Knockainey Honoured for Pride of Place Success

The Committee members presented Knockainey Community Council with a commemorative scroll honouring the south County Limerick group's achievement in beating off stiff competition from all over the country to be crowned overall winners of Population Category 3. Pride of Place, which is run by Co-operation Ireland in conjunction with local authorities north and south of the border, was first piloted in the summer of 2003.

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HTA Restructures

As part of its ongoing commitment to provide an efficient and cost effective service to members HTA has restructured its internal organisation. As a result of that process Andrew Maxted is to leave the HTA this month after nine years in commercial and marketing roles at the industry trade association.

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The Sodshow Meets The Ecostore, Part 1

The SodShow, Dublin's only garden radio show. Live every Friday @ 3pm – or after tea-time in podcast.

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HortiTrends Weekly Comment and News Digest - February 8th

Nurseries in Ireland will be checking out the attendance of garden centres at Rentes Spring Show next week to get a measure of the confidence that is out there. They will be hoping that the sector is positive as Mike Devitt of Newlands Garden Centre recently reported to REI Retail Excellence Ireland "The Christmas trade was quite buoyant during December but the focus was on Christmas goods as opposed to general goods, for example nursery was down. The trend was towards artificial trees more so than real trees. From talking to colleagues in the UK, our Christmas retail experience seems to be on a par with theirs". While showing a very slight decline on 2011 figures overall, it was not as bad as some expected.

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Britain in Bloom 2013 Finalists Announced

The RHS can now reveal the 80 finalists competing to be winners of Britain in Bloom 2013. This year 80 finalists, from rural villages like Moorsholm to major cities such as Edinburgh, are participating in the RHS Britain in Bloom UK finals.

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HortiTrends Weekly Comment and News Digest - February 1st

Our sympathies go out to customers of Connaught Gold and staff members, who were caught up in the tragic accident that happened earlier this week. Connaught Gold Statement on Accident

You can see the new Tully Nurseries plant range on an upcoming TV3 'Morning Show' in a six minute segment next week. The opportunity came directly via a call to HortiTrends by TV3. This week we also spoke with the the producers of RTE's 'Ear to the Ground' who are doing a segment on, how traditional garden centres are faring out against the multiples.

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The Sodshow: Episode 100!

And so it is that we have arrived... at the centenary edition... the (slightly coffee stained) Episode 100 of The SodShow, Dublin's only garden radio show. 

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HortiTrends Weekly Comment & News Digest January 18th

Brand Ireland is taking a bashing at the moment. The Bord Bia Supported 'Quality Assurance 'Origin Ireland'??? Scheme' sticker is the visual connection that consumers make with Ireland and its produce. You may think that Fresh Produce & Ornamental Horticulture are not affected. In the mind of the consumer, when they are put in the position of maybe paying a little extra for an ornamental plant or fresh produce with the 'Grown In Ireland' sticker on it, they may well ask themselves; I wonder was it? and then proceed to pick up a cheaper imported alternative. We recently noted the withdrawal of a tender - Cancellation of Tender for ITT for the provision of Horticulture Quality Assurance Scheme Auditing Services.' and made an inquiry, which resulted in this response "Following a review of all tender submissions and an internal review of resources, Bord Bia has decided to cancel this tender. To offer increased efficiencies, savings and prevent an audit fee increase, the work will be conducted within Bord Bia." The relevant trade organisations will need to ascertain that the personnel, funding and resources are in place to carry out these important audits.

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HortiTrends Weekly Comment & News Digest Jan 11th

Teagasc this week reached an important milestone for one if its targets in the '2030 Foresight Initiative' which identified a significant need to enhance the transfer of research knowledge to stakeholders to assist them to innovate and develop sustainable rural businesses. Introducing T-Stor - Teagasc's New Open Access Repository will give both researchers and those who utilise the research the most up-to date information from the wide variety of research undertaken in food, forestry and horticulture. As outlined in a recent article in TResearch - Forfás recently published a bibliometric study of the public research base in Ireland as part of an exercise mapping research strengths here. Of all the public research organisations measured over the 10-year period from 1998 to 2007, Teagasc had the highest number of scientific papers published. The vast majority of the 1,367 Teagasc papers are in agriculture and food science, demonstrating Teagasc's core strength.

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The Sodshow: The Dead Poets Society For Real Gardeners

Peter walks the wilds of Ballyboughal’s Hedgerow Society with Ann Lynch. A route which takes in, amongst many things the 12th Century ruins of Grace Dieu Nunnery. Take that a lot of nature, some once cultured wilderness and a bunch of lovely people – wrap ‘em all up in a big red bow, take a listen and enjoy The Sodshow’s first show of what can only be another wonderful year in the great outdoors. 

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