Plants at the CENTS trade show
January 22, 2007
I don’t do many horticultural trade shows. There’s only so much professional lawn care equipment (seeding machines the size of tanks, that sort of thing) that I can take – well, none really.
But I’ve spent this morning at CENTS (the Central Environmental Nursery and Trade Show) here in Columbus, Ohio. This is a huge show, hundreds and hundreds of exhibitors, with plenty of big toys for the boys and a great opportunity for the nursery and landscape professional. And there are plants too, of course. January in snowy Columbus is not the best time to be showing plants and I had to double check with the exhibitor that the rose pink bleeding heart, Dicentra spectabilis, that I spotted was not a new color break – it had been forced in poor light and had lost its true color.
Hellebores from Dick and Judith Tyler at Pine Knot Farms are a standout, and their booth featured this lovely bowl of floating flowers. There was also news that plants from another of America’s great hellebore breeders, Marietta O’Byrne, would now be available more widely through the TerraNova Nurseries. TerraNova don’t sell to home gardeners, but look out for them in mail order catalogs.
TerraNova are also showing a new variegated bergenia, ‘Solar Flare’. It features an irregular white or cream edge to the leaf, becoming pink in winter. The older leaves turn green in late summer and this ensures that the plants have good vigor. And also a new variegated acanthus, ‘Tasmanian Angel’, with its leaves splashed in white. And there's advance news of purple-leaved, yes purple, hostas in a few years time!
I also came across a variegated pine which I’d not seen before. I don’t usually like variegated conifers and there were one or two others around that were too horrid even to name. But Pinus densiflora 'Oculus-draconis’, with a bright yellow base to the needles, was surprisingly effective.
I also spotted a great slogan (though my wife tells me she's seen it before) on the banner on the Moo-Nure stand (you can guess what they make). They say they're "Number 1 in the Number 2 Business"! A great line. And certainly more memorable than what the Great Western Bag Co has to say about itself: "Manufacturers of the Superior Wire Basket"!
But finally the feet gave out and a beer and a rest were called for. Next: off to the airport and home.