Doris Marcsik is working to make flowers more beautiful—and with Valentine’s Day around the corner, it’s a great time to consider purchasing local tropical flower varieties.

As a Research Horticulturist with the Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries, Doris is leading a product development team working on curcumas, which are ornamental flowering gingers known for their attractive, colourful displays.

Doris and her team are investigating production systems for growing curcumas in pots. The research has the potential to increase the value of the tropical flower industry by expanding the product range of new ornamental gingers and supplying high quality potted flowers.

“We’re sharing the results of our research with local commercial flower and nursery growers during a field day when they’ll see how stem length, colour and production can be affected by tailoring growing conditions both in the field and in pots,” said Ms Marcsik.

“There’s a strong financial incentive—as a cut flower, curcumas fetch around $2 each, but in a pot they can sell for up to $18.

“We have a field planting of a range of curcuma hybrids and some of these look promising as floriculture lines both for cut flowers and potted colour,” added Ms Marcsik.

The project is funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) and local wholesale nursery owner Simon Smith, an industry co-operator in the project.

“The department is getting some interesting results with research into potted curcumas, and I’m hoping that will translate into commercial success,” said Mr Smith, owner of The Plantsmith Nursery, a large wholesale operation in Darwin’s rural area.

Curcumas grow only in the wet season, and come in a wide variety of colours and forms. The collection of curcumas being trialled is from the department’s earlier ornamental ginger breeding work. In the previous decade, the department has released 16 improved commercial forms of curcumas to the local cut flower industry. Some of these are the result of crossing local native Curcuma australasica with overseas varieties.

The team’s research project to improve production of curcumas in pots will be completed in April.

For more information about the department’s work to improve tropical flower varieties, go to:
www.dpif.nt.gov.au/cutflowers

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Attachments

Two photos of flowering curcumas

Photo captions

Curcumas 1: DPIF Research Horticulturalist Doris Marcsik and Senior Technical Officer Chris Kuo inspect potted curcumas as part of a research project at Berrimah Farm

Curcumas 2: At Berrimah Farm, trials are underway to improve tropical flowering curcumas, which come in a wide variety of colours and forms

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Best regards,

Darrel Trueman | Communications Officer | Communications Unit
Providing services for
Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries | Department of Mines and Energy
Northern Territory Government
BAL Building, Berrimah Farm, Makagon Rd
GPO Box 3000, Darwin, NT 0801, Australia
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m. 0409 640 859
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e.  darrel.trueman@nt.gov.au
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