IPM Essen 2010 Report
IPM Essen 2010 
FitzGerald Nurseries exhibited at IPM Essen 2009 for the fifth year. The show overall was a great success for exhibitors and there was a very positive atmosphere through the 4 days. We had more visitors to our stand than any of the five previous years and any show we have exhibited at. Over the last 5 years FitzGerald Nurseries has become known for the focus on special varieties and in particular colour foliage plants for the patio and small garden. This year we
experienced further positive confirmation of the demand for such easy care container plants. Many visitors to our stand were taken by surprise when they realize we are a company based in Ireland. Of course they know Ireland as a country that is always green and with a special temperate climate generally but not famous for its production of ornamental plants. Until now that is! We now export to 18 countries and at IPM the feedback was positive that this trend in easy care colour foliage plants for outdoors on balcony, patio, terrace and small gardens is a trend the public like and want more of. Therefore we are focusing more R&D on producing these plants to make them more available to the gardening and even non gardening public.
Our Sweet Potato got the fantastic attention as we expected it might and orders have been secured from customers in many countries. The feedback on this idea was unanimously positive. We were congratulated by potential customers for coming up with the idea to sell this plant as a rooted cutting thereby making growing possible for gardeners in more northern climates. Sweet Potato looks set to be on
e of our best selling plants in 2010 and 2011.
Plant In Pod made its debut at IPM Essen and there was a great level of interest from numerous countries. Some landscape designer visitors already want to purchase some sets for clients and we are sure now that garden centres around Europe are interested in taking delivery of sets for winter 2010. A full price structure for the system to be bought in its separate components was taken positively by Garden Centre owners.
This year there was exceptional interest in our new colour dwarf grass selections which are unique to us in the industry and especially hardy for most climate zones around the world. The nursery has also become known for our more exotic and high colour impact plants such as Phormium Black Adder, Cordyline Renegade, Canna Tropicanna series, Hawaiian Colocasias and many others. The plants most looked at during the show were, Phormium Black Adder, Carex Everillo and Uncinia Everflame but we were very pleased with the attention all our plants displayed got. Our planted heads using our Carex range stopped many passers by both in the new plant area of the show and on our stand. Surprisingly many people commented they hadn’t seen this kind of garden feature before.
Our next show is Salon du Vegetal, Angers, France in three weeks. www.salonduvegetal.fr