Arkansas Green Industry – AGIA
For the past two days 50 nurseryman, greenhouse growers, landscapers and other horitculturists attended the annual Arkansas Green Industry Association (AGIA) annual conference in Hot Springs. From interesting seminars on new plant introductions to managing their retail outlets to pesticide recertification issues and social media, there were excellent seminars and a trade show to boot. The trade show was held in conjunction with the Turfgrass Association’s annual meeting, so there were a combination of nursery related booths and golf course and turf booths. New plants were highlighted. A new angelonia or summer snapdragon to try this summer is the Archangel. It comes in pink, purple or white, but the individual flowers are almost twice as large as normal angelonia. Angelonia can take the heat and give you non-stop color all summer. New coleus introductions are out every year, but one I really liked was Wasabi - a bold, bright yellow. In the shrub arena, they will have plenty of Lo and Behold Butterfly bushes this year. I was quite impressed by its performance last year, and several new abelia’s including Mardi Gras and Kaleidoscope. The plum yew (Cephalotaxus) has been out for a few years. This shade lover also comes in a fastigiate variety that has a nice columnar growth habit. Great shade evergreens, but slow growing.
Edible gardening or edible landscaping continues to be a popular new trend. Urban apples are being sold which have a tight columnar growth habit and bear loads of fruit right on the main stem. Great for a small yard or container planting, you must have two different varieites to bear fruit. There are currently four varieties available. They are not disease free, so if you want blemish free fruit, you will have to follow a spray program, but apples tend to be more forgiving than peaches and plums.
Two great speakers talked about the benefits and the many forms of social media. This blog is a great example of how we can connect to a lot of people at one time, along with facebook, twitter, google groups, constant contact, e-newsletters and more. There are so many new ways to communicate, it can become a bit mind boggling. I think we are just scratching the surface of what is available. I need someone more savvy than me to tie it all together, but that will be a new goal for 2012! We can’t overlook the traditional face-to-face meeting, printed words, and phones, but today we can be linked together in so many different ways, we just need to understand how to do it, and have the time to do it!
Master Gardener trainings are going on in earnest statewide. Tomorrow I head to Benton County (Rogers) for MG training, then on to Washington County (Fayetteville) for MG training Friday morning. Don’t forget, the garden show radio call in program I do on Saturday’s is now on KAAY – a.m. 1090 in Little Rock, not KARN. Statewide the channels have remained the same. Tune in from 10-11 a.m. this Saturday. January 28 I will do the show and a garden program in Magnolia, for the annual Garden Thyme event
sponsored by the Columbia County Master Gardeners. Register for that if you would like to attend. Chris Olsen will also be there with his book.
