Oct 1, 2015
NGB Names 2016 “Year of” CropsSource: National Garden Bureau

The National Garden Bureau has announced its selections for the 2016 Year of the program.

The National Garden Bureau (NGB) has announced its selections for the 2016 “Year of the” program.

This year, there are now four different classes instead of the usual three. NGB has expanded to include a bulb crop into the Year of program.

For the bulb crop, 2016 will be the Year of the Allium.
For annuals, 2016 will be the Year of the Begonia.
For vegetables/edibles, 2016 will be the Year of the Carrot.
For perennials, 2016 will be the Year of the Delphinium.

Although it was not intentional, notice the alphabetical listing of all four crops: A, B, C and D!

Another new aspect of NGBs Year of program is a video about the edible class, produced by and starring cook, author and storyteller Jonathan Bardzik. That video can be viewed on YouTube and shared by any person or company who wishes to promote gardening and cooking with carrots.

As always, the NGB board of directors selects crops that are easy to grow and genetically diverse with a lot of new varieties to choose from. Breeders, brokers, seed companies, growers and garden centers are urged to consider highlighting these flowers and plants when planning your marketing for the 2016 season as the publicity generated from this program is substantial. To view the publicity generated from past programs, visit the NGB website and click on “Press Room.”

Both members and non-members are encouraged to take advantage of the publicity this program generates by using the logos in their 2016 catalogs, websites, advertisements and other marketing materials.

By mid-November of this year, NGB will have photos of numerous varieties of all three crops (provided by members) posted on our website. NGB also provides PDFs of fact sheets, flyers, handouts, signage etc. After Nov. 15, all of the above can be downloaded at no charge from the NGB website. These tools will help the home garden industry promote the crops to consumers and encourage gardening with these specific crop classes.

For more information, visit www.ngb.org.