From the Fields

It has been a good year so far. This sentiment was echoed at Cultivate in Columbus, Ohio this July. Everyone has been selling lots of plants, both color and foliage.

At Cultivate, there was a lot of consumer/customer interest in what's happening with foliage right now. Everyone was excited to see a younger generation becoming interested in plants.

The growing interest in foliage started a couple of years ago but took off during the pandemic as a lot of new people began starting plant collections once they were home more.

It is still amazing to see all the Instagram posts highlighting favorite plants and unusual finds. There has been a lot of talk over the last two decades about engaging with younger generations. However, this latest demand happened organically.

On the whole, this year is shaping up to be better than last year. With a lot of production coming on, we are hoping everybody's appetite is still pretty good for plants in the fall.

At the start of the pandemic, everyone was just trying to get their hands on any kind of foliage. Lately, we have seen consumers starting to become more selective about the plants they buy. I think that's going to continue in the spring. We are always trying new varieties, so we can continue to focus on providing durable and interesting houseplants.

Along with many other operations, raw-material costs and labor availability are a couple of the biggest challenges we have seen over the last year. This did prompt a mid-year price increase. We continue to focus on how to use our resources more efficiently.