It is definitely time for a reprieve from the events of the past year and a half. That’s true for garden centers, customers, the plants they buy and grow, and the plants in our gardens. We are living through a pandemic; we suffered devastating forest fires with smoke conditions that were hazardous to our health; […]
Let’s keep them growing
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I have written several columns on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on garden centers and how they have responded to it. These last two years have been like no other in recent history —not just for garden centers, but every citizen. In many cases, our lives have been adjusted for us and we have had to […]
Gleams of an extended garden season
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Former Portland Rose Society President Rich Baer sent me a photo that he took this past Thanksgiving from his garden. It was a bouquet of roses. I have lived in the Portland area for many years and it is not often I’ve thought of picking a full bouquet of roses at the end of November! […]
Exciting, unusual and underused shrubs
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Trees frame the garden, perennials clothe it, but shrubs give it the bones that bring everything together. Yet so many of these essential plants never make it into the landscape. Shrubs like the exquisite Camellia × williamsii ‘Night Rider’ from New Zealand with its deep maroon red flowers and brilliant, reddish-purple new growth or vibrant, […]
Where gardeners turn for answers
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Garden centers typically can offer their customers several advantages that big box stores can’t fully duplicate. One of these is the ability to provide customers with valid, localized information about the challenges they face. When I ask my neighbors, friends and other gardeners where they would go if they had a question about a problem […]
Current trends at the garden center
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It should come as no surprise to those who know me, or read this column, that I like to visit garden centers! Just walking around to look at the plants and talk with some of the personnel — whether they are salespeople, managers, owners, or customers — it is a very enjoyable time. It is […]
Remarkable annuals
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Annual bedding and garden plant sales represent approximately 70 percent of the total U.S. bedding and garden category, according to the USDA National Agriculture Statistics Services, totaling $1.29 billion out of $1.86 billion wholesale. Annuals pick up where perennials leave off, providing colorful foliage and flower displays inside the season. Customers are continuously searching for […]
A genus fit for royalty
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Strange as it may seem, plants and clothes have some traits that make them parallel to one another. Clothes are fashionable. New styles appear every year, but there are always some holdovers from previous years. A parallel can be drawn here with plants. Some become more fashionable in gardens, while others fade away. Hellebores and […]
February 2019
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As some nurseries begin building relationships with gardening groups, columnist Mike Darcy shares what many homeowners have planned for their yards this season. Growers also consider how recent tariffs are impacting Oregon’s nursery industry, or how to use grapes in their production line. In this issue: Garden clubs: Cultivating buzz: Growers benefit by building relationships with […]
Garden clubs: Cultivating buzz
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Growers benefit by building relationships with gardening groups, both in person and online Garden clubs have always had a mutually beneficial relationship with wholesale and retail nurseries. Each can provide something the other needs. Nurseries need passionate gardeners who are always in search of new and interesting plant discoveries. Gardeners hunger for knowledge about new […]
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