The STEM Podcast

Josh Kirschenbaum, Vegetable Account Manager for PanAmerican Seed is truly a vegetable expert. From his past work in the consumer packet seed industry to his current role, he has been working for many years to bring home gardeners and fresh market farmers the best vegetables to maximize production and hit on the latest trends. In this episode we start high level with big picture trends impacting the veggie and herb side of our industry and work our way toward some of the best new introductions from the past few years – touching on edible ornamentals, container gardening, the importance of earliness, specific disease resistance that today’s breeders are working toward and even digging into the specific needs of high tunnel growers. Besides these topics, we also get into the top two vegetables – tomatoes and peppers and specific breeding direction, as well as others like squashes and more. Be sure to listen all the way to the end because Josh gives us a sneak peek at what’s coming in the near future and breakthroughs that are just around the corner. He also shares some of his personal favorites and from a guy with so much experience, his advice is to be followed. We’ll no doubt have Josh on again very soon because we left a lot on the table. Get ready for a wild ride! PanAmerican Seed & Handpicked Vegetables Links Referenced in Episode: • Handpicked Presentation you can share! https://www.slideshare.net/bcalkins/handpicked-vegetables-and-herbs-for-stem-podcast • Handpicked Collection Catalog & Resources: https://www.panamseed.com/vegetables.aspx • Handpicked Vegetables Video with Josh! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQKzn4s4ezs&feature=youtu.be Contact Links: Email Guest Josh Kirschenbaum: jkirschenbaum@panamseed.com Email Host Bill Calkins: bcalkins@ballhort.com Tweet Host Bill Calkins: @billcalkins Connect with Ball Seed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ball-seed-co/ Follow The Gardens at Ball on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardensAtBall/ See Ball Seed Videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BallSeedVideo

GrowIt! is the social community for all things plants with the goal of helping the industry by inspiring more people to grow more plants. They’ve also launched a couple other programs for the industry’s benefit including their Garden Shops program to help get garden centers in front of more consumers along with their Tours To-Go program for Botanical and Public Gardens designed to help gardens engage with more of their visitors. One of my favorite things about GrowIt! is the team behind it. Seth and Mason are NOT tech guys trying to learn horticulture and fit our industry into a predetermined digital framework. They’re hort guys with a passion for the industry and tech expertise learned after they determined a clear need and gap in our industry’s approach to end consumers. They understand the needs of grower, retailers and landscapers, as well as many other members of our professional industry and are working tirelessly to increase plant consumption – something that benefits us all. They’re also collecting tons and tons of data – and we all know data collection is the new gold rush and this knowledge is as valuable as gold. From houseplants to irises, the data is telling. With more than 250,000 users under 35 years old, it’s fascinating to hear the trends in plants and colors. Seth and Mason do a good job of sharing some of the data they have learned from more than 500,000 community members and leaving us hungry for more. Your best bet for accessing the “a-has” we talked about is getting on the app ASAP. The link is below. As for getting specific data, Mason graciously offered his phone number and email address to connect and continue the conversation. Be sure to follow these guys on LinkedIn to see the insights they frequently post. Finally, if you are a retail garden center, sign up to become a GrowIt! Garden Shop for only $9.99/month or $1 if you contact Seth through the end of July 2018. All of the links you need are below. GrowIt! Links Referenced in Episode: • Brian Fox on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianandrewfox/ • Denny’s on LinkedIn - @dennysdiner • GrowIt! Plant Master profile user name: @happenstantials • Growit! on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/growit-/ • Garden Shops link: https://retailers.growitmobile.com/apply • Link to Webinar for Garden Centers: http://growitmobile.com/resources/gardenshops/ • Website link to download App: http://growitmobile.com/ Contact Links: Email Guest Seth Reed: sreed@growitmobile.com Email Guest Mason Day: mday@growitmobile.com Email Host Bill Calkins: bcalkins@ballhort.com Tweet Host Bill Calkins: @billcalkins Connect with Ball Seed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ball-seed-co/ Follow The Gardens at Ball on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardensAtBall/ See Ball Seed Videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BallSeedVideo

