A recent visit to the California Spring Trials in the USA turned out to be an eye-opener for Ben Gregory, product development manager at Wyevale Nurseries.
Ben visited 12 US nurseries during the trip, searching for unusual plants and building relationships with breeders and growers.
The 24-year-old from Worcester said: “This is the largest trial event of new breeding focused on annual, perennial and shrub varieties in the world. Approximately 70 breeders from around the world show their latest products and trials at nursery sites throughout California. It was eye-opening to see such a huge range of exciting new introductions, which I am looking forward to bringing to the UK market.”
The California Spring Trials is an annual week-long event held at various locations throughout the state. The event is a launching ground for some of the newest plant varieties, signage and packaging products, and merchandising programs and concepts. In addition, many locations include plant growth regulator experiments, outdoor trialling and technical information and help
Ben added: “I also visited a few nurseries in the Portland area of Oregon. One highlight was visiting J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co, one of the leading tree growers and introducers of new tree varieties in the world. It was a very productive and successful trip with lots of possible developments and new products.”
The Wyevale Nurseries team regularly introduces award-winning plant varieties.
Wyevale Nurseries say their March sales were up by 14% compared to the same month last year. The increase was driven by independent garden centres, trade customers and cash and carry.
Sales and marketing director Adam Dunnett said they had had their best first quarter since 2012, with sales up 18%. “Things are really picking up and the weather has certainly helped particularly in the retail sector.
“Our emphasis on developing a 21st century plant range is starting to pay dividends and a resurgence in the popularity of shrubs in garden centres is helping too. We also saw big sale increases in transplants with buyers wanting to purchase British. This was the same with trees and we have also modernised our tree range and are growing much larger volumes of container trees.”
