the sunniest corner: Cupressus Goldcrest at the back, Weigela florida nana variegata to one side, an un-named yellow Cytisus to the other and a clump of purple Heuchera in the middle.

All the plants came from an English nursery; we find them to be cheaper and better than over here in France. We are also disappointed to discover that when we do bite the bullet and buy French plants they will not replace any losses you might have in the way that we have come to expect in the UK. We recently informed a French nursery by email that we had lost one of their plants over the winter. His reply was rapid and unequivical: it was not his problem.

We were nursery hunting last week, when we visited a huge trade show in Angers, Salon du Vegetal. There were nurseries, equipment suppliers and other horticultural specialists exhibiting from all over Europe, but very few flying the British flag. This is a pity, given the oportunities over here, especially with the pound so low against the Euro. The company you see everywhere is David Austin Roses and again they were on hand with French speaking sales staff and apparently doing good business.