Agreement Griffin and Sporticulture, Preesman to be renamed, El Niño affecting client's trust and Christmas Sales not affected by warm weather

During the second half of December, 2015 Griffin and Sporticulture announced an exclusive distribution agreement, Preesman announced that they will be renamed in 2016, cut rose grower Red Land Roses announced that El Niño affects client's trust in Kenyan Horticulture and Ontario Flower Growers said that the Christmas sales have not been affected by the warm weather. Below the overview.


US: Griffin and Sporticulture announce exclusive distribution agreement
In December 2015, Griffin Greenhouse Supplies (“Griffin”) and Sporticulture announced a partnership through which Griffin will serve as the exclusive distribution partner for Sporticulture grower products including NFL-licensed containers, labeling and point-of-purchase (POP) materials.


Rose breeder Preesman to be renamed
In December 2015, Preesman announced that they will be renamed. Five years ago the journey of the Dutch rose breeder Preesman started. In these years, they established breeding facilities in Kenya, selection and show locations all around the world, a totally new assortment for all altitudes, new product lines and much more. In short, Preesman has undergone many changes to enhance the quality of their services and products. Now it is time for the final change: a new name.


UK: Walberton Nursery to introduce new begonia varieties
In December 2015, Walberton Nursery announced that they will introduce a new range of foliage begonias to UK Garden Centres in the summer of 2016. These new patio begonias were bred in Denmark and have been named and propagated by Walberton Nursery in the UK. "Over the last year, we've trialed a large range of new begonias and in September, we took the first cuttings of five selected varieties. These were new and different to varieties we had seen before. We are highly optimistic regarding the demand and sales here," says Mike Wainwright, Walbertons’ Technical Production Manager.


"Gaza flowers barred from export to Europe"
For the third year in a row, the farmers in the Gaza Strip will not be able to export flowers to European markets, due to Israeli restrictions, according to www.imemc.org.


El Niño threatens trust in Kenyan horticulture
Kenyan rose growers are worrying about their Valentine's Day sales as El Niño is not only affecting the quantity and quality of their flowers, but also the client's trusts. This was explained by Stefano Banella, IPM Consultant at Red Land Roses, a Kenyan rose farm that is also dealing with the effects of the weather phenomenon El Niño, in an interview this month, December 2015.


Colombia: New dustymiller variety from Flores de Altagracia
Noticing a trend and acting immediately. This is what one of the largest minicalla farms in Colombia called Flores de Altagracia, did last year. "Thanks to one of our customers we noticed an increasing demand for the dustymiller in our main market, the USA. We directly took this opportunity to find out how we could add this foliage to our portfolio and what we needed to do to meet all the customers' expectations. Now, we are one, if not the largest, Colombian farm producing 300,000 dustymiller on a yearly basis. We even developed a new variety," says Flores de Altagracia's sales leader Laura Hernandez.


Canada: Despite warm weather, Christmas sales not affected
In Canada, the start of is Christmas season is usually characterized by snow. This year, however, the weather was considerably warmer than last year, which caused a slow start to the Christmas season and sales. Fortunately, the sales caught up as the weather enabled people to go out and do their shopping. In the end the Christmas sales of this year were even slightly up compared to last year. This is explained by Michelle Sloot of the Ontario Flower Growers in Canada.