If you're reading this from a warm, sunny, sunbelt sort of location, you can chuckle to yourself at the poor northerners who choose to suffer the dark and cold for six months of the year. Unless you happen to be one of those northerners who love winter and to whom the ideal winter getaway is to go even further north, like to Michigan’s U.P. or Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, or Fairbanks, Alaska (which I have visited in January, and yes, it’s chilly up there).

My friend Greg Wittstock, owner of Aquascape, just moved from Chicagoland to Utah and he and the Mrs. and their dog, Willow, seem thrilled by all the snow and ice and cold—in other words, to each his own!

Photo: Greg Wittstock.

Me, I’m a gardener first, and when I can’t garden, I’m miserable. Which is why I look for any escape—even vicariously—from the doldrums of January. Here are three items that take me away—just like Calgon!

For once I can give you a brief bit of warning about this … well, it’s not a holiday. But it’s an excuse to get your customers, whether retail or end consumer, to buy some green plants! Or an African violet or anything else that does well indoors.

I’ve reported on Houseplant Appreciation Day (which always falls on January 10) for quite a few years. But this year I realized I had no idea where it originated. Was it established by Congressional declaration? Trademarked by some big foliage grower? Nope. It was started by one guy—Bob Matthews of Gardeners Network (www.gardenersnet.com). Bob writes on his website the following explanation of how it came to be:

By the 10th of January, the holidays are a distant, happy memory. We have put the decorations away. Now, our houses all look kinda plain and drab inside. As you look around the house, something catches your eye. It’s over there, in the corner of the room. It’s still green, but it sure looks dry. And it’s drooping a bit. Why, it’s a houseplant! Funny, but with all the holiday hullabaloo, you’ve all but forgotten your plants.

Well, aren’t your houseplants lucky that the tenth of January has arrived!? Today is THE day to get back to tending to and loving each and every plant in your home. It’s also a day to appreciate just how special and important houseplants are to you. As gardeners, we need to have our hands in some dirt. Caring for them gives us that opportunity. After all, it’s a long way to spring, when we can get out into the garden again.

For those who question what qualifies as a “houseplant,” Bob has an answer:

Well, there are plenty of plants that we think of as houseplants. Spider Plants, Rubber Plants, Aloe Vera, Bamboo and African Violets are just a few that come to mind. In reality, a houseplant is any plant that can be grown indoors in lower light, low humidity and cooler temperature conditions. That opens up a wide range of possibilities. We once knew a guy who grew a pumpkin plant in his basement under grow lights. The pumpkin plant in that home scientific experiment qualified the pumpkin plant as a houseplant.

How long has there been a Houseplant Appreciation Day? I reached out to Bob via phone to find out. Turns out he couldn’t quite recall, but he narrowed it down to between 2010 and 2012. Bob, you see, is an avid gardener, but he’s also a website developer (he’s created more than 30), which is what led to www.gardenersnet.com.

One of his other websites is www.holidayinsights.com, which lists loads of holidays for every occasion and is quite handy—in fact, he’s got a whole section devoted to garden and plant-oriented holidays! But when Bob first created the calendar, he noticed a gap: he could not find a holiday celebrating houseplants. So he created one!

So while it may not have the stamp of approval of Congress, Houseplant Appreciation Day is still a good excuse to sell more plants, buy more plants or simply show some love to the ones you already have.

Me? I’m going to treat my sansevieria to lunch (he hasn't been fed in two years!).

Another way to fight the winter blues is to recall summer days gone by, such as through the new Gardens at Ball Virtual Tour software system, which takes you through the 7-acre Ball trial and display gardens on a pretty summer day. It’s sort of like navigating streets using Google Earth, except it’s garden paths. Just follow the circles and click on the signs. Along the way you can learn about the varieties you’re seeing and watch videos about Ball products.

It takes a bit of practice and you have to click to different viewers to get all the way around the garden, but it’s fun and pretty. If this is part of the metaverse, I’ll take it!

Jen Zurko is already looking ahead to March, when she gets to make her first visit to Costa Farms’ Season Premiere Gardens open house, slated for March 1-3 (you may have seen it listed elsewhere as March 9-12, but that’s incorrect). It’s one of the first places to get a look at new annuals from more than a dozen breeding companies in advance of their launch at CAST in April.

Costa offers a series of landscape beds, row beds, hanging baskets and containers to let you compare plant performance across a variety of settings, from landscape to patio. Plants were transplanted into the trial garden in December and will be evaluated throughout the spring and summer of 2023 to determine the best performers in Costa’s Homestead, Florida (Zone 10b), conditions. Representatives from the sponsoring breeding companies should be on hand to tell you about their genetics and provide the latest technical tips and tricks.

If you want to attend, they request you register, which you can do HERE.

That trip to sunshine and greenery was nice, eh? Makes it more palatable to go back in time to my recently published River Ridge Winter Greens Report. In it, I noted a 5.5 percentage point decline in fresh-cut greens use among my holiday-decorating neighbors—from 20.5% down to 15%. That’s about 17 homes, I calculated—a biggish number—but, hopefully it’s not an indication of a downward trend.

I speculated a bit about why greens use might be down. My wife thought the late cold snap could have dissuaded some last-minute greens decorators, but I disagreed, thinking most get their greens up well before Christmas. Availability isn’t an issue—you can find the stuff at every retailer. But we both agreed that perhaps prices are up and that has put off some shoppers.

A few of you weighed in with your own guesses.

Abe VanWingerden of Metrolina Greenhouses asked if the late date of our survey (December 28) could have missed some folks who already had taken down their décor the day after Christmas or as soon as the guests left. But I told him the weather was so cold and nasty, I didn’t think anyone was going to brave it just to remove some holiday décor. (I added that some neighbors can’t even be bothered to take down the dead hanging basket left over from spring, so I’m sure their decorations will be up until Easter.)

