Just Growin'

IPPS 2011 Annual Meeting, Valdosta, GA! Part Two

2011-11-03T13:58:00.000-07:00

So I did this in two parts, mainly because I needed a break from all the writing, hehe! But also because anyone reading it probably would need a break too! The second day of the conference was all talks, a little different than the traditional IPPS conference since the places to tour were all far away it was best to do tours all day then talks all day. The one talk that really stuck out to me was Dr. John Ruter's on Tea-oil Camellia: A New Edible Oil Crop for the U.S. I never knew this could be an edible crop! It was interesting that the crop could produce that much oil. After a long day of talks it was time to unwind for the Banquet and Plant Auction. The food was good...I see a trend here...and the auction went well. The next day brought on more tours...yippee! First up was Monrovia Nursery. I was excited to see this one since they usually do a great job, plus they are customers of ours, maybe I would see some babies all grown up! I did not see any of my babies and the one thing that really stuck out was how empty they were. Because of the economy they had really scaled back with lots of empty beds around the nursery. As we were touring we got to see their super secret trimming machine in action.

Top Secret Machine..get too close and get shot! j/k!

I really want one of these for liners, I know they make them but they are pretty pricy! This machine used to be secret but now it is not so much since they got a patent on it. The other thing I noticed was the way nurseries loaded trucks in this area, I am in the liner business so maybe I am out of the loop but it seems most nurseries in the Texas market use rolling racks.

Plants ready to ship.

Then they had different ways to load trucks with a pallet style rack that could be loaded into a soft side trailer. Much easier in loading and unloading as long as the customer had the equipment to unload the order.

Nice and neat, ready for delivery

Lastly we got to see the water recycling at this location which is very well thought out. It has many holding ponds so that each step the water becomes cleaner with the use of gravity to settle thing and water plants to use excess nitrogen.

Clean water here

After the tour we grabbed a boxed lunch and got on the buses to head to Clinton Nurseries.

Wagons ready to roll!

This is where Kay Phelps works so it was nice to see. First off we got to see their pruning machine in action...again I need something like this for liners!

Pruning machine at work!

The thing I noticed here was that they had really nice blocks of Juniper. Being alot of the nurseries are really close together we were able to just stay on the wagon to skip over to May Nursery.

Police escort from Clinton Nurseries to May Nursery

This was another nursery I looked forward to seeing since they are a customer of ours. Babies....Where are y'all? May Nursery was really nice and had a really good looking drainage system.

May Nursery Watering Hole

Oh the things you drool about when the system you have in non existent! Richard, send me some of those pipes!!! May Nursery had a nice mix of product, I especially enjoyed the fields of Nandinas!

My babies all grown up!

After our tour at May we headed off to Hackney, hey guess what another customer...exciting! We got the grand tour from George, well my wagon did.

George Hackney gives us the grand tour

Wow, that is ALOT of Knockout roses.

I'm gonna Knock you out...

Now I know there are some Nandinas there! George assured me they were and looked good, we just did not drive by them on the tour...well I'll be darned!

Robot Wars!!!

The coolest thing we saw was the robot that spaced plants...I for sure need one of these, it needs to plant, trim, spray, water and most importantly do all of that and leave me alone! yes! After another great tour it was off to Tallahassee Nursery, wee, that is like spelling Mississippi, did I get it right? What a great looking retail nursery, a person could lose themselves there!

I don't like birds but I really like this birdhouse!

We had dinner here, fried seafood, yum! After dinner was the ice cream social and question box. I was suprised the question box did not get too heated in discussion, perhaps everyone was in an ice cream haze and ready for night night time.

Ted pouting because he didn't get enough ice cream, haha!

Luckily we had bus drivers to get us home!

IPPS 2011 Annual Meeting, Valdosta, GA! Part One

2011-11-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

After almost a month of being back in the office it was time to get away again. This time I was off to Valdosta, GA for the Annual IPPS Meeting. I have honestly never heard of Valdosta so I was ready for the adventure. IPPS is the International Plant Propagator Society. Yes, the ultimate in plant nerdiness!!! People talking plants all day, touring places with plants all days, bidding wars at plant auction...plants selling for over $200.00 a piece...a plant lovers dream! I flew into Valdosta Saturday, a bit on the early side since it was really the only flight available! This gave me plenty of time to leisurely make my way to the hotel then off the the conference center to check on the plant babies I sent for the auction. The plant babies came out pretty good, a little tumbled but I don't usually pack one gallons, perhaps I will do a better job next time! The flat of mixed succulents came in very nice though!

My beautiful babies...BUY ME!!!

Alan Shapiro of Grandiflora Nursery ended up winning these, I think for around $50-$60, what a steal! After everything was unpacked it was off to the hotel for some down time, a movie, a nap, then a workout. IPPS is a pretty intense meeting with very little downtime so I figured I better get a little in before everything started the next day. The first day started bright and early with a board meeting at 6:00 AM!!!! Definitely early for me, I used to wake up early to teach 5:30 spin classes...now I have converted to a night owl, staying up till midnight, it is so hard to wake up now! After the board meeting it was off to the buses for our first day of tours, this is my favorite part of IPPS!!!

The first stop was Tobe Gardens. This is a family owned garden that was started in the 70's but the bulk of it started getting built around 1993. It was interesting but it was mostly trees and large shrubs in a more native looking planting. I really like gardens that are more formal..but that is just my personal opinion. There were some interesting building and sculptures around that were all hand built by the Tobe family. The temple was the most interesting, it must have been really hard to build! It was a great place for a group photo!

IPPS Southern Region goes to Nepal!

The next stop was Superior Trees. This was an interesting operation because I had never seen so many field grown tree liners. in fact I thought at first the trees were grasses because they had said they grew grasses. Turns out they were thousands of Longleaf Pine seedlings. This operation was 120 acres in productions with 196 total acres. It was started in 1953 by St. Regis Paper Company. They grow about 4 million bareroot seedling a year and have over 300 varieties.

Not grass, these are trees!

We got back on the bus and were off to Simpson Nurseries. On the bus I was updating the IPPS facebook page after each stop. I figured the information would be extremely timely and it would prevent be from procrastinating to get it done later! We we arrived at Simpson Nurseries we were immediately shuffled into line for lunch, my kind of stop! Next we loaded onto wagons and toured the nursery. The weather was just perfect at this point, the morning had been a bit cold but now the sun was shinning...belly was full, wagon was rocking just right...eyes were closing...it was almost nappy time! I stayed awake though because the tour was very interesting. I learned that this nursery was huge! Just when I thought we were almost back to the start we were not, being 1000 acres with 500 acres in production this was the reason! The one thing that stood out here from other nurseries was the use of liquid feed..I mean we use it but most nurseries are on a slow release program.

That is not a retention pond, that is a retention lake!

After a great tour we were back on the buses and headed off to Pebble Hill Plantation for Dinner. Yes, more food! Obviously my plans to eat healthy were spoiled by all the wonderful food choices...it is so hard to diet when traveling! Pebble Hill was a very nice location for everybody to unwind and socialize. There were horse carriage rides and house tours before dinner.

Horsey!!!

Also there was wine tasting, blueberry wine!

Social hour, yes plant nerds still know how to have fun!

After a nice dinner it was back on the buses and off to the hotel...time for night night before a full day of talks the next day!

Sakata, Spring Trials 2011

2011-05-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

I loved this stop for all of the color, as many people who know me well know I am a color feen! At the office I have every color of highlighter, sharpie, clicker sharpie, gel pen, you get the picture! I loved the retail display side, they had one side of the greenhouse dedicated to production and the other to retail. Of course I gravitated to the side with the displays and all of the color blocking. I am so attracted to this type of display, I know if a retailer used these methods they would definitely get some sales from people like me. See the color for yourself on our Flickr slideshow below:

Takii, Spring Trials 2011

2011-05-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

I was not sure there would be anything to look at here since we do not grow many seed variety annuals, really any annuals due to the hot humid climate here. I was surprised to find a few things! Cannas in particular. Now that's a plants that likes hot and humid! We have grown some of the Tropical series as a contract grow and to be honest the germination sucked! The seed is expensive and we had around 10% germ. If I remember correctly it runs about 1-200 dollars per 1000 seed. I was told at this stop that they are working on this problem and have now started to laser stratify the seed. I guess we will see if that helps. If we can get good germ it would be great to be able to provide this product from seed rather than from the expensive tissue culture process. Yes, I know we have a lab, but this is a product that we would only sell once a year and in small numbers so it is not really worth keeping stock in a lab all year for that, this is why we stopped doing bananas, they were making me bananas! Anyway enjoy the pics!

Rancho Tissue Technologies, Spring Trials 2011

2011-05-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, Spring is truely kickin' this year so I am trying to get caught up in the office when I can! Here are a few shots I got at Rancho Tissue Technologies while I was there for Spring Trials. I had to kick myself because I totally forgot to charge my camera and it died before I could take all the pics I wanted to take! I did get some good shots though. I am in love with the new Echeveria 'Cante' as well as a new Dyckia in the works, I believe the name is something like 'Marnyay'. See the pictures below to see for yourself. Black was in a few years ago for plant color, I say white is the new black! Of course who can resist all the mini Aloes, I have placed an order for the 'Marmelade' I think it will be a nice addition to our ever growing aloe line. Did you know we have 7 now? How cool is that? Also I really liked a larger Aloe they are releasing, Aloe rubroviolacea 'Violet'. Tons of Agave as well, it was hard to decide which one I liked the best. I really like the 'Little Sharkskin', so hopefully we can get some of those in soon. If you have never been to RTT, you must go just to see the big hill planting of tons of succulents. Heather told me it used to be the dump pile, definitely a huge improvement! There are plants there you will not see anywhere else. The breeder on staff, Kelly Griffin, travels the world in search of succulent goodness. Keep on tracking the globe for these babies, we love them!

PP&L, Spring Trials 2011

2011-04-08T06:37:00.001-07:00

Sygenta, Spring Trials 2011

2011-04-06T07:47:00.001-07:00

Oro Farms and Danziger Stop, Spring Trials 2011

2011-04-06T07:46:00.001-07:00

February 2011 Grower's Report

2011-02-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

The GSHE Report 2011

2011-01-30T17:39:00.001-08:00

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!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Mobile, Alabama

The MANTS Report 2011

2011-01-09T15:07:00.000-08:00

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".

Plant Delights Nursery

2010-10-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

The liner grower has traveled alot this year but one of the place that sticks out is Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, NC. This place is a plant nerd's dreamland! If you want ordinary run of the mill plants, this is not the place for you. If you like unusual never before heard of crazy outstandingly beautiful plants, you have arrived at the proper destination. I visited the nursery during a recent trip in August to the Raleigh area for an IPPS Southern Region board meeting. I had some extra time and a car so of course I had to go see some plants! I have heard of PDN many times, see their website often on my google searches and get the catalog which I love, love, love! If you don't have a clue what I am talking about, just visit the website here: plantdelights.com to get a little taste. You can signup for their newsletter as well as request a catalog, highly suggested! Not only are they informative, they are entertaining as well!

To top of the great visit to PDN I got to tour the Botanical Gardens and my tour guide was none other than Tony Avent, what a wealth of knowledge! Here are some of the pictures I took along the way. Now, time to get online and order a few plants!

Athens Select June 30th Meeting

2010-07-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

Two business trips down, I was now on my third in a span of a week! I headed to Georgia to meet with the Athens Select group for the annual board meeting. I was excited about this trip because this would be my first visit to Athens and the UGA Trial Gardens. I got there later in the afternoon so I didn’t have anytime for any visits that day. We did get to stay at Dr. Armitage’s awesome lake house overnight, making for a relaxing evening! The next day I was up early to visit the trial gardens on campus, as the meeting was at the field trial site. I went to the gardens early just in case I would not have time after the meeting for a visit. It was a great site to see, so many plants packed into a small area, Unfortunately, it was dreary and had rained the nigh before so I could not get any good pictures and boy did I try! Well, maybe I got a few but I hate pictures of wet plants so most were trashed. Luckily, the meeting got out in time for another visit before I had to leave to catch my flight. The sun had come out by then and dried the plants. The sun also provided better lighting for some fantastic shots, which are in the slide show at the bottom of my post!

