FLONZI - Florists New Zealand Incorporated

For more information about Worldskills NZ, pictures and results of the 2011 competition visit their website.

Academy NZ school of floristry held a two day workshop on 8th and 9th October 2012. The use of the Academy NZ’s excellent facilities in their well equipped floristry classroom proved a winner

DAY ONE

The attendance of apprentices was a total of 13 on the two day workshop. FLONZI was thrilled to have Master Florist ALLAN JARDEN, from his CENTRAL CITY FLORIST SHOP in the South City Center, 555 Colombo Street, as their first demonstrator on day one.

Allen demonstrated funeral tributes in the morning, enthralling the apprentices with his wreath and casket making skills, explaining the elements and principals of design as he went.

In the afternoon each apprentice made their casket spray and placed the the floral tribute onto a casket that Allen had supplied, for appraisal, giving each apprentice skilled valuable aadvice, which I have no doubt they will appreciate as they continue their floristry careers.

Thank you Allen for your expertise in the floral tribute workshop – the success of which the participating apprentices will benefit from as they continue their training.

DAY TWO

Flonzi was delighted to welcome European Master Florist and designer GISLINDE FOLKETS, from Geraldine..

Gislinde enthralled the 13 apprentices with her inspiring wedding work Gislinde demonstrated the intricacies of a wristlet, which all the apprentice made in the morning and some students wore to their lunch break

Gislinde also demonstrated a wedding bouquet frame which certainly gave apprentices food for thought as they broke for lunch.

In the afternoon Gislinde wired and taped for her wedding flowers on the the wedding frame introducing exquisite accessories with outstanding creativity. Each apprentice began their interpretation of the making of the frame and the  choice of placement of the flowers and accessories.

The afternoon concluded with individual appraisal to each apprentice from this master of florist design.Thank you Gislinde for your expertise in this successful wedding workshop. You gave all apprentices a taste to inspire them as they continue their training.

Thank you to Ray (secretary FLONZI), and Culhan(FLONZI chair), which included home made scones, shortbread, filled rolls, asparagus rolls, fruit, chocolate slice, tea and coffee for morning and afternoon teas and lunches on both days, on behalf of FLONZI.

Thank you, thank you both for giving us all perfect sustenance for this creative two day weekend workshop.

Joy Knight

FEEDBACK:

Lois is raving about the training weekend and all the girls want to go next time!

Bloomers, 4 Bayview Place, Timaru

Here is a link to a wonderful source of information on festivals & celbrations. It has been presented by Woodlands Junior School…….

The  “FLONZI Trophy” for the Young Horticulturist of the Year 2010 was awarded to:

Young Horticulturist of the Year Competition (YHOTY)

Partnered by: NZ Horticulture ITO, Fruitfed Supplies, AGMARDT, FMG and Turners & Growers

Who are the finalists of the 2010 Young Horticulturist of the Year Competition?

* Marc Higgie, a trained arborist managing his parents arboreteum in Wanganui , representing the Arboriculture Association

* Dave Harris, nursery production manager for Thirkettles Nurseries, Nelson, representing the Nursery and Garden Industry Association

* Alex Stewart, sub contractor for Total Landscape Creations in Auckland, representing Landscaping NZ

* Gareth Holder, a technical field consultant for Abron, based in Napier, representing the Vegetable sector for Horticulture NZ

* Jonathan Newby, orchardist for Hirst Partnership, an apple and blue berry orchard in Hawkes Bay, representing the fruit sector for Horticulture NZ

* Stuart Dudley, a grower-division viticulturist for Delegats Wine Estate in Blenheim, representing the NZ Winegrowers

* Jessica Mills, co-owner of a floristry business, Lovells Flowers 4 You, in Hawera, representing the Floriculture industry

* Leigh Harrison is a qualified horticulturist for the grounds at Waikato University, representing the NZ Recreation Association – Amenity sector

Who are the judges?

We have a range of judges at the Grand Final including the 3 main judges as well as 2 judges for each practical activity. The three main judges include Jack Hobbs, Curator of the Auckland Botanic Gardens, Errol Hewett Emeritus Professor at Massey University, and Lesley Slade, consultant in leadership management. All the judges offer their time voluntarily.

What are the prizes in the 2010 Young Horticulturist of the Year competition?

The winner of the competition will win over $14,000 worth of prizes which includes a $10,000 travel package, $2,500 Scotts quality products, $1000 of Swazi Apparel, $1,000 Fruitfed Supplies gift voucher, $550 Yates voucher. The second placegetter will receive a $5,500 Massey University study package, a $3,000 personal development course, e g. Outward Bound Course, $1,000 Swazi Apparel, $750 Fruitfed Supplies gift voucher, $250 Yates voucher.

There are also a number of awards judged during the competition, e.g. the FMG Award for Outstanding Skills and Leadership, the prize is a one year Leadership NZ course to the value of $16,000, the NZ Horticulture ITO Award for Best Overall Practical Activities score, the Turners & Growers Best Overall Speech, and a new award this year, the Award for Best Practice.

Who are the sponsors of the 2010 Young Horticulturist of the Year competition?

Our Partnering sponsors: NZ Horticulture Industry Training Organisation, FMG, AGMARDT, Fruitfed Supplies , Turners & Growers

Our Silver Sponsors: Massey University, NZ Gardener Magazine

Our Affiliated sponsors: Bayer CropScience, Treescape, Mission Estate, Scotts, Auckland Botanic Gardens, Swazi Apparel, Yates, Hansens the Flower People, Cornwall Park Trust , Rainbow Park Nurseries, Parkland, Leadership NZ, Trillian Trust.

