Barry Ruta

Photo courtesy of All-America Selections

Greenhouse Management: How has business progressed as 2022 has started — are things still progressing and going well in the way they were last year?

Barry Ruta: So far, it appears that this year is going to be a good year, as well. I don’t think it’s going to be as much with an overdemand as we saw the past two years, because people are starting to get out more. But there’s no doubt that our orders for seed are still very high. Another issue, too, is that it was so big last year that we overproduced seeds that we have carryover inventory. We had just about sold out on everything last year, so we are waiting for new seed on a lot of things. And production has been a challenge for a variety of reasons. We are getting late deliveries on a lot of seed this year when we usually get a lot of our seed in by November. We’ve actually had to delay a salvia we were going to introduce this year because seed that should have arrived in November isn’t in yet.

GM: How do you and the whole Hem Genetics team actually decide to delay a product you had planned on launching?

BR: If we find there’s a delay in seed harvesting or shipping, that usually prompts that decision. Like with that salvia I was talking about, normally we’d have the seed by November, and we’d do all the germination tests and treatments and know for sure by December that we’ve got a seed ready to put on the market for next year. So, it would have been shown at CAST this spring. We will have it at CAST [this year], but because we didn’t get the seed in time, we don’t necessarily know if there’s a problem with the seed. We don’t want to say that we have something ready for the next year and then not be able to introduce it.

GM: You were honored over the summer with an award from All-America Selections with a 2021 Medallion of Honor for your long career in horticulture. What did that mean to you?

BR: It was really quite nice to have that happen. I’ve always been the type of person to work in the background. I don’t like to toot my own horn and try to be the source of information on stuff, but I’ve always tried to do business and maintain a high degree of personal ethics so that if someone is talking to me and I give them information, they know I’m not just trying to sell something. They know I’m working with them so they can do the best that they can do. I’ve never really been one to be out in front, but to have them recognize me was quite nice.