The Athens Select Board meeting went well. We saw the field trials, many plants will still need more testing. We did decide on a new Gaillardia for the collection. I know what you are thinking, “Another Gaillardia on the market, plus you already have two in the collection now!” Personally, I feel the same way, hmm, maybe these were my thoughts. This is why I voted to only include the one that we eventually chose, as there were 3 in the running. This one is much different than other Gaillardias on the market and in the collection, which is a must! It has a nice full bi-color flower, lemon yellow outer ring with a rosey red inner ring. The things that stands out the most though is the habit. This one is very full, high branching, short, all with NO pinch and NO growth regulators. This is great for growers who are wanting to grow smaller sized perennials, it looks good in quarts as well as one gallons. Also it is not high maintenance like other perennials and will not get floppy like other Gaillardias.

From the meeting I learned a lot and met a lot of great people in our industry. You will see a lot of what I learned reflected on our availability. We have added many of the Athens Select plants as well as tweaked pricing to reflect patent fees and tags. With all Athens Select plants tags are automatically included, the price of the tag is included in the price of the liner as we are trying to keep things simple. I have changed this on all items that automatically ship with a tags, so hopefully our availability will be simple and easy to read, sometimes all of the fees involved just make things crowded and confusing! To help support the program we will carry most all of the collection, we will have some on open stock availability but my goal is to get customers to pre book orders as well cannot hold these items for very long before they get overgrown. Also the Southern Living collections of perennials that are part of the Athens Select program will now be listed on our availability. For these, there is a tag/pot requirement. Currently we do not have the tags in stock but I will get with PDSI to get tags to a customer if they should order some of the collection and not have the tags. Unlike the Southern Living shrub collection, customers do not have to be in the grower group to grow this selection of perennials, they just need to meet the tag/pot requirement. Pots are only required for one gallon and higher, so 4” and quarts will not need a special pot, just a Southern Living tag. Well this is all I have to report from the meeting. I am always learning new information! Enjoy the pictures!

Dallas Arboretum Plant Trials 2010

2010-07-13T21:35:00.001-07:00

The day was June 23rd, 2010, the place, Dallas, Texas. If you know Texas then you should not be surprised that it was boiling hot that day. While I do love the heat, I hate being soaked sweaty in front of everybody at a conference! I think I won the award for most sweaty shirt that day! I arrived about 12:30pm, yes, just in time for the heat to really start kickin’! This was the first time that Magnolia Gardens Nursery or I had attended, so I was pretty excited. We got a table to display some of the many new items we are carrying, all of which we donated to the Arboretum so they can continue to have cool new things on display! There were plenty of annuals on trial which I tend to tone out a bit since we do not grow these. All was good because Jimmy also has plenty of grasses and perennials on trial. My favorites were the UGA Pennisetums, as Jimmy would say “Purple Corn!!!!” and the Rudbeckia ‘Denver Daisy’. Both of which we carry, wink wink!! There are a ton of new products out there so I look forward to sending Jimmy plenty of samples to play with. This way we can see how these puppies actually perform! I don’t want to ramble and bore you any further so I will now let the pictures speak for themselves.

The June Grower's Report

2010-06-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh yes, it is hot now! I love the heat though, I would much rather be sweating than freezing to death! As spring winds down it allows me more office time, wait, I know I said I love the heat and now I go off hiding in the office, hehe! I start my day off in the office and usually finish up outside, so I still get my heat! Recently I started working on a database project...maybe not recently....hmmmm wondering when this began? Maybe I started in April, it is all starting to come together now so I have come out of my database bubble. Last night this reminded me of a scene in the Sopranos where one of the guys is quoting The Godfather.

"Right when I think I'm out you pull me right back in."

HA! This is exactly what the database is, I add new things, only to find more new things that it can do! Oh it is so smart and hopefully it is making everybody's life easier. So why did I even start this whole thing? Another quote comes to mind.

"The belief in a thing makes it happen" Frank Lloyd Wright

I definitely had a belief, it just took me awhile to figure out how to make it happen. I had a vision of making our booking system much more user friendly. The old system was very simplistic in an Excel file. This worked for us in the past as we only had a few offerings as products. As our product line increased, this file started giving me nightmares! Ok, maybe not that bad. It was hard to update with new orders and hard to keep up to date as items shipped, not really hard I guess, more time consuming. Also the file was on one computer so it had to be emailed out to others if anyone needed updates.

In college I worked with Dr. Dan Lineberger who designed and maintained Aggie Horticulture. One of the programs he used was a database, Filemaker Pro. I used this for my thesis so I had experience with this program and I knew how powerful it could be. First I started with the invoice solution that came with the program. From here I just start making modification to suite our needs. I added in all of our products and customers first. Next I started learning about reports, these took me awhile to get right, but I finally got them to do what I wanted! Of course there is still plenty of room for improvement but we are getting somewhere now. It is light years ahead of what we had, plus there is so much more it can do in the future....hence the first quote! The interesting thing is how a booking solution has become so much more. Now I can run ship sheet for the week, pick tickets for the week (this was added after I noticed about 4 people were all summarizing the flats needed per week, oh no, the database can do that!) I also added a report that we can send to our inspector for orders that need inspection for the week so it does not need to be typed out each week. Just today I came up with a new report for our breeders, now we can run it and show how many of a particular plant was shipped and to whom it was shipped to.

The future: I have already figured out how to update the inventory from my iPhone. there are some glitches but it works! So I can update while in the greenhouse! This reminds me, I did find a company to host the database so now we can all access it anytime and the copy we work on keeps up to date. This is how I can update from the iPhone. So I have hopes of fixing the glitches and expanding on the iPhone working with the database as we all have iPhone in the office, well except Stephen, sorry Stephen, maybe we will get you one! I can update pages with the online version of the database, Filemaker Pro will write pages that can be viewed online, while not perfect, they do work. This is nice because I can make simple updates at home without needing another copy of Filemaker. I will mainly update product pages at home, to try and keep up with all of the new ones we have! This has lead me to the need for an iPad, oh yes, this is where quote #2 come into play again, hehehehe! But seriously, we can use this powerful system to add orders to our system while on the road with the iPad, also I will use it to make updates to the system while in the greenhouse, too cool! Currently I am starting to work on getting the information for our products in the database to display on our web site. This is the reason I have not updated the web site in awhile! I want to only update something once, not here, then there...wastes my time! So if I can keep our products up to date in the database and have them display on the web site....well that's just brilliant!! This is a work in progress, I hope to have it complete before the summer shows pending I don't hit any major road blocks.

Well I sure if you are reading this you might be tired of reading my ramblings of how I became a database nerd, hehe! So enjoy the video where you don't have to read about it, you can watch it too!

The May Grower's Report

2010-06-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

and now for the May Grower's report...now that it is June, haha! Don't worry I will start working on June tomorrow. Now that shipping is slowing I will have more office time. Got to get some inside project completed ASAP! The May Grower's report I show some of our new Nandinas, you would think I might be a little bias, seems like I keep showing these! I also show everyone how to plant an easy succulent bowl, so fun. Enjoy and stay tuned for the June grower's report where I will show you my database masterpiece, well a masterpiece in progress but it is another reason you have not heard from me in awhile, I have been in a database bubble!

April Grower's Report

2010-06-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

I just realized how far behind I am on my posts. So much has been happening at the nursery it gets hard to keep up at times! Here is my April Grower's Report Video. I show some of our new palletized boxing. I must say this new system has been working like a charm this system. Also the addition of a staple gun was brilliant, no more tape that does not stick in the first place! Thanks to Bennett at Victory Packaging for all the help in getting this implemented. Also of interest is my scary forklift driving, I got Mad SkillZ, haha!

Pack Trials Stop #6 - Westhoff

2010-04-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

In an area next to PlantHaven was Westhoff, more color was seen here so I was not that interested as we don't grow these type of products and I was starting to get cross-eyed by this point. One thing did catch my eye, that was the Verbena Estrella, very nice! Also they had tasty sandwiches, thank you!

Pack Trials 2010 Stop # 6 - PlantHaven

2010-04-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

Bright and early Monday morning I went to visit my friends from PlantHaven. I got see the whole gang plus I got to meet breeder and facebook friend John Cho. I had such a good time here I think I was there for over 3 hours! Great new products coming through the pipeline that are more in line to what we are doing at Magnolia Gardens, i.e., not all bedding plants! Can't wait to get my hands on some of these new plants!

Pack Trials 2010 Stop #5 - BallSeed

2010-04-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

After a LONG drive from EuroAmerican I ended up in Thousand Oaks California where I was able to get in a quick bike ride before stopping in at the BallSeed location in Santa Paula. Another stop with lots of color but there were a few items of interest. I was lucky enough to get a tour as the Home Depot group was there at the same time. They asked if I was part of that group...should have pretended to be, hehehehe!

Pack Trials 2010 Stop #4 - EuroAmerican Propagators

2010-04-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

Finally I was able to upload my photos! The connections have been so so at the places I have stayed making for slow work of this project! These were taken Saturday April 10th, 2010. Great stuff seen at EuroAmerican and they were nice enough to give me a behind the scenes tour of production! Enjoy!

Pack Trials 2010 Stop #3 - Plug Connection

2010-04-11T20:34:00.000-07:00

Very nicely done, I really enjoyed this stop! Plug Connection does more than just color, which is great because we do not grow annual color! I love, loved the succulents, especially the topiaries!

Pack Trials 2010 Stop #2 - Oasis Water Efficient Gardens

2010-04-10T23:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, not in the Pack Trials either, but I love succulents, so I had to visit. Plus it was on the way to Plug Connection! Oh and I figured out how to put my captions in the slideshow, yippee!

Pack Trials 2010 Stop #1, Rancho Tissue Technologies

2010-04-10T22:45:00.000-07:00

RTT is not officially on the trial stop but Heather and Susana where nice enough to let me stop by and snap a few photos of some of the great succulents they carry! Enjoy!

La Ruta de los Conquistadores 2010!

2010-03-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

Things are getting busy around the nursery but I still feel the need to keep even more busy? I have applied to ride the La Ruta in Costa Rica with Chris Carmichael. For some odd reason I won this contest and will now be one of 10 that go, yippee! Below is the video I sent in with my application. I am thinking to start a new blog for this adventure, if I do I will post the link!

We are about to send out our April availability email. If you are not on our mailing list, now is the time to sign up! It is super easy and takes 2 seconds of your time.
http://magnoliagardens.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=e856a93cda&id=1f9e744de0
Sign up today because we have some really cool things in the pipeline!

The March Grower's Report

2010-03-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

So it was about 80 degrees and sunny today, yes! The plants are starting to take off, finally! It has actually been so bright and sunny we are seeing some sun burn on the plants, time to get the paint on and shade cloth out. Also it is time to take the plastic off of the quonsets, it was a scorcher today in there! Below is the video I made about 10 days ago. Hope you enjoy the tour! Close your eyes if you get car sick, HA!

Spring is Here?

2010-03-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

Well I think Spring could be here in Texas, the day is gorgeous and the daffodils are blooming!

About 65, sunny, not to rub that in anyone's face up north...but that is the reason I live in the South. I know, you will be telling me the same when I am melting in July, sunny 100% humidity, 100 degrees...but this is the way I like it! To celebrate the day I am doing a little gardening. First I had to trim so dormant grasses.

Indeed the garden is looking a bit, shall I say, shaggy to put it politely?

Well the cold weather has kept us Southerners inside bundled up...too cold to go out and trim plants we said! My poor Furcraea melted with the 20 degree weather!

Oh but what did my little eye spy today? Life!!!

So we will see how long this little pup takes to get back to the size it's Mom was before meltdown! Just a shot of the garden in front of the office, pretty bleak, but it will soon be lush!

Today I went to the local retail garden center, mainly because I needed some powdered hormone that I did not order from a supplier in time but being surrounded by plants it is hard to resist buying something!

I came out with 3 scented geraniums, mmmm, and a curry plant! Note in the picture all the coffee grounds, yes I am a frequent visitor to Starbucks, the least I can get for my $4.00 coffee is some used grounds to perk the plants up. I bet the used grounds have more caffeine than new Folgers, LOL! We are still going strong with the parking lot garden, herbs are lush and we had a nice crop of cabbage and greens.

