Around the Industry: May 3, 2010
Walters Gardens Takes Home National Web Award
In January, Walters Gardens took the top regional award for its newly redesigned website, www.PerennialResource.com and became eligible for the national awards this spring. And on April 21,Walters Gardens took home first place in the category of “Websites: Educational Focus. The vigorous competition included huge national and international participants like Syngenta, John Deere, Bayer CropScience, and DuPont Crop Protection, all of which have exceptionally large marketing budgets compared to Walters Gardens, Inc. For more information on Walters Gardens, visit www.waltersgardens.com.
Green America Awards Honor Outstanding Community Gardens
Three outstanding U.S. community gardens were recently honored with 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards. The grand prize award of $2,500 went to the Cleveland Botanical Garden for its Green Corps Urban Youth Program that is creating a “learning farm” on what was once a blighted urban lot. First place ($1,500 in plants) was awarded to the SEEDS program in Durham, N.C., which is developing community gardens and a youth-driven, urban farming leadership development program that empowers teens by teaching organic gardening, sound business practices, healthy food choices and food security values. Honored with the second place award ($1,000 in plants) was Gifford Park Community Garden in Omaha, Neb. They plan to expand their Teen Market Garden Program, which teaches young adults about healthy living through gardening and connects youth with adult role models. These winners were chosen from more than 200 applications submitted by community groups, nonprofit organizations and gardening programs. For more information about the Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards, visit Nature Hills’ website.
Cut Foliage Producers Earn MPS Certification
MPS recently concluded certification of four producers of cut foliage in Washington: Hiawatha Inc., Floral Evergreen Production, Olympic Mountain Natural Greens and Puget Sound Evergreens. All four producers sell to companies in North America, but the majority of their sales are generated in the export market to Europe. All four producers earned the MPS-A qualification, which is the highest level of certification. MPS-ABC is the worldwide recognized environmental scorecard with over 4,000 participants in 55 countries.
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