Happy Anniversary Wade!
Well, YES – I do – tomorrow – 30th March – is infact our WEDDING ANNIVERSARY – we would have been married 14 years – and all 14 of those years he has been the BEST ROSE GROWER I have known! LOL – He is going to be so embarassed by this blog – because although he grows the most beautiful roses he is not a mooshey, soppy type of guy & not at all romantic either – he is your typical blokey-bloke who loves rugby, golf and ALL sport for that matter and a few beers with his mates. However, he is a great Dad & Husband – and the best hydroponic rose grower – and this is because he consistently produces the finest roses especially with the equipment that we have got. Although we have fairly good greenhouses – he doesn’t have all the “bells & whistles” & the latest & greatest equipment (especially no hydronic heating) available to grow the roses – but he does a pretty remarkable job none-the-less – producing the quality of roses he does WITHOUT using any harsh pesticides or chemicals.
Hydroponic rose production – is not a walk in the park or “rose garden” for that matter – Wade doesn’t wear dungerees or a straw hat and go out in the back yard or paddock and just prune a few rose blooms here & there and sell them. He runs 6000m2 of twin-skinned poly-greenhouses, with 44, 000 rose bushes all highly bred for production, colour, longevity, length of stem, resistance to disease, etc, etc and particularly fussy in being kept at optimum conditions. He programmes the computer controller which obviously controlls the greenhouses when to open & close the vents, the angle of the vent opening & which direction they must face to avoid headwinds or dangerous gusts, he decides when the ventilations fans should go on, the shade screens open and close & when the gas heating will operate, he determines the fertilizer feed and when & how the crop is fed, Wade decides the irrigation & fertigation cycles & the frequency & length of each feed & cycle. Always making sure pH & EC’ s are correct & the plants are getting the optimum growing conditions. Wade directs all the bio-control programmes and does all the crop scouting & monitoring. He harvests, suckers (disbuds), folds (bends), prunes and maintains all the rose bushes as well as being the managing director of the entire business & all the staff – thus, dealing with the finances, human resources, marketing, sales and business & strategy planning – even making the “hot marketing & sales manager” a cup of tea now & again – LOL. So Wade Mann is an extremely vital part in our business and not just the simple rose grower that most people believe. Yes, Wade can tell you more about the weather in terms of light, temperature, humidity & wind speed than most weathermen will ever do – he could teach you more chemistry, botany, entemology and biology than most specialists could especially in a practical sense. So never underestimate the “humble blokey-bloke who only grows hydroponic roses” – yes! and he is environmentally conscious & aware – he wants our children & their children to enjoy a healthy & sustainable environment. Plus, he is community orientated having coached rugby union for 6 years now & given up of his time to give back to the community in which we live. He has rallied for our Gosford Horticultural Research Centre based at Narara in NSW parliament & was an active member of the Roses & Gerbera Integrated Pest Management group – and he still only uses bio-control & bio-rationals to keep any pests and diseases under control. He has stuck & been committed to the programme whilst other growers have dropped out because doing it “clean & green” wasn’t so easy!
So yes – I am so proud of him . So here’s to Wade – my husband & passionate rose grower extra-ordinaire. He literally lives, eats, sleeps and breathes ROSES and it shows in his roses – so thank-you Wade for giving so many people such immense pleasure with the beautiful ROSES you grow day in & day out and year in and year out and thank-you for INSPIRING our whole team here at A Dozen Roses & Roses2Go to go that extra mile to be different and dedicated to the WORLD OF ROSES and great quality roses guaranteed to last 7 days but all grown using the latest environmentally-friendly cultivation techniques. Without your incredible knowledge, experience and PASSION for GREAT QUALITY ROSES – Roses2Go & A Dozen Roses would be NOTHING! Thank-you for 14 years of marriage & being the BEST ROSE GROWER EVER! Happy Anniversary to the BEST Australian Rose Grower I know!
As Wade says “We want to change the way you FEEL NATURALLY with our roses!” BRAVO !
I attach a few photos of Wade at work in HIS beautiful roses – where is happiest!