Tomatoes and Peppers to come!

Happy Belated Valentine's to all my Sweethearts!

2010-02-15T20:09:00.000-08:00

Plants that is, yes I heart plants! I especially like new and usual plants. I suppose I do hate some plants too, or maybe I am just being a plant snob now? Some plants have been around too long and are way overused, yawn!!! **Cough** Burford Holly **Cough** Perhaps I choose this one as I see it everyday at the nursery, then I see it planted all over town in these terrible monoculture mini mall parking lots, uugghh! Mini malls are ugly and ugly plants are not going to make it better! Let's enhance that dry cleaner/nail salon/tanning salon with some diversity please! Grasses, perennials, vines and more, oh my! Such a pallette to choose from, why be so boring, say I? Oh wait, I know, because it is easy, ha, I forgot! Most people know us as the people that grow Nandinas, that we do. But wait a minute, there's more! Yes we grow all sorts of things, see our new site at www.MGNLiners.com for a full list, I am so excited about our 2010 product lineup! Could it be because my patio is bound to be the best in the neighborhood with this supply of goodies at my fingertips, perhaps! But mainly it is because I really love plants and go to great lengths to bring a wonderful diversity to the lineup. Hunting, here, there, everywhere to bring you some of the coolest stuff from around the world. New stuff is added all of the time, hence the reason we have not printed a catalog as of late, it would be out of date before it got back from the printers. Below is my February Grower's Report, enjoy some of the shots of the new items we have and of all my sweethearts!

The GSHE Report 2010

2010-02-08T08:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, ok, so this show was 4 weeks ago! I know, but now I finally have some time to write about it. Holly and I went to Mobile, AL a day earlier than we needed to so we could attend the Southern Living Plant Collection Grower Group meeting. We flew into New Orleans because it was about 300.00 cheaper per ticket, then drove the rest of the way to Mobile. We had a nice Chrysler Sebring, I like to call it a Seabreeze though, nice!

The meeting was at the Hampton Inn which was convienent since that was were we were staying already! When we got to the entrance a nice little Nandina welcomed us!

PDSI did an outstanding job of hosting the group and gave a great presentation. The presentation consisted of an update on how the program is currently doing, new plant introductions for 2010 and plants in the pipeline for 2011 and beyond. Of course Holly and I were tickled to see all of the literature on our 3 Nandina babies! They even had a very nice 83" tall pop up banner highlighting the Nandina trio! The banner said 'Superior Nandinas' and was at the front of the room, I'd say we agree!

I think we will have to order one of these for our office, oh yes! This banner is just one of the items that the grower group and retailers can order from PDSI to help promote the brand, whether at tradeshows or in their stores. All in all things were positive and we got several orders by being there, so the extra day definitely paid off! There was one non-believer if you will...em...em McCorkle. But I stood up and told Andy I would make a believer out of him! Andy is correct in his thinking, I will give him that. Many new Nandinas on the market these days just are not that different from what is already on the market. I have seen many Nandinas come through our doors so I know this, the new one we have are totally different than anything I have seen and they are interesting! After a long day Holly and I relaxed to get ready for day 2. The second day we got to tour Flowerwood Nurseries and PDSI, after this we had to set up our booth, yeah! The visit to PDSI was great ebcause we got to see all of our little babies starting to grow up! The pictures show Obsession, then Flirt, then Blush Pink, Beeeeautiful!

Also we saw some Queen Mum Agapanthus that we do here in the lab, another great new plant in the collection.

After our visit we got the booth set up then went to relax again so we would be ready for 2 days of tradeshow. Our booth turned out great and Stacie once again stole the show!

People love to take pictures of her and with her. Also I got some pics of the PDSI booth since they had such a nice display of some Superior Nandinas!!! The mood was positive at the show, I hope Spring sales are way positive! Remember plants are a necessity not a luxury!

What did I learn?

2010-01-24T12:42:00.001-08:00

A quick update of something I learned at the conference. As you can see for the most part I do use most of the major social media sites. One thing Terry Brock stressed was the use of YouTube. We do have an account with several videos posted already so I decided to take it a step further. We put out a monthly emailer with news and our availability. For January I decided to add a video component that would show customers what we are up to for the month. Also I tried the video camera in my new iPod Nano, not too shabby! All done in under a hour using iMovie as the video editor.

Relationships + Technology = Success!

2010-01-24T12:36:00.000-08:00

The title of the workshop was Relationships + Technology = Success! This was a TNLA Management Workshop held in Galveston, Texas January 15-16th, 2010, yes is does still exist post hurricane Ike and it was not too far from my house. Too bad it was January, cloudy, about 50 degrees for the high and let’s not forget the 20-25 mph winds. No surfing for me, not that I would on a good day, the creatures of the sea might get me!

I was happy to see this all come together as it had started as just a seed of an idea in a TNLA Educational Committee meeting. For me being a Gen Xer in this industry can really drive a person mad, if you are a Yer you must be full blown insane, as this industry is so slow to adapt to technology. Hey I am not the only person to think this, just read “Time to Change…My MANTS Epiphany” by Plants Nouveau’s President Angela Treadwell Palmer http://www.plantsnouveau.com/2010/01/10/mants-epiphany/ I am a fan of her page on Facebook so this is how I saw this posting, yes a person in the industry in Texas is reading what a person in Maryland is thinking, this is the magic of social media. I did comment on it as well, mentioning this very conference I was about to attend, more on that later. There are still people that tell me they don’t do computers. Really? Why????? How do you stay in touch with the world? You are not staying in touch with me if you only see me 2 times a year at a meeting. The people who choose not to adapt to technology will be left behind.

The up and coming customer is young and they use technology, including social media to communicate. To get new customers and to retain old customers we must speak their language, times are a changing and quickly! If you are using print media to get the word out, sorry, whether you like it or not print is going away, digital is faster and cheaper so if you are not digital you are already falling behind. For instance, if you do not have a Website, how will people find you? How many people actually use the Yellow pages anymore? Why, if you can just google it. If you do have a website the next step is to make sure that you are near the top when a person searches for key words related to your business. If you are a Houston retail garden center, make sure you are in the top results if somebody googles “Houston Retail Nursery”, for instance. If you are not, there are ways to get there, just do the research! I do not own any yellow pages books, they are just useless clutter in my opinion, btw I am not the only person who thinks this. Perhaps you are old school and think word of mouth will get customers to your business. This is true, it will, but this is a slow method and can take years to build clientele, this is like comparing snail mail to email. If you want to move things along faster I think social media is your answer, the new word of mouth if you will. Not only is it faster, the reach is a lot further! For example, you have a garden center, I go there, tell a few people, maybe they go there, tell a few people and so on. Now let’s fast forward to the age of social media. You have a garden center, I go there, I tell my 150 friends on facebook that it rocks, so the message is already getting to more people in the first step and even better, instantly. This can work against you as well, if a person has a bad experience they can spread the word via social media too, so be on your toes and make sure to please the customer! One way to see what people are saying about you is to use Google Alerts, just found this out at the conference from Terry Brock.

So I have set alerts for both Magnolia Gardens Nursery and April Herring. Already I am getting hits. For Magnolia Gardens I found the Houston Chronicle has used photos from our Website, hopefully they have asked somebody…not me! Also I got a hit on my name. Remember the MANTS Epiphany I commented on, well, leave it to Google Alerts to let me know Angela has written another blog article with my response! This is great, now I can be sure to tell her thank you in case I would have missed it otherwise. Now you can see what people are saying about you, good or bad, so you can respond, let technology work for you!

Now let’s talk about how a business can promote their product or service via social media. There are rules to follow if you want to be successful! You need to first focus on a few sites if you are new, Terry Brock says YouTube is the first thing you should do. I also think a blog should be first. So get some video to compliment what you are writing about in your blog. Consistency is key, if you are not active on your sites you will not be successful. Once you have content you can spread the word via Facebook and Twitter. Nobody wants to hear about you getting up to use the restroom but they would love to hear you have just posted a new blog article or a new video on YouTube on topics that are of interest. For me that usually involves new plants or something I am doing at the nursery. It is very important to be real on these sites. People want to know you are human. Damian Skinner mentioned that 80% of your post should be about your life while 20% can be about work. This way people get to know you as a person. You become more approachable especially when people feel they have common interests with you. So, no posts saying “Buy, Buy, Buy today only 50% off!!!!!” Instead, provide people with information, build relationships and the orders will come later once there is trust, just give it time. A good example of somebody that has done a good job of this is an Irish man I know by the name of Pat FitzGerald. Pat is just a good, honest nurseryman is Ireland that loves his new plants. He is truly genuine in what he says and people love to chat with him about all sorts of things and because of this he has built up a fan base he now has people all over the world talking about his plants. Black Adder, Tuxedo and Everillo to name a few…and yes I want some too! Wow, that rhymes, HA! This is one example of being real and how you can get social media to work for you. While at the conference I saw another very specific instance of social media working for a retail nursery. There is a nursery in California that sells plants online called Annie’s Annuals. There is a website in California that posts all sorts of information for us apartment dwellers who want to garden called Life On The Balcony. Annie’s Annuals sent Fern, the young lady who runs LOTB a box of veggies that they are trying out as a new product. I am not for certain but I believe these two have met via social media. Anyway Fern planted the veggies and wrote all about it. She has a ton of followers so this is a good way to spread the word of great product. I read some of the comments and people were asking if she had visited Annie’s Annuals, she said no. Another person said you must go visit because a visit to Annie’s Annuals is better than good sex. To me that is good advertisement for a company. All of this through the magic of social media, just remember the relationship comes first.

Check out this plant

2009-12-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

We emailed this one as our plant of the month for December. I thought everyone would enjoy seeing it on the blog...yes I am just now getting to it, busy, busy! this is a new PlantHaven variety, Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow'. We will have a limited growing season here in Texas as I can't see it surviving the heat and humidity of the summer, yet I still could not resist!

The weather has been nippy for us Texans this year. We hope we get some warmer, sunny days soon so the little plants can start growing for spring! It is hard to grow when there is not sun, warmth and we don't water for 10 days so no fertilizer either!

Next week I head North to freeze some more. Holly and I will be at the MANTS show in Baltimore from January 6th-8th. If you are there, come by and see us, we love company! Also we will have our new grower calendars there. this year we made them smaller at 8.5" x 11" so hopefully it will be better on the bag load as our previous year's calendar was a little over sized.

I hope to writeup a 2009 summary. I get internet at home Monday, yippee! So this should make things easier as the evenings are the best for me to sit down and sort my thoughts!

Happy New Year to all!

It's gonna be CHILLY in Texas!

2009-12-03T14:44:00.000-08:00

Whewww, we just got ready in the knick of time. A cold blast of air is headed our way tomorrow with a low of 26F, unheard of in Southeast Texas! I know some have experienced much worse but we are not acclimated to such weather, throw us some 100+ degree weather and we are right at home.

We got the quonset covered this morning, I was worried we might not get these done as the wind and rain have been bad all week but today was nice. All of the walls are up, houses buttoned up a, the heaters are primmed and the propane tanks are full.

Then as we were still putting plastic on the semi full of peat moss showed up, of course everything has to happen all at once! So much for the 24 hour warning from the shipping company. Fortunately we had an employee here that could drive the lifter to unload it all because that is a task!

I am posted one last pic, well of it looking nice, of the garden. The herbs are beautiful and things have really turned out nice. I hope to expand these next year as they are such a pleasure to have around the office! I will tell the employees this afternoon to harvest away as these will be no more after Friday's blizzard! (Yes they are predicting some snow here, Global Warming???, Oh yes it is Global Cooling now) BURRRRRRR!

Need a Job?

