HortiTrends Weekly Comment

We concentrate and report on as many good news stories as we can. One story this week is from Nuala of Young’s Nurseries who kindly contacted me to tell me about the success of another nursery i.e. Pat Fitzgerald and his ‘Famous Primroses’ who have friends in high places in the ‘Whitehouse’. (See article below) It was just in passing that I asked Nuala if they had any news themselves? She had loads of it and all good (See article below). Another one was from Rachel Freeman of the ITB Horticulture department who like many people in the education and development bodies are ‘So busy ‘Doing’ that they do not have any time to do the ‘Telling’. I believe that we all have opinions of each others jobs that are not true to the day to day reality as you will find out when you read the ITB News Digest (See article below). So please keep your company news and events coming and I will try to do the Telling End of the job for you.

There are also lots of news articles on funding and business supports such as the Bord Bia grants, Fas Internship and the Lord Mayors Fund. Its important to try and take time out to look at these funding avenues as you can only work so hard for so long and then you have to start working clever too or you just burn out! Also entering into an awards event can do wonders for staff moral and productivity, such as the Bord Bia Quality Awards for Young’s and also the success of ‘The Secret Garden’ in the Green Awards (See article below). We will be launching a horticulture network where everyone in our sector can share information and chat in real time. Stay tuned.

We ourselves are a new business start-up so we know what the issues are and the problems that any business faces every day. We too need the help and support of industry and development bodies. Think of advertising at HortiTrends, not because you feel sorry for us but because it can make good sense for your business. We are now a destination site for many sectors of horticulture and you may be missing out on a targeted advertising opportunity. You can also do one other thing for us. Please forward on the newsletters to other colleauges in the sector who may also find the information we provide valuable or even entertaining.

I  say entertaining as in with some of the emails of support I got was one pointing out that we had a ‘mizzspelling of the the plural of family’s wong trice’. Oops. It was an email that I got and opened in an excited fashion as it was from a progressive horticulture company. News? Advertising? No. It was a spellcheck! I was deflated and admit I did evil things like spellchecking their site and brochures. Anyway I’m over it now. (watch your back) To be fair they did finish the email with a compliment and I will try harder to get it right and continually improve our business and the service we offer to horticulture.  Is it Nursery’s or Nurseries? Keep your ideas and comments coming and also you can make a comment on individual articles too.

Joseph Blair

Editor and Signpost@HortiTrends