Garden retailers chose their 15 favorite new plants and products at this year's horticulture show in Columbus, Ohio.
The Retailers' Choice Awards were presented to 15 exhibitors at Cultivate'22 in Columbus, Ohio, last week. Organized by The Garden Center Group's Danny Summers, the annual awards program recognizes garden retailers' selections of the best new plants and products to bring excitement and interest to their stores in the coming season.
Monstera obliqua from Aroid Greenhouses
This unique form of monstera features the most extreme leaf opening, often described as "more holes than leaf." The plant often features 90% holes and only 10% leaf.
Hydrangea 'Pop Star' from Bailey Nurseries
New to the Endless Summer family is a beautiful lacecap hydrangea that's one of the earliest to bloom with a compact habit loaded with flowers. 'Pop Star' is easy to grow and well-suited for both landscapes and containers.
Bamboo stakes and displays from Bamboo Supply Company
Judges spotted the variety of sizes, shapes and display options from Bamboo Supply Company. Along with typical stakes, the company offers a compact display plus a variety of shapes and sizes of trellis, and a 100% natural plant tag holder available in 6, 10.5 and 15 inch sizes. The solid bamboo stakes have a notch to securely hold tags with 5mm holes.
Deer and small animal repellents from Bobbex
Bobbex repellents are eco-friendly, so they're safe for plants, people, pets and wildlife. The long-lasting protein-based formula won't wash off in rain or snow. Bobbex lasts for weeks during growth seasons, and even longer during dormant seasons. It's easy to apply and good for plants, flowers and bulbs so over-spraying is never a worry.
SUS tee Aquameter from Cabinotier
At first glance, the SUS tee Aquameter appears to be a marking pen or marker, but instead it is one of the most unique way of managing water for your plants with no batteries required. Its unique wick detects moisture near the bottom and slowly turns the indicator near the top blue when plenty of moisture is available and turns white when the plant needs more water. SUS tee is available in three sizes.
Caterpillar Candy Series from Centerton Nursery
With the important task of supporting pollinators, Centerton Nursery has introduced a creative message and selection of plants that Caterpillars love. It’s called Caterpillar Candy and includes a selected number of Asclepias (milkweed) in colorful 4-inch pots with great graphics. If you look closely at the photo on the left, you can see a caterpillar on this plant just above the tag!
Delphinium 'Red Lark' from Darwin Perennials
This exciting new coral-red delphinium has a sturdy upright habit that makes it great in the garden and as a cut flower. This variety is sterile and will not reseed.
Delosperma 'DeGherkin' by Dümmen Orange
Also known as the ‘pickle plant’, the Delosperma 'DeGherkin' features touchable, fuzzy foliage on small pickle-like foliage. ‘DeGherkin’ looks great in containers and baskets displaying a mounding to trailing habit. Accented by small yellow flowers, ‘DeGherkin’ makes an indoor foliage statement standing alone or placed in collections.
Colocasia 'Polargreen' by Gardenworld-Growing Colors/2 Plant
This is the first-ever colocasia that hardy to Zone 5. Polargreen features medium green leaves with pink stems. Its mature height is 3-5 feet. This elephant ear does not produce a bulb.
Hawaii Palm (Brighamia insignis) by Northland Floral
The Hawaiian Palm (Brighamia insignis) can only be found in the wild on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. It has become nearly extinct and despite the difficulties of natural cultivation in the wild, it can be commercially produced through seed and tissue culture. With proper care the Brighamia can produce yellow star-shaped flowers that can last up to several weeks. The leaves will fall off once a year and will leave scarring on the trunk which shows the new growth A new canopy will soon start to bud. These palms are relatively easy to take care of.
Aquapots Kits by Proven Winners
Proven Winners and Aquapots’ creator Jack Barnwell have designed kits to fit standard pots. Many have loved the original Aquapots with its unique water reservoir design. And now they are introducing several sizes of Aquapots Kits designed to fit into standard pots, even square ones. The reservoir is self-contained and features an extendable fill tube to adjust for the height of the pot. Watch the Proven Winners website for details on availability for 2023.
