More new products aim to win GAN awards

Erica carnea 'Claribelle' from Forest Edge Nurseries

Exhibitors continue to enter their latest products in the various new product award categories at southern horticultural trade show GAN 2011, which takes place near Bournemouth on February 9.

Recent entries for New Plant Variety include:
•  Erica carnea 'Claribelle' from Forest Edge Nurseries – a new heather introduction from the specialist supplier. A low growing, spreading plant displaying clear rich pink flowers set on ascending branches of sea green foliage throughout late winter and spring.
•  Botany Bay Nurseries will show its new Jumbo Plugs – big enough to plant direct into a hanging basket or planted container – giving accelerated establishment, no misses and quicker finishing times.

Osmocote Bloom from Scotts Professional

Botany Bay Nurseries’ Jumbo Plugs

   
Entries for Best Technical Product or Service include:
•  Osmocote Bloom from Scotts Professional – a controlled released fertilizer for bedding production. Its 2-3 month longevity eliminates the need for water soluble fertilizers and it promotes quicker and better rooting.   
•  Electronic & Technical Services will show its Evaposensor and interface for mist and irrigation control, which enables accurate matching of water use to plant requirements.  It automatically adjusts mist, fog or irrigation applications according to the plant environment and weather. 

And latest entries for Best New Retail Product include Vivid Arts’ fun meerkat ornament range – launched last year, it helps garden retailers maximise on the high awareness for meerkats and enables centres to bring some life and amusement into their retail displays.

Products will be judged during the one-day show and awards made on the day.
The venue will be Dorset’s Golden Acres Nursery near Bournemouth International Airport.
www.ganshow.com

Golden Acres appoints first operations manager, David Goble

Expanding horticultural group Golden Acres has appointed retail specialist David Goble to its new role of garden centre operations manager, with oversight of its four centres in Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire.
   He said: “I will be working closely with each centre and buyers. One of our objectives is to create an increased ‘high street’ feel to our centres, with great value for money and excellent ranges of garden lifestyle products.
   “Golden Acres is currently looking to acquire more centres so my job is set to expand shortly; I’ve arrived at an exciting time.”
   David is a former Woolworths store manager and area manager. He lives in Fareham with his wife Kirsty and their two children.
www.golden-acres-nursery.co.uk   
Photography by Phil Dowding.

Groveley Detection: First open path hydrogen sulphide gas detector

Groveley Detection, which specialises in hazardous area fire and gas detection, has received its first order for the new Simtronics GD1 open path hydrogen sulphide gas detector.
   The detector is faster than traditional detectors, needs less routine maintenance and no field recalibration.
   Produced by Simtronics ASA in Norway, the GD1 offers failsafe, reliable and robust H2S detection for areas likely to see gas releases, such as offshore or onshore installations, power plants and waste water treatment plants.
   Groveley Detection’s managing director Robert Bennet said: “This is a major leap for personnel safety – with a response time of five seconds to a H2S leak, the highly sensitive GD1 is ideal for personnel safety monitoring and considerably faster than other toxic detection technologies.
   “It offers real cost savings over traditional point gas detectors. Using a single transmitter/receiver pair, the detector typically covers distances of 30-50 metres, which cuts costs as fewer devices are needed to cover the same risk.”
   The GD1 uses non consumptive sensors which eliminates sensor replacement (as required with alternative electro-chemical point sensor devices), this means further cost reductions for maintenance, cabling and calibration.

www.groveley.co.uk

New products line up for GAN awards

Exhibitors at GAN 2011 on February 9 are revealing their new products and services as they set their sights on winning one of the show’s range of awards.

Entries for New Plant Variety include:
• Ball Colegrave’s Petunia 'Black Velvet' – the world’s first ever black Petunia,
• Kernock Park Plants’ newly-bred hardy perennial Iberis in pink,
• Seiont Nurseries’ Ugni Moliniae ‘Butterball’ with apricot spring growth and edible berries.
   
Entries for Best Technical Product or Service include:
• the Institute of Horticulture’s free mentoring service for horiculturists,
• Martin Lishman’s range of self-propelled pedestrian sprayers.   

Entries for Best New Retail Product include:
• Plantopia’s ‘Easyfit’ Christmas tree stand,
• Vital Earth’s plant food Vitalizer, made from recycled green waste,
• William Sinclair Horticulture’s SuperFyba growing medium.

