David Johnson, president and general manager of Johnson Nursery Co., needed only a small sample of Spring Meadow Nursery’s At Last rose to know it was something he wanted to grow.

Johnson paid a visit to Spring Meadow Nursery with his wife when the rose was first introduced in 2016. While Johnson says he likes the look of the orange repeat-blooming rose, it was its strong fragrance that sold him.

“The fragrance was the selling point for me,” Johnson says. “All we saw was the little sample. The color is nice, I like the color, but it's the fragrance that really was the big, ‘Aha!’ moment for me.”

The Willard, N.C., nursery has been buying plants from Spring Meadow for more than 10 years. Since becoming a Gold Key Grower through Proven Winners in 2016, Johnson has been working very closely with Spring Meadow through visits to look at new products and discussions to know which products work best for the southern nursery.

“I enjoy working with them, I’m really impressed with their knowledge,” Johnson says. “They work very hard on bringing new plants to the market.”

Johnson Nursery started selling the rose in 2017 and gained attention by being one of the first retailers to carry it in the south.

While the easy production of the rose may not be much different from others in the market, Johnson says it’s still very unique because of its strong blooms and fragrance, and it has been a good marketing tool for the nursery.

“We market very heavily around this rose,” he says. “We’ve given it a lot of attention, and we were one of the first companies to have it in the south. I think that early on we got some attention from just having this rose.”

The nursery dedicated a promotional video to the At Last rose last June on their YouTube channel that emphasizes its attributes of being a disease-resistant, repeat-blooming and fragrant rose.

“It is a very strong blooming plant. It blooms early for us in the season and it also blooms well late in the season,” he says. “The bloom time is great, the growing time is good for us, [but it] really comes down to that fragrance. That's a very unique feature.”

Courtesy Shooting Star Nursery

When your market experiences some extreme weather swings coupled with particular water needs, it’s important to find plants that are the perfect fit. Shooting Star Nursery relies on Emerald Coast Growers to provide regionally appropriate selections that address the specific needs of Southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley.

Erik Petersen, head grower and production manager at Shooting Star Nursery, says Emerald Coast Growers offers a wide variety of material to source from and it’s often available right away.

“We can source plants pretty much any time we need them, and I can rely on them to be consistent with plant quality and customer service,” Petersen says.

Consistency is critical to production at Shooting Star because the nursery grows everything outside in natural conditions. It helps acclimate the plants to the region and makes them sturdy once they leave the nursery.

Another advantage is Emerald Coast Growers’ fixed shipping costs, so there’s no surprise when the plants come in.

“Fixed shipping costs are helpful to us. We know it’s going to be X amount per tray. And that’s really helpful with something like a custom-grow order. When you don’t know how much shipping will be up front, you can get some sticker shock,” Petersen says.

The plants he buys from Emerald Coast help with the challenges of growing in the region. Rogue Valley may have 110-degree days in summer or a brutal winter. The area also is experiencing water issues with the demand and the price of water increasing. In addition, deer browsing is becoming more of a problem, and they’re starting to eat plants that historically they’ve left alone.

“They’re coming into the valley starving,” he says. “They’re even eating hollies.”

Some of the more common plants the nursery sells include ornamental grasses, salvia, rosemary and lavender.

“Those fill the needs of low water use, low maintenance and deer resistance,” he says. “Our plants must be able to take a wide variety of conditions in the valley.”

Trends in the area have changed, and customers are asking for lower maintenance plants.

“Maintenance is also becoming expensive, and it’s important that we sell plants that don’t need as much trimming or deadheading,” he adds.

The nursery also purchases pollinator plants from Emerald Coast Growers, such as monardas and Asclepias tuberosa.

“This aspect of gardening has become big and quite important to folks, and they want to help increase pollinators as well as feel like there gardens are something more than a bunch of pretty plants to look at,” Petersen says.

When a plant brand lives up to its promises, it means a run of successful seasons for the grower and the entire supply chain. David Tankard Jr., co-owner of David’s Nursery, chose to grow Endless Summer hydrangeas for their remontant (reblooming) characteristic, which makes it a valuable plant to the end consumer. The Virginia-based nursery has been buying “significant quantities” of Endless Summer hydrangeas since at least 2012, but Tankard suspects it’s been longer.

“Their ability to rebloom is the number one thing that has driven sales,” Tankard says.

