No I am not being rude, I am being serious.

One of the trends that is occurring this year is marketing promotions being based around fairies. The reason for this is escapism, the consumer is looking for an escape from the doom and gloom they see around them. So why not play with the fairies?

In the USA the Literacy Foundation are promoting librarians to dress up as fairies and become hero story tellers.

Fairy tale books are on the increase as well as fairy art. According to the Trend Hunter (www.trendhunmter.com) fairies are one of the hot trends for 2010. Nostalgia and escapism are a trend we need to be aware of.

So it is time to play with the fairies.

Peter Brass of Evandale Nurseries, Invercargill, New Zealand was quoted in Commercial Horticulture magazine this week (April/May edition) as saying that supermarkets in New Zealand are recording a 10% drop in fruit and vegetable sales as consumers are now growing their own.

Peter is a seedling raiser and is finding that 70% of sales are vegetables and 30% are flowering seedlings, a complete turnaround from a few years ago.

Although I can understand the drop in sales, I believe it is a combination of things. Farmers markets, G.I.Y and boutique retailers such as Nosh in Auckland.

This trend will continue as more consumers see the value of local produce and we will also see a back lash from the supermarkets.

That is the message coming out of the USA this spring according to the latest research for the Garden Writers Association.

According to research carried out in 2005, 40% of respondents planned to buy garden products from their local garden centre and 51% went to a mass merchandiser.

This year 47% said they planned to buy from their local garden centre and 44% plan to use a mass merchandiser. Having said that in March the figures were 54% using a garden centre and 37% a mass merchandiser. (more…)

In previous articles and blogs I have discussed the innovation in vertical gardening from Patrick Blanc. Every time I go into the Qantas lounge at Sydney and Melbourne International airports I marvel at his work. Now the members club newsletter from Qantas is featuring this artist and gives me an opportunity to update you on his work.

Patrick Blanc from France is easily recognisable if you meet him, he has blonde hair with a green streak in it!

The first living wall he built was in 1986 for the Musee des Sciences et Techniqueues de la Villette in Paris. Little was heard from Patrick again until 1994 when he designed a living wedding dress with Gaultier. That was the turning point in his career. Now living walls can be seen in Bangkok, Tokyo, New York, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Qatar and the latest at Trio North Apartments in Sydney’s suburb of Camperdown.

In 2009 he built a vertical garden that was ten storey high for the Athenaeum Hotel in London, this contained 200 plant species and 10,000 total plants.

Patrick has a PhD in the study of Philodendrons (a plant species for the non horticulturists). Patrick is now an author and TV personality in France.

Article based on March edition of ”Air” magazine