Jim DelPrince, associate professor and horticulture specialist at Mississippi State University in Biloxi, thinks that price—or better yet, perceived value—of fresh-cut greens is a big factor in the southeast region.

I agree with Jim, at least among middle-class households (like River Ridge), where spending $250 on greens that will only last a month or so might seem like a waste compared to spending the same amount on artificial greens. I’ll make a guess—but an educated one—that I’ll find more real greens in more affluent neighborhoods. And more custom containers as opposed to pre-made store-bought containers.

Reader Shannon Kuhrt weighed in that she loves all my River Ridge Reports, but the Winter Greens Report is of special interest. That’s because Shannon is VP of her family's business, M&M Wintergreens in Cleveland, Ohio.

While we all dabble in greens for a month or two a year, Shannon lives them year round. She said, “Our company is in the unique position in that we have the opportunity to focus 100% of our attention on strictly the holiday season. This allows us to be a leader and set trends. We adjust our product line typically in advance of other companies as we foresee these changes.”

Here's what Shannon had to say about the 2022 greens season and her view of the future of greens:

We shipped to about 30 states, and we saw demand as being up (new companies reaching out for our information all season long) and supply was certainly better than in 2021 by far, although there were a few items that were not available or had limited availability.

I wouldn’t worry about fresh greenery being in decline as part of a bigger trend. In fact, when you look at your other statistics, porch pots were up, which is certainly correct in what I see year over year. If IGCs and related independent horticulture companies keep sharing the sustainability message of using fresh greenery, the younger decorating audience will be happy to pay for decorations that serve the greater good.

Hortistician Marvin Miller suggested via email that I dig into the demographics of greens purchasers—perhaps older decorators prefer the traditional act of decking their halls with wreaths and garlands; while younger ones prefer the convenience of dropping a pre-made greens container on the front stoop and, outdoor decorating now complete, hitting the holiday wassail.

I posed that question to Shannon to see if she had any expert opinions. She did!

I can gauge to a certain degree what the consumers are purchasing and how those end-user trends are changing over time based on what changes I see in the products garden centers and other independent horticulture companies purchase from me.

We sell the bulk materials, but we also sell “Porch Pot Kits,” which I am proud to say we were the leaders in the industry with this item. It was about 10 years ago that we released our first style of Porch Pot Kits and that original style is still one of the most popular in our lineup. It’s used for workshops and to speed up the production of pre-made pots, as well as serve as a retail-ready item for consumers to make their own pots. Basically, we listened to the pain points our customers shared in making pots with just “bulk” material and provided an alternative solution to make their lives easier. Each year, my numbers grow on all of our Porch Pot Kits, while older items, such as Appalachian White Pine Roping (the “thin” garland), dwindle.

As for trends, we do see wreaths and “heavier” (but shorter) garlands still as big sellers. What I do see is a decline in “cheaper” wreath styles, such as Fraser fir and balsam (which we don’t even carry because balsam sheds). Last year, we also did not offer Fraser fir wreaths for the first time in forever because we feel there are better-quality options that are more popular.

The younger consumers are more willing to purchase better-quality and higher-end fresh greenery if it makes their homes and porches look good on Instagram. This younger generation is also more time-starved, as they shuttle kids to sports practices and travel leagues. Plunking a pot down on the porch is much easier and faster than stringing 75 ft. of garland down a fence-line, which the Baby Boomer generation did for years.

This younger audience will still, however, put a wreath on their front door and 15 ft. of garland around their door frame if my customer base educates them. One of the tactics I encourage is to create a “Front Porch Bundle” of products that include a wreath, bow, wreath hanger, 15 ft. of a heavy garland (like Western Cedar), and one or two porch pot kits and selling it as a package to consumers.

In my opinion, companies that are not including porch pots in their holiday lineup of product offerings are missing out on a huge opportunity.

Thanks for the great expert insights and ideas for next winter’s greens market, Shannon!

Always wanted your own private jet? Now you can have one, and plant it, too!

No, not a Lear Jet, a Bloomin’ Easy Thuja occidentalis (arborvitae) named Private Jet. I suspect that name comes from its speed—it roots and finishes “significantly faster” than any comparable thuja, they say, growing up to 24 in. per year and cutting as much as a year off the production time of finished plants. Private Jet offers a dense and columnar habit with a rich emerald color.

“We have growers subbing large portions of their Smaragd crop with Private Jet because it’s shaving a year off production time, which equals more cash and profits for their nursery,” said Van Belle Young Plants Director of Sales Jeff O’Brien. You can see Private Jet at the Bloomin’ Easy booth (#2448) at MANTS January 11-13 at the Baltimore Convention Center.

“The value of achieving a beautiful and dense privacy hedge in nearly half the time is hard to ignore,” said Bloomin’ Easy Consumer Marketing Manager Madison House. “Everything about Private Jet makes it an easy choice for growers, landscapers, garden centers and the young homeowners we engage with.”

To order inputs, contact your Van Belle Young Plants Account Manager or email youngplants@vanbelle.com.

One last tropical topic (not to be confused with Ellen Wells’ fabulous newsletter of the same name) is the upcoming TPIE—the Tropical Plant International Expo to be held in Tampa January 18-20. It is THE trade event showcasing the latest trends in foliage, floral and tropicals—and has been for 50 years!

If you're heading down to Tampa—and you should—be aware that this is your last chance to register for the trade show before the price increase. Right now, you can get your badge for just $25, but that goes up after Friday, January 6.

By the way, the forecast for Tampa during TPIE? Sunny, with highs in the 70s.

Yes, I will be there!