Automatic Handheld Shovel by Rotoshovel
Judges were drawn to this new handheld battery-operated digging tool. Rotoshovel comes with its own case, charger and replaceable 12-volt battery. Extra batteries are also available. Rotoshovel comes in two sizes.
Sedum 'Little Shimmer' by SelectaOne
This new annual sedum has a lot to catch your eye. Its small heart-shaped leaves have a shimmer of light green with some darker variations. It also develops delicate small flowers. This low-maintenance, drought-tolerant groundcover of 2-3" height and 5-7" spread has a trailing habit which is wonderful for hanging baskets or containers as well.
Calibrachoa Million Bells 'Orangina' by Suntory Flowers
Suntory brings a new color to the Million Bells series in 2023 with Orangina, named after the popular orange drink. Orangina has been popular internationally since it was introduced in France in 1936. It is a blend of three citrus juices, mandarin orange pulp, sparkling water. Suntory Flowers’ parent company, Suntory Holdings, is part owner of Pepsi Bottling Ventures, which produces Orangina in North America.
New organic plant foods by We The Wild Plant Care
Judges quickly recognized this new line of organic plant food and protect spray for its new clean look. It originated in Australia but is now made in the USA. These products are 100% organic with up to 3 billion microbes per tsp. Products include an 8 oz. Grow Concentrate, 17oz. Protect Spray with Neem and 14 oz. Enrich Power. They also offer a kit containing all three products.
Al Martin shared advice on how to find quality candidates from outside of the horticulture industry.
Given the growing number of horticulture operations that are struggling to find employees in the current labor shortage, it was no surprise that Al Martin’s presentation “Hiring from outside of the horticulture industry” was packed at Cultivate’22.
Finding people with horticulture skills is becoming harder and harder. And it’s difficult for growers to find candidates with the experience that they want, so, according to Martin, growers have to change their idea of what the ideal candidate looks like and be ready and willing to train people. Instead of just looking at hard skills, Martin says that employers also need to look at soft skills and good attitude. After all, hard skills can be taught, but soft skills can’t.
But how can growers find and attract these candidates from outside of the horticulture industry? Martin outlined several steps, including expanding job postings to include people with broader customer service experience, as well as finding multiple places to post a job advertisement.
As he’s recruited employees for green industry operations, Martin has found that restaurant workers tend to perform well in the horticulture industry, thanks to their people skills, communication skills and work ethic.
Martin explained how he always looks for potential employees when he’s out in public, be it at a restaurant or anywhere he’s interacting with service workers. When he encounters someone he thinks will do well, he’ll let them know he’s hiring and that he noticed their customer service skills. When interviewing a candidate from outside of the industry, Martin said it’s important to explain the job thoroughly, so the candidate knows exactly what they’re getting into. During this interview stage, Martin also said it’s crucial to be flexible, especially with younger candidates. Today, many people, but especially younger people, want to maintain a work-life balance, and being flexible in the hiring process can help attract these candidates, especially those who may only want to work part-time.
But what happens after the new employee joins the team? Martin explained the importance of having a good onboarding and training process, as most employee turnover happens during the first six months to a year. Because of this, it’s important to train new employees well and make sure they don’t leave. Martin said this process should include check-ins with the new employee every 30, 60 and 90 days to make sure they’re feeling good about their progress and their place in the company.
People attending the session also shared their own insights on hiring new employees. Here are some examples of recruitment strategies that people had success with:
The plant classes of note for 2023 are amaryllis, celosia, broccoli, orchid, rudbeckia and spirea.
National Garden Bureau, the non-profit organization promoting gardening in North America on behalf of the horticulture industry and its members, just rolled out all six of the 2023 “Year of the” plant classes last week at Cultivate’22.
For the bulb crop, 2023 will be the Year of the Amaryllis.
For annuals, 2023 will be the Year of the Celosia.
