News

Published July 12, 2012

OFA Short Course named 150th largest trade show
The OFA Short Course trade show was named the 150th largest trade show by the annual edition of Trade Show News Network. The largest horticulture event for garden center retailers, greenhouse and nursery growers, landscapers, florists and interior plantscapers, the show debuted on the list six years ago at 194.

Trade Show News Network monitors data from almost 20,000 trade shows, exhibitions, public events and conferences, and it annually ranks the impact of trade shows by the net square footage of space sold.

The 2012 OFA Short Course will be held July 14-17 in Columbus, Ohio, and will have more than 1,500 exhibit spaces and 140 educational sessions. Attendees will come from the United States and nearly 25 other countries during the four-day event.

For more: www.ofashortcourse.org

Sun Gro acquires Fafard
Sun Gro Horticulture acquired Conrad Fafard Inc., the Syngenta growing media products business. Sun Gro will acquire all assets of Fafard in both the U.S. and Canada, including its employees and production facilities.

Fafard, based in Agawam, Mass., has been producing and distributing growing media solutions to greenhouse growers, retailers and independent garden centers for more than 90 years. Sun Gro, headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., is one of the largest producers of peat moss and peat-based growing media products to the professional plant grower market in North America.

Design tool reveals consumer habits and preferences
Burpee Home Gardens’ new mobile design tool, “My Garden Designer,” created more than 3,000 mixed-container recipes for home gardeners in the first month of its spring 2012 launch and revealed gardening habits, color choices and preferences. The tool helps consumers create “thriller, filler, spiller” arrangements for patios, containers and garden beds, and also creates a plant shopping list, a where-to-buy store search, and suggests designs and arrangement styles.

This spring, 50 percent of gardeners used the tool for garden bed combinations, while the other half used it for container/basket combinations. Purple was the most popular color choice within “fillers,” neutral-based colors were popular for “spillers,” and traditional garden colors were favored for “thrillers.”

For more: www.burpeeretailideacenter.com

Florist Holland acquires Preesman Plants’ gerberas
Gerbera breeder and propagator Florist Holland BV continued all gerbera activities of Preesman Plants BV. Florist Holland focuses on specialization within gerbera genetics, which Preesman no longer considers part of its core business but fits with Florist Holland’s strategy. Preesman will focus on decentralization of breeding activities, Florist Holland will continue the full range of Preesman Gerberas next to its own assortment of standard and mini gerberas. Florist Holland will organize production and services starting Sept. 1, the beginning of the new sales season.