Andy Warren of Bloomz
November 22, 2005
Tauranga Firm Hits Gold With Black Calla Lily
A Tauranga company has brought home a top international award for a unique black calla lily it bred and developed.
Bloomz New Zealand won the award for best flower from a bulb or tuber from the International Hortifair in Amsterdam for
its patented variety Hot Chocolate®.
Managing Director, Andy Warren, said, "This award is recognition of a very special flower, and is a great launchpad for
other new calla varieties. It also helps to maintain New Zealand's reputation for innovation and excellence in the
flower export business. We're delighted."
This is the latest in a string of successes for Hot Chocolate® against top international competition. The flower's first
major win was the award of merit at Royal Horticultural Society's world-famous Chelsea flower show in 2003, followed
later that year by its first award from the International Hortifair. In 2004 it was voted best new fresh cut flower at
the Wholesale Florist and Florist Supplier Association Floral Expo in Atlanta, USA.
ENDS
Note to editors:
1. Bloomz is a leading New Zealand floriculture company specializing in Zantedeschia (coloured calla lilies),
Sandersonia and other exotic species such as Phormium. It breeds and produces high health tissue culture, bulbs and
tubers and has established relationships with wholesale customers and commercial growers around the world. Bloomz is the
only New Zealand bulb exporter fully accredited by the New Zealand Government Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
2. Hot Chocolate® is grown commercially in New Zealand as a cut flower and a pot plant.
3. The International Hortifair is the world's biggest horticulture trade show, held annually in Amsterdam, the
Netherlands, at the hub of the global flower industry and attracting over 51,000 horticulture professionals from more
than 100 countries.