The MANTS formula has appealed to Ingleside Plantation Nurseries (IPN) since day one. MANTS is solely a trade show (no educational sessions), there are product sales written on the trade show floor and the MANTS staff and board put exhibitors first. It’s not happenstance that IPN officials rank the show the best in the nursery industry — IPN helped create the show.

Carl F. Flemer Jr. founded the nursery division of IPN and was part of the close circle of nursery owners that brainstormed the idea of an annual trade show and made it a reality. Flemer, who served as the Virginia Nursery Association president in 1965, along with Carville Akehurst of the Maryland Nurserymen Association, were instrumental in the creation of MANTS. The inaugural show was held in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1971 with 64 exhibitors, including IPN. Fifty years after MANTS was officially incorporated, the two nurserymen’s vision still guides the show.

“Not many trade shows can say they’ve made it 50 years,” says Fletch Flemer, Carl’s son, who has spent most of his adult life attending MANTS each year.

“I didn’t get out of the service until 1972 or 1973, so it was in its early days when I first started attending the show,” Fletch recalls. “And I’ve been every year since then except recently for a stint of two years when I had to miss because of an operation.”

The show moved between Virginia and Maryland at first, then it added West Virginia to its itinerary for several years. By 1981, MANTS found its permanent home in Baltimore, a move Fletch supported.

“It was fun to go to the three states, but that can get tedious and thankfully the board listened to the exhibitors who asked to stay in one place,” he recalls. “That has certainly helped the show grow into the size and success it is now.”

MANTS has a reputation of being a “selling show,” and Fletch confirms it.

“A lot of business gets done at MANTS. In the ‘70s and the ‘80s, there were so many orders being written on the trade show floor. We wrote orders all day,” he says.

The modern-day MANTS is still a selling show, but as the nursery industry has transformed, so has the show.

“Now there are opportunities for marketing plants and creating partnerships,” he says. “We have a large screen in our booth that plays videos of our nursery on a continuous loop. That helps us sell to customers who can’t come out to our nursery in person. It gives them a good idea of what our product looks like in the field.”

Fletch and his crew have also enjoyed competing for the Best Booth Award each year with the other green-goods suppliers, he adds.

IPN exhibits exclusively at MANTS.

“We don’t exhibit anywhere else. MANTS is in the heart of our customer base and shipping area,” he explains.

IPN grows a wide assortment of nursery stock on approximately 1,000 acres. IPN’s production list includes vines, perennials, grasses, shrubs, azaleas, broadleaf evergreens, conifers and ornamental and shade trees.

Being a charter exhibitor is a source of pride for Fletch.

“A few of those original exhibitors are still in business and MANTS has been part of what helped us and the other originals grow and stay competitive,” Fletch says.

Fletch has begun the process of retirement and his nephew Jordan Flemer will take over the nursery business.

“There’s a change of guard to the next generation, but you’ll still see me at MANTS,” he says.

When Ed Tankard III, son of John Ed Jr. was asked if he always thought MANTS would be the success it is today, his response was, “I believed in my father. My father was always an optimist. Generally, whatever he committed himself to turned out well. So yes, I believed in it. I never had any doubts because I believed in him.”

The belief Ed is referring to is his father’s motion to move MANTS from its original location in Virginia, to its current site in Baltimore. “Despite many saying it was a bad idea, he believed in Baltimore from the very beginning.”

Now, 50 years later, MANTS — “the masterpiece of trade shows” — is just that.

For three generations, the Tankards have run their nursery in Exmore, Virginia, where Ed is now president. Initially, Ed attended law school until he realized it didn’t suit him. Though he never wanted to enter the family business because he “knew it was hard work,” he officially joined in 1992. However, that wasn’t the first time he stepped foot on to the family land.

“I was born here on the farm and I’m now 56 years old,” he says. “Oftentimes, my dad would put me out with the whole crew when I was about 5 or 6 years old instead of with a sitter.”

Ed’s first time attending MANTS was in 1981, courtesy of his father who pushed for his attendance during college. Since then, his favorite thing about MANTS has been the customer interaction and the business it cultivates.

“If you’re going to grow your business, you have to be aware of your customer’s needs. And by being able to have dinner, visit and see a whole bunch of customers at a time, you definitely walk away with ideas and thoughts about where the industry’s heading,” he says.

For his father, Ed says that too, was his favorite thing. “My father very much loved plants, but he loved people perhaps more, and I’d say I’m somewhat similar.”

