Have you ever heard Dr. Charlie Hall, the go-to economics guru for the horticulture industry, give a presentation? He’s the closest thing to Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson we have in this field. Truth. Charlie can take a subject that usually makes your eyes roll back in your head and turn it into a comet-sized thrill ride. It’s quite a talent!

I’m sure everyone attending last week’s opening keynote at the IGC Show in Chicago felt the same. We were on the edge of our seats hoping to hear Charlie’s take on “The Evolution of IGC Retail: How Our Todays Will Affect Our Tomorrows,” and especially to learn his prediction for when the next recession will occur.

And when is that? I’ll tell you in a minute, but first let me present a few of my note scribbles from his talk:

• Watch for the “media spin” on the economy and what they predict. Everyone has an agenda—except for us public-serving horticulture trade press (thanks for the confidence, Dr. Hall!).
• 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring every day. How will that change what products, and more importantly, what services you're offering?
• Baby Boomers outnumber Gen Xers 74 million to about 65 million (my numbers, not Charlie’s). That's about 10 million fewer people in your gardening target age that won’t be purchasing stuff. That’s nothing to sneeze at.
• Speaking of a drop, there are fewer and fewer young people coming into the green industry. Efforts such as Seed Your Future and other programs are trying to spread the word about working in our industry. In fact, just an hour or so before Charlie’s talk I read the recent Washington Post article that warns, “The horticulture industry’s age problem is bigger than you think.” 
• GDP goes up and it goes down, but sales of pet products have never gone down, even during the Great Recession.
• People afford the things that they want. Evidence? See previous bullet point.
• The big opportunity for IGCs is packaging the “well-being” of horticulture, a.k.a. biophilia, in an authentic fashion.
• Smart cities, intelligent shopping, smart environments … autonomous freight drivers?! Embrace technologies to help solve your and your customers’ problems. (Me? I still drive a stick shift.)

As for the timing of the next recession, Charlie says there’s a 25% chance of it happening in 2019, 50% by 2020 and 80% change by 2021.

“Make strategic investments before then!” Charlie says. Have a contingency plan, my friends. Otherwise, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get where you’ve gotten,” as Charlie is famous for saying.  

I spoke to one of those rare young people involved in horticulture while I was in Chicago. Remember Katie Stagliano? You might know her better as the 9-year-old girl who in 2008 grew a 40-lb. cabbage and then began the Katie’s Krops garden initiative. Katie’s now in college, majoring in communications with a minor in environmental sustainability at the College of Charleston. But before heading off to college, Katie gave a talk at the GWA annual conference (held in conjunction with IGC Show this year).

Katie and me in the Proven Winners booth, who so kindly provided travel assistance to her so she could get to the event.

Katie is still certainly involved in the Katie’s Krops program. The organization from her home base in South Carolina now includes 130 gardens in 30 states. The deal with these Katie’s Krops gardens is that all of the produce is donated to help feed people in need. And the need is everywhere.

Is this a mission the young growers in your family can get behind? The application process to start a Katie’s Krops garden is open October-December—you'll find the application information HERE.

Of course, you can also support Katie’s Krops Growers in other ways. It costs as much as $1,000 to start a new garden. Katie could use any resources you’re willing to donate—seeds, tools, hard goods and good-old U.S. currency. If that’s something you’re interested in doing, drop Katie’s Krops a line HERE.  

I met up with fellow Bobbleheads Chris Beytes and Jen Zurko to cruise the IGC Show floor. What new and new-to-us stuff did we find?

A grow tunnel!

Pillows!

A hops program!

Gardening and apres-gardening wear!

Tools for kids!

We found a bunch of other stuff you’ll want to carry in your IGC, too. Find out about all of the aforementioned items and then some in this VIDEO.

I’ll finish up my IGC Show coverage next week with a few additional items. Were you there? I’m curious what you found. Drop me a line about it at ewells@ballpublishing.com.  

The GCA Best Garden Center Bathroom Awards were given out during the IGC Show. This year, 12 IGCs were recognized for going above and beyond when it comes to providing a comfortable, clean and creative “pit stop” during a customer’s shopping experience.