2009-11-30T15:35:00.000-08:00

Greenhouse Manager

We are searching for a new greenhouse manager as ours will be moving away soon. This position is available ASAP! Come join us in the piney woods of Magnolia, Texas to work for a progressive young plant nursery

Duties include:
Managing a 10 person crew
Cordinating orders for shipping each week
Scouting for disease and insect problems
Maintaining crop health and size requirements for shipping
Communicating with sales to maintain proper inventory levels for orders
Filing monthly inventory reports
Maintaining strict greenhouse sanitation procedures

Requirements:
Must be bilingual
Must be willing to work outside the majority of each work day
Must have a background/experience in horticulture
Pay dependent on experience
401 K plus benefits provided
If you are interested please contact April at 281-705-7724 or April@MGNLiners.com

Spring is Here!!!!

2009-11-30T10:16:00.000-08:00

Well that would be in the lab, not outside, burrrrr it is getting cold..to me! In the lab plants must go through stage 3 inside which can take 6-8 weeks then they are planted and must finish as a liner for 8-15 weeks. So you can see why Spring is now in the lab, actually it started in November. With the holiday getting plants ready becomes much more tricky so we usually try and work 10 hours days. This year we have been on a 4 day work week since July but starting in December we are going back to 5. Hopefully we can keep everyone at 5 days, this will depend on the orders, if they are slim we will go back to 4 days.

We are growing a ton of new products, I have started these in hopes of sparking new sales with new customers and old. We would like to become the source of all quality liners but also new and unusual plants. We are working with many people to make this happen but it will take time. Also we will start a new 12 month ad campaign with NMPro to help us deliver this message and to let people know we are more than just Nandinas! I am working on our new website www.mgnliners.com that will be released early December....must get to work now! I think it will really help customers get to know us a little better and it will help eliminate confusion people have with our current site that lumps both of our nurseries together, liners and containers, customers get confused on location and product grown all of the time. Anyway a sneak peak can be seen here, I must say it is very snazzy, of course i am being bias since I designed it, haha! www.mgnliners.com/index2.html.

Below is a listing of new products we will have in 2010, this is just a start, more to come soon! Keep an eye on us, we are more than just Nandinas!

Aeonium 'Kiwi'

Aeonium 'Pinwheel'

Agave 'Blue Flame' Blue Flame Agave

Aloe 'Pink Blush' PPAF Pink Blush Aloe

Anigozanthos falvidus x rufus' Bush Sunset' Kangaroo Paw

Anigozanthos humilus x flavidus 'Yellow Gem' Kangaroo Paw

Anigozanthos 'Tequila Sunrise' Kangaroo Paw

Bambusa pervariabilis Clumping Bamboo

Capsicum annuum Chile Pequin

Capsicum annuum 'Black Pearl' Ornamental Pepper

Capsicum annuum 'Calico'Ornamental Pepper

Capsicum annuum 'Chilly Chili'Ornamental Pepper

Capsicum annuum 'Medusa'Ornamental Pepper

Caryopteris x clandonensis 'First Choice' P.P. # 11,958 Blue Mist Spirea

Clerodendrum incisum 'Macrosiphon' Musical Notes

Crassula coccinea 'Campfire'

Crassula muscosa Watch Chain Plant

Crassula muscosa pseudolycopodiodes Princess Pine

Crassula ovata arborescens Baby Jade

Crassula ovata 'Variegata' Variegated Jade Plant

Crassula radicans large red Carpet Stonecrop

Crassula radicans Small red Carpet Stonecrop

Cuphea ignea 'David Verity' Cigar Plant

Dianella tasmanica 'Variegata' Variegated Flax Lily

Dianella tasmanica 'Yellow Stripe' Gold Stripe Flax Lily

Dyckia hybrida 'Burgundy Ice' PPAF

Euphorbia x martinii 'Ascot Rainbow' PPAF Variegated Euphorbia

Gaillardia x grandiflora 'Fanfare' P.P.#15892 Indian Blanket Flower

Geum x 'Totally Tangerine' PPAF

Hamelia patens Mexican Firebush

Kalanchoe pumila 'Silver Gray'

Lantana camara 'Robpatrai' P.P.#9,837 Patriot™ Petite™ Rainbow Lantana

Lysimachia puncata 'Golden Alexander' P.P.# 13,547 Variegated Loosestrife

Nandina domestica 'KAYDEE' Atomic fireball™ Nandina

Nandina domestica 'MURASAKI' PPAF Flirt™ Nandina

Nandina domestica 'SEIKA' PPAF Obsession™ Nandina

Pennisetum glaucum 'Jade Princess' Ornamental Millet

Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty' Ornamental Millet

Pennisetum purpureum 'Princess' P.P.#17,728 Ornamental Napier Grass

Philodendron 'Xanadu' Dwarf Philodendron

Rosmarinus officinalis 'Gold Dust' Variegated Rosemary

Salvia leucantha 'Santa Barbara' P.P. # 12949 Compact Mexican Bush Sage

Sedum lineare 'Variegatum' Variegated Stonecrop

Sedum kamtschaticum 'Variegatum'

Sedum rupestre 'Angelina'

Sedum rupestre 'Chocolate Ball'

Sedum spurium 'Red Carpet'

Sedum spurium 'Tricolor'

IPPS Video Presentation with narration

2009-11-23T15:33:00.000-08:00

Well I finally got around to narrating my video presentation that I gave to the IPPS Southern Region In Biloxi this year. It is not the best as I cannot find my mic for the life of me, funny how things "disappear" around the office, hmmmmm? Also I only did one take, probably could have used 2-3, haha! Anyway I digress, the video is in 3 parts because YouTube will only allow 10 minutes of video, boo hoo! This will give a great in-depth look to what we do here and it goes into a little of what we have had to do as of late do to the bad economy. WARNING: There is some harm done to plants in part 3, don't cry, it was painless and they are in a better place called mulch :)

The presentation went well considering all of the potential technically difficulties that could have transpired! I nearly had a stress meltdown before leaving town as it seemed nothing I did would make the video presentation I did to be easier, work in the first place! Well it worked, it was just blurry and I was imagining a giant theater sized screen for some reason and it turned out to be a small pop up screen. I thought I figured it out but saving the raw data version then popped in a DVD to burned and realized it was way to big to burn on a DVD even! The version that I exported to iDVD looked blurry when I played it on my computer, a Mac so I was sure the hotel would have an inferior PC, making it look that much worse! Oh what to do! Here is what I did, come in to play my personal MacBook and the Apple store at the mall. I have a Mac at home, of course, but it is a little older and only has a 10 GB harddrive, not enough for this powerhouse movie! I went to the Mac store and picked up an external harddrive, that connect via a Firewire, yes faster file transfer! Went to work the next day got everything transferred and Voila, it worked! The Firewire allowed me to play the movie from the external harddrive smoothly. Oh but wait, there is more! I suddenly realized the connection on my baby Mac was not the giant honky-sized connection that most projectors have, oh dear, I though I had everything figured out. Google to the rescue! I figured out the Apple store sells adapters, yes back there the night before our departure as I am darn sure there are no Apple Stores in Biloxi, MS! After all of this stress everything worked, I did bring backups just in case as well as my DVD Player, as it seemed the burned version from iDVD looked way better played on a DVD than the computer. Through my Googling very scientific research I found out the movie quality depends on the player installed on the computer, problem is I never found a very good one to handle my Mastapiece! All in all a stressful experience, but these are usually the ones where we learn the most, ahh yes I know just a hair more about video production than I did before, look out Hollywood!

Welcome to the Club

2009-11-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

Nandina domestica 'Kaydee'
Atomic Fireball^TM Nandina

We are please to introduce Nandina domestica 'Kaydee'. This fall we are releasing a limited amount of this new Nandina that we have been fiddling with for several years now. We are going to call this one Atomic Fireball^TM Nandina, because it looks like a little ball of fire! This is a sport of Nandina 'Firepower' that was found by Kay Herring, also known as the "Mother of Nandinas" since she has managed the lab for nearly 20 years now! While walking in the 1 gallon crop of Nandina 'Firepower' in 2004, Kay noticed a smaller, different looking plant. She took it to the greenhouse and the process of propagation was started. This Nandina is now in production in a limited supply, numbers will be increased if the demand is high. The pictures seen here are of a 3 year old plant, this is a slow grower and you will not have to worry about it getting out of hand, topping out at around 18" tall. Also like 'Firepower' no flowers or berries have been seen to date so issues with invasiveness is a non-issue. Why do we call it Atomic Fireball^TM , well it has the same fantastic bright red winter color as it's Momma, but the growth habit is very compact, almost ball-like. I guess you could call it a dwarf, dwarf, since 'Firepower' is already a dwarf. We also like to kid around the nursery and call it "Kay's Grandbaby" since her 4 kids have yet to produce her a real one, haha! We think this would be a great addition for small landcapes and for gardeners that don't want to trim. Also we like using this lil' one for a foundation plant in mixed containers, also works well as a stand alone in a container as you can see from the picture. Hope you all enjoy this one! If you want to try it out, jump now, we only have a few liners available for 2009!

Firepower vs. Fireball^TM Nandina

IPPS Southern Region Paper

2009-10-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

Below is the paper I am submitting for the IPPS Southern Region Meeting. Just a background of sorts of the nursery here. I am just happy it is finished before we start driving, driving and typing don't go together!!!

A Behind The Scenes Tour of Young Plant Production in Magnolia, Texas at Magnolia Gardens Nursery.

April Herring
Magnolia Gardens Nursery Liner Division, 18810 Turtle Creek Lane, Magnolia, Texas 77355
Email: April@MGNLiners.com