The competition is managed by the RNZIH Education Trust, they would like to sincerely thank AGMARDT for underwriting the 2010 competition and Trillian Trust for their grant to assist with the costs for the awards dinner.

Information Courtesy of RNZIH

Here is a list of some useful books to assist trainees:

For soils: Handreck, K. (2001). Gardening down under: A guide to healthier soils and plants. CSIRO Publications.

For botany: Capon, B. (1990). Botany  for gardeners. Timber Press: Oregon.

For pests & diseases: Lucas, R. (2005).  Managing pests and diseases – a handbook for New Zealand gardeners. Craig Potton Publishing.

The Worldskill National  Final floristry competition was was held at the CPIT in Christchurch during the weekend. The theme was wedding work and the five competitors  were given a five tasks.

The winner was Aroha Hebbard, followed in second place by Amalia Wilson and Kirsty Autridge finished third. Congratulations to all the competitors who worked so hard and produced such excellent designs.

Images from the competition from Graham Barr photographer

Aroha receiving the gold medal

Winners leaving the podium

Kirsty (third) Aroha (first), Amalia (second)

The highlight of the day has been a visit by the Prime Minister who chatted to some of the contestants and judges.

The standard of work has been fantastic, with a fantastic variation of materials used and techniques applied.

Well done to all the girls. Everyone has had a great day and looking forward to a rest and a slightly later start tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s tasks will be “Body decoration of a live model”. The competitors will be designing their creation on ten Marian College students who have volunteered to wear and model their work.

Also a ” single hand tied flower”, and an “item for a masked ball”. How much fun will that be!!

A bit of background regarding my crazy walk!!!

Judi on a training run

I am a Member of BNI (Business Networking International) The charity that we as a group support, and also myself personally, is the North Shore Hospice, I recently organsied a Trivial Pursuits evening combined with the North Harbour Lodge and we raised $2,500 for the Hospice, this was sufficient to purchase a new Pain Pump, (this releases “pain killing/reducing” medicine to the patient on demand) The Hospice is in the process on replacing all the Pain Pumps as the old ones are becoming obsolete.

The Hospice is free to anyone who has to be admitted – generally in the last few days of their life, they provide marvelous palliative care to the patients and great support to the relatives. They are funded by the Government, but only by approximately half of the yearly budget that is required to run them. So much of the work is done by volunteers and of course there is much fund raising needed for the remainder.

Last night a Fashion Parade was held as a Fund Raiser at the Bruce Mason Theatre in Takapuna – a very ritzy event – I donated  3 presentation Bouquets for Shand Cortez MC plus the Stylist and Producer of the parade. On Friday 6th November another yearly event, a House Tour – of beautiful homes all situated right on Takapuna Beach. They are kindly made available by the owners for people to view, about 12 in all, I will be decorating one with flowers and other North Shore florists will be allocated other homes.

My half Marathon is a way I hope to raise just a little bit more to be added to their budget, every little bit adds up !!!!

Make a donation on Judi’s fundraiser page.

Or contact Judi on: flowers@starzflorist.co.nz

(As an add on…..November 15th, we recieved this email from the North Shore Hospice…)

She Did It!!!

Once again, thank you so much for sponsoring Judi Ball-Guymer in her participation in the Auckland ½ Marathon. Judi completed the half marathon at the beginning of this month in 3 hours 17 minutes, which is fantastic.

We are very proud to have had Judi running for us and are delighted that she raised over $300 for the work of the North Shore Hospice. Judi  told me that she enjoyed completing the half marathon and is now training for the Rotorua Full Marathon in May 2010.  There is obviously no keeping a good women down!!!

A huge thank you to Judi – you are a star!

We got a really exciting news today from Sarah at Edible Blooms informing us that they are now a finalist in the “Best Nationwide Corporate Gifts” award. Well firstly congratulations to all of them from all FLONZI and Direct2florist team. We wish them the very best success and secondly, please vote for them by going to the following link:

http://www.corporateeventsguide.co.nz/companies/auckland/other/edible-blooms

agroverde is an Exchange Organisation in Switzerland which is seeking good placements in flower shops in New Zealand. We have qualified candidates who would like to go abroad for around 6 months or more. They would like to work in flower shops as trainees and get some professional and life experience. They have a three year practical apprenticeship in Switzerland and are very professional with flowers and arrangements. During this three years they go to school for one day a week. After 3 years apprenticeship they get a national diploma and work in hotels or flower shops.
You are welcome to visit our website www.agroverde.ch or contact us at any time for more information.

agroverde is working together with the partner organisation RENZ in New Zealand: www.ruralexchange.co.nz

If you are interested in people with a lot of professional skills and practical experience, please contact us:

RENZ
P.O.Box 182
Kaiapoi
vicky@ruralexchange.co.nz
Phone: 03 3278421

or

agroverde gmbh
Kindhauserstrasse 3
8962 Bergdietikon
agroverde@agroverde.ch
Phone: 0041 44 742 13 25

We are looking forward to hearing from you and wish you all the best

Kind Regards
Hans-Peter and Stefan Brandenburger

agroverde gmbh
Hans-Peter & Stefan Brandenburger
Kindhauserstrasse 3
8962 Bergdietikon

Phone: 0041 44 742 13 25
Fax: 0041 44 742 31 69
agroverde@agroverde.ch
www.agroverde.ch