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Discoveries at a Nursery Trade Show

Every January I spend a day at the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS) in downtown Baltimore, lured by the people I’ll run into as much as by the actual products and companies on display.  I’ll let...

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A Gardening Boomer’s Equipment Wish-List

Guest Rant by Shenandoah Kepler I’m a Baby Boomer and am told that just as we changed the work environment as we entered it, we’re now changing the nature of retirement and aging. So, have you noticed...

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Here’s what I don’t like about fairy gardens

A tiny garden I like The desire to create a miniature world makes perfect sense to me.  This is why we have dollhouses, train sets, collections of tiny objects, and boutique dictatorships. Daily life...

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Impatiens FAIL—regrets or good riddance?

Fusion impatiens are also prone to the mildew. For the last couple years, I have been reading ominous reports of downy mildew decimating impatiens plants. As most of you know, it’s more than just...

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Susan Morrison’s Incredibly Cool New Garden App

  We here at GardenRant World Headquarters have not had much luck with gardening apps so far.  They seemed so bright and shiny and new and full of promise at first, but then–meh.  The thrill faded...

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Armitage makes an app

In the early days of the iPhone, we were ravening for gardening apps.  After a while though, the craving just seemed to go away. I have several theories on that. It could be that our devices have...

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Capture the lightning

On a recent afternoon, after a day and a half of strenuous garden work, Professor Roush quit working and took a number of photos to convince himself, and all of you, that spring was beginning in...

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When Master Gardeners Break the Rule and say they’re Master Gardeners

Master Gardener Clinic at a local Farmers Market Not long ago we had a lively discussions here (145 comments!) in answer to the question:  What do we think of Master Gardeners?”  Much of the criticism...

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Won’t get fooled again

Flower drawing courtesy of Shutterstock Increasingly, entire sectors of the plant world have become invisible to me. They cluster in colorful masses on garden center tables, but I walk by without a...

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Okay, I Love Columbus!

Invited to visit Columbus during its really big gardening trade show and then shown a fabulous time in their clean, beautiful city, how could I not write good things about it? I’d never taken part in a...

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Monday peeves

Blooming in Buffalo It was a beautiful weekend and I spent most of it outside weeding, planting, deadheading, and enjoying the scent of oriental lilies. So what do I have to complain about? Not much,...

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Totally Silly?

Like most of humanity, I am a largely inexplicable and highly individual mixture of profligacy and frugality.  I think I should only wear the nicest Italian shoes, which are no longer affordable for...

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Seen at the “OFA Short Course”

Welcome to the business side of gardening – the trade show!  First let’s get the name out of the way first – because what kind of name for a trade show is “OFA Short Course”?  See, it started 85 years...

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How Flora Grubb and an Airport DJ Saved My Soul

I never saw it coming. Flora Grubb, the pioneering urban gardener and style maven, convinced me—to my great relief—that the Millennial Generation is beginning to shop for plants. Meanwhile DJ Juice...

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Smart Remarks from the Seasonal Department, or How to Not Get Promoted at the...

Following years of selling to and then working for independent garden centers and landscapers, I went to work for a mass merchandizer – the seasonal department of Home Depot, the other half of the...

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Could the bulb campaigns be paying off?

Bulb image courtesy of Shutterstock Shortly after mocking this marketing effort, I heard via email from some industry insiders that the big bulb houses were desperate—bulb sales had slumped along with...

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Serenity now

Who knew that this forward-thinking garden center was only 15 minutes or so from my house? Make no mistake, Western New York is relatively wealthy in excellent independent garden centers and...

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Overpriced, useless, or just plain bizarre: an anti-garden gift guide

Gnome image courtesy of Shutterstock (Only kidding on this one. I heart gnomes.) Inspired by the wonderful Haters Guide to The Williams Sonoma Catalog, which you have no doubt enjoyed via its...

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Garden in a gun

While some conspiracy theorists believe that shadow organizations such as the Illuminati or the New World Order or the American military-industrial complex are heck-bent on taking over our lives,...

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Eastern Gardener ISO Desert Plants

One of the many press releases coming my way recently was from High Country Gardens, and I found myself wanting all of its new introductions, especially the Salvias.  Loved by hummingbirds but NOT by...

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Sightings at a Trade Show

Every January I attend the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS) in Baltimore and even if nothing were new there of interest to me or my imagined readers, I’d love the dose of plants and plant talk...

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It’s Valentine’s Day. Do You Know Where Your Roses Came From?

Beautiful selection and variety of groses grown in California’s Monterey Bay region at Pajarosa Farms. Guest Rant by Debra Prinzing Earlier this week, Libby Francis-Baxter, owner of The Modest Florist...

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The brand that dares not speak its name

Plant graphic courtesy of Shutterstock Remember subliminal advertising? One of the books that exposed it is Subliminal Seduction, by Wilson Brian Key. The examples in the book use the eternal themes of...

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Is Your Local Garden Center Taking Action on Neonicotinoids?

What’s killing the bees?  The pesticide neonicotinoid, for one thing, and it’s routinely used on plants for sale and earlier in the plants’ lives, at the wholesale growers’.  That discovery has led to...

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Gardening Under The Affluence

  Versailles, the fanciest garden of them all. Image courtesy Wikimedia commons I’m getting a little uncomfortable with something, and I’d like the Ranting World to let me know if I’m on point or...

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Where’s the Wow? The Green Industry Takes Stock.