Magnolia Gardens Nursery is a medium sized nursery with 3 locations in Texas including, Magnolia, Waller and Plantersville. The nursery has two divisions; one that grows finished containerized stock and the other that grows lining out stock. The focus of this paper will be the liner division at the Magnolia, Texas location that specializes in young plant production through the use of micropropagation, in particular that of Nandina domestica. To many the process of micropropagation can seem mythical. This is mainly due to the fact that not every nursery deals in this method of propagation as they would with conventional means such as cuttings, grafting and seeds. So it is the purpose of this paper to show that micropropagation is not mythical, just unfamiliar. This will be done by going through some of the daily activities at the liner division of Magnolia Gardens Nursery.
INTRODUCTION
Magnolia Gardens Nursery has a product line that is constantly evolving to keep up with market demands, the major products that are produced at this time include Agapanthus, Iris, Loropetalum, Nandina and Yucca as well as a variety of ornamental grasses and perennials. Nandina domestica is at the top of the list when it come to production and sales numbers at about 3 million units sold per year, with Nandina ‘Firepower’ selling at around 1.4 million units alone. The owner of Magnolia Gardens Nursery, Tommy Marek, started the liner division back in 1983 in an upstairs bedroom of his home. The container nursery had already got its start in 1978 and tissue culture was just a hobby of sorts as the process was still rather new and was just starting to become popular as a means of commercial propagation. It didn’t take long for the hobby to outgrow the bedroom so the lab was moved to a few rental houses near the nursery. This is where the lab experienced troubled times and was nearly shut down because it was generating no profit. It took the smarts of a new lab manager to turn the lab around by making processes more efficient and concentrating on products that would generate profit, this made it the place it is today. Once the orders starting coming in, the rental houses started feeling cramped and plans for an actual building where made. A formal lab structure was built in 1994; the building totals 6240 ft2, 2288 ft2 being growing space. This original structure has the capability to hold 1.9 million plantlets at any given time. In 2004 the lab was expanded to make room for new crops the lab was pursuing. The expansion brought in an additional 3900 ft2 of growing space. At capacity the new space can house around 3.4 million plantlets, total lab capacity coming to 5.3 million plantlets. Currently there are 15 hoods with 2 spaces each or room for 30 technicians. Outside there are 4 greenhouse structures and the total growing space is around 3 Acres. There is room to wean 360,000 plants at any given time and at full capacity room to finish 2.5 million plants for sales.
GETTING THINGS STARTED
The right product mix The first step to a successful lab is to grow the right product, one that the operation can grow with success, one that has high demand yet little supply in the market and one that cannot be easily propagated conventionally. For Magnolia Gardens Nursery this product has been Nandina domestica but with market conditions continually changing this may not be the case in the future. So to remain successful, the hunt is always on for new potential products. Micropropagation is not a process for impatient people. There is a notion that tissue culture is magical, producing thousands of plants very quickly, it can be depending on the definition of “quickly”. To put it into perspective, i.e. put a plant into the lab today it will not be ready for sales a year later. Although there are plants that multiply rapidly in tissue culture, these are generally not the type of plants Magnolia Gardens Nursery produces, as many of the products grown are hard to propagate woody plants. With crop times of 6 to 10 weeks and multiplication rate of 1.5 to 3 the benefit of putting a plant in tissue culture is not seen quickly as many think it should be. To see the magic of tissue culture one must look at the overall effect, as an example the propagation of the plant Nandina ‘AKA’ will be reviewed. In November of 2004 this plant was discovered in a crop of Nandina ‘Firepower’, there were 2 plants at the time, the first step was to grow them to a larger size for the initiation process. The plants were initiated in 2005; by the year-end we had 200 plants. So already over a year into the process we only had 200 plants, this is were many people get frustrated, thinking they should have 1000’s by now. By the end of 2006 we had 2,700 plants, 2007 we had 4,700 plants but 16,000 were taken out for rooting. After this it was decided to bulk the crop up so less rooting was taken and by the end of 2008 we had 48,000 plants and had rooted 14,000. Once larger numbers are reached the gains are exponential and one can easily see that in 3 years conventional propagation would have not have produced the yields that the process of micropropagation did. So you can see the cumulative effects of using micropropagation can be magical, it just might not be as quick as many think it should be.
Initiation There are many factors that come into play when deciding what steps to take in getting a plant clean. Plant type, plant age, growing environment the plants were in, time of year, etc. We have a general sterilization procedure for woody plants and for herbaceous plants that is changed up depending on the factors discussed above. At Magnolia Gardens Nursery we use a combination trimming techniques along with differing concentrations of Sodium Hypochlorite, Ethanol, along with sterile distilled water and Tween.
KEEPING THINGS GOING
Media Media is made in house in 36 Liter batches about 4 times per day. Stock solutions are made up in 5-gallon batches to keep pace with the amount of media needed per day. We use 4 media formulations for the bulk of our crops, which helps keep processes efficient. The media is dispensed using a mixer to keep all solids such as sugar and gelling agent suspended while an automatic dispensing machine dispenses the proper amount of media into test tubes, baby jars or magenta containers. After everything is dispensed the containers with media are sterilized in an autoclave that heats to 250ºF and pressurizes to 20 PSI. Once the containers are sterilized they are only opened under the laminar flow hood to maintain sterility.
Working the Crops Average crop cycle is about 6 weeks but many plants can go longer than this and actually do better if they are left longer. For the most part woody plants have longer crop cycles than herbaceous. Herbaceous plants will start to go downhill much quicker than a woody. Woody plants also do better when cycles are longer; when the cycles are too short the plants start to perform poorly. All plants are screened for contaminates as well as uniformity by supervisors before the technicians cut them for either multiplication or rooting. The supervisors are in charge of getting plants to and from the growth room so that there is little traffic in the growth room keeping it clean and organized. When crops are worked a certain portion will go for stage 3 or rooting while the remainder will stay in stage 2 as mother stock. This percentage will fluctuate depending on season and market conditions. Crops are kept healthy and clean through the screening process, only the best will remain as mother stock.
FINAL STEPS
Acclimatization The plants become accustomed to living in a perfect environment now they must be able to survive the great outdoors which is higher in light intensity, less humid and for most of the year it is warmer. We help plantlets as best we can with the transition by using a variety of shade and cooling systems. All soil is mixed onsite to ensure quality. In 2009 we started using mychorrhizae in our soil mix to help produce a stronger root system that will be a great benefit to growers once the liners are potted up. Most plants take an average of 10 weeks to finish depending on season with Agapanthus taking the longest time to finish at 15 weeks.
THE BIG GOODBYE
In the liner division there is one sales person that handles all orders from start to finish. Including answering the phone, taking the orders, printing invoices, organizing shipping and more. To date this has worked very well for us. Products are shipped the most efficient means possible including by truck, air, FedEx, and UPS. Most of the product grown is shipped within the U.S. but we also ship internationally, with the bulk of that material going to Canada. The product grown and numbers produced are dependent on communication with customers too see how they are doing and what product they will need for the upcoming season using a prebooking system. Even with communication it can be hard to tell when things are going to come to a stand still and when things will start moving again in a bad economy. With the downturn of the economy as of late, the prebooking system has not been as effective of a tool as in years past, as many growers are very cautious placing orders until they see an economic upturn. The goal now is too keep product in the pipeline at all the various stages, to maintain the quality of product that customers expect and to predict what products will sell in the near future. What this means is that product must be discarded once it is past its prime, through planning we try to keep the discards to a minimum.
THE FUTURE
Even though the present looks a little bleak we are excited about the future. We are taking this time to start new product lines such as perennials and succulents. Also we have a new line of Nandina that will be featured in The Southern Living® Program. We are learning a lot during these slow times, how to use labor, chemicals, fertilizer and supplies more efficiently. As the motto says “That that does not kill us only makes us stronger.” We look to be a stronger, more efficient young plant nursery once we make it through this.
CONCLUSION
The liner division at Magnolia Gardens Nursery started over 26 years ago. From our humble beginnings we have slowly grown to what we are now by using careful planning and not making rash decisions. Our success can be attributed to two things; the first is our employees, 7 of which have worked for the division 20 years or more. The second is our product line, which will continually be monitored and changed according to market conditions.

Series of posts to come

2009-09-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

I have been travelling again. This time to Holland and Ireland, the main reason was to go to the IPPS conference in Kilkenny but the moon was in alignment with Pluto, oh wait I think that is not a planet anymore, sad, one of my favorites! Anyway I digress as usual. On the trip I also got to meet a ton of fabulous people that I have been in contact with only through the Internet so it was so great to meet face to face. In Holland I got to meet with Peter at Plantip whom I have just recently been introduced to through email and in Ireland I got to finally meet Pat FitzGerald whom I have had contact with since the start of the year through email, Twitter and skype. I also met numerous other people at the conference including one of the organizers, Mike Norris of New Place Nurseries. This trip was a plant nerd's ultimate plant fantasy. I will post several pictures so you can see what I mean, well it really was for this Texas gal since we don't grow much of that in these parts.

More to come as I have time, am at my computer with pictures and away from tiny little iPhone keyboard!

-- Post From My iPhone

IPPS International 2009 Paper!

2009-09-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

Well I think I finally finished it, it was hard to limit the page number to only 7! I am very long winded when I write. Then I looked at the Proceedings from last year and noticed most people had only 3 pages, so I went and chopped some more down to 5 as to not be a page hog! I hope that this gives some further insight to what we do here, please feel free to comment.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Young Plant Production in Magnolia, Texas at Magnolia Gardens Nursery.

April Herring
Magnolia Gardens Nursery Liner Division, 18810 Turtle Creek Lane, Magnolia, Texas 77355
Email: April@MGNLiners.com

INTRODUCTION

Magnolia Gardens Nursery is a nursery in Magnolia, Texas that specializes in young plant production through the use of tissue culture, in particular that of numerous Nandina domestica cultivars. Young plant production comes with many rewards but there are many challenges to overcome to reach those rewards. These challenges include deciding what plants to produce, determining the best production protocol, acclimization and finishing, and finding innovative ways to deal with a slow economy. One of the biggest rewards is the discovery of a new plant and having the ability to use tissue culture to bring it to market quicker than traditional propagation methods. Many bridges must be crossed to reach this final step and each must be crossed with high success rates so that the end product is of good quality and ultimately, profitable.

CHALLENGES

What Plants Should We Produce? To answer this question we first have to ask ourselves:

1. Is the plant worthy?
2. Can we grow it?
3. Are we making enough profit on the item?
Before starting any new product we first trial it outside to make sure it is truly unique compared to other products already on the market making it worth growing. Also this trialing period is a good time to note whether or not the plant can be grown in our climate. Something else we consider is whether or not a potential new product is easy to propagate conventionally as the tissue culture process is costly.
Once it is established that a plant is worthy, the next step is to determine if it can be produced with success. Some plants prove extremely difficult to grow in the lab, such as trees. Other plants don’t grow well in either the lab or the greenhouse and the losses involved are too high to make much if any profit. An example of this for our lab would be Ensete ‘Maurelli’; by the time everything was said and done plant losses were 50% or more. This does not account for space and labor losses this plant caused as well. Other plants grow very well in the lab; it is the Texas climate that causes poor to no survival. Phormium and Libertia are examples of this type of plant, which look fine in cooler months but cannot make it through the extreme summer months.
Lastly, we ask, are we making a profit on this item? Some plants are worthy and we can grow them, it is other issues make them bad choices for production. Bananas such as Musa ‘Dwarf Cavendish’ are examples of this. Bananas is a great candidate for tissue culture but the problem was the amount of labor needed to keep the plants maintained in the lab, being 2-3 times more than a woody. Also, the big sales season is in the spring so the rest of the year is spent on maintenance or subculturing the mother stock. There are many reasons to produce a product or not, each plant must be looked at individually to make an informed decision.

How do we get a plant into a sterile environment?

There are many factors that come into play when deciding what steps to take in getting a plant clean of contaminates. Plant type, plant age, the growing environment that the plants were in, time of year, and more all play large rolls into how successful the sterilization procedure will be. Plants we commonly produce have a general sterilization procedure but even the same plant can have different results using the same procedure. The best method is to decide the procedure used the day of initiation according to the plants appearance. Tender plants can burn easily and plants that are more mature may need more sterilization. A combination of Sodium Hypochlorite, Ethanol, along with sterile distilled water and Tween is used in our sterilization procedures.

How do we grow a plant in a sterile environment?

Once the plant is clean it is time to figure out what media it will best grow on. To keep processes efficient we usually try and grow a new plant on media we already are using and making in large batches, pending the research shows it can grow on something similar. Small batches of media are made for plants that we know our common media will not work on and for experimental media for plants that are not performing to our standards.
Not only must media be considered but the crop cycle must be decided as well. Some plants will let you know very quickly how long their crop cycle is. Yucca ‘Color Guard’, for instance, will start dying at about 4 weeks, if they are not transferred on time the crop will be lost. Woody plants can survive longer than most herbaceous plants and some need to be subcultured less or they perform poorly when weaning. The most common crop cycle is 6 weeks but many plants can go longer than this. As the lab gets behind on transfers, which is common, we quickly learn what plants last the longest.

Acclimization.

Plant produced in tissue culture become accustomed to living in a perfect environment and then they must be able to survive the great outdoors which has a higher light intensity, less humidity and for the most part in Texas, is hotter. We help them as best we can with the transition by using a double shade system, black shade cloth on the outside of the greenhouse and Svensson® XLS firebreak screen on the inside to reduce temperatures. Also we cover the plants with a plastic dome, which are purchased clear but are given a light coat of white spray paint to give even greater protection from the high light. The domes serve another purpose as well by keeping the humidity high. After a week of being covered the plants are uncovered to start to adjust even further to the drier air. To keep the temperature cooler in the summer months a Kool Cell pad and fan system is used. In the weaning area no fertilizer is used as to not burn the roots of the sensitive plantlets. After around 4 weeks plants are moved to their final location before shipping. These growing areas have high light levels and liquid feed is used in these areas. Plants have the hardest time adjusting to the outside environment during our summer months, which can be very hot and humid. Because of the harsh summer we must pick plants that can handle this rather than try to fight the climate. Also we have to be very careful planting during extreme heat such as in June 2009 where we had 7 days straight above 100 °F (38°C). Plants that are sensitive in the weaning process should be held in the lab when possible until the weather cools.

How do we handle production in a bad economy?

