Valleybrook Gardens hosting tour of Australia for green industry professionals

For more than a decade, Valleybrook Gardens, which has facilities in British Columbia and Ontario, Canada, has organized tours at nurseries, garden centers and botanic gardens around the world. This year, owners John and Kelly Schroeder are planning a two-week trip to the land down under.

“Travel is one of the things that I really enjoy doing. I love to see different parts of the world, and I love to experience new things,” John Schroeder says. “There is so much you can learn from the way people do things in other countries. Some of the garden centers we’ve seen in Europe and South Africa are just amazing in terms of what they’ve been able to accomplish.”

The Schroeders started the tours in 2001 and have been to a variety of places, from Chile to Italy to Japan to New Zealand.

Each year, they invite horticulture industry professionals such as owners of nurseries, garden centers or landscape design companies to join, and usually they have a dozen or more people sign up.

John Schroeder said there are still spots available for this year’s trip to Australia, set for Oct. 21 to Nov. 2, 2013. The couple organizes the tours and lodging each year (attendees book their own travel to get there) and the 2013 tour includes stops in Sydney, Melbourne, the Blue Mountains, Tasmania and the Yarra Valley wine region.

“Australia is such a cool, iconic destination. I’m just excited to finally be able to get there,” Schroeder said. “We travel a lot. A lot of that time is on our own, but some of the most fun and memorable travel experiences I’ve had have been these groups.” 

To find out more details about the trip, visit the Valleybrook website http://www.valleybrook.com/tourdocuments.html and contact John Schroeder at 800 824-1120 or js@valleybrook.com.
 

Photo from Valleybrook Gardens New Zealand tour courtesy of John Schroeder.