Jim Kennedy joins us for this episode of STEM: Insider Tips for Greenhouse Pros. Jim is National Sales Manager for Ball Seed and not only leads more than 60 sales professionals to best serve thousands of greenhouse growers across North America but truly cares about the success of our industry. Jim is humble but his influence is widespread and very much respected. Jim brings a unique perspective to new variety and trendspotting, having been involved in all levels of the chain from breeding and plant development all the way through to retail positioning with local garden centers and mass market stores. In this episode, Jim discusses New Innovations for 2019 and Beyond taking a high level look at the big picture goals of new breeding and a close look at new introductions for your 2019 product mix from the breeders and plant introduction companies seen at California Spring Trials in April 2018. But it doesn’t end there, Jim also shares tips and tricks for picking plants that will actually see the light of day at retail – meaning they will be reliably produced and supplied and succeed in landscapes and home gardens. Similarly, if a product isn’t trialed regionally or rooted and grown out in a production greenhouse, that’s a major red flag to consider. The episode concludes with some excellent advice for greenhouse professionals – pay attention to your percentage of new products related to your entire mix; focus on assortment management - what are the “in addition tos” vs the “replacements” and most importantly, look at the data and regional documentation. What looks good in California isn’t always what is best for your specific market. As Jim says, these days there is little room for mistakes, if any. And this podcast includes many tools to help you identify the New Innovations for 2019 & Beyond. Here are the 8 New Varieties Jim referenced in this episode. Ask your Ball Seed rep or Ball ColorLink rep to order these for you today or jump on WebTrack 24/7 for availability info:  Salvia Big Blue (PanAmerican Seed)  Verbena Firehouse and Cadet (Ball FloraPlant)  Begonia Portofino (Dummen Orange)  SuperCal Premium (Sakata)  Calendula Lady Godiva (Proven Winners)  Geranium Calliope (Syngenta)  Petunia Easy Wave Red (PanAmerican Seed) In this episode’s Connect Four, I discuss four industry initiatives and campaigns in the news these days. There are many more – national and local – but I wanted to shine a spotlight on these four. Many young students learn about how seeds grow – usually from about kindergarten through third grade. But unfortunately, that’s about when this type of education ends and classes move on to other types of life science and rarely is there ever discussion of horticulture as an exciting career option. So let’s start Connect Four with Seed Your Future – a national initiative to promote horticulture as a vital, viable and exciting career path for the nation’s youth. Seed Your Future’s Mission states: We envision a U.S. where: Everyone understands and values the importance of plants and the people who work in the art, science, technology and business of horticulture. How awesome is that!? Last Summer at the Cultivate event, I saw hundreds of industry professionals posing for photos with signs boasting the hashtag I Love My Hort Job. Don’t we all? Let’s spread the word and Seed Your Future is leading the charge. #ILoveMyHortJob Seed Your Future: http://www.seedyourfuture.org/ Next, BLOOM! is the movement to improve the world through the power of plants based on a foundation of reasearch with middle-schoolers, their parents, their teachers and their school counselors. This is a movement to build awareness of the field of horticulture and the rewarding careers it provides at the middle school level. In partnership with Scholastic, BLOOM offers a free toolkit of engaging and educational lesson plans and activities. Launched in March, WeAreBLOOM.org features videos and other content to engage youth and help them understand their own personal plant power. It’s fun and engaging and built for a middle school audience. If you work with middle schools or know a middle school educator, tell them about BLOOM! Free resources from Scholastic include Lesson plans, Activity sheets, a Student magazine highlighting horticulture heroes and profiling young professionals in green-collar jobs, a Classroom poster featuring cool green-collar jobs and a classroom game with game board and game trivia cards. BLOOM! From Scholastic: http://www.scholastic.com/BLOOM/ Next, you’ve probably seen the engaging infographics released from NICH – the National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture using the hashtag Plants Do That. NICH has a clear mission: Growing