And We're Back - Looking to the Future

What fun to be back on a show floor considering trade show marketing!  After two years of masking, gardening alone and generally being socially responsible, it was invigorating and exciting to walk into a new world for a few days.  And Tampa was beautifully sunny and warm this January.

TPIE (Tropical Plant International Expo) is a small, tight show for the middle folks on the plant continuum. Growers were there, and plant pots people, and fertilizer folks, and everyone who is one step back from the consumer. Essentially, a wholesale show.  It was fascinating.

Clever trade show marketing tactics, new plants (though few, I’ll explain ), pricey stunners and everyone holding their breath after what was for them, economically speaking, a fantastic 2021.

It started with this guy:

Steel Pan Artist and Musician, John Patti.

Immersive Experiences

Think Instagrammable Moments

The booths with scenes were the most inspiring. From Penang Nursery’s Charley and the Chocolate Factory set up, to the lush oasis in Aroid’s booth, anywhere that had somewhere to snap a pic and share. The airstream in Suntory’s booth gave a lovely shiny backdrop to their new day-night neutral yellow, branching mandevilla. (Sun Parasol) Naturally everyone flocked to the well-lit, chic living room setups we saw at LiveStream. Their reps were happy to talk on the Day One, but by Day Two they couldn’t write orders fast enough.

Trends

Faces

“Anything with a face or a head”, said Lotus, the plant pot people, “and matte finishes.”

Matte Finishes

Yup, I did see a lot of those, but by no means on all shelves.  One thing is for certain –> metallic finishes are G-O-N-E!!

Home Workspace Plant Stuff

• Corkboard that looks like bar, and
• Small airplants stuck on everything! 

Pure Tradecraft

It’s an old move, but you gotta admire those with the stones to still do it. Bad booth location?  Puppies. Naturally they were thronged with pet-ters!  and, in all fairness, they were promoting a grass called ‘Gotta Grow Grass’.  It’s live grass on a tray so your dog can take care of business without you having to go for a walk.  Here, Gotta Grow Grass, on Amazon.

And, of course, don’t forget the bathrooms.  (I didn’t stay in the official hotels, so I don’t know if our old trick of room key sponsorship -from my cable TV trade show days – is still being used.)

Big Question on Everyone’s Minds

Does the newfound enthusiasm of plants and growing stuff in your yard, on a patio, on your windowsill continue once we all go back to work in ofiices.  And the longer we stay home and hybridize our work life, the better it is for the growers.

Churn

As a newly minted Master Gardener, I’m worried on two sides of the same issue: Churn. First, with the Disney-type, instant gardening of putting in freshly blooming spectacular annuals every 90 days. It’s beautiful and fun to look at, but I’m just not sure it’s good for the environment. Those plants needs for water, and the notion of recycling are completely missing in those yards.  Florida Friendly Landscaping Principles these are not.

The other place I saw churn was with the “cash pots”.  Closed plant containers. For sure it’s good for your furniture, but it’s much easier to kill plants when there’s not drainage holes in the pot.  “I always do drop-ins”, said the rep at one of the most successful vendors on the show floor. Does the pot come with insturctions to empty out the pot 30 minutes after you’ve watered the thing becuase you can be sure it’s in the growers’ interest to have you just buy another one.  But maybe that’s not an issue for folks with houseplants?  Probing deaper with a manufacturer, he simply shrugged and said, “we making 130,0000 a day in Europe. We’re in Ikea, Target…” as if that answered the question.  They were certainly beautiful.

Fun Things to Look At

There weren’t a lot of new products as most vendors had spent the last year suffering supply chain issues. Now that  has eased, their current challenge is labor shortages.

Takeaway

Youthful Energy and constant promotion continues to be the path to success. Nothing new here but the execution and the fun.

Enter the 3 guys at Mossify.  Canadian Lucas Picciolo tells me he is stuck at home in the first Covid lockdown staring at his house plants. Why do they have to grow up in a straight line, he wondered. Is that what they do in nature? (How many of us have a pothos growing madly up the string for the Christmas Cards?) He took 3 metal wires, wrapped them in rope, anchored them to what looks like a kitchen counter top sample from Lowe’s and bent it into a fun shape for the plants to grow up. A Bendable Coir Pole™. People loved it. Thanks to mad promotion on social, it sold fast.  It wasn’t long before he was joined by 4 friends and they’ve had to hire additional help in the warehouse. Now there are a line of plant supporting products, including a mister that sprays for the whole plant as opposed to you pumping the thing.

They’re branching out: plant music (Oh, you mean like listening to plants in the Amazon? No, music about plants, from plant people.) and plant video (attractive friends modelling Christmas sweaters holding plants.)  They’re young good-looking guys, of course it’s popular. They never stop creating content. They were creating