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".