If it’s January and you are in the garden center business, you are headed to market. The Dallas Market Center stands to be the best-lit market of them all, thanks to the new 15,000-sq. ft. showroom debuting for Modern Forms during Lightovation—Dallas International Light Show. That’s almost an unfathomable amount of lighting! Located in Trade Mart 4808, Lightovation takes place January 17-21 and will offer tons of new designs and the most innovative new technology.

The Modern Forms showroom will also include a hot new category: fans. They’ll have 80 fan SKUs and 27 core designs, some of them including smart “adaptive learning technology,” (e.g. “Hey, Alexa, turn on the ceiling fan.”) Ceiling fans are a great fit for garden centers that are promoting that easy-breezy Southern porch culture. Modern Forms is even having a new-showroom celebration with a giveaway of an electric car. You’ll need to attend the “Get Lit Get Lucky Get-Together on the evening of January 18 in order to qualify.

There are lots of other events going on at the Dallas Market Center around that same time:

• Dallas Total Home & Gift Market (January 17-23)
• Dallas Holiday & Home Expo (January 17-23)
• Dallas Total Housewares & Gourmet Market (January 17-23)
• The Temps at Total Home & Gift Market (January 17-21)

You’ll find plenty of products your customers are looking for during these markets, so get yourself to Dallas.

Need more info? The Dallas Market website is HERE and they even have a TRAVEL SITE.  

How does the quaint town of Mt. Dora, Florida, in March sound to you? Well, you have a business reason to visit if you attend the 2018 National Floriculture Forum. Scheduled for March 2-4, the NFF meets annually as an educational opportunity for growers, faculty, industry and government experts and really anyone who has a stake in the field of floriculture (that includes you!).

This year—and by my reckoning it’ll be the 20^th meeting of the NFF—the event takes place in Central Florida. The group will visit clematis expert Roseville Farms, trending plant décor company LiveTrends, grower Knox Nursery and the Mid Florida Research & Extension Center on the Friday of the tour, followed the next day by a trip to America In Bloom award-winning community Winter Park and a private tour of Leu Gardens. On Sunday you have the option of visiting the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. There are meetings and presentations, of course, but I find the best opportunities on these trips are the tours, bus rides and the conversations that take place with peers. The objectives of NFF, after all, are to “address issues of importance to the floriculture industry, form collaborative relationships and improve communication with the American floriculture industry to share and disseminate information. All great reasons to get involved!

And you get all of the above for a low registration of just $150, thanks to the financial support from the American Floral Endowment. To register, go to endowment.org and click on the National Floriculture Forum link, followed by the Registration link. Dr. Liz Felter is this year’s event organizer, and if you have any questions about the Forum, drop her a note at lfelter@ufl.edu.

Registration is due by the end of this month! 

The last 15 or so months haven’t treated the ferneries in Florida’s Volusia County so well. They were hit with Hurricane Matthew in October 2016, which did serious damage to both structures and crops and put a big dent in their supplies for Valentine’s Day 2017, one of that industry’s biggest holidays. Then Hurricane Irma hit them hard in September 2017. And again, they are struggling with supplies—especially leatherleaf—for February 2018, which they begin amassing in January. Add cold temperatures from an arctic blast on top of their already-short supplies and things could be looking “dire,” as Fern Trust’s Jana Register described it to me this morning.

“We are very worried about the next few months as an industry,” Jana wrote. ‘We are making progress on repairs after Hurricane Irma but will have a challenging Valentine's Day as a result of not one but two hurricanes within an 11-month time frame. We had strong sales to finish the last quarter of 2017, which further depleted the supply of leatherleaf. Add to that this arctic blast that has brought temps into the mid 20s the last two nights … all this means we are really going to have a struggle with order fulfillment this holiday and in the days following February 14.”

The deep freeze has initiation freeze protection procedures. Similar to protecting a citrus crop, fernery crops are sprayed with water, which then freezes and protects the plant material within the ice casing.

The good news, Jana says, is that they do have good supplies of other foliage like treefern and aspidistra. So if floral designers are up for working with other decorative foliage products then there are definitely design solutions available.

“Our hope is to survive until spring crops arrive and then be ready to wow our industry with fabulous foliage including leatherleaf once again!” Jana says.

We’re with you, ferneries. And if you’re in the floral biz, give these guys all the support you can by adjusting orders.  

I received some information just this week about four floral and plant gift trends for Valentine’s Day 2018. The ideas come from Debra Prinzing, author of the book Slow Flowers (published in 2013) and a contributing editor to Florists’ Review. (Look for a bit more about the slow-flower concept below.)

