Introduction
Fleuroselect is delighted to invite you to its 8th Home Garden Conference that will take place on 21 & 22 September 2017 in Paris, France.
Introduction
The main theme of this year’s conference is the upcoming trend in Urban Gardening and what could be a more appropriate location than the fashionable centre of Paris where co-organiser French breeder H.M. Clause will present its Grand Jardin from a surprising rooftop location. H.M. Clause is specialised in breeding for both the professional and hobby garden market and the presentation will demonstrate how their vegetable and flower varieties can be used in truly urban setting.
To compliment the plants, we have invited a number of top speakers. This year’s keynote on Urban gardening will be given by the Dutch T.V. gardening personality Lodewijk Hoekstra who is also the face behind 247 Green an online web platform and community for information and inspiration on flowers, plants and outdoor living. From France we have three speakers, Ghislain Bousseau from the French Horticultural Bureau will cover the French market for flower & vegetable seed packets and young plants. Antoine Jacobsohn, curator at the famous Potager du Roi in Versailles will give his vision on plants in cities, past present and future and Isabelle Boucq will give an insight into the time-proven practice of horticultural therapy.
Our second visit will be to Jardin des Plants, Paris’ magnificent botanical garden on the banks of the Seine, where 110 varieties of Zinnia have been planted in a spectacular display planned to flower in September for our visit as part of the Year of the Zinnia. The garden boasts many other splendid plantings including a display of Fleuroselect winners and we will have a presentation on the importance of this garden for life in the city.
Of course, we are in Paris so we want to experience the city. After a typical French dinner in the Montmartre district we will stroll through this beautiful arrondissement to the magnificent Sacre Coeur where we can soak up the atmosphere, guided by our French hosts.
Hotel
The main hotel for the event is the Mercure Hotel near Montmartre, which is also the location for the Grand Jardin. The first day of presentations will be held in a Conference location in the vicinity. Accommodation has been reserved for all participants in the Mercure for the night of 21st September. Should you wish to arrive the day before then the shoulder night for the 20th September is bookable, but more expensive. We have therefore organised an additional and more affordable option for the night of 20th at the adjoining Ibis hotel. For those wishing to travel on the Thursday morning, we are starting the programme at 11.00 hours to allow you to take first flights or Thalys connections. The programme finishes after lunch on Friday.
Hotel rates
Mercure Hotel
EUR 225 for the night of 20th September including breakfast and tax, excl. city tax
EUR 150 for the night of 21st September including breakfast and tax, excl. city tax
Ibis Hotel
EUR 145 For the night of 20th September including breakfast and tax, excl. city tax
Note the different cancellation conditions for each hotel as stated on the booking forms. These should downloaded, completed and sent directly to the hotel to the Email address on the Booking Form.
Mercure Hotel Booking Form
Ibis Hotel Booking Form
Preliminary Programme
Thursday 21st September 2017
08:00 Early morning networking opportunities in Hotel Mercure
10:15 Depart on foot for Conference location Espace Batignolles
10:30 Coffee and Croissants at Espace Batignolles
11.00 Welcome & Introduction
Harm Custers – Chair Business Unit Home Gardening
Home Garden Association Presentation and Update Plant of the Year
David Arnold - Conference moderator
Session 1: The French market and Horticultural Therapy
11.30 The French market, flowers and vegetable seed packets and young plants, urban gardening and concept stores
Speaker: Ghislain Bousseau – Bureau Horticole Régional
12:30 Horticultural Therapy
Speaker : Isabelle Boucq
13:00 Lunch
Session 2: Urban Gardening
14:00 Urban Gardening
Keynote Speaker: Lodewijk Hoekstra
15:15 Our approach to the Home Garden Market and introduction to Le Grand Jardin
Speaker: Aline Tixerand – H.M. Clause
15:45 Return to Hotel on foot
16.00 Visit to HM.Clause Grand Jardin followed by Drinks Reception
17.45 Early evening networking opportunities in Hotel Mercure
19.00 Leave hotel on foot for dinner (2-3 min walking) Le Wepler restaurant
20.30 Evening walk to Montmartre
22.00 Arrive back at hotel
Friday 22nd September 2017
Session 3: Plants in the city and visit to Jardin des Plantes
08:00 Early morning networking
09:00 Bus to Jardins des Plantes
09:30 Visit to the garden and Zinnia Trials
10:30 Coffee Break
11.00 Introduction to Jardin des Plants (History, The Institution today, missions)
Speaker: François Saint Hillier – Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle
11.30 Useful and pleasant: plants in the city, yesterday, today, tomorrow
Speaker: Antoine Jacobsohn – Potager du Roi de Versailles
12.30 Rendez-vous for lunch at Grande Mosquée de Paris
14.00 Bus drop at metro station or return to hotel
Speakers
Conference Moderator
David Arnold, Owner David Arnold & Associates Ltd., United Kingdom
David has worked in FMCG sales & marketing ever since leaving full time education and was Retail Sales & Marketing Director for Suttons Seeds, a post he has held since 1988 until March 2013 when he left the company to establish his own Marketing & Sales Development Services Consultancy, David Arnold & Associates Ltd. based in the beautiful Devon countryside in the south-west of England.
