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Plans are well advanced for IPM Essen 2011. IPM remains one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) and most important events in our field of horticulture, with participants from all the major and most smaller companies from across Europe and around the world. Graham will be at the event for the whole duration of the show, from Tuesday 25 to Friday 28 January. Naturally, he would like to meet with as many people as possible during the show, so please contact us now to make an appointment.

EDIT: Tuesday now looks pretty full; Wednesday and Thursday are filling fast! Act now to make an appointment!

Members of the LinkedIn Plant Breeders and Agents Group are reminded that there will be a networking event for members in the Saal Rheinland meeting room at Messe Essen on Tuesday 25 January, starting at 4.30pm.

We are currently experiencing severe adverse weather. 30cm of snow has already accumulated and more is falling.

We have canceled all meetings, as the roads in this area are virtually impassable. We have also not received any service from Royal Mail for several days, so we have no mail going in or out.

A thaw is expected on Sunday, so we hope that conditions will improve soon. But it is very pretty!

UPDATE: the promised thaw has arrived.

For 15 years, Graham has organised the Garden Event at West Dean, a small garden show for the public held at the beautiful gardens at West Dean near Chichester, West Sussex. Since 2004, this has been part of the Plants For Europe business.

After careful consideration, Graham and the West Dean team have agreed that the 2010 Garden Event will be the last. This is a sad decision, but reflects that Plants For Europe needs to concentrate on the core business of representing new plants and that the market for garden shows has completely changed (and shrunk) in the last few years. It allows West Dean to redesign their annual events programme, with a new event being launched in 2011 to replace the Garden Event, Wholly Herb show and Totally Tomato show.

It has been nothing but an absolute pleasure to work with West Dean for all these years and we wish them every success with their new shows programme.

UPDATE:

Here are the dates for West Dean events in 2011:

• MedFest: 9-10 July
• Chilli Fiesta: 5-7 August
• The West Dean Festival: 26-29 August
• Apple Affair: 1-2 October

Details will be available soon on the West Dean website.

Plants managed in Europe by Plants For Europe Limited scooped two awards in the new plants competition at Plantarium last month.

Euphorbia martinii Ascot Rainbow, bred by David Glenn in Australia, won a bronze medal. This superb variegated Euphorbia is set to become the benchmark variety by which others are judged. The leaves are have a generous yellow margin on rich green and the stems and young foliage are tinted red. The variegation even continues into the flowers. It has a compact and bushy habit and exhibits a very high degree of stability – far better than any previous variegated Euphorbia.

Cistus x hybridus Little Miss Sunshine (DUNNECIS), bred by Kieran Dunne in Ireland, was award a silver medal. This is an excellent new variegated form of Cistus x hybridus (formerly known as Cistus corbariensis) with leaves of rich green with a broad butter yellow margin. The plant produces a mass of white flowers in summer and is compact and bushy – but more vigorous than competing varieties. It also withstands transport well, particularly if grown hard, whereas competing varieties have been observed to turn black after a period without light in a lorry.

Young plants of the Euphorbia are currently available from Florensis. Young plants of the Cistus are available from New Place Nurseries.

Please contact us if you require further information.

Graham will be at the Four Oaks Trade Show in Cheshire on Wednesday 8th September only. If you wish to meet him there, please contact us in the usual way.

We wish that this event was a week later – it falls too close to the first days of the school term, clashes with the Flormart event in Padua, Italy, and also coincides with the Jewish holidays so that many of our Israeli friends will not be attending.