a healthy world through plants, gardens, and landscapes. And an equally clear and aggressive Vision: Use stakeholder partnerships to increase the percentage of U.S. households participating in Consumer Horticulture to 90 % by 2025. Just the thought of a 90% increase gets me excited about this campaign! Consider these facts about how plants benefit society and expect NICH to work relentlessly (with our help) to drive these messages home: • Plants in the workplace reduce employee sick time by 14% • Well-landscaped homes are more valuable; since homes represent 25% of personal wealth, outdoor plants pack a powerful personal finance punch • American’s are growing more of their own food—25% of all Americans grow berries, veggies or fruit trees • Shaded roadways save 60% of repaving costs • America’s public gardens generate $2.3 billion in tourism spending Let’s capitalize on these trends and grow the industry together! #PlantsDoThat NICH (National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture): https://consumerhort.org/ The final chip in our game of Connect Four is a campaign that has been around for more than a decade and continues to promote the benefits of beautification in local communities – America In Bloom. Many of you are familiar with AIB but do you know the many benefits and programs it encourages? AIB is a quality of life improvement program; a community improvement program; a civic pride and community involvement program; an education and community engagement program; a source of information about what our industry has to offer; a catalyst to improve public image; a friendly competition bestowing annual awards on participating cities and communities and a valuable community-building tool. Best of all? All of our cities can be involved and you can lead the campaign because your business supplies the products and services needed to beautify – the rewards you’ll reap greatly outweigh the time and energy you put in! America In Bloom: http://www.americainbloom.org/ Contact Links: Email Guest Jim Kennedy: jkennedy@ballhort.com Email Host Bill Calkins: bcalkins@ballhort.com Tweet Host Bill Calkins: @billcalkins Connect with Ball Seed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ball-seed-co/ Follow The Gardens at Ball on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardensAtBall/ See Ball Seed Videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BallSeedVideo

A new buzzword has entered the vocabulary of marketers lately – “Tribe”. I was having this discussion with a group of industry folks lately and we all agreed that the term Tribe was much more appropriate than boxing customers into certain generations or age groups. There are plenty of so-called Millennials who shop like Xers and Xers who shop like Boomers and even more shoppers – let’s just call them people – who don’t fit into these confined boxes at all. For example “pet lovers” cross all generations – like coffee lovers, sports nuts, swimmers, music junkies and bookworms. You get what I’m saying... And yes, I just named some of my own tribes… And as I read more and more about the “tribe mentality” it seems that the internet helps facilitate membership – by allowing people to band together in forums, groups and . We are all members of multiple tribes. But for this discussion – this episode – I am going to talk about a few different tribes that are consuming our products these days. As growers, retailers, landscapers – however you fit into our industry – it’s time to think about these tribes and how we can make our products relevant to them. We will start with people who live in condos, townhouses, high rises, apartments or whatever – folks without much of a yard – if any yard at all. Next, a tribe that is certainly not part of one specific generation or age group and is certainly unique in their wants and needs. They lead extremely eco-friendly and natural lifestyles. Self-sufficient and minimalist, this group of customers is all about reducing the impact they make on the Earth. Third, my tribe. A group with young kids, living in a single-family home with some space to garden. What this tribe doesn’t have is free time. Then onto a tribe often forgotten by garden retailers but certainly a potential customer base with disposable income - the business travelers. Next, a group you know really well – recently retired folks. They’ve shopped your store for years, but the danger is assuming their lifestyle hasn’t changed. Oftentimes, with kids grown and out of the house, they now actually have time to garden. Lastly, the plant enthusiasts who know more than most of your staff. They’re the plant finders, versatile gardeners who love a challenge. I know there are countless more tribes and people are members of many tribes each. So there’s plenty of danger painting a broad brush across groups of living breathing humans. But my goal