A slow economy comes in cycles so one must be prepared for this to happen. The most important thing we do is keep in contact with customers to see how they are doing, what products do they need and what orders will need to be cancelled. Even with communication it is still hard to know exactly when things are going to come to a stand still and when things will start moving again. There are several steps we take to keep plants in the pipeline so that we are ready when sales pickup. Young plant production has a continuous pipeline of product being produced, once sales slow the numbers coming out of the pipeline must be adjusted. The mother stock must always be maintained or subcultured even if product is not needed otherwise the crops will decline and eventually die. We usually try and keep motherstock at predetermined inventory levels. When subculturing any excess product produced will be rid of to keep the supply in check with the market demands rather than putting it into stage 3 production. This is also a good time to weed out any weak plants and get crops in top-notch condition. Discarding plants in the micro stage is the most cost efficient as the cost of planting and maintaining in the greenhouse can be considerable. The flow of the pipeline will be slower but it should not stop completely so that there is product ready to go when sales pickup, if the pipeline is completely shut off it could take upwards of 20-30 weeks to get product ready for sales. Ways of doing this include holding plants in a cooler at 40 °F (4.5°C) to slow down growth, holding plants on the shelf longer before sending to wean, holding plants outside longer by keeping in the weaning area longer and by decreasing fertilizer usage once they are moved to their finishing location. Because sales are slow in a downturn eventually finished material must be discarded because the quality no longer meets our standards and most products have a limited shelf life no matter how much care is given to them. As old plants in various stages of growth are rid of, new plants are replanted in hopes sales will pick up, keeping the pipeline full.

THE REWARD

Producing plants is tricky as they are living and will not fit the factory production model. This can cause much frustration at times, as plants seem to have a mind of their own. For us there is no better reward than to discover a new product at the nursery and to then see it through to production, marketing and eventually sales. It is the light at the end of the tunnel that drives us.

CONCLUSION

Young plant production comes with many challenges as most businesses do but there are many rewards to be enjoyed once these challenges are worked through. At Magnolia Gardens Nursery we decide what plants best fit into our production model, fine tuning a selection of product that is in good demand, that will receive a fair price, and that we can produce with great success and quality.

Tradeshow Report Summer 2009

2009-09-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well the summer tradeshow season has come and gone for us here at Magnolia Gardens Nursery. It has been a few weeks of whirlwind travel for me so I have not had much time to post anything. I am finally getting settled back in after a week back home so I thought I would write a few things that were on my mind before I take off again with Neil one of the managers at our container division to Amsterdam to visit nurseries and the flower auction as well as a good friend who recently moved there. After that we fly over to Ireland to the IPPS International conference. I am really excited about this as I have never been to Ireland or Holland and have never been to an International IPPS meeting that was outside of the US, weee! Also I am excited about meeting Pat FitzGerald who we have done some work with and someone who’s tweets I really enjoy reading. All right enough about the future because you will certainly hear about that once it is the past. For now let’s get on with the past!

August 10th marked the first day of my 2 weeks of travel. I took a flight to Dallas, TX…I know I go far when I travel! LOL! I would have driven but I did not want to have to drive back to Houston to have to fly out again to Colorado. I left on the 10th because I am a member of the Parks and Patio task force. This is a group of people that are in charge of decorating the TNLA Expo with gardens, mixed containers and more. Without these areas the tradeshow would just be plain and boring. Plus we have to go big because the Expo is in Texas y’all! For more on this group see the article I wrote about them here:

http://tnlaonline.org/regions/reg2/June2009.pdf

Not much to see here yet!

The GIANT fountain being installed.

Monday through Thursday was spent decorating the hall, the hall went to complete flat concrete to a masterpiece in just 4 short days.A shot of one Parks and patio area, also nice to see Flirt Nandina front and Center!

The herb garden I was in charge of putting together, came out better that expected!

I was not there to witness but I am sure the whole thing came down a lot quicker….probably 4 hours! During my time with Parks and Patio I went to check to see how Holly was doing on her own since I was not there to help. Of course she was perfectly fine on her own and our booth was rockin’! For those of you who where at Expo you might remember it from the hot orange colors..or maybe Stacie caught your eye. We didn't win best booth award, a prefabricated booth won, kinda bummed but we know ours was a winner in the hearts of the Expo visitors. A booth has to be good when people want to take pictures of it and with Stacie! Next year we will be back with an even better booth...we are already formulating ideas!

Blue..Orange, Fabulous together! For sure stood out in all of the Green of the show.

Disco was the theme, we even did some dancin'!

Green Walls! Also you can see Holly's pic on the B&W poster above!

Love is in the air!

Stacie!!!

Friday August 14th marked the first day of the Expo and Holly and I were happy to see the mood nor the traffic were as bad as we had been expecting. People seemed upbeat, traffic was good though a little down and we actually sold a little product which helped pay for the show so that was a bonus. Amy Prenger with the TNLA State office had this to say “Our total attendance was 7,025! Last year we were at 7,029. The attendees, not counting exhibitor personnel, was actually up about 8%. Our total exhibitor personnel was down, but attendees were up!” So I guess it was more than a feeling there were more people walking the show this year. Our newest Nandina, Flirt at the PDSI booth!

Around noon I left the Expo and headed for the airport to fly out to Colorado Springs because I was running in the half marathon the next day….acclimate…who needs to acclimate, that is for wimps. Ok, just kidding! If I had time I would have gone earlier, it might have helped, at least I like to think that was why I was huffing and puffing more than normal. The half marathon is called the Pike’s Peak Accent, I call it the run to the top of the world, because you run to the top of Pike’s Peak. A view from the top of the world.

Each step closer equals less oxygen in the air, by the time I reached the top I had reached the Rocky Mountain High that John Denver sings about. I made the journey in 4 hours and 48 minutes, I am thinking next year to do the full marathon because I must really love pain, haha! I did do my own Pike’s Peak decent 2 days later to see who this felt, it is a lot harder than you would think, took me 3 hours 30 minutes, 13 miles on flat road takes me just under 2 hours. My legs hurt more from the decent than the accent, but at least I was not breathing as hard going down, just had to watch my feet more carefully so that I did not fall and bash my teeth out!

After my time in Colorado Springs was up I flew directly to Portland, Oregon for the Farwest show on Wednesday the 19th of August. I got there later than we normally get there but I did not have much selection coming out of the tiny COS airport. I did get there in time to at least help Holly a little with setup then to go enjoy our traditional meal at Nicolas Restaurant, a hole in the wall place with great Lebanese food. Fresh homemade bread and hummus, what more could you ask for? After are satisfying meal we headed to Hood River where we would spend the night before the first day of the show. The show starts at noon everyday so we like to spend our time exploring Oregon. In Hood River we shopped a little and found a brewery called Full Sail that had some tasty beer. Decisions, Decisions...

After that it was off to the hotel for a much needed full night’s rest. The tradeshow in Oregon was again more upbeat than we expected, we changed booth locations and this seemed to bring us better traffic, only we hope next year giant palms won’t be blocking our view, I always thought 10’x10’ meant that but I suppose you could take that sizing as meaning you are getting a bigger booth, hmmmm. Still groovin' on the West Coast!

The OAN had this to say about the show “Members reported that in spite of the worst recession in decades, which resulted in less activity than prior years on the show floor, there was still a spirit of optimism. Many trust that the industry will regain its footing during the recovery, which economists believe is already underway.” We gave away blinky lights, a USA flag to go with our all liners are grown in the USA campaign. These were a big hit at both tradeshows, not sure if it will help business, not sure if any giveaways actually do, but it did bring us attention at the show. After the first day we got to go to our hotel in downtown Portland, I was really excited about this since it was new and a boutique hotel, just my style. The name is The Nines, and appropriately so, this place was amazing. The view from our room of the Urban Farmer.

Our room, I know.....jealous huh?

It is in the former Meyer & Frank building and it is unique, at least to me, because the lobby was on the 8th floor. The restaurant was on this floor as well, some of the rooms looked down onto the restaurant, like ours that was on the 10th floor. Great drinks at the Urban Farmer but we never ate there so I don’t know how to rate the food. We did get to enjoy a meal at Jake’s Grill which is always lovely, wish I had saved room for dessert! The next night we enjoyed greasy bar food at our new favorite hole in the wall bar with no name, across from the physic….which yes is a tradition to go to as well! We also enjoyed a few cocktails at Saucebox, if you like interesting drinks this is the place to go…then walk back across the street for more fried goodies at the bar with no name! A tradition, get a few fancy drinks at SauceBox, while people watching Mary's across the street.

This lady knows things she shouldn't! Probably sees dead people too!

All in all we felt Portland was successful in the contacts we made and we look forward to continuing to build relationships with our West Coast friends.

The Survey Says...

2009-08-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

In July I held a survey for an article I was writing for TNLA Region II on the surviving the slow economy in the nursery industry. Here is the article I wrote:

Last month the Region II Newsletter staff decided to send out a survey asking how companies were doing in the slower economy. Now for the results! 31 people answered the survey, not a huge number, but not too bad either. Hopefully in the future we can get better participation, more responses mean more information! We got responses from the following companies: Kris Bitner Horticultural Consultant, Greenleaf Nursery Company, JenScapes, Inc., Simmons Oak Farms, Dennis Newton, Turf and Landscape Consultant, Living Expression Landscapes, Enchanted Trees of Texas, Pearl Acres Nursery, Joshua’s Native Plants, Home Depot, Clepper’s Landscaping, Bare Spot Solutions Grass & Installation, Orchis Obsession, JNM Technologies, Inc., Southerwest Property Landscaping, Elways Indutries, Inc., Glueck Tree Farm, Sam Houston State University, Magnolia Garden Nursery, Triangle Nursery, Inc., Verdant Tree Farm, Landscape Art and Plants for All Seasons. Thanks to all that participated! Mostly growers answered the survey at 45.2%. See the graph here:

http://tnlaonline.org/regions/reg2/images/Survey1.gif

Interesting to us was that the sales being up or down was 50/50. Some companies seem to be cooking along even with the slow economy while others are falling behind. From the responses it looks like companies that are becoming experts in their area such as consulting are doing better this year. Also companies offering the total package, such as irrigation, landscape design and installation together so the homeowner only has to choose one contractor. In the grower area it seems larger material is moving more slowly as consumers are on a tighter budget, also because of slower home sales bread and butter items are moving slower as well. Smaller items such as annual and perennials and specialty items are selling well. Along the specialty item line, organics and edibles are gaining in popularity as people are more aware of what they eat, even growing their own food to save money. Drought tolerant plants still remain popular and will continue to do so as water restrictions pick up. On the landscaping side of things it seems commercial is down, probably due to the slow down in construction but residential is up. Homeowners are putting money into the home, as this will become a vacation spot or “staycation” on tight budgets. Some recommendations to stay ahead of the game during the slowdown were to keep the product fresh, and in particular for retail to spruce up the store with some inexpensive fixes, maybe a new paint job, new signs. Let people know you are in business and make them want to come back, nobody wants to shop at a place that looks tired and done. For everyone the biggest recommendation was good customer service, you have customers now, don’t let them go! Some firms have hired extra staff to provide superior customer service. In this economy you have to work twice as hard to get a customer and even harder to keep a customer.

Several changes have been implemented to help survive the slowdown as seen from the graph below. The most popular were to offer more unique services and products and to look at ways to make processes more efficient. Most people increased the marketing budget, which is recommended during a slowdown, you don’t want to disappear! See the graph here:

http://tnlaonline.org/regions/reg2/images/Survey3.gif

These are the results, let me know what you think!

Video Tour is Up!

2009-07-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well today we did a happy hour of sorts through Twitter. We posted a special that lasted from 2-5pm CST and posted a few videos that takes you through a virtual tour of the facilities. These are posted on youtube. Here they are:

Inside Tour:

Outside Tour:

Just an inside look at what we do everyday, hope you like these! BTW they are narrated by your truly!

SSSSSLLLOOOOWWW

2009-07-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

Well the economy just stinks, that I am sure most of us know. We are keeping our chin up but also being realistic. On July 10th we started working a 4 day week, one to cut costs but also because there is less work to do. We have a small skeleton crew working, myself, Holly and Minera our water woman (kinda like Wonder Woman!) Anyway, it is very quiet on Fridays so we hope that things turn around soon, we are getting lonely here! I will say that by working 4 days we have improved efficiencies in the lab. The crew there was on a more relaxed schedule, now the technicians are working longer hours on the 4 days in hopes of making up lost time they would get on Friday. It is always better to work a few long days than a series of short days. I have asked others in the industry are doing but I don't get specifics, just the ol' "We're hangin' in there"

I am excited about the upcoming tradeshows we have, hopefully we will get to see many customers face to face and talk about the Spring of 2010. It will be nice to get a feel for what everyone else thinks this spring season holds for us, I am pretty sure we already know what Fall has in store :((((. I have posted a survey on what companies are doing to survive this slow economy, if you are interested in expressing your opinion, please do so here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=
Lw4WHJ_2fWQDZh07LWXq3wLQ_3d_3d

I would love to hear from you, maybe share ideas if you have them! Even though things are down we are not all doom and gloom. We are working on several exciting projects that are going to make for an exciting future. Remember all good things come to those that wait. I am looking forward to next week, I think we will post another twitter special, if you are not following us you should here: www.twitter.com/MGNLiners we post things like specials too good to be missed, also we keep you updated on what we are doing around the nursery. We are always up to something!