David has a passion for the Garden Industry spanning more than 30 years and he firmly believes that good market knowledge, continuous product and marketing innovation, and excellent customer service are the keys to the continued success for any business.
Subject: The French market, flowers and vegetable seed packets and young plants, urban gardening and concept stores
Speaker: Ghislain Bousseau, Bureau Horticole Régional, France
Ghislain Bousseau is a communication advisor at the Bureau Horticole Régional. He’s in charge of the communication of the tradeshow Salon du Végétal, the main French trade fair dedicated to plants, gardening and landscaping. Responsible for BHR’s external communications, Ghislain conducts many projects in the French horticultural landscape.
Subject: Horticultural Therapy
Speaker: Isabelle Boucq, freelance journalist and horticultural therapist, France
As a journalist, Isabelle Boucq has been writing about high-tech and innovation for French and American media for over 20 years. In 2010, she discovered horticultural therapy while living in California and trained with the Horticultural Therapy Institute. Her next step was to start a blog about the topic. Since 2012, Le Bonheur est dans le jardin has become a major source of information for French-speaking people wanting to start and run a therapeutic garden, bringing them examples and testimonials from all types of medical and non-medical establishments in France and around the world. She is currently finishing a master’s degree in clinical psychology.
https://lebonheurestdanslejardin.org/
Subject: Keynote Speaker - Urban Gardening
Speaker: Lodewijk Hoekstra, Gardening Broadcaster, The Netherlands
Lodewijk Hoekstra is a man on a mission; he unites people and nature and strives to create a sustainable, balanced-out world. He is in favour of using sustainable plants and materials and promotes the use of greenery in a healthy living environment. In 2012, he founded NL Greenlabel together with Nico Wissing. Together, they develop entire residential areas and commercial grounds in a green, sustainable way.
Furthermore, Lodewijk is a renown broadcaster on Dutch television. From 2004 until 2015, he presented a programme for garden lovers ‘Eigen Huis and Tuin’, as well as his own format Green-Kids. As of April, Lodewijk is presenting ‘Groene Handen’, the first green TV show aiming at inspiring with sustainable gardening in The Netherlands.
Subject: HM.CLAUSE’s Approach to the Home Garden Market and Introduction to Le Grand Jardin
Speaker: Aline Tixerand, HM.CLAUSE, France
Aline Tixerand is French, she has spent a lot of time abroad and lived in the US, The Netherlands, Germany, UK and Belgium. With her agronomical engineering education she has been working for HM.Clause for 7 years. Since 2016 she is area manager for Clause Home Garden and is working with North American and European customers. She has strong technical skills as she started her carrier working with vegetable growers. To that expertise she adds a true customer focused vision and also brings a lot of dynamism to the Clause Home garden team!
Aline shares her free time between hiking, travelling and of course gardening.
Subject: Introduction to Jardin des Plantes
Speaker: François Saint-Hillier, Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle, France
François Saint-Hillier has a passion for tropical plants ever since childhood. Therefore, after years spent teaching languages and working as a freelance translator in the UK, he has chosen to retrain in botanical horticulture. He has worked towards obtaining a diploma in general horticulture followed by the ‘Botanical garden horticulturalist’ specialisation, during which he had the opportunity to train in the French Riviera’s main exotic botanic gardens.
He then moved on to work in a botanical garden dedicated to the flora of New-Zealand before being invited to join the horticultural team working on jardin des plantes’ tropical collections.
Most of his time is dedicated to the cultivation and multiplication of New-Caledonian endemic species as well as specimens collected all over the tropics by our field botanists for research purposes. The day to day challenge of cultivating species for which no cultivation guides have ever been produced is what François finds the most rewarding.
Subject: Useful and pleasant : plants in the city - yesterday, today, tomorrow
Speaker: Antoine Jacobsohn, Potager du Roi de Versailles, France
Antoine Jacobsohn was born in the United States to European parents and studied agronomy at Cornell University / CALS. He then pursued graduate work on the history of food production and consumption at the University of Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint Denis and at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Between 1993 and 2000, he actively collected tools, historical documents and ethnographic interviews concerning the market gardeners of the Parisian region. He also participated in the French national inventory of culinary heritage, concentrating on fruits and vegetables. He then became responsible for the library and resource centre of the French national horticulture society. He began work at the King’s kitchen garden of Versailles in 2004 and became director in 2007. This 22 acre garden, a national historic monument, is under the administration of the Ecole nationale supérieure de paysage.