To Ed, the business focus is what makes MANTS so successful, compared to other trade shows that focus on educational sessions and speakers.

“I would say [MANTS] is a nice checkup; sort of like visiting the doctor once a year. You get a chance to see how well you’re doing, how well the industry’s doing and what’s going on out there.”

In fact, Ed says this is especially important for nursery owners like him who live on farms away from the marketplace.

“Being able to visit with markets that might be in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Midwest is a great thing. You get to take in a whole bunch of customer ideas and experiences during the past year.”

With that said, he agrees with his father’s motion to locate MANTS in Baltimore, not because it’s his father, but because of geography. “Baltimore is a good place for the whole country up and down the coast,” he says.

Ed also refers to MANTS as the “biggest and best” trade show, which, he recalls, is the opposite of one nurseryman’s prediction.

“He was serious and knew everything. He was totally committed to telling [my] dad, ‘we need to close this show, we don’t need this show, this show’s going to be a failure,’ and every time I walk in, I think about that.”

For the future, Ed hopes MANTS will maintain its status quo and position in the industry. According to him, the growth in size has been staggering. During the first years, he recollects sparse attendees, minimal exhibitors and many doubters. But now, Ed says it’s grown from “a place where you could look up and down the aisles and not see that many people, to all you do is see people now,” which he hopes will continue.

As MANTS enters its 50th year of operation, Nursery Management magazine talked to some of the original exhibitors of the show. Star Roses and Plants, which was founded more than 75 years ago, has been with MANTS since the very beginning, and traveling to the show is a top priority for the company every year. Bradd Yoder, president of Star Roses, took a trip down memory lane and reminisced about the monumental impact the show has had over the years.

“It's so ingrained in what we do that we never even think about not coming back. It's always a great show for us,” Bradd says.

He has been with Star Roses for 26 years, but he attended four MANTS shows prior to that, when he worked for the Henry F. Michell Company. According to Bradd, the show is a great place to network while booking orders at the same time and allows them to be incredibly efficient.

“For our core business of nursery growers, there's not a better show. I mean, it is the show to be at. And that just keeps everybody coming back, in my opinion,” he says.

Another reason he considers the show so successful is because Star Roses is located just a little over an hour away, and it’s a convenient location for other vendors as well. He notes that Star Roses can bring many employees to the show at very little expense. The advantage gives Star Roses a one-up on the competition, since employees who can’t be flown out to other shows still get to experience MANTS in just a relatively short drive. It’s especially helpful for the younger people, since they are exposed to a larger part of the industry.

“They can see a lot more, and they get to meet a lot more people,” he says. “So that's been a real plus for us over the years.”

Bradd also commends the timing of the show, and attributes it as one of the many keys to MANTS’ longstanding success.

“I think it's at a great time of the year and almost everybody's upbeat and ready to get going for spring, he says.

He’s quick to point out that the MANTS staff is incredibly helpful during the setup process.

“We've always been able to pick up the phone and say 'Hey, we've got this little problem, is there anything you can help us with?' and over the years, that's been a great relationship,” he says.

Since attending his first show 30 years ago, Bradd regards the sheer expansion of the show as one of the biggest changes.

“I remember when it was only one hall and then it went to two, and I can't remember what it's up to now, but we joke sometimes that we feel bad for some of the customers because it's so big and so many important people are there. How do you get through it in two and a half days?”

Along with the size, he explains how the vendors have changed as the show expanded.

“I remember the first shows being plant-based, nursery-based. Now for somebody walking the show, you can see anything from a 4-inch caliper tree over to a blow-up thing for Christmas and everything in between,” he says.

Another thing that has changed is the time of week the show occurred. In the early days, MANTS used to rotate throughout the week, which meant it sometimes coincided with the NFL playoff championship game.

“If it was ever on a Sunday, nobody was on the floor. It was only vendors. And those vendors tried to find a TV in the area so they could watch the game as well,” he says. “So, when they changed it to be only during the week, that was a huge, huge advantage and it was a good thing.”

In all the chaos and networking, Bradd shares some of the memories that have stood out to him the most. In particular, he recalls that during the 50th anniversary of the Peace Rose, Star Roses wanted to serve wine and cheese in the booth because the Peace Rose came from a French breeder.

“I remember that broke all these rules,” he says, laughing. “Because you're not allowed to serve alcohol, and you're really not allowed to really serve food, if I remember right.”

