Trading Places

John Friel

My employer’s winter trade show campaign, three shows in three states in just over a month, is over. Here’s an impressionist thumbnail sketch of each.

MidAtlantic Nursery Trade Show
Baltimore, Maryland, early January
For us, like many growers, MANTS ranks in importance only behind the OFA Short Course, recently renamed Cultivate. To tree and shrub types, it’s way ahead of even Ohio.

The N stands for Nursery, but MANTS is a must for ornamental herbaceous types, too. I’m not convinced that there ever were clear, hard lines separating annual growers from perennial growers and tree and shrub growers, but if there were, they’ve long since blurred. We all reach across those theoretical fences. Most of our serious competitors, cooperators and customers—regional and national—can be found in Baltimore, either in booths or walking the aisles.

As has become the norm, the MANTS mood was decidedly upbeat. In the early years of this allegedly waning recession, a nervous pall prevailed. And then it was as if the exhibitors said, in unison, “Hey, we’re still here. Things may never again be what they were, but y’know, things could be worse. Let’s do business.”

Gulf States Horticultural Expo
Mobile, Alabama, late January
Our Florida HQ is just an hour from Mobile, so they always man GSHE. I’d intended to attend for the first time in three years, but that was the week Winter Storm Leon kicked butt across Dixie. Atlanta (my flight connection) was paralyzed by ice and snow that would be shrugged off farther north. But the South isn’t equipped for Yankee-style winters, so widespread havoc ensued. Thousands of flights were canceled, mine included. Travelers were stranded in cars, buses, airports and shelters.

Show organizers got poor marks from disgruntled would-be exhibitors who couldn’t get to Mobile. “GSHE was a bust,” said one. “I-10 was shut down, the bridge into Mobile was shut down. Unless you came a day early, you had no chance of getting there. It should have been canceled.”

But pulling the plug on a trade show isn’t a simple matter. The Alabama Nursery and Landscape Association chose to soldier on and hope for the best. So the show opened, sort of, with no food service, convention center staff, decorator presence or much of an audience. Surprisingly, a vendor who managed to get there described the scene as “pretty busy.” One never knows.

Donald Alexander didn’t make GSHE for the worst possible reason. He was delivering a booth to the show when a multi-vehicle wreck sent his 18-wheeler into the Blackwater River. His employer, Simpson Nurseries of Monticello, Florida, has created a memorial fund for his widow and children. His death was one of about a dozen blamed on the storm. And it makes my whining about a scratched flight sound pretty petty.

New England Grows
Boston, Massachusetts, early February
A week later, setting up my New England Grows booth, I was warned that a foot of snow was expected opening day. I replied, “Better a foot in Boston than an inch in Atlanta.”

Sure enough, we got a foot, or close to it, and it was a non-event. The plows rolled, the salt flew and the city went about its business. Attendance was skimpy on Day 1, but Days 2 and 3 made up for it.

NEG continues to shrink, although the bleeding has slowed. On the plus side, we have many customers in New England and it’s no handicap to be one of just a few young plant vendors on the show floor for them to talk to. Another plus: For whatever reason, at NEG more than at any other show, I meet people who are just starting new horticultural businesses, either as growers or as designers. Some are young, just out of hort school; others are middle-aged and quite experienced in one aspect or another of horticulture.

Either way, their enthusiasm is visible and contagious. They’re pumped about getting into the arena, striking out, getting their hands dirty, becoming part of this industry. And that spirit is a lovely thing, a fire to warm your hands at. May their tribes increase. GP

John Friel is marketing manager for Emerald Coast Growers and a freelance writer.