Welcome to the first installment of the Hort Calendar newsletter, your twice-monthly dispatch on trade shows, association meetings, and other industry events that you won’t want to miss. This is a companion piece to our popular HortCalendar.com webpage, but now it's even easier for you to get all the information at your fingertips. So tune in to be up to speed on what’s going on in the industry.

I’m Allison Westbrook, a member of the GrowerTalks team, and have loved plants my whole life (my first job was at a flower shop!). Since then, my path has taken me to Purdue University for a degree in horticulture and to various jobs in the industry before coming to Ball Publishing, where my plant-nerdiness and love of writing join. I also love to travel, so be sure that I will have dispatches for you from various shows and events, as well as info from our other great editors on their travels. But enough about me. Here’s a sample of upcoming industry events. And remember: For all your event-planning needs, whether next week or next year, look to www.hortcalendar.com!

For more information, go to www.progreenexpo.com or contact progreen@kinsleymeetings.com. 

Presenters include:

• James Brown, Owner/Operator, New Moon Nursery
• Rebecca McMackin, Director of Horticulture, Brooklyn Bridge Park
• Tim Tilghman, Head Gardener, Untermyer Gardens Conservancy
• Melanie Ruckle, Owner, Putnam Hill Nursery
• Kelly Norris, Director of Horticulture, Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden

More information HERE. 

For more information, go to www.endowment.org/nff.

Here are two programs that stuck out as interesting; after all, who wouldn’t want to be a caterpillar mom?

This seminar put on by Kay MacNeil and Garden Clubs of Illinois will teach you all about how to help the Monarch butterflies in our own backyard; what plants to buy, what Monarchs look like in various stages, and what you can do to increase their numbers. This is especially helpful for garden centers, who can use this information to craft displays and provide inspiration for their pollinator-conscious customers.

These days, it can be hard to know if the information you are finding is accurate and unbiased, especially information found on the Internet. For gardeners to be successful, they need the right information at their fingertips. Mike Nowak and Peggy Malecki, who host a radio show on 1590AM WCGO, are experts at finding information and getting it to the gardening public. They’ll show you their tips and reliable sources for your own research, and they’ll even take audience questions and track down the answers during their live demonstration.

For more information, visit http://chicagoflower.com/.

Last year, our own Jen Zurko attended and here’s what she had to say about it:  

Indoor Ag Con isn’t the largest of the hydroponics and cannabis trade shows, but it’s very focused—especially on education and seminars, which fill both days of the show. The trade show part is small, but all of the booths are concentrated toward hydroponic, vegetable/greens and cannabis growers. We’ve only been to the one in Las Vegas and heard from a few colleagues that the Vegas location is the largest of the shows in North America. There are also other Indoor Ag Con shows overseas, with the last one recently held in Singapore.  

Also, who could turn down a trip to Vegas? Elton John, Cher, and The Beatles LOVE Cirque de Soleil are all scheduled that month, what better time to take in a show? After all, Elton John is officially on his retirement tour (for the next three years).

For more information, visit https://indoor.ag/.

Here are five great reasons to visit Longwood Gardens in 2018:

Orchid Extravaganza: January 20–March 25.

Orchids bloom throughout Longwood’s four acres of indoor gardens. Their award-winning orchid curtain towers 17 ft. high with 350 Phalaenopsis Kaleidoscope orchids in bloom. Also in March will be a new program, a Winter Blues Festival, combining blues performances with a display of blue-colored flowers and foliage. In addition to Himalayan blue poppies, guests will see hydrangeas, cineraria, scilla, pansy, delphinium and more. Considering how rare the color blue is in the horticulture arena, Longwood’s team must’ve had to look far and wide for such an assortment!

Spring Blooms: March 31–May 6

Enjoy Longwood’s 1,083 acres with their outdoor spring bulb display, with more than 250,000 blooming tulips in their Flower Garden Walk and Idea Garden. Flowering trees, shrubs, and other burgeoning blooms are on display throughout the landscape.

Festival of Fountains: May 7–September 30.

Longwood’s celebration of the Main Fountain Garden, which returned in 2017 after a $90 million revitalization, continues fountain performances daily and has extended hours for illuminated fountain performances on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. The gardens have a new, refreshed design, and the waterlily display has aquatic plants from all over the world.

In addition, the popular Fireworks & Fountains program returns with six new shows: May 26, July 1, July 21, August 11, September 1, and September 29. General admission tickets for Festival of Fountains and Fireworks and Fountains shows go on sale April 9.

Autumn’s Colors: October 4–November 18.

Celebrate Fall at Longwood’s gardens with pumpkins and thousands of chrysanthemums indoors and out. The Chrysanthemum Festival (October 25 to November 18) spotlights Longwood’s horticulture expertise as chrysanthemums are crafted and grown into extraordinary shapes, some taking as long as 18 months to complete. The highlight of the display is the Thousand Bloom Chrysanthemum, a single chrysanthemum that features more than 1,400 uniform blooms on a single plant.             

A Longwood Christmas: November 22, 2018–January 6, 2019.

While it seems like Christmas just happened, it’s not too early to put this on your calendar. Thousands of poinsettias, Christmas trees, and flowers transform the Conservatory into holiday wonderland. More than 500,000 decorative lights are hung in the trees outdoors and colorful fountain displays are set to music. Evening choral concerts, strolling carolers, and organ sing-alongs complete the holiday feeling.