Bailey Nurseries introduced The Original Endless Summer to the market after it was discovered in one of the nursery’s trial gardens. The Original (Hydrangea macrophylla) was the first on the market to rebloom during the growing season. Since then, Bailey has introduced four other selections, Blushing Bride, Twist-n-Shout, BloomStruck and most recently Summer Crush. Blushing Bride offers white flowers that mature to a soft pink; Twist-n-Shout is a lacecap variety with pink or periwinkle blue flowers; BloomStruck features red stems with either rose-pink or purple flower heads; and Summer Crush has large, raspberry-red flowers.

David’s Nursery sells four of the selections from the Endless Summer line, with The Original making up the most of their stock.

“We sell them in 3-gallon, 5-gallon, 10-gallon and 20-gallon sizes. They are also relatively problem free [in production],” Tankard says.

He plans to add Summer Crush to his availability soon.

“We are planning to grow it,” he says. “Since we have had such good past success with all the other Endless Summer varieties, we will certainly give any new variety a try.”

The hydrangea market has been growing steadily for the last few years, and Tankard attributes much of that growth to the reblooming Endless Summer introductions. And he anticipates that hydrangeas, specifically the Endless Summer line, will “maintain its current high level of demand” for the next several years.

Neonicotinoid pesticides have become a hot button issue over the last few years, and have become the most visible scapegoat in the declining honeybee population.

Over the past two years, more than 110 garden retailers, nurseries and landscaping companies, including the two largest home improvement retailers in the world, Home Depot and Lowe’s, have taken steps to eliminate neonicotinoids from the plants they grow and sell.

AmericanHort and the Horticultural Research Institute, in partnership with the Society of American Florists created the Bee and Pollinator Stewardship Initiative taskforce to look deeper into this issue. The taskforce is composed of horticultural professionals and supported by research scientists. It’s their view that pesticides may play some role in the concerns about pollinator health but are likely to be one relatively small factor in a complex array of challenges.

Still, retailers are concerned. And the pressure they’ve received from concerned consumers has been redirected to growers, who have been forced to find other options.

“They’re good molecules; they’re systemic,” says Doug VanGundy, vice president of research and development for Central Life Sciences. “But the furor of bee safety has caused a lot of consumer pressure. So they have had to switch to other alternatives.”

For nursery operators seeking effective control of harmful insects without posing a risk to bees, Mavrik Aquaflow Insecticide/Miticide provides control of a broad spectrum of insects and mites, without the concern of dried residue harming honeybees. This is supported by a Washington State University study that concluded that honeybees exposed to the residue of tau-fluvalinate had a survival rate of 97 percent after three hours, 96 percent after eight hours and 96 percent after 24 hours.

Nurseries should be aware that wet residues can still be harmful. For that reason, it’s important to carefully consider the timing of your spray.

“Applications should be made in times when the bee is not foraging,” VanGundy says. “In the late afternoon to early evening and early morning hours are the best times to apply if you’re concerned with bee safety. But after the residue dries, there is no issue. You can control your pests without harming the bees.”

As a pyrethroid class of insecticide, Mavrik Aquaflow Insecticide/Miticide has a very broad label that includes aphids, whiteflies, thrips, mites, fungus gnats and even some perimeter pests like cockroaches.

“It covers the whole gamut of any problem a grower would have in a greenhouse,” VanGundy says.

Growers coming to Mavrik Aquaflow Insecticide/Miticide from neonics should be aware of some differences.

Most neonics are systemic, which means they are applied in soil and move through the plant. But that means you’ve got to treat each plant, whether it needs it or not. Mavrik Aquaflow Insecticide/Miticide is generally applied as a broadcast application. It can also be used with electrostatic sprayers, but it can be used in a handheld pump up sprayer to a large power sprayer, depending on how the grower wants to treat his greenhouse and on the type and severity of the pest problems. Generally, it can be applied more flexibly.

“If you have a corner of a greenhouse or a tray that is just starting to feel pressure, you can treat that without having to treat the whole greenhouse,” VanGundy says.

Also, as a water-based formula with low phyto-toxicity, Mavrik Aquaflow Insecticide/Miticide is easy on plants. Its residual is shorter than a neonic, so it doesn’t stay around in the environment as long – which can be good or bad, depending on your point of view.

“Sometimes you don’t need that; other times you do,” VanGundy says. “It just depends on the pest pressure that you get.”

For more: www.centralgrower.com