Luckily, they were able to work through those rules and Star Roses ended up serving attendees wine and cheese. Bradd says he learned a very valuable lesson that day: “If you ever want to have people in your booth, all you have to do is give them food and alcohol, because we had more people in our booth and the longest lines I'd ever seen.”

Brad is grateful for all the experiences and networking opportunities the show has provided over the years.

“We consider it something we wouldn't even think of missing — we consider them a partner in our business. We're very glad we were one of the original exhibitors,” he reflects. “We're really excited about the future.”

At Mobjack Nurseries, you'll find a wide array of unique and traditional plant materials — from Boxwood to Camellias, the wholesale nursery anticipates selling the newest wave of market trends to reliable favorites. Located in the Mobjack Bay of Virginia, the nursery serves garden centers, re-wholesalers and landscapers in the eastern U.S. since its foundation 85 years ago. And after being in business for close to a century, the one event the nursery never misses is the MANTS trade show.

Lisa Sutton, president of sales, data and logistics at Mobjack, shares how much the show means to the business. “We love seeing the customers and showcasing the materials that we're offering. It's a great show. It just pulls people in from basically all over the world,” she says.

Since they have attended every single year, 2020 marks the 50th year Mobjack will be in attendance. Lisa has attended 23 shows herself. Located just three hours away from MANTS’ host city of Baltimore, Mobjack makes the show a top priority every January. She shares some of the changes she’s seen since the first time she ever walked foot into that first show.

She notes how the show has evolved over the years to adapt to the inventions of new technologies, but without ever losing its charm of the show’s early days. Lisa explains how much easier their travel and unloading processes have become since vendors made the switch to electronic devices. She’s especially thankful for televisions and portable laptops.

“You used to show up with cases and cases — and I mean heavy cases — of printed catalogs. Now you show up and everything's digitized,” Lisa says. “Now you see people showing up with these huge flat screen TVs that have the constant roll of pictures, and before we didn't have that.”

While the addition of new technology has made setup easier, there’s still a lot of behind-the-scenes setup.

“It's six booths total. And we fill it up. We try to showcase everything,” she says.

Lisa praises the MANTS staff when it comes to unloading heavy materials from the nursery’s tractor-trailer.

“These guys, I mean they understand exactly what we want to do. We call it ‘well-orchestrated chaos,’” she says.

Lisa also points out MANTS’ attention to detail when it comes to each vendor’s booth design.

“Kelly does a great job with the show, I mean he is just fantastic to work with. People look forward to the show. It's not a chore, it doesn't feel like work.” She pauses. “Well, setup day does feel like work,” she says with a laugh.

On the floor, she notes how nice it is to see customers face-to-face when they spend the majority of their time communicating through email or text. The same customers come back year after year, and she says these relationships are considered family.

MANTS is the perfect time to network and reconnect with colleagues and consumers, and that’s what the show is all about. Lisa has fond memories of the show. One particular instance she remembers happened in 2001 or 2002, when the nursery sold water plants. Lisa recalls that Mobjack set up an actual pond in the booth to showcase their water plans, which took a great deal of work. Mobjack transported rubber, cinder blocks and all the materials needed for a “pop-up” pond. (“You know, we always have to do the heaviest things,” she interjects.) Chaos ensued when Lisa and her colleague, John Lee, set to work on filling up the pond. The pair had one more task to complete before wrapping up a long day of work. Unfortunately, the hose flung out of John’s grip with an agenda all its own, and Lisa was soaked from head to toe. She laughs at the ridiculousness of the memory.

“I looked at him and I said, 'I was planning on a shower when I got back to the room, but thanks a lot.'”

Along with memories, vendors create and nurture valuable relationships with each other across the industry. Competition doesn’t exist; rather MANTS offers the chance for nursery owners to pick each other’s brains about anything and everything. Whether it’s about specific crop challenges or the type of lining other nurseries have found to be useful, the hub of information flows freely.

“One thing that I really like is that everybody wants to help everybody else. There are no secrets,” she says. “If you asked Tankard Nurseries, 'How did you get that to grow like that?' Well, instantly they're going to answer you.”

Mobjack is gearing up for another year of MANTS, and soon their 2020 showcase will be finalized.

“We try to do some really unique things that other people are not doing, and we try to have the staples that everyone needs,” Lisa says.

She plans on ringing in MANTS’ 50th year the same way she always does: “Every year I take a picture of just our little plaque that says ‘Mobjack’ and the empty booth and then as we progress, I take a few pictures. I really like the end display.”