How Green Visits IPM Essen in Germany
Last week, How Green jumped on a plane and flew out to IPM Essen in Germany to the worlds biggest horticultural trade fair. Over 1500 stands from over 50 countries spread across twelve aircraft hangar-like halls makes it the most amazing spectacle within our industry! Growers from throughout Europe to as far afield as Taiwan, China & Sri Lanka were there offering a broad range of plant material.
There were also a couple of halls dedicated to horticultural sundries, greenhouse suppliers and machinery. There were also halls dedicated to floristry and garden retailers. Our main interest and passion were the plants! Nurseries use the exhibition to showcase new plants of which there were many! Some lovely new Hellebores and shrubs on offer. One of the standouts was a new Magnolia called ‘Genie’, a lovely dark maroon flowered cultivar.
The scale of the show was phenomenal! In two very full and long days, we still didn’t manage to get round the whole event! We were amazed at the size of some of the stands, especially from Italy and Spain and the size of plants being shown! There were trees, topiary and Bamboo over 60ft tall – how did they get it all to Germany, let alone into the halls!
Our main objective was to source some tree and shrub growers. Our increasing portfolio of designers/landscapers are always on the look-out for woody plants and we want to be in a position to help them out! Quality is very important, so to be able to see the plants was key. Watch this space the coming weeks for what we’ll be able to offer alongside our Buxus, Taxus and of course the enormous stock we grow ourselves!
If you ever get the chance to visit IPM, then you must – It’s amazing!!
