Market news 3/6/10

Its beginning to feel a bit like winter at the Melbourne Flower Market.  The first daffodils of the season are in stock this week, along with the jonquils and the erlicheer.  Next week begins the winter favourites – the callandula…  The cold nights will start to have an impact on the production of a lot of the flower farms in the Monbulk hills, who traditionally do not heat their hot houses, silmilar to our farm in Ballarat.  Having said that the quality of the product is second to none, because the plant is not under any heat stress throughout the day…anyway enough of that…

The tulips are another winter classic, and the quality is unbeatable.  Just inside the coolroom we have a display of tulips that need to be in your vase at home. People get a bit scared of buying tulips, because they want to move about in the vase and bend over and carry on – but dont be scared – get them in the correct vase – about half the height of the bunch – and they will look stunning.

Also selling brilliantly at the moment are the Oriental lilies. At $11.99 per bunch they offer outstanding value.  Buy a bunch of spear grass as well and for $15.99 you have a brilliant gift…

From the farm things are slow on the carnation front, but as mentioned the quality is great.  Some of the varieties of sims are getting to 10cm across the heads when fully open. The ‘stocks’ are continuing to be popular as Richard the plant guru has got these to flower out of season, so we have no competition in the market… The ranunculi have been planted and are taking off, but will be some time before we see them.