John, tell us a bit about yourself (including previous nursery industry experience)

I joined Hort Innovation as the Relationship Manager Lead for the nursery, turf and mushroom industries just over two years ago. Prior to this, I was with IBM for more than a decade, where I held several management and business development roles.

While I’m fairly new to the horticultural sector, the skills I gained from previous roles – such as stakeholder engagement and relationship management – most certainly apply to the work we do at Hort Innovation.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed learning more about, and working with, the people and businesses driving the nursery industry forward. More

Month: May 2018

Disease: Grey mould – Botrytis cinerea, though other species may cause similar symptoms.

Importance: Common nursery pathogen

Symptoms: Include blights, spots, blotches, wilts, cankers, rots, damping off and storage diseases. Usually the softer tissues such as petals are blighted, though leaf spotting, stem blights and rotting of cuttings and seed occur, especially in crowded situations. Early symptoms are small spots, which can extend into large areas of blight and later the characteristic grey mould comprised of masses of spores, which mostly become air-borne. Botrytis can affect plants at different stages of their life from seeds, bulbs and cuttings through to mature plants.

Transmission: Masses of air-borne spores are produced which are spread by wind, water splash, insects such as bees and aphids and handling of infected material. Spores can also be carried on seed, cuttings, seedlings and bulbs. The spores need moisture for germination and infection. More

Species will undergo rigorous testing PHOTO: David Thompson.

As we move around our cities it’s evident that our urban landscapes are increasingly being filled with many of the same plant species.

While plant selection is often influenced by multiple factors, ‘bullet proof’ plants are often used because they have performed consistently in the past. But past performance is no indicator of future performance. Water availability, extreme temperatures and disease all pose threats of failure, especially when only one or two species are planted in an urban green space.

The five-year project Which Plant Where? (GC15002), a strategic partnership initiative under the Hort Frontiers Green Cities Fund, is investigating how well current landscaping species will cope under the more extreme climates that Australia’s cities will face. More

1. Four new plant life balance looks have been released – and they’re bloomin’ gorgeous

Plant Life Balance has released four new plant looks for Australians to try in their garden or courtyard, on their balcony and indoors. More than 30 new plants have been included in addition to helpful tips to create that perfect green space.

The newly launched looks mark the commencement of a three-month campaign that will target lifestyle, health and wellness and fashion publications to drive awareness of the new looks and the sales of green life.

Nurseries are encouraged to visit www.plantlifebalance.com.au to complete their Plant Life Balance accreditation; download the latest assets to promote in-store; and share the positive story with their networks via e-newsletters or social media.

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Growers are encouraged to save the date for two upcoming production nursery pest and disease management workshops scheduled the Northern Territory (NT) and South Australia (SA) this June.

The workshops are scheduled for the below dates and locations:

• Wednesday, 13 June, Berrimah farm, Darwin, NT
• Friday, 15 June, Urrbrae TAFE, Adelaide, SA.

These workshops are the first of a series of informative events to be held in each state and territory throughout 2018, as part of the project Building the resilience and on-farm biosecurity capacity of the Australian production nursery industry (NY15002), a strategic levy investment under the Hort Innovation Nursery Fund.

Registrations for the NT and SA workshops will open shortly, but now is the time save the date for the event and share it with other interested networks. More

The Lendlease headquarters at Sydney’s Barangaroo South has 5000 plants in Australia’s first “breathing” wall.

The push is on for the health and social benefits of green infrastructure to be scientifically recognised in sustainability rating tools commonly used within the Australian infrastructure and building industry.

The project Integrating plant life into building and infrastructure rating tools (NY16007) seeks to inform the development of sustainability rating tools to formally recognise and ‘credit’ the benefits vegetation has in the built environment, and to promote the integration of more plants and green space into urban development projects.

A strategic investment under the Hort Innovation Nursery Fund, the project recognises that architects, urban designers and developers are key influences in either increasing or decreasing green infrastructure.

Sydney-based sustainability consultancy Edge Environment has spent the last 12 months collating scientific data on the benefits of green infrastructure to inform two sustainability rating tools used by key influencers the Infrastructure Sustainability Rating Tool (ISRT) and Green Star.

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