A visit to NZ chrysanthemum farm Burwood Nurseries
Sprinkled throughout their property are plastic houses dedicated to rows of chrysanthemums, lisianthus, fresh salad lines and herbs as Burwood Nurseries are also part of the ‘Southern Fresh Group’ who produce high quality crops for the New Zealand food industry.
The team of NZ FLowers Week had a tour with Manager Sue and Owner Greg as they explained to them the processes of growing Chrysanthemums from tissue culture through to a saleable product.
They produce a wide range of varieties that are sold as ‘spray’ or ‘standard’ to the NZ market. Spray Chrysanthemums have multiple flower heads per stem giving them a ‘spray like’ appearance. Standard Chrysanthemums have one large flower head per stem only. Both spray and standard Chrysanthemums come from the same plant but are manipulated to cultivate a certain way by removing specific flowers as they grow. The NZ Flowers Week's team learned more about this as Sue demonstrated how their flower pickers remove flower heads to promote the blooms either way.
One of the most fascinating things to see were their rows of Chrysanthemum ‘Mother Plants’ that simply appear to be groupings of leaves. It’s from these plants that they propagate all their cuttings to produce some of New Zealand’s best Chrysanthemums.
Read more at NZ Flowers Week