in this episode is to help you think about the many customer groups you serve – as growers, retailers, landscapers, educators, garden communicators – YOUR PROFESSIONAL TRIBES – on a daily basis in an effort to start thinking about them differently. Consider the tribes that you sell to – what is it that makes them tick or gets them excited? And when you identify a tribe – start communicating with them – in person, via social media, by carving out product groups or by many other forms of messaging. Appealing to these different tribes might just be the ticket to increasing sales or positioning your business on the cutting edge. Seth Godin’s TEDTalk – The Tribes We Lead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=589tH-wtCak Connect Four STEM #4 – The Retail Color Bridge with Greg Soles talks a lot about Shoulder Season business and using new perennial breeding to drive Fall sales. http://www.greenhousegrower.com/sponsor/ball-seed-company/perennials-the-retail-color-bridge/ STEM #1 – Drama in the Garden with Dr. Marvin Miller is all about helping today’s shopper get back into the ground planting flower beds using more economical Jumbo Packs and other smaller plant packages. http://www.greenhousegrower.com/sponsor/ball-seed-company/drama-in-the-garden/ Email Host Bill Calkins: bcalkins@ballhort.com Tweet Host Bill Calkins: @billcalkins Connect with Ball Seed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ball-seed-co/ Follow The Gardens at Ball on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardensAtBall/ See Ball Seed Videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BallSeedVideo Past Episode Archive: http://www.greenhousegrower.com/sponsor/ball-seed-company/

Dr. Laura Masor joins us for this episode of STEM: Insider Tips for Greenhouse Pros. Laura is a plant breeder AND product manager for Ball FloraPlant. She currently breeds some of the hottest vegetative crops on the market – Calibrachoa, Angelonia and Verbena. You’re probably aware that a lot of breeding goes on behind the scenes in floriculture – seeing hundreds of new varieties coming to market each year but I’m fairly sure you don’t know everything that goes into it. From brainstorming the design of a new product, to gathering plant materials used to make crosses, to trialing in different environments and then rolling out the product to greenhouse growers around the world, there’s a complex pipeline involved. And Laura manages products all the way through – essentially doing two jobs as breeder and product manager. In this episode, she’s going to take us through the entire process using terms we all can understand but also digging into the details and getting technical to inform us how and why plant breeders are not only scientists but also magicians. And by the end of this discussion, I know you will place even more value on breeding as a critical piece of the floriculture puzzle – and you’ll have a better understanding of Plant Breeding: From Concept to Commercial. NOTE: Petunia Headliner Night Sky from Selecta One is incorrectly referred to as “Starry Night” during the show. Here is the presentation I referenced at the end of the podcast. Feel free to share with your team to help explain the plant breeding pipeline that brings new innovations to market in our industry. Presentation - Plant Breeding: From Concept to Commercial: https://www.slideshare.net/bcalkins/stem-podcast-episode-4-plant-breeding-from-concept-to-commercial Ball FloraPlant Products (including the ones Laura mentioned): http://www.ballfloraplant.com/Products/products.aspx Selecta One Products: http://www.selectanorthamerica.com/Products/Products.aspx In this episode’s Connect Four, I pulled four trends from an article that ran in Retail Leader, March 2018. First, what the author calls Conversational Commerce and what the tech industry calls VEC – Voice Enabled Commerce. Between Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Home device more than 25% of American homes have smart speakers and in the next five years, that number is expected to be 65%. Consumers are becoming more and more used to the experience and getting better at articulating needs for products and services. How long until the act of making a paper list and visiting a store to pick from the shelf becomes archaic is the subject of countless articles. Next, the rapid emergence of Direct to Consumer sales, the DTC shift. There’s a lot of growth in this model these days and it makes sense to Troy. Shoppers want instant gratification and expect products to be available everywhere, at any time. Today’s consumer expects to buy when THEY choose, not when a traditional retailer or consumer goods company wants to allow them to do so. DTC enables brands to satisfy customers immediately and with products that don’t necessarily have the mass appeal and brand cache required to get them on a