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Green Industry News
Plants Nouveau’ s The Weeding Gnome Returns
Plants Nouveau’ s email newsletter and blog The Weeding Gnome is back in business. Angela Treadwell-Palmer, founder and co-owner of the company and writer of the e-letter / blog, took a yearlong hiatus because she was spending all of her time growing the business.
Since 2012, Plants Nouveau has gone from about 50 to 190 new plant introductions on the market, with many more still in trials. That’ s nearly quadrupling the number of plants, and each plant or group of plants is a whole new project, which means a whole lot of work. No excuse though, with all of these exciting new plants, she has a lot to say. The company is overflowing with cultural and consumer information, so why not spread the information to the people who crave and need it most?
Angela says she will try her best to write often, but promises at least once a month. Topics include new introductions, worldwide trends, breeder profiles and adventures in marketing and gardening. She promises to keep it interesting and even a little spicy at times. If you like to learn more about her plant hunting travels, the new plants and breeders they work with, her obsession with garden gnomes or her new 20-foot backyard greenhouse, you can sign up at the bottom of the Plants Nouveau home page.
AAS, Crescent produce how-to videos
AAS Announces 24 New Winners
After a year of trialing to determine superior garden performance, All-America Selections, the North American non-profit trialing organization, has announced the impressive list of 24 new, award-winning varieties for the 2017 garden season. To see the newest AAS Winners, go to the newly launched AAS Website and search by year.
All-America Selections and Crescent Containers recently collaborated on a container garden project that has just been released to the media and home gardeners. AAS and Crescent decided to work with two GWA members to create a combination container using AAS Winner plants and a Crescent Garden Black Juno self-watering container.
Please share the videos from Allison Zeeb at No Farm Needed and Niki Jabbour of Savvy Gardening with your readers, listeners and viewers. For questions, please contact Diane Blazek or Barbara Wise.
Gaiety Hollow Dressed for Spring
Lindsey Kerr, curator at the Lord & Schryver Conservancy, shares that the newly opened Gaiety Hollow Gardens in Salem, Oregon, is looking lovely this spring. Come witness( and photograph) the beauty of the gardens and learn about the restoration process.
Philly-Area Gardens Contribute $ 256 Million in Annual Tourism
The Greater Philadelphia Gardens is made up of more than 30 public gardens, arboreta, historical landscapes and support groups. Econsult Solutions, a consulting firm, added up the digits and found these gardens have an economic impact of $ 256 million a year, a big boon for the tourism industry. It provides the evidence for the group’ s moniker for the region:“ America’ s Garden Capital.”
• Spanning an 11-county area in a 30-mile radius, the nature sites attract an estimated 2.5 million visitors annually. That’ s on par with other Philadelphia-area attractions, such as the Liberty Bell( 2.2 million visitors) and Valley Forge National Historical Park( 2.1 million visitors).
• Almost 30 percent of these flora and fauna lovers self-identify as“ out-of-towners,” having driven more than an hour to get to the destinations. And two-thirds of them then stay over, spending an average of $ 145 a day on food, accommodations and other expenses, in addition to what they spend at the gardens.
• The study suggests that garden visitors tend to be of higher income and education compared with the general population, representing a highly valuable demographic that“ impacts broadly across the tourism sector.”
• Public gardens also grow jobs, employing more than 1,500 people with total earnings of $ 79 million, and generate $ 3.6 million annually in business, sales and income tax revenue for the state, the study found.
• Capital investments enhancing the facilities have also been significant of late. In the last three years, GPC members have spent about $ 116 million on construction projects, with the well-endowed Longwood Gardens leading the way. Its“ New Heights: The Fountain Revitalization Project,” set for completion this spring, replaces 83-year-old fountains and adds splashy water choreography.
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