NEW WATER GARDENING PRODUCTS FOR 2009: NEW PUMPS, FILTERS, WATERFALLS, ACCESSORIES AND POND TREATMENTS

With a recession looming  and consumers ever more cautious about spending money on anything but the essentials of life, the capacity for manufacturers of water garden goods to create innovative and useful products is put to test, but this is when the real need to be inspirational and inventive is never more important. Value for money is the main perogative, but more value should not mean lowering the standards of quality of a product and its means of production.

Late September is the time of year where the great and the good from the horticultural manufacturing, retail and landscaping trades gather together to look at what is new on offer and to make deals for the coming Part of this year's display from Oasisseason. Two vast exhibitions are held one after the other, one in Cologne at the huge Messe exhibiton centre called GAFA, followed by the English equivalent is GLEE that takes up 8 of the enormous halls of the NEC near Birmingham. The Editor of Water Gardener Magazine was there at the NEC for three days and still he didn't get to see everything. The numbers of companies eager to show their wares were down on past years and so were the numbers of visitors, but trading seemed active and vibrant and I suspect the deals made were positive and lucrative.

To encourage innovation amongst the exhibitors there are the Glee Awards, an expansion of the show’s highly respected Glee New Product awards, an expert panel of garden centre and retail managers, journalists and industry specialists deliberated across the eleven Glee New Product and four new Glee Retail award categories.

New product considerations included innovation; design and originality; market potential, quality,environmental impact and value for money, with categories comprising  Garden Care, Garden Machinery, Nursery, Outdoor Living, Pet, Aquatic, Landscaping, Home & Gift, Green and an overall ‘Special’ category. The award for innovation in the aquatic industry went to:

AquaHydotech - EcoPond Tadpole Food, a vegetable-based food for tadpoles (RRP £5.99)

Although this was a small product, it seemed to reflect an increasing
awareness in the word of water gardening of the 'natural' status that
ponds develop and also the importance water gardens have in the
wildlife garden.

For more details about the GLEE awards CLICK HERE .

For news on the new pumps, filters and waterfalls that will be
avaiable next year, series of news items will follow this one shortly.