Behind the Scenes with Nursery Management magazine

Growing down under

If you’re up for a trip down under, this one sounds perfect. In addition to running the Canadian perennial nursery Valleybrook Gardens, John and Kelly Schroeder have been leading tours for nursery industry travelers for more than a decade. They are running a two-week tour of Australia from Oct. 21 to Nov. 2. If you go, you’ll see beautiful gardens, great garden centers and innovative nurseries, as well as drool-worthy destinations like Sydney, Melbourne, the Blue Mountains, Tasmania and the Yarra wine region.

If you like, you can add on some private holiday time before or after the trip – maybe a side jaunt to the Great Barrier Reef or Ayer’s Rock.

Just don’t ask for a Fosters. Although Americans know it as “Australian for beer,” it’s not popular with the locals.

Contact John at (800) 824-1120 or js@valleybrook.com for more details about the trip.

The Big Chill

Personally, I’m sick of the cold and ready for spring. But a chilly March was good news for fruit trees growers. Fruit trees had a rough time last year. Extreme temperature fluctuations meant they didn’t hit their “chill requirements,” which wrecked their biological clocks. The warmest March on record signaled that it was time to start growing. Then when April brought freezing temperatures, the trees were no longer in their dormant state. They couldn’t withstand the cold and the crop suffered.

Different trees have different chill requirements. Learn more here.