Products will be judged during the one-day show and awards made on the day.
   The southern horticultural trade show GAN 2011 will place on Wednesday February 9. Its website is now full of exhibitor’s information and online booking.
   The venue will be Dorset’s Golden Acres Nursery near Bournemouth International Airport.
   For information and free online registration, visit www.ganshow.com

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Pictures (top to bottom):
• Kernock Park Plants’ ‘Iberis Absolutely Amethyst’
• Ball Colegrave’s Petunia 'Black Velvet'
• Seiont Nurseries’ Ugni Moliniae ‘Butterball’
• Vital Earth’s plant food Vitalizer

GAN 2011: First-time exhibitors swell show

First-time exhibitors at February’s GAN 2011 trade show continue to expand the event’s scope, with a variety of exhibits that include ferns, hardy perennials, display products and fork lift trucks.
  Tree Fern specialists HSK Gardening & Leisure will show its tree ferns, Wollemi pines, natural driftwood sculptures from New Zealand and tree fern Feed. Its decision to exhibit at GAN followed pulling out of another exhibition and appreciating GAN’s position as first UK trade show of the season.

Field production at Howard Nurseries

  Howard Nurseries visited GAN 2010, liked the atmosphere of the show and recognised it fitted well with its bare root season. So this year it will show its hardy perennials in containers and bare root which it distributes across the UK.
  Display company VKF Renzel UK will show its innovative range of display products, including signage, carrier bags, display racks, POS material/displays and shop fittings.
  Forklift truck supplier Alto Handling will offer finance packages for long and short term hire, planned maintenance schedules, field service, emergency repairs, manufacturer approved parts, licensed driver training, refurbishing and used equipment.
  Other first-time exhibitors include APAC Packaging, Ellegaard A/S, La Hacienda Ltd, Oakgate Nursey and Southern Retail Systems,
  GAN show director Simon Edwards said: “Each year we steadily expand with new exhibitors who bring an added dimension to the show. As regional trade shows go, GAN has an amazing spread of products and services to interest any horticultural company that wants to keep abreast of what’s new.”
  The one-day southern horticultural trade show takes place on Wednesday, February 9 at Dorset’s Golden Acres Nursery near Bournemouth International Airport. For information visit www.ganshow.com  

Pam reaches 30 years at Golden Acres

Gardening fanatic Pam Shiner has reached 30 years employed at Golden Acres Garden Centre at West Parley – and says she loves taking her hobby to work.
  The centre has just completed a complete refurbishment and is attracting new customers. During the process Pam decided to hand over the higher-level responsibility and step down from her 21-year role as centre manager to focus on customer service and sharing her gardening knowledge.
  When Pam joined the company in 1980, founder Paul Richards was running a small pick-your-own business selling runner beans, tomatoes, rhubarb, cucumber and melons. Pam would pick beans during the morning and sell them to the public.
  A move to a larger site – where the centre is still based – meant Pam would sit on the floor in a wooden greenhouse, pricking out seedlings. That expanded into producing hanging baskets and wider ranges of produce and plants.
  When Paul started a wholesale trade side of the business, Pam’s site became focussed on retail and became the forerunner of the current garden centre.
  In 1989 she was appointed manager and helped shape the centre as it gradually expanded and took on new product ranges, including giftware and a tea room. Pam ran the tea room for its first year and even baked the scones and cakes.
  She said: “Tea rooms compliment a garden centre really well; customers appreciate having both on the same site and in terms of business, they mutually benefit each other.”
  Pam’s favourite plants are herbaceous, which are gradually taking over her garden at home in Ferndown.
  She said: “I’m told my garden is a bit of a jungle but I love it that way; it’s also full of shrubs and trees and I spend all the time I can there, especially on the herbaceous which take a bit of work.”
  Director Simon Edwards said: “What Pam doesn’t know about gardening isn’t worth knowing; she has phenomenal experience that she loves sharing with our customers. She has always been a very core member of our team, and still is.”
www.golden-acres-nursery.co.uk      Photography by Phil Dowding

Groveley Detection: commissioning for Shell Philippines on Malampaya gas platform

Aspirator specialists at Groveley Detection have returned from the Philippines after commissioning a single channel unit and autodrain system on the Malampaya Gas Platform, South China Sea.
Gas produced by the platform is cooled by a circulating water system. The aspirator will monitor the nitrogen blanket within the cooling water storage vessel.
Groveley managing director Robert Bennet said: “Our aspirators are installed across the globe and we had a 30% increase on orders last year. I believe this is because the oil and gas market recognizes the key strengths of Groveley GD-A aspirators, they are often an integral part of site safety.”
www.groveley.co.uk    Picture courtesy of Shell

