The Essen Congress is a huge draw for everyone in Europe and across the Rest of the World (ROW). Several hundreds companies exhibit here, setting up immense booths and drawing in the 10,000-15,000 people that attend during the four day period. Step up, buy your ticket and the large congress manual and let's see what lies inside!
There were 12 congress halls (immense buildings) each with a different them, such as nursery products, floral design, potted flowering plants, cut flowers, hardgoods, etc. It was mobbed every day of the event, so it took time to move from one section to another.
Here is the famous stained glass window in one of the buildings:
Many booths had breakfast/lunch/coffee bars for their customers...with splendid uses of flowers, fruits, and vegetables.
Some of the interesting things seen included living walls.
This one is grown with baby tears (
Solerolia solerolii)
while others had new Campanula highlighted
Then there were furnishings for your 'eye' to sit on....this one is flowering Thanksgiving Cactus,
Schlumbergera truncata. No matter what, you're Number 1!
New technologies abounded everywhere, of course. Neil was particularly interested in the geothermal greenhouse energy displays....and spent nearly a day talking with various researchers...
Then there were the green roof technologies. this is the one outside our window on the rooftop of the hotel.
And, of course, every company was showcasing their new cultivars. Here's a Japanese version of
Caerulea tweedii as a new cutflower
New colors of fragrant, sweet peas,
Lathryus odoratus. Smells like spring!
New, larger climbing lilies, the infamous Gloriosa Lilies,
Gloriosa superba.
And, numerous cut flower roses,
Rosa x hybrida. Here are several pastel old-fashioned types (minimal fragrances).
And, of course, bonsai exhibits everywhere from the Italian to Chinese and Japanese booths. This one is of a fruiting ornamental crab apple tree.
Then, the Italians have now found a use for the beautiful old and gnarled Olive trees (
Olea europaea)--trim them and sell them!
This one was 350 years old
or you could buy one that was a mere 620 years old....and at quite the prices (thousands of Euros)! They were all sold already!!
Not to be outdone, the Christmas tree distributors created these novel dog designs out of spruce and firs.
While the lumber industry now uses floral design and potted plant displays while drying their timber. Here are entire logs, cut to specific board thicknesses with drying splints inbetween and used for displaying plants.
Everyone's Mother-in-law had their tongue tied (
Sansiveria) during the entire exhibition....sadly.
Strange people were inviting us to come to the Floristsics Congress to be held in the Czech Republic this year....
New colors of fall-flowering witch hazels (
Hamemelis virginiana)--tawny brown/maroon and creamy white.
as well as this show-stopper dark burgundy magnolia (
Magnolia soulangeana)
Tree wisterias (
Wisteria sinensis) instead of vining types...
and they had weeping forsythias which were grafted onto an interstock. Stunning.
These non-grafted upright types (also new), below, were talking with us.
We'll show more pictures of some of the floral artistry in a subsequent posting.
Disclaimer: This blog is not an official University of Minnesota or Fulbright Program blog. The views expressed are my own and not those of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State or any of its partner organizations, or the University of Minnesota.
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