Nandina Blush Pink™ set to release

2009-07-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

Well the HOT weather just won't quit so hopefully it will be a great time to start the official release of our newest Nandina, Nandina domestica 'AKA' or Blush Pink™ Nandina, P.P. 19916. You will see this one at the TNLA Expo in Dallas, TX from August 14-16th. Just check it out in the Flowerwood booth or the Magnolia Gardens booth, we will be in booth 1015! This Nandina will be an exclusive to the Southern Living® Plant Program, I am super excited about it being that it is the first patent Magnolia Gardens has even been granted. Here is the tag that you will see:
A little about this plant,

Nandina domestica 'AKA' is a new Nandina discovered by 3 employees at the Magnolia Gardens Nursery tissue culture facility. April Herring (that's me!!), Kay Herring (Mom!) and Adriana Garza (Our Greenhouse supervisor). This is were we got the cultivar name 'AKA' Interestingly enough AKA is the word for red in Japanese, which in the summer we think the new growth is nearly red, this was really neat considering we were going for a Japanese theme in our marketing. This new Nandina is a sport of Nandina domestica 'Firepower' with some added spice. Blush Pink™ Nandina PP# 19,916 will provide year round interest with its blush pink colored new growth as it continuously blushes from spring till fall. The selection of this plant was made based on its unique and long lasting blush pink colored young foliage in contrast to the typical lime-green colored young foliage of 'Firepower'. Blush Pink™ will remain compact at maturity with a height of 2'-2.5' and a width of 2.5'-3'.

Hardiness: USDA Zones 7-10
Plant Use: Perennial
Exposure: Full Sun to Partial Sun
Water Requirements: Medium

Here are some more pictures of this beauty!

Here I am holding the first one gallon, this is from the original liner found back in July of 2005.

Our first rooted crop!

Our first large crop of liners, look at that color!

Here is a comparison of Firepower, left, Blush Pink right.

Our first 3 gallon crop.

The color remains all year, this is taken in July.

and finally, the winter color is just as nice as Firepower.

Want to know more? contact me at April@MGNLiners.com

Today's Harvest

2009-07-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

We the victory garden is producing nicely. Today we harvested the first watermelon. We popped it into the fridge and the employees had a nice treat in the afternoon. Things are slow here but I have managed to keep myself busy mainly by trying to grow new plants, some successes followed by a few failures. It is so sad to see good plants die but this Texas heat has not let up! We have been nearly 100 for 3 weeks now, the heat is just so intense. Many plants can look good in the Spring and Fall here but the real test is the summer. If it can't survive a Texas summer then we are not able to add it to our product line unless we can finish fast before the heat hits. So far most plants are holding up with the exception of some Agapanthus, had a little meltdown on some of those! Other things on my plate include getting ready for 2 tradeshows in August and redesigning the Web site....ahhh yes busy. Our first patented plant is set to release at TNLA Expo so we are super excited about that. I will write about that one tomorrow!

HOT Friday

2009-06-26T07:50:00.000-07:00

Well I decided today is a great day to spend some quality time in my office since it will be another day of record breaking heat. Yesterday I spent some quality time at Schlitterbaun in New Braunfels, gotta escape the heat somehow! I hate thinking about the effects this heat has on our poor little plants. Already we have seen some problems in shipping. It is topping a little over 100 degrees each day then the plants get stuffed into a box and put on a freight truck, we may have to hold some shipments back if this heat continues. We hate when good plants die :-( On a lighter note the garden is a buzz, the honey bees are alive and happily pollinating our melons, cucumbers and watermelons. I never knew watermelons grew so quickly, maybe by Monday we can harvest! Also in the garden we planted some of our new Nandinas for some side by side comparisons. These are in full sun so they are not the prettiest but they are not half bad. The only problem is the cucumbers are attacking the Nandina Flirt, oh decisions, cut back the cucumber or let it swallow the Nandina? Depends on how hungry I am when I make that decision, LOL!

The month of July will be spent on getting crops ready for Fall as well as getting everything ready for the 2 tradeshows we exhibit at, the TNLA Expo and the Farwest show. The Expo is in Texas so we go all out at this one since we can ship things on our truck. These orange chairs are just a part of what has been started on. It is going to be fun! Also I will be working on the new MGN liner web site. We hope to bring new and exciting things to the site now that my focus will all be on liners. My deadline for our first rollout is August 3rd, I would say the 1st but that is a Saturday! I have many ideas so we will get the site up and going then add features as we go, if you have ideas let me know and I will see if we can implement them...I am not an expert so there are a few things I cannot do.

Some other things we are trying is holding a special of the week on Twitter. We have several followers now and we hope to get many more in the future. Other new things include our expanded perennial line which has gone over nicely. We are still working on a product line, subtracting and adding as we go, eventually we will find a group we like....then we will find new plants to add and change it again. That's what keeps things interesting for us here and we hope for our customers as well.

Time to go enjoy this HOT Friday as I sip on my Triple Venti Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte, yes!

Don't Spray it, Eat it!

2009-06-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

I was watching Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on the travel channel, you know the guy that will eat anything. Anyway it was his survival special and interestingly enough I actually learned something. Purslane is edible, yes you know the weed you keep pulling and spraying. Well after I saw the show I did some research. Not only is it edible but it is really good for you. On the show he made a salad with it, said if you mash it it was like olive oil dressing. The reason for this is all of the Omega-3 fatty acids. That is not the only thing good, it is also high in vitamin C. So save money on that grocery bill and eat what is already available for FREE! Mmmmm Purslane!

Whew wee!

2009-06-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

Well the dog days of summer are nearly upon us. It has gotten close to 100F here in the Houston area already! The heat index is already well above 100F, ouch! To avoid the heat I am spending some more time in the office ordering seeds for products we will offer in the Fall, just a few we received today in the picture. This spring we started to offer a whole line of perennial products, most in a larger cell size so they the finish fast. Even in the slow economy we saw some good movement so we are adding to our selections so our customers will have some great items to choose from by late summer. One new item will be ornamental peppers. We hope to have these ready in time for our customers to get them ready for their fall program. We noticed that consumers are looking for color items now, maybe holding back on shrub purchases or it could be the slow housing market makes those shrub needs go down. In any case we like color too so look for new items on our continuously evolving availability.

Also I will be working on a new Web site for the liner division. More to come later as I get further into this project. Basically we feel we can better cater to our customers by having a separate site from the container division at the nursery. Hopefully it will help reduce the confusion customers can have when calling about products. I hope to finish this before the TNLA Expo, keep your fingers crossed!

New Plants!!

2009-06-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

There is nothing better to boast your day than a batch of new plants arriving at the doorstep. With the economy as crummy as it has been it feels like everyone has had the life sucked out of them. My philosophy is to trial new plants in times like these. Once the economy springs back up we will be ready with all sorts of goodies to tickle your fancy. Today's goodies were a batch of Agapanthus 'Gold Strike' from New Zealand. They were sent bareroot so we will replant them outside in the greenhouse. I already have these going in the lab but I am going to try them both ways and see which way gets us the most plants the quickest. It is a beautiful plant so it is worth the work. I am hoping sometime in 2010 we will have some available.....

Garden progress

2009-05-26T07:06:00.001-07:00

Here is a photo of the garden I took today. It is progressing very nicely. In fact I hear while I was on vacation several employees had a few snacks! I need to find a good liquid feed organic fertlizer, that will be on the agenda today, things are looking a little hungry. So far we have tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, blackberries, blueberries, sage, rosemary, lavender, cilantro and peppers to munch on...when they are ready, which is sometime soon I hope!

-- Post From My iPhone

Happy Cinco de Mayo

2009-05-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of one BIG order from last week. We wish every week was like this week!

Tomato garden update

2009-04-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

The garden is progressing nicely, even got some tomatoes forming! Harvested some cilantro this morning for the employees yum! So far it is all organic, no spraying yet! Now I need to harvest some mint for a nice refreshing mojito!

-- Post From My iPhone

RAIN

2009-04-17T14:26:00.000-07:00

Rain is a great thing but it always seems to come at the most inconvient times. I am set to ride the MS 150 tomorrow, a bike ride from Houston to Austin. It is 170 miles of fun! Also we have a roof off one house, I hope Nandina Gulf Steam like a little fresh water! They got some hail yesterday and faired well. Ahhh the things we deal with. Tried to put the darn thing back on but it is either raining or the wind is gusting at 20 mph. That's Texas weather for you.

-- Post From My iPhone

New app on iPhone

2009-04-16T05:18:00.000-07:00

Trying out a new app on my iPhone called blogpress. If this works you will see loads more posts from me, especially from the field. I love this phone!

1.9.9.1.6.

2009-04-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, not really a secret code just the patent number for our first patent in company history! Time to break out the champagne! This is a project that started back in 2004 when three employees found a unique Nandina growing in a crop of Nandina Firepower. At first sight we called it Blush because it just keeps "blushing" as it grows. Today Jerry Pittman from Flowerwood emailed me and said he saw it had been assigned a number. I practically screamed from my office, told Holly to come see. I think she thought something was wrong, haha! It is days like these that keep you coming back.

This plant will be named Blush Pink Nandina and will be released this Fall as part of the Southern Living Collection, Yippee!

Check out the patent here:

uspto.gov, search under Nandina.

It will make you cross eyed!!! At least it did when I wrote it!

MGN Gets LOST!

2009-04-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

My first video, in honor of my favorite TV show LOST. Love that show!! More to come I am sure as I learn this new technology!

What is this?

2009-03-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

I dug this plant out of our owner's garden, he swore it was Ceasar's Brother but with research I can see he is sorely mistaken! This is a bearded iris with a great fragrance and it actually does well in the armpit of Texas here so I am interested to find out what cultivar it could be. Please enlighten me if you know!

Dwarf Variegated Agave

2009-03-19T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is the coolest thing I have seen a plant do! Our Agave desmettiana 'Variegata' started blooming in August 2008, the flower stalks are still there and now baby plants are growing from it. Now we can plant them and sell them as liners, woo hoo! They are variegated too so that is good because our crop in the lab has sadly drifted to green or yellow plants, boo hoo!

Spring is Here!

2009-03-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that Spring is here. Everything is starting to flush in the greenhouses and in the garden. I have a picture here of our newest Nandina that will be part of the Southern Living collection. Nandina 'MURASAKI' or Flirt Nandina. It is a sport of Harbour Dwarf with very striking wine red flush, FUN!

PhytoToXiC

2009-03-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

Well I thought the Trifecta of chemicals was brilliant, especially when I went into the greenhouse 2 days later and found no evidence of whiteflies. We tried a mixture of Orthene, Tame and Azatin. Killed the whiteflies but made some of the plants look like they have leopard spots!!! Live and Learn! Fortunately the plants are not getting worse and we did not spray that many since it was a new spray for us, in fact by next week we will hardly see any damage. From the picture it kinda looks like a new plant I found recently, funny!

Tomatoes are Planted!

2009-03-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

Here is the garden with some plants!

Weekend Warrior!!

2009-03-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

In case you ever wondered what liner grower does on the weekend, and I am just sure you all do, here is a link to my bike riding adventures.

http://web.me.com/oldaggie98/MS150HoustontoAustin_/2009_Movie.html

More pictures of the tomato garden coming soon! Plants are in and looking GOOD!

New Plants!

2009-03-02T19:37:00.001-08:00

Isn't it cool when you find a sport in a group of new plants that you have not even released yet? Pictures will come later but it is pretty cool if it stays stable. Being the plant nerd I am I nearly fainted when I found it, after recovering I proceeded to go get everyone I could find to come ooooohhh and ahhhhh over the new discovery. You know you have that new plant itch when you start thinking of a name for this new discovery that might not even be that great, LOL! This is the part of my job I love, the plant part.

