The Da Lat Flower Festival ended January 4 with an event called “Flower and wine roads” at Xuan Huong Lake with the attendance of thousands of local and foreign visitors.

The week-long festival, which has become an annual cultural event in the central resort town of Da Lat, attracted over 60,000 visitors.

A series of activities and exhibitions comprised the festival including flower-filled streets, flower towers, and flower islands in the city center.

In addition, an international exhibition of blossoms and bonsais, and a flower parade to honor the flower-growing industry delighted festival-goers.

Blossoms spilled out onto the streets of Ba Huyen Thanh Quan, Le Dai Hanh, and Ho Tung Mau all the way to Lien Khuong Airport.

A wine exhibit introduced visitors to local Vietnamese and international wines from France, Italy and Spain. Guests walked along flower-filled streets while sampling beverages and listening to presentations.

A total of 10 national records were also set during the festival including one for a giant 8-meter pavilion made from hundreds of thousands of daisies by more than 1,000 students; and one for the largest flower Buddha statue in the country.



One reason is the area where the flowers grow, Tabacundo, in the Andes in northern Ecuador. The farms of Tabacundo lay beside the mystic Mojanda mountain and lakes.

The Sun and Earth now come together to produce the best quality roses in the world. The cold winds from the snow covered Cayambe, the relatively dry weather, and direct rays of the Sun, allow the roses from Tabacundo to achieve very large blooms, intense colors, long stems and shiny healthy foliage. The typical shape of an Ecuadian Rose head before opening is upright, like a tulip

These days, the most demanding and experienced customers around the world ask specifically for roses from Ecuador.

The farms have a social commitment with the community and the environment. The farms sponsor social programs in which the young children receive education, nutritious food and care. The farms are environmentally friendly and free of toxic chemicals.

Triangle Nursery Ltd are proud to beable to supply customers with these world beating Ecuadorian Roses.

                                     For the next couple of months there will be an abundance of tulips on the Flower Auctions in Holland. The more tulips sent to auction by the growers the cheaper the prices will be, unless as last year, major supermarkets purchased them in massive quantities having the effect of keeping prices high. Here at Triangle Nursery we like to wholesale single tulips at between 14/20p per stem excluding VAT.

Some interesting information about Tulips:

Of all the bulbous plants, the tulip is without a doubt the most popular. Tulips are grown on an extremely large scale, especially in the Netherlands where their history goes back to the end of the sixteenth century. That was when the first tulips were noticed growing in the vicinity of Leiden. Now, more than 400 years later, billions of tulips are being cultivated, the vast majority of them being exported from Holland. This goes not only for dry bulb sales but also for the cut flowers produced from the tulip bulbs. These cut flowers, available year-round in principle, are most in demand from November to May. The 'garden tulips' are the result of hybridization in which the species Tulipa gesneriana played an important role. Now there are more than 3,000 cultivated varieties registered, more being added each year to replace older varieties.

In 1996, the Royal General Bulbgrowers Association of the Netherlands adopted the following classification system for the different species and cultivars of tulips:

Single early tulips:
Single-flowered cultivars, mainly short-stemmed and early-flowering.

Double early tulips:
Double-flowered cultivars, mainly short-stemmed and early-flowering.

Triumph tulips:
Single-flowered cultivars, stem of medium height, flowering in mid-season. Originally the result of hybridization between cultivars of the Single early group and the Single late group.

Single late tulips:
Single-flowered cultivars, mainly long-stemmed and late-flowering. This group includes such tulips as those from the former Darwin and Cottage groups.

Darwin hybrid tulips:
Single-flowered cultivars, long-stemmed, flowering in mid-season. Originally the result of hybridization between cultivars of the Darwin group with Tulipa fosteriana, and the result of hybridization between other cultivars and botanical tulips have habits similar to that of the T. fosteriana, but which lack the other characteristics of the wild species.

Lily-flowered tulips:
Single-flowered cultivar, flowering mid-season or late, displaying flowers with pointed, curled-back petals. Stem length varies.

Parrot tulips:
Single-flowered cultivars with fringed, curled and twisted petals. Mainly late-flowering. Stem of variable length. - Double late (Peony-flowered) tulips: Double-flowered cultivars which flower late. Mainly long-stemmed.

Rembrandt tulips:
Cultivars with broken flower colors: striped or marked with brown, bronze, black, red, pink or purple, on a red, white or yellow background. Cause of markings is a virus infection. Long-stemmed. (Not commercially available; displayed only in historical collections).