GAN 2011: New products at the show

Viola Floral Power Purple Tiger Eye from Moles Seeds

Exhibitors at the GAN 2011 southern horticultural trade show, which takes place on February 9, will show several new products, many for the first time. The first to announce are:
Syngenta FloriPro Services will launch new pansy, viola and primula varieties, including new additions to the popular Viola Cornuta Deltini™ F1 series, with some exciting new colour additions such as the Deltini HoneyBee.
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will show its new RoseClear Ultra, a systemic insecticide and fungicide for combined control of pests and diseases on roses and other ornamental plants.
Ornamental and Vegetable seed supplier Moles Seeds has added Aubergine Pinstripe and tomato Ambrosia to its vegetable range, while ornamental introductions include the trailing petunia Spangles Pink Vein and the new, eye-catching Viola Floral Power Purple Tiger Eye.
Specialist insurance brokers Farm and General has launched a comprehensive Environmental Liability policy to protect against new regulations for preventing and dealing with environmental damage.
House Plants Direct will launch its 2011 range, including new Mothers Day plants and a new category of air plants in its range of Sand Art plants.
Mail order seed and plant company Thompson & Morgan has doubled its young plant range this year to 350 varieties. It will show its new patio vegetable seeds and young plant range and launch new varieties from its own breeding, plus a new range of Hardy Primrose.
Plantopia will show its new Easyfit Christmas tree stand that keeps christmas trees looking fresh all through the season by feeding only the bark and causing no stagnant water.
GAN 2011 director Simon Edwards said: “These are early indications of the range of new products at the show, more are being announced as exhibitor information is received. Visitors will have plenty of new products to investigate."
He added there were still a few stands available for late exhibitor bookings.
The annual show is organised and hosted by Golden Acres Nurseries - an independently-owned grower/retailer chain - on its wholesale site near Bournemouth Airport, Dorset.
www.GANshow.com

Christmas special events at Golden Acres and John Browns garden centres

Local bell-ringers will feature when Golden Acres garden centre at West Parley hosts its first-ever pre-Christmas open evening on Tues November 30 - as a thank you to its customers for their patience during the alterations that took place during the year.
Meanwhile a children’s puppet show will be part of the fun at sister company John Browns garden centre, at its annual pre-Christmas event on Tuesday Dec 7.
During the evenings staff will give away mulled wine and mince pies and there will be double customer bonus points, free prize draws to win garden centre vouchers, and special meals served in the cafe.
Golden Acres’ centre manager Kevin Legg said: “It’s so easy to do your Christmas shopping at our two centres, with free parking, no crowds, no pressure – and always something a little bit different for you to find for your friends and family.
“Our refurbishment is now complete and the event gives us a great chance to thank all our customers for their patience!”
The events will both take place from 5.30pm to 8pm. There will also be displays of Christmas trees, decorations and gifts.

www.goldenacresgroup.co.uk       Photography by Phil Dowding

Cadnam Garden Centre thanks Lyndhurst police station with plants

Cadnam Garden Centre was so grateful to police officers for their help over the years they donated around 60 plants to brighten up the front garden at Lyndhurst police station.
Group plant area co-ordinator Emma Green said: “Staff at the centre know their local beat officers, who are always out and about in the community, so when they approached us to help tidy up the station garden we were very happy to help.”
Chief Superintendent Richard Rowland said: “Most people visiting a police station will be doing so as a victim of crime, or they might be in trouble, so we are keen to help alleviate that stress and make it a better place to be.
"Plants are known for their calming influence, and tidy, colourful premises encourage people to respect themselves and the environment they are in. Staff like them too and it helps them to be proud of their place of work."
Emma added: “We came up with a plan of flowering shrubs and ornamentals with seasonal colour. Plants needed to be low-maintenance and able to withstand nibbling by deer, so we recommended lavender, rosemary, fuchsias and azaleas that need pruning each year. Plus a nice clematis to grow up a bare tree and add some interest.”
www.goldenacresgroup.co.uk         Photography by Phil Dowding

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PICTURE:   Emma Green of Cadnam Garden Centre with Chief Superintendent Richard Rowland of Lyndhurst Police Station.