Debra says this year floral gifts for Valentine’s Day are trending toward softer and more uncommon bouquets. Here are four examples of what she means:

Long-stemmed tulips. Debra says these are replacing long-stemmed roses and just seem more seasonally appropriate. The “tulips on the bulb” option is gaining in popularity, too, and are a fascinating visual gift when displayed in a clear vase or bowl.

Succulents. Easy-care succulent planters and heart-shaped succulent wreaths can last long after February 14^th. A great gift idea for that plant-loving person.

Potted or cut calla lilies. They come in a variety of reds, pinks, purples and whites, making them color-appropriate for Valentine’s Day.

Go exotic. Get fancy with a bouquet of proteas and other uncommon and often under-used flowers.

Back to this “slow flowers” concept. Like the slow food movement, it’s all about encouraging and using American and locally grown flowers. Debra’s book resulted in her creating the website SlowFlowers.com, a free directory to American flowers and the farms and florists who supply them. Give it a look. And keep these four trends in mind when your customers ask for something different for Valentine’s Day.  

Are you getting prepared for shoulder-season? Last week I mentioned how cool-weather-loving Senettis are a hot plant right now with Armstrong out in California. Here’s another cool-season plant that will fit in perfectly with not only fluctuating spring temperatures but also with spring’s biggest holiday, Easter.

This is PlantHaven’s French Connection Easter Bonnet nemesia. While it’s not new (a 2016 introduction), its bicolor lemon-and-soft-pink coloring and its name makes it apt for the spring holiday. What this nemesia gives you is a compact, rounded habit—with slightly scented blooms, too—that is ideal for early-season sales in 4- and 6-in. containers. It’s quick to turn, at just 6-8 weeks from unrooted cuttings to a quart container and 10-12 weeks for a gallon. And it’s just about 12 weeks from now until Easter on April 1. Get your orders in to your preferred broker now. I’ve been told HMA and Dümmen Orange have good URC availability.  

We’re 49 weeks away from Christmas, but it’s never too early to prepare. Let’s go over the results of the Trial Poinsettia Vote that took place at Homewood Nursery, in Raleigh, North Carolina, November-December 2017. They displayed 31 different varieties and received more than 700 total votes.

Before I list the top 10 varieties, let me include a few things that communications director Tina Mast pointed out to me in her email:

• “The new hybrid poinsettias with smaller bracts such as the Princettia series are killing it!”
• Pink is popular! Pinks dominated the top three varieties even when the votes were separated out for men’s favorites.  
• “When they get a Princettia-type poinsettia in a true red that has good growth characteristics and habit, we bet it will be a hit.”

Ecke Princettia Pure White. Imagine that with perfect red bracts—could be stunning!

I bet it will be, too, Tina. Now, without further ado, here are Homewood’s top 10 varieties for 2017:

1. Luv U Pink Splash (Dümmen Orange)
2. Ecke Princettia Pure White (Dümmen Orange)
3. J’Adore Hot Pink (Dümmen Orange)
4. Ecke Princettia Pink (Dümmen Orange)
5. Ruby Frost (Syngenta)
6. Red Glitter (Dümmen Orange)
7. Ecke Peterstar Red (Dümmen Orange)
8. Ecke Gold Rush (Dümmen Orange)
9. Harlequin Red (Beekencamp)
10. Ecke Peppermint Ruffles (Dümmen Orange)

Coming in at #5 is Ruby Frost from Syngenta.  

I just got word that Louis O. Stacy, Jr. passed away Wednesday afternoon. Louis was the original founder of Stacy’s Greenhouses in York, South Carolina, which he began in 1969. Starting with one greenhouse, the business grew into 260-plus acres of greenhouses in three locations, including the Stacy’s Garden Center retail location.

Stacy’s filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2013 and was sold to Metrolina Greenhouses later that year.

As of this morning, I haven’t been able to pinpoint details of the arrangements but will definitely follow up with information in the next edition of Buzz.  

Who doesn’t? Ball Publishing now has an e-newsletter that addresses the topic! It’s called PestTalks, and it’s due to launch any day now. The esteemed Dr. Juang-Horng Chong (you’re welcome to call him “JC”) of Clemson University will address the latest concerns of the floriculture pest world twice monthly. As an associate professor of Turf and Ornamentals Entomology, JC’s expertise is in insect ID and control, and he knows enough about diseases to keep you up-to-date on those, as well.

Best of all, we’re promised it’ll be fun! I’m hoping JC will give me the inside scoop on my nemesis, the flea beetle. I bet he’ll be happy to address any of your dire insect issues (after he helps me eradicate my flea beetles, of course). So do please keep an eye out for PestTalks in your inbox.