Over 34 years of production we have gone through phases of change reflecting market demand changes and competitiveness. As a company operating on the edge of Europe FitzGerald Nurseries more than any company in the industry must always be conscious of our necessity to innovate. This consciousness has continually driven the ethos and the need for innovation: “Necessity is the mother of Invention”.
During this period our focus on temperate and hardy foliage plants for outdoor spaces, in particular garden containers and urban greening has evolved and our production specialities have evolved to match this niche area. FitzGerald Nurseries is a niche propagation focused company, we do not do A-Z. We focus on the plant, its suitability to our niche market, the trend it fits with and its suitability to our production strengths. However, we must also find other strengths and we must have a safe route to market.
Over the lifetime of the business, we have worked hard on route to market, and we distribute our plants effectively through the Netherlands to all parts of Europe and from Dublin Airport to USA, Japan, South Korea, Australia, South Africa, Middle East and North Africa. We have also turned our remoteness into a strength!
We have developed our own biosecurity strategy system together with support and collaboration of our Irish Department of Agriculture to protect our production against disease and pest contamination. We have several food crop programmes in our laboratory and nursery including sweetpotato, potato and other field crops.
FitzGerald Nurseries does not import plant production material except materials with high-level phytosanitary clearance with mother plants produced under sterile conditions invitro. Our approach is “prevention is better than cure2. Our production in recent years has focused on our main core competencies and much of our production is pre-booked ahead of propagation.
We have three production sites in Ireland, two nurseries in Kilkenny and one laboratory production location in Co. Wexford and our specialist joint venture sweet potato company in Portugal, Nativaland, handles all agricultural sweetpotato plant and seed root production and sales. We see our company mission as a specialist supplier to our nursery clients and other young plant company partners.
At FitzGerald Nurseries we have evolved an innovation-led strategy and our business is heavily focused on developing our own new varieties as well as working with like-minded breeders and breeder representatives worldwide. Through this strategy we have developed a stunning range of plant varieties under the MyPlant® and EverColor® brand and began an exciting journey into urban and conventional agriculture crops focused on our core production competencies and market perception.
We lead our Agri focus through our group sister companies Beotanics and Nativaland. Every year we introduce new crops and plants from our own bred varieties and our breeder partners. Since 2015 we have had a huge effort on evolving world class Wasabi varieties and production in Ireland. During 2024 and 2025 we will introduce our most recent Wasabi innovations – namely Eutrema japonicum ‘Hano Utogi’ PBR and Eutrema japonicum ‘Midori Utogi’ PBR. This range is a major breakthrough on edible genetics for temperate regions of Europe and controlled environment production at home and professional greenhouses. Resulting from 8 years work with our Japanese breeder partners we are excited to roll these cold climate and nutritionally important culinary delights to a mass market.
Watch out for this Wasabi range marketed in Europe through FitzGerald Nurseries. We will keep you informed over the coming season as we evolve our food plant programme with some hopefully pleasant surprises to come from the last 16 years’ work and study of the plant-based food evolution.
Find out more: fitzgerald-nurseries.com
