The GSHE Report 2011

Holly and I headed to Mobile, Alabama on Monday January 17th for the GSHE Show that ran Thursday and Friday that week. We decided to drive to save money since the flights were crazy expensive! We left early because we had a Southern Living Grower meeting on Wednesday so we needed Tuesday to set up our awesome booth. Our theme was punk 80's, Stacy was rockin' out in her Carex 'Frosty Curls' skirt.


The booth got setup without any issues, I was happy about this since we did not have time to set it up before leaving as half was sent direct from MANTS, so I was hoping we brought all of the pieces!


The next day our meeting with the Southern Living Grower Group went well and the plant collection sales are getting stronger, which is great since we propagate 4 of the plants in the collection, not to mention all of the perennials! I have to thank Flowerwood and PDSI for the wonderful hospitality, which included the best lunch ever! My diet was blown but at least that meal made it worth it! That night was the traditional party that is catered by Ruossos, if you like seafood then this is the best. Holly and I don't care for it much and I am allergic to most of it so we headed to our favorite bar food joint, Heros. Fried food heaven! Since the diet was already blown I might as well really go over the top! We called it an early night so we would be fresh for the first day of the show. On Thursday the show started and we were so busy I hardly ever had a chance to sit down, the day passed very quickly and we did very well. In the evening we went to dinner with Ralph and Patti Rushing, Ralph is the inventor of Harbor Belle Nandina. We ate at Nojas, very good stuff, best lemon drops ever! After dinner we stopped at Haleys so Ralph could play a game of pool. It was about eleven when I called it a night, gettin' old! Friday was another good day, busy again, I am looking forward to spring, things are starting to move, excitement is in the air!


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Location:Mobile, Alabama

The MANTS Report 2011

Holly and I just got back from Baltimore on Friday and I am feeling pleasantly positive about the show. The attitudes seemed much better than last year and we even wrote a few orders! The show was very busy as usual but for us the traffic is wrong, the problem is that mostly landscapers walk the show. It is for this reason we walk the show ourselves to see our customers since most have booths at the show, otherwise we would never see them! It is ok though, we left Stacy in charge when we left, and she is quite the attention getter! This show we stuck with our 80s theme, fluorescent colors oh yes! We didn't want anyone to miss us now! We originally thought to change it up and build Stacy a feather boa made of Carex 'Frosty Curls'. On set up day we started putting it together and the grass was so long it started looking like a tu tu so anyway we went with the idea.


The only bad thing was all the guys checking Stacy out, come on she's a manequin! If that weren't bad enough I had four comments to the effect that I should be wearing the skirt and we could get a whole lot more business, jeeezz, one does not have to speak exactly what ones thinks, especially at a tradeshow! I digress. Wednesday night we went to dinner with Flowerwood Nursery and Peter from Plantip. Da Mimmos, need I say more, yummmmmm!


During the tradeshow we also had several inquires through email on orders, so we were feeling good. Now we just have to hire more people to plant all these orders! Also we heard many people mentioning plant shortages, even on the elevator at the hotel several people mentioning selling out,that is when I promptly mentioned we had liners! I guess on one negative note we did not sell our liners that we brought to the show. We thought we had it pre sold but I think he did not like the mix, probably wanted more Nandinas, I can't bring a whole booth of Nandinas anymore because that is not all we sell! We turned a negative into a positive and gave half to our neighbors, who had been in love with them the whole show. We would have given him the whole thing but he flew and he had a friend that could fit one box that drove. So Holly walked the show and found a lady from Riverbend that wanted the other half. We hope they end up liking them and come back for more! Once the show was over it only took us about 45 minutes to completely break down, amazing how fast it can all come down! Then off to the hotel to get our luggage then to the airport to catch our flight back, I was looking forward for some of that 70 degree weather. I also needed to get some sleep, I signed up for an 80 mile mountain bike race the next day that was a three hour drive from the house and it started at 7:30, eekk! I did make my race, finished it and yes it hurt a lot! But wow what a great way to work off all that good food I ate in Baltimore! So my final words are "Time to PLANT".