Multiflowered tulips

Fringed tulips:
Single-flowered cultivars, petals edged with crystalline fringes, flowering mid-season or late. Stem of variable length.

Kaufmanniana (botanical) tulips:
Tulipa kaufmanniana, has cultivars, subspecies, varieties and hybrids, all of which resemble T. kaufmanniana. Very early-flowering, sometimes displaying mottled foliage. This has a flower with a multicolored base that opens completely. Exterior usually has a bright carmine blush. Height up to 8 inches (20 cm.).

Fosteriana (botanical) tulips:
Tulipa fosteriana has cultivars, subspecies, varieties and hybrids, all of which resemble T. fosteriana. Early-flowering, very broad leaves which can be green or gray-green, sometimes mottled or striped. Stem medium to long. Large elongated flower, base variable.

Greigii (botanical) tulips:
Tulipa greigii includes its cultivars, subspecies, varieties and hybrids, all of which resemble T. greigii. Usually mottled or striped foliage, flowering later than those in the Kaufmanniana group. Leaves usually spread out and bend down toward the ground. Flower shape variable.

                                                                                                                                                                                             Following the recent BBC television article and numerous press articles of the ban of flowers at the Dorc-hester Hospital the BFA have taken a lead in a flower industry response from a retail perspective.

Brian Wills-Pope, BFA Vice-President said, “It is very important both for our members and the industry as a whole to work together with the hospital authorities for a satisfactory compromise in this mater. My committee will be discussing the options over the coming weeks with the major relay operators, our members and the hospital concerned as well as the Department for Health.”

The British Florist Association (BFA) has taken the issue up with the Department of Health (DH), writing directly to the Secretary of State, The Right Honourable Alan Johnson MP.

In further correspondence the BFA have had a full reply in response to our concerns raised. In a letter from Jane Spencer at the DH dated 10th December 2007 we are pleased to have confirmation that, “The Department of Health is not aware of any instance of health care associated infection being traced to cut flowers in the hospital ward setting”

The letter goes on to state that, “The bacteria associated with flowers and the water they are contained in are environmental organisms of low pathogenicity for humans. They are only of potential concern with regard to patients who have their immunity to infection severely reduced by their current treatment, for example transplant patients, cancer patients on strong chemotherapy and patients in intensive care and burns units. It is therefore prudent to avoid cut flowers in these situations.”

The letter goes on to comment about the basic care of cut flowers. In the closing paragraph the DH confirms that “… However, as stated above, it is not Department of Health policy to restrict flowers on the grounds of infection risk, except in the groups noted above”

The BFA is delighted to have received written clarification from the government department with responsibility for this area. We are sure that many visitors to hospitals will be pleased to hear that they may take or have flowers delivered to friends and relations to wish them well whilst staying in hospital.

Triangle Nursery Ltd recommends that florists advise their customers to have an arrangement of flowers in a container of floral foam rather than a bunch of flowers. This negates the need for busy hospital staff to have to arrange bunches of flowers into a vase of water whilst still providing good cheer to the patient.

As wind and rain continued to batter pretty much the whole country, some lucky shopping centres enjoyed a much more uplifting and enjoyable experience – a flower power shower!

An open top bus visited 10 top locations from Portsmouth on the South Coast to Sheffield in Yorkshire and literally blasted thousands of rose petals into the crowds. In addition, thousands of gerbera were given away bringing a smile to the faces of hundreds and hundreds of people on what would otherwise have been another dreary and damp November day.

Autumn campaign

The Flower Power Showers were the latest part of the Autumn campaign to give people a lift and make them realise how much fun and enjoyment you can get from just a few colourful flowers. The open top bus, together with stickers handed out to the crowds, heavily promoted funnyhowflowersdothat.co.uk where there are 1000 bouquets to be won. Dozens of local papers, radio stations and local media websites picked up on these events giving the website even more profile.

'Pop in and ask me how'

This really is a great opportunity for florists to jump on the ‘funnyhowflowersdothat’ bandwagon and get your local shoppers into your shop. So why not put a poster in your window ‘1000 bouquets to be won, pop in and ask me how’. All these prizes will be delivered by local florists by the way, so that will be another local PR opportunity when the winners are announced in January 2010.

High profile

And the flower momentum continues to build with two big promotions in Real People and Best magazines – 1 million people read these two titles. And all this following on from the national radio campaign which ran on over 150 local radio stations!  Don’t miss out on this high profile flowers are getting in the run up to Christmas.