Don’t you love shopping for new seasonal items when spring rolls around? Sometimes even stumbling across a new store to stock up on pastel button ups, cardigans, and boat shoes? Well it’s no different in the landscaping biz. No we are not trading in our Kinghorn purple for Strawberry Ice, Scuba Blue, or Toasted Almond (which apparently are going to be a big hit this spring according to Pantone), but instead this winter we went in search of the perfect grower to fill our annual needs for our color team.

Though he may not be of the cardigan or boat shoe wearing variety, our color coordinator, Adam Kelly, still knows how to shop for spring. After researching and exploring several options, Adam landed on an annual supplier that not only had incredible quality, selection and customer service but also strongly aligned with our value of Stewardship.

• In efforts to reduce cost, waste, and plastic, our new supplier uses “landscaper flats.” Rather than growing annuals in plastic cups and then nesting the plastic cups inside of a plastic trays to transport, our annuals are now grown straight in reusable trays! Not only does this reduce the amount of material used by 65% but also creates less of a headache for our gardeners. On windy planting days the last thing they want to do is chase down hundreds of plastic pots.
• The landscaper flats are recycled in a ‘buy back’ program so there is essentially no waste!
• Instead of having each plant tagged, there is one tag per tray which uses less plastic and cuts down the opportunity for tags to be buried in the garden or blown around the yard.
• No chemical growth regulators are used. Instead our grower takes the cultural care approach with temperature inversion and water deprivation to keep plants in check.
• Beneficial predator insects are used to control pest populations rather than pesticides. These great helper insects will catch a free ride on our annuals and continue to do their job in you garden.
• Plus they are two times closer to Omaha than our previous supplier, thus reducing our carbon footprint with less fuel in transportation

This season there won’t be nearly as much plastic to keep track of.

Extra plastic waste like this will be a thing of the past!

If our suppliers are better able to service us, we are better able to serve you and your garden! We are very excited to see these new annuals bring some serious color to your spaces this spring and summer and even more excited about how well their company aligns with our values.