In 1974, Folsom area nurseries were visited by a tour group from New Zealand. Click on the images below to make them larger.
New Zealanders Tour Folsom Nurseries
Over 20 nurserymen from New Zealand visited the Folsom area nursery industry Friday, touring a number of nurseries there and talking with St. Tammany and Washington Parish growers.
The group arrived in New Orleans Thursday and spent the day Friday going from nursery to nursery aboard a Greyhound bus. They enjoyed a picnic lunch at Windmill Nurseries, north of Folsom on La. 25, meeting with the major nurserymen of the area.
Accompanying the group was Johnny Bankston, local county agent for the LSU Cooperative Extension Service. The trip from New Zealand had been arranged by the New Zealand Nurserymen's Association and was the latest in several fact finding missions to the United States. Since New Zealand and the U. S. have similar climates, the nurserymen of both nations are exchanging ideas and trying new varieties of plants.
George Rainey was leading the group on the tour, being the past president of the New Zealand Nurseryman's Association. He said the group had already visited San Francisco and were to travel on to visit Miami, Chicago and Los Angeles to study various phases of the industry.
In St. Tammany Parish, they visited Casadaban Nurseries, Mid South Turf Farm, Mizell's Container Yards, Folsom Nursery, as well as Windmill. Among the local nurserymen who greeted them were Fred Yates, Martin Bachemin, Jim Mizell, Johnny Byrd, Harold Henderson, Vic Sharp, Buster Mizell, Sherwood Loyd, Dennis McCloskey, Clarence Mizell, Renee Casadaban, Price Magee, Ronnie Casadaban, John Hunger-ford, Clea Boudreaux and a number of their wives.
McCloskey was representing the Louisiana Nurseryman's Association as president and also as vice president of the Southeast Louisiana Nurseryman's Association. Vic Sharp is president of the regional group, while Bachemin is treasurer, Mrs. McCloskey is recording secretary and Mrs. 'Leatte Mizell is corresponding secretary.
Others present at the lunch were Bud Bonner, Margine Jenkins. Dr. B. W. Wascom of LSU and Dr. Jim Foret, dean of agriculture at LSU. Dr. Foret is state executive secretary of the nurseryman's association.
Rainey told the group of New Zealand's efforts at diversity, saying that cattle and sheep raising is its main industry, while timber and pulp production is the fastest growing enterprise. The 21 visiting nurserymen represented wholesale, retail, merchandisers and apprentices in the nursery industry there.
Rainey also reported that the most popular bushes there are roses, camellias, azaleas and hibiscus. Home gardening has become extremely popular in the last few years, he said, with many of the flowers that grow wild here in the states of high value to a gardener there. Two years ago, the New Zealand group took an eight week tour of European nurseries and since then has put to good use the knowledge gathered there.
St. Tammany Farmer THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1974