For edibles, 2023 will be the Year of the Broccoli.
For houseplants, 2023 will be the Year of the Orchid.
For perennials, 2023 will be the Year of the Rudbeckia.
For flowering shrubs, 2023 will be the Year of the Spirea.
The “Year of the” program chooses crops specifically for the North American market that are easy to grow, genetically diverse and with a lot of new breeding to showcase. Breeders, brokers, seed companies, growers and garden centers throughout the U.S. and Canada are urged to highlight these flowers and plants when planning their marketing for the 2023 season as the publicity generated from this program is substantial.
By November 1, 2022, National Garden Bureau will have photos of numerous varieties of all six crops (provided by NGB members) posted on the NGB website. NGB also provides PDF’s of fact sheets, flyers, handouts, signage, poster, PowerPoint presentations, etc. After November 1, all of the above can be downloaded at no charge from the NGB website. These tools will help the North American home garden industry promote these non-branded, non-specific varieties to consumers and encourage gardening with these interesting crop classes.
Simendinger's new role at Eason Horticultural Resources (EHR) will be marketing and media specialist.
Eason Horticultural Resources (EHR) announces the promotion of Lauren Simendinger to the position of Marketing and Media Specialist. Simendinger has been an employee of EHR for 8 years, working in the company’s Perennial Department as a Sales Support Specialist. In this time, she has been instrumental in producing its annual reports, such as the EHR Hot New Perennials and New Variety Lookbook publications, as well as providing numerous marketing pieces. She brings 12 years of design and digital media experience to her new position.
EHR represents over 400 vendors and breeders and provides sales support to over 40 national sales representatives. The company’s goal is to strategically promote and support these integral members through marketing and media efforts. In this new position, Simendinger will further propel this goal by planning, executing and managing all promotional material, both digital and print, and marketing EHR initiatives, programs and events. This opportunity will help EHR continue to drive and manage its marketing and business development efforts.
For more information, please visit http://www.ehrnet.com.
Connecting to the younger generation by informing them that people who work in art, science, technology and business have a place in the horticulture industry.
At Cultivate’22, Jazmin Albarran, Executive Director of Seed Your Future, spoke on the importance of educating the younger generation of the vast job opportunities within the horticulture industry.
“I truly believe plants impact our physical, mental and emotional health,” Albarran said. “We are a movement, and our mission is to promote horticulture and inspire people to pursue careers working with plants and flowers in different capacities. It’s not just about the people growing plants, but it’s also the HR, accounting, graphic design, marketing, academia and stats. There’s so much you can do, but people are not aware of that.”
Through the research Seed Your Future conducted, they learned that in middle school students start thinking about who they want to be when they grow up, so Seed Your Future is focusing their efforts on reaching the middle school to college age groups.
“In my year at Seed Your Future, I keep hearing people telling students about the importance of being in nature and growing things, but it stops there,” Albarran said. “I’m not hearing many people say ‘and you can work in this industry. You can be a part of this industry.’”
Seed Your Future provides a toolkit for educators to access and use through the BLOOM! scholastic site. There are lessons, activities and digital learning for grades 6-8. The goal is to reach middle-schoolers and inspire their interest in plants and plant careers.
Seed Your Future also provides a list of 146 different horticultural career profiles, scholarships, internships, horticulture camps and information on where to study based on the chosen career. Any business in the industry, no matter how big or small, can send in their internship or scholarship, and Seed Your Future will list it on their website.
All the resources that Seed Your Future offers is free and available for anyone to use. “We want you to use our videos and put them in newsletters,” Albarran said. “We want you to link out to our 100 plus career profiles. Use our martials to reach more people and let people in your community know that we are here, and these careers are here. … We envision a nation where everybody understands the value and importance of plants.”
Through awareness, education, workforce development and partnerships, Seed Your Future is promoting the horticulture industry and inspiring the younger generation to pursue careers working with plants. For more information, visit SeedYourFuture.org.