Tomatoes

2009-02-24T13:12:00.000-08:00

I was told by an Englishman once or maybe a few times, more than a few because it has been drilled in my head!! I am sure he will read this so he knows who he is! Anyway he told me that Americans don’t know what a Tomato is. I have to agree with him on this. What is that pale red thing you buy at the store. It is just a highly breed shell with a tomato looking inside. They have been breed this way so they survive the shipping process but because of this we have sacrificed all taste and texture. Most tomatoes I buy are not only tasteless but they are mealy in texture. So what can we do about this? How about grow our own darn tomatoes and show friends, family, co-workers what a real tomato looks and tastes like.

My ranting has inspired me to build a vegetable garden here at Magnolia Gardens Nursery, plus the 80 degree weather is helping me get moving on this project as well. This is not a property that is best suited for growing vegetables, the ground is highly compacted after much traffic driving over and over it. Also I have a feeling when they built the place they compacted the grounds as well. This is much the same problem home owners will have, especially those in urban areas. This got me thinking that I would start a series in the Blog of the progress of my garden, good or bad I will update everyone. Why is this so interesting? Well mainly because I decided to build it on the parking lot, since most of the property is like a parking lot. I used cinder blocks to build a raised bed, double staked as a single stake was not deep enough at the recommended 12 inches. A double stack gets you at about 16.5 inches which only makes things better since the roots will have nowhere to go once they hit the bottom. I filled the garden with some Nature’s Way mix and I added some Mycorrhizae for good measure and soaked it down and let it sit for about a week. I plan to go organic with this garden, this will be a new adventure as well. Now for the plants, I went to a seminar at Arbor Gate, a local retail garden center, on heirloom gardens, I am glad I got there semi-early because nearly all plants were gone (hopefully a sign of times to come). Next year I will have to plant some seeds of my own so I have better pick, maybe sell some and make some money in the process! Some of the varieties I did get were: Black Pineapple, Green Grape, Creole, Abraham Lincoln, Pittman Valley Plum, Black Cherry, Ghost Cherry and German Johnson. I also got a few peppers, I can’t wait to see the sweet wrinkled old man.
What I think this experiment will do is teach people that you can grow your own and everything will taste so much better. Also that it does not have to be in perfect conditions. Plus in the struggling economy I see this trend only increasing over time. Check back soon for my progress, good or bad...Hopefully good! Good Eats that is (If the blog could play music it would play the theme song for the show Good Eats here, doo doo dooo doo doo doo doo, Good Eats!)

21 days....

2009-02-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

They say it takes 21 days to make something a habit, good or bad. Obviously the days go by much quicker when we are making a bad habit, like eating candy everyday!!! Anyway I went to a Franklin Covey class on life organization and we are suppose to follow the formula exactly for 21 days. So far so good except yesterday I forgot my planner so I wonder if the clock starts over. For anybody looking to reorganize their life I highly suggest trying this out. It helps you get the bigger things done and helps to stop piddling around with the small stuff. I have done more stuff in the past 2 weeks or at least I feel like I have accomplished more in the past 2 weeks than I have in months before the class. If everything works out I should have written 2 patents and 4 trademarks by the end of Spring, LOL! Well it it written in the planner so it will happen, at least I hope.

Friday the 13th, oooohhhhh!

2009-02-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

Well seeing as how my week has been pretty hectic I decided it best I not go to the office on the 13th! So far this week it seemed if something could break, it did! I am still not sure if everything is fixed. I will be self torturing myself by riding 80 miles on my bike, woo hoo! I am training for the MS150 but the group I am riding with decided to do the 170 mile ride in one day instead of 2, OUCH! Normally I ride on the weekend but I am running the Austin half marathon so I decided to take Saturday for a day of rest. Plus it will be Valentine's Day, a day for candy!

This week I have been working to add new product descriptions to our Web site. It is tedious but I don't mind sine it means New Plants! We are trying some perennials this year, something a little different. At least I know the employees will like them, there are only so many Nandinas a person can have in their yard, LOL! I also took advantage of the bad economy this week and went to Circuit City to pick up a video camera, so look for video posts of what we do here soon....pending I can figure the thing out!

Ok time to rest for the 80 mile trek.

GSHE Show Report

2009-02-03T20:01:00.000-08:00

I have to say I went to Mobile expecting the worse, in fact we only made 100 copies of the availability since we did not even get close to handing out this many in Baltimore. I guess if you expect the worse you can only go up from there! By 11:00 I had to dash away and make more copies, I was pretty happy about this so I skipped the whole way, haha! Although we did not write many orders the booth stayed busy and we passed out tons of literature. Not sure if it was the plants or the dancing, hmmm? Miss the dancing? Don't worry it will resurface in Dallas! I think most people were optimistic that Spring will turn things around....I am too.

Round 2

2009-01-29T05:12:00.001-08:00

Ding...ding... Lets get ready to seeeeelllllll some plants. Well lets hope we can sell some plants. It is bright and early, freezing outside and I am about ready to head to the airport and head to Mobile, AL for the Gulf State Horticulture Expo. This is usually our best show of the year so I am crossing my fingers that things go well. It is hard to keep positive though when the darn news keeping talking doom and gloom. This morning they are saying the post office is about to cut a day of delivery....ahhhhh Starbucks cutting 7000 jobs an companies using bail money to give bonuses. ok Breath...Think positive! Ok that does it peanut butter contamination!!!! This is the food I live on, always a jar on my desk. Time for some yoga to relax or maybe a apple martini! I will keep everyone posted on the show with my on the go updates.

Liner Grower, over and out.

March Ad finally finished!

2009-01-26T11:14:00.000-08:00

Sometimes ad ideas just come to me but other times they don't or it takes a really long time. I think I work best under pressure, like start the ad the day it is due, excellent! For the March 2009 American Nurseryman I started a different look, moving somewhat away from Asian and to a more edgy young look. I hope to continue this trend and use our employees as models. For March we have featured Adriana Garza, our amazing Greenhouse Supervisor. She is taking a leave of absence for a few month and boy will we miss her! Because of this leave I have been extra motivated to learn Spanish, see previous post.

Also new for our marketing I am featuring the fact that we produce all liners here in the U.S. and if I need to source material such as stage 3 I am getting these from American companies such as Rancho Tissue Technologies. One program we just started is the use of Mycorrhizae fungus, this will be featured in marketing as well as I see it to be a great benefit for growers and the end consumers. For the edgy I just did a desaturation of the photo of Adriana, went a little darker and kept some red in it. The font is Authentic Ink along with Handwriting Dakota, my 2 new favorites! Just another one of my jobs here at MGN liner division.

Spanish!!

2009-01-21T12:09:00.000-08:00

Ok, I am tired of not being able to communicate with some of my employees with confidence. Rosetta Stone has been ordered!!! I will keep posting to the blog of my progress, perhaps in Espanol.

Chilly!

2009-01-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

That Texas weather,cold, hot, cold, hot! Got to the office this morning and it was a chilly 30 degrees. yeah I know I know! But April it is -30 here! Well 30 is cold for us Texans. I am glad they got our greenhouse curtains up or I would have some angry plants. Here is a picture of some of our newest Nandina, Nandina 'MURASAKI' with a little morning frost. Southernly winds coming in, expected to get to 68F, that's more like it!

3 YEARS!!!!

2009-01-19T15:10:00.000-08:00

Well I think it has been 3 years, maybe more it could be 4. Three years for what you ask? For this Clivia to bloom from seed! Now I know why they cost so much, it is pretty though. Anyway enjoy 3 years of hard work, HA! Beautiful day here in Texas, about 65 to 70 degrees and sunny. The only complaint is the wind that ripped a greenhouse roof off, oh well can't be perfect.

Back to the Office

2009-01-11T16:24:00.000-08:00

I am starting to pack everything for tomorrow morning and it has given me some time to reflect on last week. The MANTS show was the worst Holly or I have ever been to. Really it was the first show we can remember in a long time that we have not taken enough orders to pay for our trip. The traffic was ok but it seemed mostly landscapers were walking, which is not the customer base of a liner producer! Also people just did not seem happy, I know the economy looks gloomy but we can still smile a little right? It just seemed most people were in no mood for anything, even for winning an Ipod. We had alot of people who did not want to sign up to win because they already had one, hmmmm? Well at least our Ipod winners were very happy, we even got a gift from Heather who won the second Ipod of the show, Thanks for staying cheery!!! This really helped me through the day. Well this show failure only make me want to work harder at our next show in Mobile. Look for a better display and still smiling faces, we will not give up! Also I find this is a great time to look for new opportunities so look for us to start revamping our product offerings to meet our customers needs.

Liner Grower out.....going to pack lunch and many snacks, if you know me then you know this is true! I need lots of energy for all of the things I will be doing this week.

Packing for MANTS!

2009-01-05T20:52:00.000-08:00

Well it is that time of year again, tradeshow season! I think I almost have everything I need, which is practically most of everything I own, j/k! It sure feels like it though but it is hard to pack light when you are going to a place where the high is in the 30's. I am from Texas! Not that it is warm here now. Sunday it was 70 degrees at 10:00 am at 10:01 a dark cloud blew past me right before I was going on a bike ride. 10:02 it was 52 degrees! Texas weather!

Anyway I am anxious well more nervous about what we will find out at MANTS, hopefully not more bad news. On our side of business things are slow, real slow as growers are being extra cautious to what they order this year. Please comment on this to let me know how things are in other parts of the world!

I will post to the blog as often as I can during the show, keeping you all posted on how things look, attitudes feel. Normally this is a very busy tradeshow, isles stuffed, so if they are not...we are in trouble.

Liner Grower heading for bed now, flight leaves at 7:20 AM! Hopefully with me on board, HA!

The Sun is Back

2008-12-29T09:13:00.000-08:00

I am happy to report the sun is out today, nice rays on the Agave 'Baja' in the garden! Maybe we will have to water soon. The last time we watered was 12-19-08! Great day to leave a little early for a nice bike ride. A great day for a little quote as well. This is especially great to look at in these hard economic times.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Winston Churchill

Happy Holidays from MGN Liner Division!

2008-12-19T15:00:00.000-08:00

Just a few of us at the company party. Feliz Navidad!

Postcards/Calendars have been sent out!

2008-12-17T14:32:00.001-08:00

So I decided this is the year for everybody to have a Magnolia Gardens Nursery growers' calendar. It will be in the January issue of American Nurseryman, we will had out jumbo sized versions (12"x 18") at the MANTS and GSHE shows and just today I send out a postcard version. Yes we love growers' calendars here!!

The software we use here is Adobe. I love Indesign!! It is the best thing ever made! Well pretty close. It is amazing what you can do by just playing around with things, I taught myself to use this program. At first it seemed confusing but it is great now. My next task is to train myself on Filemaker Pro, I am ready to get rid of 10 plus spreadsheets and merge them to one database, oh yes!

Blast Off!

2008-12-16T10:41:00.000-08:00

Found this in our stage 1 plants today. It is a Variegated Agave that looks like it is ready to escape the confines of the test tube. I am not sure why since it is drizzly and miserable outside. I'd like to be in a test tube today!

This is Just Growin'

2008-12-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

This is my first post in the liner grower's blog for Magnolia Gardens Nursery. A little about Magnolia Gardens Nursery. We are a medium sized grower with 3 locations and 2 divisions. The one I will post about is the liner division in Magnolia, TX. The other locations are in Waller, TX and Plantersville, TX. The property here is about 20 acres, we (liner division) take up about 10 acres while the container division grows limited shrubs and trees on the remaining acreage. The Waller location is the largest, about 100 acres. At peak season the company employs about 150 people, in this division we run about 40 employees year round. We have a tissue culture lab in this division and we specialize in Nandina domestica plants. We also grow Agapanthus, Ginger, Ornamental Grasses and other perennials. From our lab we produce about 5 million plants per year and about 500,000 plants from seed or division. I hope you enjoy the blog!

April Herring, Production Manager of Tissue Culture