retail shelf. Third, the Redefinition of Brands and brand building. Historically, brands have stood for trust, quality and making shopping decisions easier. But over the past few decades, these basic tenets have been eroded. Last but not least is Experience. Even in lawn and garden, we talk a lot about the customer experience and the retail experience. The author says compelling shopping environments can be a retailer’s antidote to the threat of e-commerce. But this may be changing somewhat as shoppers begin to move away from “stuff”. This is true for younger consumers who care less about what they own than where they are and who they’re with. It’s also true for older generations entering a downsizing and decluttering phase, according to the author. Connect Four Article Link (with five more trends!) – Where Tomorrow’s Shoppers are Heading: https://retailleader.com/where-tomorrows-shoppers-are-heading Contact Links: Email Guest Dr. Laura Masor: lmasor@ballhort.com Email Host Bill Calkins: bcalkins@ballhort.com Tweet Host Bill Calkins: @billcalkins Connect with Ball Seed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ball-seed-co/ Follow The Gardens at Ball on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardensAtBall/ See Ball Seed Videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BallSeedVideo

Greg Soles, a Product Representative with Darwin Perennials and a true advocate for perennial plants joins STEM to talk about ways to create profit during shoulder seasons using fresh, flowering perennials. Greg has been a grower and a retailer, as well as a product and sales rep working with perennials for decades giving him the perspective to talk about perennial plants from history to future. And the future is bright! Greg’s real-world stories illustrate the many opportunities to leverage perennials to not only increase profits from early Spring through the end of Fall but also to inspire customers with fresh, flowering perennials that we know add value and excitement to any garden space (including mixed combos and patio pots)! Greg shares scheduling tips to help with planning, some of the best new genetics to use to build your color bridge and much more. You really need to listen all the way to the end. Here are the resources Greg references to support The Retail Color Bridge. Share them with your team and get everyone on board to build sales throughout the year. And if you are a member of the trade, make plans to attend Darwin Perennials Day at Ball Horticultural Company in West Chicago, IL this summer! Perennials: The Retail Color Bridge Presentation LINK: https://www.slideshare.net/bcalkins/perennials-the-retail-color-bridge Darwin Perennials Culture and Scheduling Tools: https://www.darwinperennials.com/Culture/ProductionGuides/ Tons of Perennials Resources: https://www.darwinperennials.com/ Darwin Perennials Day Event Registration (Open to the TRADE ONLY): https://www.darwinperennialsday.com/register.aspx In this episode’s Connect Four, I gave you four quick stories of companies making moves in the digital/online space. From Bower & Branch, Alsip Home & Nursery and Amazon getting into the online plant sales space to an innovative Korean grower mining Instagram for plant trends and then turning that data into sales. All you have to do it look at the greenhouse trade media these days (in print and e-news) to see examples of our industry testing the waters (or jumping right in the deep end) with online strategies. As I said in the opening – it’s not a matter of if or when, it’s a matter of how. Here are some links to check out. Bower & Branch: https://www.bowerandbranch.com/ Fortune Magazine’s coverage of the Amazon Plants Store: http://fortune.com/2018/02/21/amazon-plants-store/ Alsip Home & Nursery Online Sales: http://www.alsipnursery.com/ and https://bargaingarden.com/ Email Guest Greg Soles: gsoles@darwinperennials.com Email Host Bill Calkins: bcalkins@ballhort.com Tweet Host Bill Calkins: @billcalkins Connect with Ball Seed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ball-seed-co/ Follow The Gardens at Ball on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardensAtBall/ See Ball Seed Videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BallSeedVideo

