Cool Product Awards from Garden Retailers Announced at TPIE 2017
This year’s Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition (TPIE) once again served as a great spot for the Cool Product Awards, an annual collaboration between TPIE, Florida Nursery Growers and Landscape Association (FNGLA), and The Garden Center Group. Retailers involved in the organizations made their way around the TPIE trade show floor and identified the products that stood out the most to them.
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New Drop-In Christmas Greens Collection (Bayview Flowers)
Retail buyers liked the ready-to-sell live Christmas greens arrangements that would be easy to drop into inventoried decorative pots and have immediate sale.
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New Creative Package for Christmas Impulse Purchase (Bottomley Evergreens)
Bottomley Evergreens is a supplier of small and large Christmas greens (including cut Christmas trees), but it has created a unique package for a Christmas tradition: Mistletoe. The combination of Mistletoe and other Christmas greens into a small spray is just right for impulse sales. Called “Pucker-Up,” this is a fun addition to your Christmas sales in 2017.
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New Decorative “Travel Collection” Containers (Braun Horticulture, Inc.)
Braun has introduced a new line of small containers reminiscent of vintage luggage. All have a plastic liner that lifts out, and these are ideal for combining with succulents and other small-dish, garden-type combinations for retail sales. Check out Braun's bookshelf series as well.
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Cryptanthus Absolute Zero Black and White Designs (Bullis Bromeliads)
Bullis Bromeliads is widely known for its colorful bromeliads. Now the company is presenting a new option for decorating with plants: Black and White. Cryptanthus are well known for their star-like shaped forms and bright colors. They are popular as ground covers in landscape and desktop decorations. Absolute Zero is a startling look, especially in mass.
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Aglanema 'Spring Snow'
‘Spring Snow’ offers great contrast in color and is the result of years of trials and breeding by Lincoln Chin. While introduced a couple years ago, increased production will make more plants available. Aglaonema are commonly referred to as a Chinese Evergreen and are often used in interior landscapes due to their attractive appearance and tolerance of poor lighting conditions. This is one of the best for offering greater contrast.
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Guzmania ‘Francesca’ (DeRoose Plants, Inc.)
Guzmania is a form of bromeliads, and DeRoose is showing one with striking color. Guzmania ‘Francesca’ is the result of much work to produce such great color.
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Ficus microcarpa ‘Moclame’ (Farm Life Tropical Foliage, Inc.)
Farm Life Nursery presented a Ficus microcarpa ‘Moclame’ in a 17” standard, offering interiorscapers a great plant to design around.
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Grapevine Balls, Glass House, and Galvanized Dish Gardens (Flori-Design, Inc.)
Flori-Design is consistently creating new combinations of containers and small plants to be retail winners. These three new designs for 2017 are sure to be in high demand, each capitalizing on trends consumers are buying. Be sure to check out all three series.
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New Wooden Hanging Gardens (Guaqueta USA)
Guaqueta USA is primarily a seller of tropical plants from Central and South American; however, it features an innovative hanging garden kit designed by Fernando & Maria Pardo. The wooden kits are available in several shapes and colors, each in a knock-down retail package.
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New FedEx Ground Options from Heart of Florida (Heart of Florida Greenhouses, Inc.)
Heart of Florida is normally showing great new tropical plants to consider for awards. This year, it is offering a new way to get those great plants to retailers in smaller, more frequent shipments, while keeping freight costs lower. The operation demonstrated how the new FedEx-grown pack allows for combining a combination of plants all on a palletized unit.
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Hollywood Hibiscus Series (J. Berry Nursery)
The team at J. Berry Nursery has introduced a series of new hibiscus that are full and compact, and showcase vivid, large, fancy blooms with rich color, while also possessing exceptional disease and pest resistance.
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Air Necklace, Living Locket, and Thinkers (LiveTrends Designs Group, LLCSK USA)
LiveTrends has been a consistent source for new ways to introduce plants to consumers through itscombinations of plants and creative containers. This year, LiveTrends has three new series of products: Air Necklace, Living Locket (a great crossover use for amazing plants), and Thinkers (great design and a conversation piece. People love humanizing plants).
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Colored Moss (Mossman, Inc.)
Mossman presents a number of types of moss for retailers to utilize, but the new option this year is bright colors that are colorfast (don’t bleed). Mossman offers several options in sizes along with a number of colors.
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New HydraFiber (Oldcastle Lawn & Garden)
Oldcastle Lawn & Garden has teamed up with Profile Products to introduce a new media component that can help decrease the need for two non-renewable resources, peat and perlite. HydraFiber, a product of southern pine, combines water-holding and aeration capabilities to growing media. Because of the patented, thermally refined process, HydraFiber features fiber strands that have tremendous surface area. Compared to a standard peat/perlite mix, a peat/HydraFiber mix delivers around 10% more available water, and 30% more compared to peat/coir blends.
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Croton Petra Standard (United Nursery, Inc.)
United Nursery had an exemplary exhibit that showcased its plants utilized around a series of front doors. One great plant it featured was a Croton Petra grown as a standard allowing for other plants to accompany it below. While the plant was not new, having it on a standard gave new options to show off this great foliage color.
View all
New Drop-In Christmas Greens Collection (Bayview Flowers)
New Creative Package for Christmas Impulse Purchase (Bottomley Evergreens)
New Decorative “Travel Collection” Containers (Braun Horticulture, Inc.)
Cryptanthus Absolute Zero Black and White Designs (Bullis Bromeliads)
Aglanema 'Spring Snow'
Guzmania ‘Francesca’ (DeRoose Plants, Inc.)
Ficus microcarpa ‘Moclame’ (Farm Life Tropical Foliage, Inc.)
Grapevine Balls, Glass House, and Galvanized Dish Gardens (Flori-Design, Inc.)
New Wooden Hanging Gardens (Guaqueta USA)
New FedEx Ground Options from Heart of Florida (Heart of Florida Greenhouses, Inc.)
Hollywood Hibiscus Series (J. Berry Nursery)
Air Necklace, Living Locket, and Thinkers (LiveTrends Designs Group, LLCSK USA)
Colored Moss (Mossman, Inc.)
New HydraFiber (Oldcastle Lawn & Garden)
Croton Petra Standard (United Nursery, Inc.)
“I offer a special thank you to everyone who participated in the Cool Products of TPIE selection process,” said Danny Summers of The Garden Center Group, a business group that provides solutions to operational issues facing independent garden retailers. “It was a tough job, but it was exciting and a great experience.”
Check out the slideshow above for a look at this year’s Cool Product winners.
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Brian Sparks is senior editor of Greenhouse Grower and editor of Greenhouse Grower Technology. See all author stories here.