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You are here: Home / Archives for Home gardening

In the heat of the garden

By Mike Darcy — Posted July 29, 2021

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; […]

Filed Under: Columns, Mike Darcy Tagged With: Digger, Digger magazine, Home gardening, Mike Darcy, Retail Nurseries

Let’s keep them growing

By Mike Darcy — Posted May 27, 2021

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 […]

Filed Under: Columns, Mike Darcy Tagged With: Digger, Digger magazine, Home gardening, Mike Darcy, Retail Nurseries

Gleams of an extended garden season

By Mike Darcy — Posted January 23, 2020

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! […]

Filed Under: Columns, Mike Darcy Tagged With: Digger, Digger magazine, Home gardening, Mike Darcy, Retail Nurseries

Exciting, unusual and underused shrubs

By Kym Pokorny — Posted July 26, 2019

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, […]

Filed Under: Plant Features Tagged With: Digger, Digger magazine, Home gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Retail Nurseries

Where gardeners turn for answers

By Mike Darcy — Posted July 26, 2019

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 […]

Filed Under: Columns, Mike Darcy Tagged With: Digger, Digger magazine, Home gardening, Retail Nurseries

Current trends at the garden center

By Mike Darcy — Posted May 24, 2019

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 […]

Filed Under: Columns, Mike Darcy Tagged With: Digger, Digger magazine, Home gardening, Retail Nurseries

Remarkable annuals

By Tracy Ilene Miller — Posted March 27, 2019

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 […]

Filed Under: Plant Features Tagged With: annuals, Digger, Digger magazine, Home gardening, Plants, Wholesale Nurseries

A genus fit for royalty

By Mike Darcy — Posted March 27, 2019

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 […]

Filed Under: Columns, Mike Darcy Tagged With: Digger, Digger magazine, Home gardening, Plants

February 2019

By Bill Goloski — Posted January 30, 2019

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 […]

Filed Under: Issues Tagged With: Business, Digger, Digger magazine, garden clubs, grapes, Home gardening, Politics, Regulations, tariffs, Transportation, Wholesale Nurseries

Garden clubs: Cultivating buzz

By Curt Kipp — Posted January 25, 2019

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 […]

Filed Under: Nursery Operations Tagged With: Digger, Digger magazine, garden clubs, Home gardening, Plants

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NURSERY NEWS

In Memoriam: Melvin John Steffenson

New USDA Census of Hort arriving in mailboxes this month

Oregon Association of Nurseries honors the industry’s best at 2024 Convention

Eason Horticultural Resources is now employee-owned

Oregon’s nursery licensing program aims to keep the entire industry healthy

Building trust is key to establishing clientele base for new nurseries

Five owners share their experiences on what it takes to start a nursery businesses

Bailey hires new CFO and chief HR officer

More Nursery News

From the pages of Digger

May 2025: Sustainability Issue

April 2025: The Tree Issue

March 2025: The Perennial Issue

February 2025: The Greenhouse Issue

January 2025: The Retail Issue

More issues of Digger

Pests and Diseases

Prioritizing nursery pest challenges

New tools in the battle against thrips

Aiming for precision in pest control

Oregon’s nursery licensing program aims to keep the entire industry healthy

$250,000 shifted to P. austrocedri research

More articles

FARWEST SHOW UPDATES

Sense of excitement prevailed at Farwest as nursery industry ‘Meets the Future’ 

Farwest Show attendees select favorites for the Retailers’ Choice Awards

Starway to Heaven™ Japanese Snowbell wins People’s Choice balloting at Farwest Show New Varieties Showcase

Hopper Bros. wins Best in Show booth award at 2024 Farwest Show   

Starway to Heaven™ Japanese Snowbell wins Judges’ Best in Show at Farwest Show New Varieties Showcase

More Updates from Farwest

The Value of Membership

Meet the leader: Sam Pohlschneider

OAN honors the industry’s best

Oregon Association of Nurseries honors the industry’s best at 2024 Convention

More member stories

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