Not only can you see the trials fields where new cultivars are being trialled and tested against the current leading best sellers, but there are also numerous container, hanging basket and other displays that show the plats grown to their best advantage, how they look when mature and in containers and combinations with other plants.
Stuart Lowen, the Marketing Manager, opened the day by welcoming us, and providing some background information on what the company has been looking into during the past year, and what are the major factors coming up in the future.
“Within five years the products that comprise 70 percent of today’s consumer goods revenue will be obsolete!” (Source: Innovation boot camp, mark Dziersk, September 2006). This was the startling statement that Ball Colegrave wanted to get across to us. You may be thinking that this statistic couldn’t reflect what will happen in the gardening industry, but the consumer marketplace is changing at a rapid-fire pace – and plants are no exception. As a result, Ball Colegrave believes significant and rapid change have become a normal part of its business world. So the company is ready to support its customers’ business judgements with the right products, programmes and services that allow them to thrive in this era of dynamic business change.
As gardens are getting smaller, Stuart pointed out that making the most of all available space was critical and that upward, or vertical, gardening was becoming more important. The use of raised displays and hanging baskets (right) were areas the company was trying to put across to gardeners.
As there will be 30 areas/45 cities and towns that have been earmarked for new housing projects in the next few years, there would be even more smaller gardens coming on the market that needed plants and colour.
Stuart referred to some research that shows that the numbers of ‘very keen’ and ‘quite keen’ gardeners is decreasing. Fortunately, the ‘not gardeners’ and ‘hostile gardeners’ was also diminishing and the number or ‘marginal gardeners’ was on the increase by 3 percent. This was generally seen as a good thing for the industry as more and more people would want some colour and interest in their gardens. It was felt that the supermarkets and DIY stores were helping to increase the market – but at the same time changing it – and that garden centres needed to look at the way they worked and even amend their retail practices to provide more in the way of help, design and innovation to these marginal gardeners; basically leading the market by showing how plants could be used in the garden, providing ideas, help, advice and tips.
There was now more interest in single-colour planting, more use of single-planted containers and the overall better use of colour in the garden. Many garden centres were doing away with the boxes of mixed bedding and concentrating on individual colours.
To emphasise this, there was a display entitled DIFM – do it for me - plant packs that contained all the plants you needed to produce a colourful and interesting container, with a planted container providing the inspiration along with recipes to provide the ideas for gardeners. Stuart even suggested the concept of garden ‘kits’ for small gardens, based on a square or cube format that contained everything you needed and all the gardener had to do was simply ‘open, unpack and grow’!
Other areas Ball Colegrave are looking at are plants that are easy to grow and care for, as well as those that can cope with extremes of climate and weather conditions. One such plant is Begonia Million Kisses (above right); it looked superb last summer in all the heat and sun, and equally looked fantastic this year having coped with cooler conditions, poor light levels and torrential downpours.
And finally, the increase in the popularity of healthy lifestyles, grow your own and the five-a-day campaign have led the company to expand its range of veg, fruit and herbs culminating in a new catalogue for these plants in 2008.
Ian Cole from KinderGarden Plants then unveiled his company’s plans for the coming year.
Although baby plants were still increasing in popularity, there were two ‘selling’ drawbacks; the label that often became separated from the plant and that the pots had to be picked up by customers leading to ‘dirty fingers syndrome’! Both problems could be solved by replacing the company’s net pot with a printed photographic paper quality sleeve. The plant sat in the sleeve, which contained all the label information, and the plant could be picked up cleanly by the sleeve removing the need to handle the pot, the plant and the compost. All the baby plug plants are grown in a coir compost plug, and with no plastic pot to dispose of and the paper sleeve being biodegradable, this was all helping the company to become even more environmentally friendly. The final piece of news from KinderGarden was that it is introducing a children’s range of 10 types of seedlings to encourage younger gardeners, with full details on growing and other useful hints, tips and information available from its website – www.kindergarden.co.uk
Obviously, we were there to take in the new plants and what a lot there was on offer.
Ball Colegrave has also noticed an increased desire for foliage plants and hence has increased the range of its Fantastic Foliage and Tropical Express ranges. This includes Alocasia ‘Calidora’, Alternanthera ‘Royal Tapestry’, Solenostemon ‘Chocolate Mint’, Colocasia esculenta ‘Illustris’ plus a range of grasses.
New flowering plants revealed at the open day included Angelonia angustifolia Angelmist, Bacopa (Sutera) ‘Blutopia’, ‘Snowtopia’, ‘Abunda Colossal Lavender’ and ‘Abunda Colossal White’, Calibrachoa Cabaret, Impatiens DeZire, Petunia Shock Wave and Verbena Picotee, Aztec and Quartz XP series. Many of these plants address the issues raised by Stuart Lowen at the start of the day.
After the daytime press visit, Ball Colegrave opened to the general gardening public. Hundreds of keen gardeners spent the evening looking at all the new plants and varieties on offer next year, as well as some of their regular favourites. Everyone gets a chance to vote for their favourite plant, and the results are: first Strobilanthes Persian Shield; joint second Dianthus Corona Cherry Magic and Begonia Million Kisses Romance.
The trials grounds are open annually to the gardening public and it’s always well worth a visit. You can find out more by visiting the website – www.ballcolegrave.co.uk
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