Valentine’s 2017 Regional Roundup

John Van Delft, Tairei plains south of Dunedin.

John says his red roses are on target for Valentine’s day despite the cold weather with night temperatures going down at times to 6 degrees Celsius. John has his boiler going each night raising the temperature back up to 12 to 13 degrees. John says Dunedin now has Colombian imported roses all year round dampening overall demand, but demand for roses for Valentine’s day is up a bit.

John will be using the ‘Locally grown’ concept to promote his ‘Black Magic’ and ‘Prestige’ roses.

Ian Loader, K&L Nurseries South of Christchurch.

Ian says the Hypericum crop was late so maybe other crops are late also. As they are in the process of upgrading their rose varieties they have not cut back for Valentine’s day, will have a smaller crop and are not taking orders.

Ian says January has been hard going sales wise with Gerbera sales being slow, he hopes they pick up.

Regionally Fairlie to Ashburton has been quite wet with Christchurch very dry. Some of the more recently established bores in the region are running dry. Their local river is not flowing and looking pretty ‘grotty’ especially as there was not even a winter flow to flush it out.

Frans Van Dorsser, South Auckland

The rose crop is a little lighter and later than normal but will still be on time for Valentine ’s Day. There appears to be good demand in the market but, as usual, no one really knows until it is all over.

Joanne Hurley CEO Van Lier Roses, Kumeu West Auckland.

In recent years, Van Lier’s have embraced a number of new and up to date technologies and Joanne says they have the best Valentine’s crop ever –“it is looking absolutely fabulous”. Their Prestige roses have good colour, head size and stem length. They are also on time. She attributes this, partially, to new screens, recently installed.

They stopped taking orders before the end of January and will have a presence on the Friday, Sunday and Monday flower auctions in Mt Wellington.

Darryl Riddington Chairman of the ‘Outdoor Flower & Foliage Growers Association.

With low light levels and cold nights during spring/early summer many of the NZ hydrangea growers have had a slow start to their season. For most the bud set was later than normal meaning some growers are between 1 to 4 weeks behind the normal flowering patterns of their plants. As hydrangea production usually flushes in early February the supply will be down this year for export and domestic Valentines markets. This means there will be more fresh hydrangeas available in the second half of the season and probably fewer antiques.  We’re hoping the weather stays reasonably dry to prevent a botrytis outbreak in the latter part of the season especially since there will be so much product around.