Garden suppliers’ sights are set on next spring. Last month, representatives from nurseries, greenhouses, independent garden centers and even Big Box Stores loaded up their cars, vans and trucks,...

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Possibilities vs. limitations

Field image courtesy of Shutterstock As I finish potting up bulbs against the winter, rejoicing in the new space for it I have now that I’m using the attic, it occurred to me that the effort to do...

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Treasure the Winter Farmer’s Market

The Farmer’s Market here in Boise lines the street for three city blocks and features local arts and crafts in addition to plant and animal products. Sadly, it is closed January through March; I can...

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Scotts Miracle-Gro, you can stop asking.

Dear readers, I went through my in-box and discovered some delicious hate-reading!  Ready? First, from somehow actually hired by Scotts Miracle-Gro to promote them, pasted below with commentary in...

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Gratitude in the Eye of this Storm

This week I’m in a flurry — finalizing talks, sending off handouts and invoices, and making the last travel arrangements for presentations at spring events across the country. It’s amazing to think...

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The Best Garden Show of All

Slug traceries — a morning delight in my garden. I don’t enjoy ranting and would much rather rave — about, for example, the glorious iridescent slug traceries on the pavers of my courtyard this...

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Watering tools I love, and why I hate the others

In honor of a day that doesn’t deserve it (the horrid Black Friday), here are some gift suggestions for the gardener on your list or your own list of wants. All my favorite gardening tools seem to be...

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Plants for crazy sports fans? Sure, why not?

Pete Gilmore for Sporticulture, at MANTS last month. Mums potted up in Ravens and Redskins containers for that special football-plant lover in your life? Okay, not necessarily those teams – these were...

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A trendy wish list for 2017

These were cheap and great from the botanical gardens sale. Not having even looked at any of the predictions or surveys regarding general gardening behavior, here is my wishful thinking for the coming...

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Jerry Baker’s Quackery Lives On

Jerry Baker, the self-styled “America’s Master Gardener” and highly successful huckster for home-remedy books and products died in March of this year at the age of 85. I was curious to see how the...

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Brent and Becky’s Farm, Store and Knicknacks

I grew up near Richmond, VA, about an hour from Brent and Becky’s, the beloved flower bulb company in Tidewater, VA. I’ve even known Brent since I was a preteen and our families rented nearby beach...

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Navigating With Butterflies – Up, Up and A Weigh

As it turns out butterflies are not free. They can cost anywhere from $3 to $6 each. They will arrive at your doorstep in small white insulated boxes carried by FedEx trucks with purple and orange...

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What’s your corpse flower’s name? Ours is Morty.

It’s that time of year again. Our local botanical gardens has joined the ranks of other such sites across the US to introduce a titan arum (“corpse flower”) event, based on the bloom cycle of the...

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Amazon comes for the garden centers?

It’s been happening for a while. I am guilty of using Amazon for garden hardware that’s kind of boring to shop for in person, like hoses, nozzles, timing systems, and the like. I have never shopped for...

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It’s Over: Ending 19 Wonderful Years in the Nursery Business

As anyone who has ever opened a small, home-grown retail nursery can tell you, the economic reality for such is straight out of the veteran horse gambler’s prayer: Lord, I hope I break even, I need...

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Help a garden center get through the winter: buy a kokedama. Or an orchid. Or...

The next issue of the magazine I edit features heritage businesses in Western New York—the ones that have lasted more than 100 years. Amazingly, two we’re covering are garden centers (and there are...

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Scenes from a Nursery Trade Show

The Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show is happening in Baltimore this week, and garden communicators (formerly “writers”) were there in droves! Here we all are at the breakfast event for media. Well,...

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Gardeners Mourn the Closing of Beloved 89-Year-Old Garden Center

Yesterday my long-time favorite garden center announced it’ll close soon. Here’s my tribute to the company and its people on a local blog. I’m reposting it here for the Rant’s broader audience because...

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A Near-Miss in my Search for the Perfect Watering Can

Back in 2015 I wrote about my two perfect watering cans and one that I deemed “flawed,” according to the caption (above). I declared cans to be perfect thanks to two features I always look for –...

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The Olive Garden of Eden, with Raised Beds

Garden centers, try using the words “Garden of Eden” in your marketing copy. In the age of Google, gardening businesses, like all businesses, want to know what search terms people are using to find the...

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The Randomness of Branches

Ever look up at a grand old tree and marvel at the randomness of its branches? They dodge and weave. They angle off. They roam this way and that. The complexity is a wonder to look at. Exhilarating,...

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Is this about plants?

I love my new monstera but not enough to take a selfie with it. The question was staring at me from my Facebook feed, in the form of a hunky guy sitting with a medium-sized parlor palm (I think)...

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Hire Help or Lose My Sanity. Confessions of a Garden Writer Who Doesn’t...

Guest rant by Marianne Willburn  The office is lightly scented with pencil shavings and old coffee mugs this morning. Not an unpleasant smell, but an unfamiliar one. I have ignored this room for two...

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Liquor is essential. Is landscaping?

Hope I’ll soon be able to make a haul like this again, but safely. That was the question yesterday, as local green industry owners and employees were discussing whether or not garden centers were one...

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Buying Plants Locally During the Shutdown

Curb-side pick-up. Oh, the ethical turmoil I’ve been in! Should I stay home and shop for food only, or support other local businesses, too? Plus, it’s spring and we gardeners need to buy plants and...

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