Jason Twaddell, Territory Manager with Ball FloraPlant and Selecta One, joins STEM to talk about everything you need to consider from planning to shipping a crop of annuals so you hit critical dates. Maybe that’s a retail order or your own promotional or advertising calendar – or it could be having plants ready for an important landscape customer who needs to beautify a golf course for a tournament. Whatever the desired outcome is, starting production with the goal in mind will keep you on track throughout the manufacturing process, as Jason reminds us during the interview. Jason brings a ton of advice to the table, from propagation and liner stages to the importance of timing as it relates to transplanting and pinching. Throughout this episode, you’ll realize how important timeliness is as it relates to reducing shrink at all stages and maximizing profitability. He touches on optimizing labor and motivating crews, as well as the critical nature of following timelines but also paying attention to the specific needs of a crop during all phases of the game. Jason ends with some tips and tricks for sending a top quality crop to retail – including but not limited to toning a crop and proper watering at shipping time. You may have built a thousand production plans in your career but there’s always more to learn and ways to evolve the process to improve quality and reduce shrink. And it all starts with a plan and the execution of that plan. Here are links to the fantastic resources Jason mentioned toward the end of the podcast. Ball FloraPlant certainly leads the pack when it comes to producing and sharing cultural and technical knowledge in user-friendly formats! Find these resources and more at www.ballfloraplant.com. Culture & Trial Reports: http://www.ballfloraplant.com/Culture/Default.aspx Growing a Better Liner Report: http://www.ballfloraplant.com/PDF/BallFloraPlant-GrowABetterLiner-Guide-2015.pdf Growing a Better Liner Video Series (Four Parts): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbUnKHXk07I&list=PLCj41LTtDwjOKNMRV1lYdFX2aiunzG73J Selecta One Website: http://selectanorthamerica.com/ Connect Four Content from this episode is related to the measurable Health and Economic benefits of plants – including Health & Wellness; Habitats & Environments; Reduced Crime & Violence and Economics & Home Values. Health & Wellness: Plants clean the air https://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/7-plants-purify-indoor-air https://greatist.com/connect/houseplants-that-clean-air https://lifehacker.com/this-graphic-shows-the-best-air-cleaning-plants-accord-1705307836 Habitats & Environment: Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Program information: http://millionpollinatorgardens.org/ Register your garden: http://pollinator.org/mpgcmap/register#form Reduced Crime & Violence: Property AND Violent Crime https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2016/04/vacant-lots-green-space-crime-research-statistics/476040/ https://www.planning.org/cityparks/briefingpapers/saferneighborhoods.htm http://newsstand.clemson.edu/clemson-research-suggests-parks-and-green-spaces-can-reduce-crime/ Economics & Home Values: Landscapes Pay Back Landscape value from realtors: https://realtytimes.com/consumeradvice/sellersadvice/item/47622-20160923-how-landscaping-increases-your-homes-value Virginia Tech study on home landscape value: https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/426/426-721/426-721_pdf.pdf Additional Resources: Plants are More than Pretty Videos from America in Bloom (WARNING: These are hilarious!): http://americainbloom.org/resources/Plants-Are-More-than-Just-Pretty.aspx Bench Cards to Promote the Health & Economic Benefits of Plants: https://www.ballseed.com/DownloadABenchCard/PromoteGardening/ Email Guest Jason Twaddell: jtwaddell@ballhort.com Email Host Bill Calkins: bcalkins@ballhort.com Tweet Host Bill Calkins: @billcalkins Connect with Ball Seed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ball-seed-co/ Follow The Gardens at Ball on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardensAtBall/ See Ball Seed Videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BallSeedVideo Ball Seed Website & WebTrack Access: https://www.ballseed.com/ “It takes real planning to organize this kind of chaos.” – Mel Odom, Author

Dr. Todd Cavins, Ball Seed Technical Services, joins STEM to talk about proper care and handling of young plants – specifically plugs and liners. Todd begins by discussing reasons to start with young plants versus seed or unrooted cuttings and the benefits of buying in plugs and liners. He then digs into some of the common challenges the technical services team runs into each Spring and some specific tips and tricks for receiving young plants. Even though “stuff happens” and every production situation and shipment can be different, Todd shares many best practices related to temperature, light, nutrition, water and gas exchange and how these critical factors should be addressed before during and after transplanting. Dr. Cavins shares tons of fantastic information and much of it comes down to being prepared – starting a few weeks before young plants are expected on your greenhouse dock. From sanitation of your head house to maintenance of equipment and machinery, there are plenty of ways to avoid common pitfalls during the critical early stages of the game. Todd concludes with some timely tips and tricks related to PGRs, preventative fungicides and