Garden Trends for 2020
Julie and I attended Digging In Gathering in January. It is a continuing education opportunity for container gardeners to come together and learn from experts in horticulture. We have attended this annual conference for the last 3 years and have forged many friendships with fellow container gardeners from all over the country. This conference is the brainchild of Andrea Gaspar, who owns Contained Gardens. We are thankful to be a part of this community. The education we receive allows us to better serve our clients by being on the front end of garden trends and current plant knowledge.
We were able to visit Costa Farms Trial Gardens in Miami, FL and view new varieties of plants, as shown in this picture. Every year, their research and development team plants more than 500 different varieties of annuals and perennials in the trial garden - many so new they are not going to be in stores for another couple of years. They work with plant breeders from around the world. The trial garden offers an excellent opportunity to evaluate plants for high temperature, heavy rain, and humidity tolerance. Plants that demonstrate success in the summer trial garden will survive just about anywhere! The trial garden covers nearly two acres and includes around 40 row beds with annuals and perennials, hanging basket and mixed container trials, and designed landscape trials. We were in awe at the abundance of gorgeous flowers and plants. We plan to use many in our designs this summer - particularly dwarf cannas and colorful coleus varieties.
Our conference was in Miami, which is home to most of the tropical plant industry in the US. We were treated to private tours at a few tropical plant growers. The Jungle Nursery, is a grower and wholesale supplier of interior and exterior tropical plants. We visited their greenhouses in Homestead, FL and learned about many tropical plants; we can't wait to use these in our container garden designs this summer. We are excited to incorporate the different varieties of cordyline and dracaena. We also toured the greenhouses of Bullis Bromeliads, a bromeliad grower and wholesale supplier in Homestead, FL, where we learned so much about all the different bromeliad plants available. Bromeliads would make a lush addition as a filler in a planter that gets morning sun.
During one of our breakout sessions, we had the opportunity to learn from Marianne Wilburn, a talented gardener and accomplished garden columnist. She spoke to our group about which tropicals are best for container gardens. So informative! You can learn more about her work on her website, Small Town Gardener.
One of our fabulous colleagues, Danielle, Owner of The Mustard Seed Market in Blowing Rock, NC, had recently returned from the AmericasMart in Atlanta and filled us in on all the outdoor living trends. What's hot: white and grey planters, planters with a barnacle texture, using baskets as planters, and outdoor rugs. Colors that we will see a lot of in 2020 are Pantone classic blue, pink, black and white, grey, celadon and beige. Floral patterns and texture will be big for 2020. Attending AmericasMart is on our bucket list!
We spent a day at the Tropical Plant International Expo (TPIE) in Tampa and visited all the trade show booths to learn about the newest products for our industry. We stopped by the trade show booth of The Magnolia Company and now have a wonderful source for freshly cut magnolia leaves for holiday planters. We met representatives of Moss Man, a wholesale moss supplier, and have already received our moss shipment for spring planters. We visited with our friends at Smart Pots, a company based out of Oklahoma City, which also happens to be owned by friends of Elizabeth. They sell fabric planters through garden centers all over the country, including Family Tree Nursery and Suburban Lawn & Garden in the Kansas City area and TLC Garden Center and Marcum's Nursery in Oklahoma City. We are particularly intrigued by Smart Pots' new "NoCoco Liners" for wire hanging baskets. We are planning to have a custom window box liner made in this fabric for a client. "NoCoco Liners" hold up better than coconut coir liners and will last for approximately 4-5 years.
We can't wait to bring these beautiful new-to-market plants, tropicals and garden accessories to our clients this summer.
Our favorite garden tools
Julie and I are both obsessed with the Hori Hori garden knife and potting scoop. The knife can cut through the toughest roots in an outdoor pot without any problem. The serrated edges also can open bags of mulch or soil if you don't have scissors handy. We love the potting scoop because you can add new soil quickly to a planter since the scoop is so large. We are big fans of nitrile gardening gloves from Gardeners Supply Company. They are not bulky and you can pop them in the washing machine. When we go onsite to plant, we load all these items into a Gardeners Supply Company 7 gallon tubtrug. We have these tubtrugs in every color. We usually bring at least 3 of these when we plant and use the empty ones for the old plants that we are removing from the planters. Do yourself a favor and buy these tried and true tools for the spring planting season! You won't be sorry!
Hooray for spring flowers and cold weather crops
Raise your hand if you are ready for a pop of color! If you're like us and can't wait to dig in the dirt, we've listed below some of our favorite cold hardy flowers and crops that you can plant early spring.
The weather in Oklahoma City is almost warm enough to plant early spring flowers - yay! (OKC falls into Zone 7a on the USDA Plant Hardiness Map.) Elizabeth will start planting her favorite cold tolerant flowers mid-March - snapdragons, lobularia (commonly referred to as alyssum) and petunias. These flowers are all in the above picture - the snapdragons are in the back, the alyssum on the left and the petunias on the right. These pretties are not as cold hardy as pansies, but they can tolerate a light freeze.
Kansas City is quite a bit colder than Oklahoma City (USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 5b), so we are sorry to report it will be a few weeks until you are able to dig in the dirt. Julie is planning to use alyssum, hellebores, snapdragons, pansies and violas in her container gardens this spring.
As far as cold weather crops go, your options are cilantro, lettuces, dill, spinach, strawberries, kale and broccoli. These can all be easily planted in a container; you can put several into one pot.
If you are ever in doubt as far as selecting plants and when to plant them, we highly recommend chatting up the knowledgeable people who work at your local garden center. They can tell you when it is time to plant without risk of a freeze. Our favorite retail garden centers in OKC are TLC Garden Center and Precure Nursery & Garden Center and in KC our faves are Family Tree Nursery and Suburban Lawn & Garden.
Let Adorn Help You
Do you love pretty planters but don't have time to do it yourself? Spring is just a few weeks away friends! Let Adorn plant seasonal flowers and plants in your outdoor pots and cross that task off your list. Whether it's for your home or store front, we'd love to help. We will start planting spring outdoor pots mid-March in OKC and late March in KC. We will start planting summer outdoor pots late April in OKC and early May in KC. Give us a shout if you'd like to be our on planting schedule for one or both seasons. Also, an Adorn gift certificate makes a perfect gift for Mother's Day!
Make sure to follow Adorn on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to get the most up to date scoop.
Curb Appeal Shout Out!
Gina Bruno-Dunn, Owner of Pilates on Western, reached out to us for indoor and outdoor plant help during the spring of 2016. She was just opening her fabulous pilates studio on 36th and Western in Oklahoma City. We appreciate Gina's love of curb appeal and attention to detail to ensure her clients have a pretty place to get a great workout. Pilates on Western offers pilates, barre and yoga classes. It's awesome!