Apr 3, 2017

From the Road … By Tim Hodson

It’s hard to believe that it is already Day 3 of California Spring Trials.

So far, Mother Nature has provided us with some glorious weather and the sun has been shining bright during our travels.

The team from GPN and Lawn & Garden Retailer began our California adventure bright and early on Saturday morning to see Danziger, Proven Winners and Syngenta Flowers in the Gilroy area.

Yesterday we visited the companies at Speedling, Pacific Plug & Liner and Benary. Be sure to check out the video we shot while we were at Benary showing our bird’s eye view of the Watsonville area.

Today we will be in Salinas to see American Takii, Sakata and Floricultura where Westhoff, Flamingo Holland, Beekenkamp and PAC are showing off their new introductions.

Tomorrow, we head to San Luis Obispo to visit with Dümmen Orange and then to Los Alamos to see Cohen Propagation Nurseries, Hishtil Nurseries and Jaldety Nursery. We will finish the day at Windmill Nursery in Buellton where several different companies including Terra Nova Nurseries, Kientzler, Dramm and McConkey are headquartered for the week.

On Wednesday, we start out in Oxnard at GroLink who is hosting more than a dozen companies this year and then to Ventura to see what Ball Horticultural Co. has in store for us.

We wind up our Spring Trials journey on Thursday in Santa Paula with Green Fuse Botanicals and Floranova.

GPN’s Managing Editor Jasmina Dolce has been chronicling our trip each day and describing some of the new varieties that have caught her eye so far in our Culture Connection e-newsletter. You can check out her updates by clicking here.

Abby Kleckler, managing editor of Lawn & Garden Retailer, will also be providing updates during the week on some of the innovative retail ideas that are on display during our trip. You’ll be able to see her latest editions of the Retail Report by clicking here.

Be sure to follow our adventures and check out the short videos and photos that we have been posting on the GPN Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

And don’t forget, the June and July issues of GPN will have in-depth coverage of 2017 California Spring Trials.

Time to hit the road …

— Tim