The three Gold Winners will enjoy one free registration each to the 2019 GCA Summer Tour. Those winners are:

DeWayne’s, Selma, North Carolina

Garden*Hood—Plant Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia

The Gardens at The Ridge, Kerrville, Texas

Silver Awards were given to:

• Hicks Nurseries, Westbury, New York
• Lurvey Garden Center, Des Plaines, Illinois

Merit Awards were given to:

• Country Bumpkin Garden Center, Mundelein, Illinois
• Dammann’s Garden Company, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Guilford Garden Center, Greensboro, North Carolina
• Leaf & Petal, Birmingham, Alabama
• North River Greenhouse & Landscaping, Alamosa, Colorado
• Oakland Nursery, Columbus, Ohio
• Plumline Nursery, Murrysville, Pennsylvania

All in all, GCA’s Executive Director Jeff Morey said that they received the strongest entries yet. Keep up the good work, folks! Maybe next year, you’ll be the ones taking home the award.  

A few weeks ago, I featured the Revolution Blue Hydrangeas as one of my picks from Cultivate’18. I mistakenly said the breeding of this line of hydrangeas came out of Denmark. Wrong! Angela Treadwell-Palmer of Plants Nouveau kindly corrected me to say these hydrangeas are from Holland, specifically from Kolster, a breeding company that Plants Nouveau represents.

Angela explains that Kolster started breeding hydrangeas for cut flowers. They turned out some really sturdy-stemmed items, too.

“Amidst their breeding, they started to find shorter varieties that did not have the long stems and huge flower heads needed for the cut flower market,” she writes, “So the pot or gift plant line was formed.”

The Revolution Hydrangea—the one I featured as having cool-colored petals—is a mutation of Magical/Everlasting Opal. The blooms last for 150 days! And those flower heads keep that sturdy nature the whole time. Angela has kept some in pots for several years now, moving them from deck to sunroom to deck year after year.

Thanks for the corrected information, Angela! 

I just got word this morning that All-America Selections, the Perennial Plant Association and the National Garden Bureau will team up to host the 2019 National Perennial Plant Symposium. The event will take place in the beautiful city of Chicago and greater Chicagoland, as the Chi-town ‘burbs are nicknamed.

There’s lots of horticulturally relevant things going on in and around Chicago, with some outstanding private and public gardens and horticulture companies making this city their home.

The meeting will be significant in that the first-ever winners from the AAS Herbaceous Perennial Trials—launched in 2015 in conjunction with PPA—will be announced. Other exciting things slated to happen during the week include private garden and trial tours, behind-the-scenes peaking at public gardens and “unique Midwest destination” tours. Wonder what those could be!

Do you grow, sell or just generally love perennials? Then put this on your 2019 travel schedule. The meeting will take place the week of July 29 and will be hosted at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois. Watch for more details early next year.  

Are you researching the possibilities around hydroponic production? Then you can’t miss Ball Publishing’s newest webinar offering, “The Role of Substrates in Hydroponic Production." Hosted by none other than GrowerTalks’ Chris Beytes, he’ll be joined by guest expert Vijay Rapaka, corporate grower research manager for Oasis Grower Solutions.

During the webinar, Chris and Vijay will talk about:

• The key role substrates play in hydroponic production of a wide variety of crops, from greens to vegetables
• The various types of substrates, and their features and benefits
• How to match substrate attributes with particular crop production systems and cultivation practices
• Using substrates effectively to maximize crop growth and yield

This FREE webinar takes place TODAY, August 22, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (noon Central). Find out more about the webinar and also register for it HERE. If you miss reading this until after the webinar and really want to get at that information, go to that same link after the webinar to listen to an archived version.  

I learned from my friends at FNGLA that the University of Florida/IFAS has launched a nationwide survey to determine the effects of neonicotinoid bans and restrictions on the economic feasibility of pest management. If you’re a grower—and many of you retailers are—this is a chance to help gather important information about neonic crop protection tools. You can find the survey HERE.