After a fantastic time at MANTS, John Hoffman and Shannon Currey traveled to Columbus, Ohio for CENTS. We visited with landscape professionals, nursery and greenhouse folks, and horticulture students. Check out the highlights below.
- Marketing Director Shannon Currey gave a presentation on grasses and green infrastructure (GI) during the educational sessions. She started with an overview of GI and discussed how it relates to broader industry trends. She explained how grasses and sedges fit conditions present in GI projects such as rain gardens, prairie plantings, and bioswales.
- Our booth was right next to our friends at North Creek Nurseries, which was great fun. Claudia West, their ecological sales manager, also presented at CENTS. She focused on her recently published book, Planting in a Post Wild World. It’s a
wonderful read, and Claudia’s talks were engaging and well-attended. - For the first time, CENTS offered “nursery tours” to landscape professionals. During each tour, guides took participants to the booths of four different nurseries. Each nursery focused on a different plant area, such as woodies, annuals, perennials, or grasses. We were on the tours and were happy to talk about grasses!
Dr. Charlie Hall, horticultural economist at Texas A&M, gave a keynote address on economic trends in our industry. He believes there’s great potential for growth. However, we must convince consumers that our industry provides necessary services. We must promote the economic, environmental, and health benefits of plants. He believes biophilic design—designing with humans’ need for nature in mind—and green infrastructure are critical to the future of our industry.
As always, a big thanks to those who visited us at CENTS. We appreciate seeing our customers, colleagues, and friends there.