fertilizer. Whether you’ve finished a million plants in your career or you’re just getting started, this episode is guaranteed to get you thinking about how to optimize your next crop. Here’s a link to Dr. Todd Cavins presentation on Getting Off to a Great Start that you can share with your team: https://www.slideshare.net/bcalkins/getting-off-to-a-great-start-87755141 Connect Four Content from this episode includes four news stories related to IPM Essen 2018 – horticultural trade event in Germany. Four trends are presented: Indoor Plants, Small-Space Vegetables, Color Trends and flAVATAR. IPM Essen Trend Photos: https://www.slideshare.net/bcalkins/as-seen-at-2018-ipm-essen Washington Post article about indoor plants and young shoppers: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/young-urbanites-are-filling-their-homes-and-the-void-in-their-hearts-with-houseplants/2017/09/06/ec98993c-89c8-11e7-961d-2f373b3977ee_story.html?utm_term=.d6a6731594f0 Pantone Color Trends – Spring 2018: https://www.pantone.com/pantone-color-institute-releases-spring-2018-fashion-color-trend-report-for-new-york-fashion-week flAVATAR Website: http://flavatar.hu/en/ Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. - President Abraham Lincoln Email Guest Dr. Todd Cavins: tcavins@ballhort.com Email Host Bill Calkins: bcalkins@ballhort.com Tweet Host Bill Calkins: @billcalkins Connect with Ball Seed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ball-seed-co/ Follow The Gardens at Ball on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardensAtBall/ See Ball Seed Videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BallSeedVideo Ball Seed Website & WebTrack Access: https://www.ballseed.com/ I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the older ones. – John Cage, composer

Dr. Marvin Miller (industry legend, Ball Seed market research manager, economist and trend spotter) joins us to talk about a strategy for greenhouse growers to consider producing more Jumbo Packs and 1801 sized material to meet the new needs of today’s younger shoppers and homeowners. Not only do smaller formats like Jumbo Packs offer a lower price compared to 4.5 inch annuals, but also more opportunities for creativity when planting garden beds. These homeowners see beds planted in commercial landscapes and large estates and want to replicate the look at their own homes but can’t afford to use premium pots and also don’t want to use small cell packs. So what’s the alternative? Dr. Miller walks us through the demand from a statistical (and anecdotal) perspective, as well as pointing out how the economics are positive for growers. He also shares some top varieties to use in these pack formats (vegetative and premium seed inputs) and finally shares some thoughts on how to market them to retail shoppers. As he told me after the show, it’s time to think differently about bedding plants - outside the box is not exactly the goal - it’s more like creating a new box: What we grow. How we grow. How we price. Why we do it.   Here’s a link to Dr. Miller’s own photography from The Gardens at Ball in West Chicago – planted from 1801s showing Drama in the Garden: https://www.slideshare.net/bcalkins/drama-in-the-garden And reflecting his findings that shoppers age 18-34 are all about individualization and creativity, here’s a timely story from the recent IPM Essen Show in Germany: http://www.floraldaily.com/article/13648/Green-stylist-Romeo-Sommers-highlights-trends-for-2018 Connect Four Content from this episode includes four news stories related to labor – challenges and solutions. Here are some of the links referenced. For greenhouse growers, labor was a critical issue in 2017 and looks to be again in 2018. From training and company culture to automation and technology, there are many ways to mitigate the pressure. AutoStix – automation to alleviate labor challenges: http://www.hortibiz.com/item/news/autostix-the-newest-greenhouse-technology/ http://www.greenhousegrower.com/technology/visser-ball-partner-on-new-sticking-technology-for-cuttings/ Investing to increase efficiency, counteract labor challenges: http://www.greenhousegrower.com/management/state-of-the-industry-2017-growers-are-ready-to-invest-to-alleviate-labor-pains/ Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company. - Zig Ziglar Email Guest Dr. Marvin Miller: mnmiller@ballhort.com Email Host Bill Calkins: bcalkins@ballhort.com Tweet Host Bill Calkins: @billcalkins Connect with Ball Seed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ball-seed-co/ Follow The Gardens at Ball on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardensAtBall/ See Ball Seed Videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BallSeedVideo Ball Seed Website & WebTrack Access: https://www.ballseed.com/ I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the older ones. – John Cage, composer