Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
The GSHE Report 2011
Holly and I headed to Mobile, Alabama on Monday January 17th for the GSHE Show that ran Thursday and Friday that week. We decided to drive to save money since the flights were crazy expensive! We left early because we had a Southern Living Grower meeting on Wednesday so we needed Tuesday to set up our awesome booth. Our theme was punk 80's, Stacy was rockin' out in her Carex 'Frosty Curls' skirt.
The booth got setup without any issues, I was happy about this since we did not have time to set it up before leaving as half was sent direct from MANTS, so I was hoping we brought all of the pieces!
The next day our meeting with the Southern Living Grower Group went well and the plant collection sales are getting stronger, which is great since we propagate 4 of the plants in the collection, not to mention all of the perennials! I have to thank Flowerwood and PDSI for the wonderful hospitality, which included the best lunch ever! My diet was blown but at least that meal made it worth it! That night was the traditional party that is catered by Ruossos, if you like seafood then this is the best. Holly and I don't care for it much and I am allergic to most of it so we headed to our favorite bar food joint, Heros. Fried food heaven! Since the diet was already blown I might as well really go over the top! We called it an early night so we would be fresh for the first day of the show. On Thursday the show started and we were so busy I hardly ever had a chance to sit down, the day passed very quickly and we did very well. In the evening we went to dinner with Ralph and Patti Rushing, Ralph is the inventor of Harbor Belle Nandina. We ate at Nojas, very good stuff, best lemon drops ever! After dinner we stopped at Haleys so Ralph could play a game of pool. It was about eleven when I called it a night, gettin' old! Friday was another good day, busy again, I am looking forward to spring, things are starting to move, excitement is in the air!
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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
Sunday, January 9, 2011
The MANTS Report 2011
Holly and I just got back from Baltimore on Friday and I am feeling pleasantly positive about the show. The attitudes seemed much better than last year and we even wrote a few orders! The show was very busy as usual but for us the traffic is wrong, the problem is that mostly landscapers walk the show. It is for this reason we walk the show ourselves to see our customers since most have booths at the show, otherwise we would never see them! It is ok though, we left Stacy in charge when we left, and she is quite the attention getter! This show we stuck with our 80s theme, fluorescent colors oh yes! We didn't want anyone to miss us now! We originally thought to change it up and build Stacy a feather boa made of Carex 'Frosty Curls'. On set up day we started putting it together and the grass was so long it started looking like a tu tu so anyway we went with the idea.
The only bad thing was all the guys checking Stacy out, come on she's a manequin! If that weren't bad enough I had four comments to the effect that I should be wearing the skirt and we could get a whole lot more business, jeeezz, one does not have to speak exactly what ones thinks, especially at a tradeshow! I digress. Wednesday night we went to dinner with Flowerwood Nursery and Peter from Plantip. Da Mimmos, need I say more, yummmmmm!
During the tradeshow we also had several inquires through email on orders, so we were feeling good. Now we just have to hire more people to plant all these orders! Also we heard many people mentioning plant shortages, even on the elevator at the hotel several people mentioning selling out,that is when I promptly mentioned we had liners! I guess on one negative note we did not sell our liners that we brought to the show. We thought we had it pre sold but I think he did not like the mix, probably wanted more Nandinas, I can't bring a whole booth of Nandinas anymore because that is not all we sell! We turned a negative into a positive and gave half to our neighbors, who had been in love with them the whole show. We would have given him the whole thing but he flew and he had a friend that could fit one box that drove. So Holly walked the show and found a lady from Riverbend that wanted the other half. We hope they end up liking them and come back for more! Once the show was over it only took us about 45 minutes to completely break down, amazing how fast it can all come down! Then off to the hotel to get our luggage then to the airport to catch our flight back, I was looking forward for some of that 70 degree weather. I also needed to get some sleep, I signed up for an 80 mile mountain bike race the next day that was a three hour drive from the house and it started at 7:30, eekk! I did make my race, finished it and yes it hurt a lot! But wow what a great way to work off all that good food I ate in Baltimore! So my final words are "Time to PLANT".
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".
Monday, October 4, 2010
Plant Delights Nursery
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!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Athens Select June 30th Meeting
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!
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!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Dallas Arboretum Plant Trials 2010
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.
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