NGIA staff visit the Top End
In early April NGIA Marketing & Communications Manager Jacqui Gibbs and National Environmental & Technical Policy Manager Anthony Kachenko went to Darwin to meet with industry people and look at possible locations for nursery visits for the 2010 National Conference.
Tim West, president of Nursery & Garden Industry Northern Territory (NGIT), escorted the NGIA staff members around the nurseries and gave them a thorough overview of the industry in the Northern Territory.
According to Jacqui and Anthony, an interesting aspect of the tour was the visit to Jenny’s Orchid Garden at Howard Springs where owner Jenny Bandias showed them her planned indoor retail section which will accommodate flowers and gifts and create diversification in her business.
At Darwin Plant Wholesalers in Lambells Lagoon, Daryl South gave an overview of his Frangipani breeding program and showed the NGIA staff members his field trials. The pair was pleased to be provided with golf buggies to get around the large site.
Other nurseries visited included Greening Australia Nursery and Ironstone Lagoon Nursery in Knuckey Lagoon, The Plantsmith in Howard Springs, and Allora Gardens Nursery in Berrimah.
Anthony says it was great to see many of the nurseries had positively embraced the Northern Territory version of the newly-launched Grow Me Instead booklet and were told by owners it had received positive feedback from consumers.
“Visiting growers in the Northern Territory was a valuable learning experience and it was great to have the opportunity to see all that the industry in the tropical Top End has to offer,” Anthony continues.
Greening Australia native plant nursery. Pot colour signifies vegetation type
Efficient irrigation practice observed at Darwin Plant Wholesalers
From left: Jacqui Gibbs, Estelle Cornell and TIm West in discussions at Allora Gardens Nursery
Jacqui Gibbs and TIm West discuss the new glass house at Jenny's Orchid Gardens