Golden Acres joins the call for a ban on sky lanterns

The Golden Acres group of nurseries and garden centres has stopped selling sky lanterns due to environmental reasons — and has joined the call to have the product banned in the UK.
In spring the group, which locally operates four garden centres in Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire, decided the risk to farm animals was so great that the product should no longer be sold.
Group operations director Simon Edwards said: “With so much awareness of the potential danger to livestock, and with many of our centres located near arable land or within the New Forest, we felt it would be irresponsible to continue to sell them.
“Now we want to see the product totally banned in the UK as the likelihood of hurting livestock is very high. We don’t want to stop people having fun, but in country areas it’s clearly an unwise risk to take.
Farmers around the UK have called for sky lanterns to be banned as a fire risk to barns full of hay or straw, as well as a danger to livestock.
They report that cattle have been killed by eating wire from degraded lanterns that was accidentally picked up by harvest machinery and put into winter feed.
And coastguards have warned the lanterns are easily confused with distress flares and can lead to unnecessary callouts.
The airborne illuminations are like small, hand-held hot air balloons and typically launched at outdoor parties and weddings.
After lighting the fuel cell, hot air sends the lanterns into the sky — and the increase in the number of them landing in the countryside has become a hot topic.
www.golden-acres-nursery.co.uk       Photography by Phil Dowding

Otter spotted at West Parley coffee shop

The Dorset conservation success of the previously-threatened otter took an interesting turn on Monday, October 18, when an otter calmly wandered into a coffee shop at West Parley!
Staff at Golden Acres garden centre spotted the otter walking through the external areas of the centre until it sat in the coffee shop entrance for a few moments before moving on.
Staff member Chris Woods, who filmed the otter on his mobile phone camera and video, said: “We are about a kilometre from the River Stour and there are no other real streams nearby, so it travelled quite a way – maybe it was because we had tuna mayo jacket potatoes on the menu that day!”
Otters, which are viewed as a  barometer of river health, did not completely disappeared from Dorset rivers as they did from other UK areas, and after years of decline, their numbers are now significantly increasing.
www.golden-acres-nursery.co.uk

Feeding wild birds increases in popularity

Feeding wild birds and attracting them into gardens has proven to be extremely rewarding for many people – and is growing in popularity, if customers at Golden Acres’ garden centres are an indicator.
Sales of bird care products at the group’s four centres in Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire are up 22 per cent on 2009 and a whopping 45 per cent over the last two years.
David Bamford, centre manager at Golden Acres at Landford, said: “Feeding birds has always been a winter activity but is becoming popular throughout the year, with around half as much product sold in the summer as during the winter.
“The RSPB now encourages the all-year-round feeding of wild birds on its website and a lot of people are enjoying seeing them regularly in their gardens.”
The RSPB says although winter feeding benefits birds most, food shortages can occur at any time of the year. By feeding the birds all-year-round, you'll give them a better chance to survive the periods shortage.
With autumn and winter coming up, David recommends putting out food and water on a regular basis. “In severe weather, feeding in the morning and in the early afternoon really helps them.”
Bird food sales are also becoming increasingly specialist, with food easily available to attract specific types of bird into a garden, such as tits, starlings, sparrows, greenfinches, robins, wrens, thrushes, goldfinches, blackcaps and collared doves.
www.golden-acres-nursery.co.uk

Groveley commissions detectors at renewable energy facility

Engineers at Christchurch-based Groveley Detection have commissioned two carbon monoxide detectors at New Earth Energy’s first low-carbon renewable energy facility in Canford Arena, Poole.
The detectors protect the Advanced Thermal Treatment room and are connected to a GDS404 gas alarm panel.
This key site for New Earth Solutions Group also accommodates its development centre and a 6MW landfill gas power station that has operated since the 1990s. The power station contributes up to 80% of Dorset’s total generation of renewable power.
The order was placed via Shaftesbury-based Wessex Fire and Security which installed the complete fire detection system while utilising Groveley Detection’s advanced knowledge in toxic gas detection.
www.groveley.co.uk

Tice creates Budgens Boost for Wimborne

Four extra jobs are to be created when a new Budgens convenience store opens at Tice Wimborne at Walford in early February.
It will more than double the size of the Tice forecourt store – currently SPAR – to occupy the whole of the frontage of the petrol forecourt. The popular garage has occupied this prominent corner site since 1964 and before then in East Street.
Tice’s original SPAR forecourt store was opened in 1996 and has gone from strength to strength, with redevelopment taking place in 2003 and again in 2007.
It will be business as usual for the forecourt, servicing and sales operations  during the improvements. At the same time, the workshops will be getting a facelift with a new automated test lane MOT bay, new workshop lifts and all the latest equipment. 
Managing director Malcolm Tice said: “Budgens ideally suits our expansion needs and we think if offers the town an excellent convenience range of food.
“There will be a large fresh food selection – including local produce - and a wide enough range to buy all you need to cook a range of meals.
“It will be especially easy for people from the outlying areas to drive to the edge of town, park for free, and enjoy a quick food shopping experience.”
The new Budgens store will be open seven days a weeks from 7am to 10pm, and will have improved free parking bays.
www.tice.co.uk    Photography by Phil Dowding