GardenComm Conference tours

From behind the scenes of Spring Meadow Nursery's production facilities to one of Walters Gardens' new varieties, this road trip has it all.

A robotic arm sticks a small plant cutting into a black plastic tray filled with soil. — By using artificial intelligence to decide which end is the stem and top, the machine grabs the cutting and sticks it into a tray.
Photos By Katie McDaniel

By Katie McDaniel, Assistant Editor

Published November 07, 2024 | Updated November 08, 2024

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At the end of August, I hopped on a plane and flew to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I joined fellow industry professionals for the annual GardenComm conference. The event was filled with educational sessions, opportunities to connect with horticultural professionals, behind-the-scenes nursery tours and exclusive garden tours of both private and public gardens.

Above & Left: The first stop of the tour was Hans Hansen’s private garden. He’s been the director of new plant development at Walters Gardens for over a decade and the driving force behind its numerous plant introductions. The Vernonia ‘Southern Cross’ is one of Hansen’s favorite plants in his garden, and he described it as “a polished prairie wildflower.” It’s an important food source for bees and other pollinators, while also being deer resistant.

Above: While visiting Spring Meadow Nursery’s production facilities, we had the chance to watch the company’s ISO sticking machine in action. By using artificial intelligence to decide which end is the stem and top, the machine grabs the cutting and sticks it into a tray. Innovation has always been a key part of the nursery’s success. The team invests in equipment, facilities, plants and people so that they can provide customers with a better potted liner. The ISO sticking machine sticks cuttings into 18, 32 or 72 cell liner trays. On average, each machine can stick 2,200 cuttings per hour and requires a crew of four or five people to operate.

Mangave: We also strolled through the display gardens at Walters Gardens. The mangave bed caught everyone’s attention. An intergeneric cross of manfreda and agave, these rare hybrids combine the better growth rate and interesting patterns of manfreda with the refinement of agave. Andrew Jager, marketing manager at Walters Gardens, shared how these succulents adapt and thrive in a wide variety of growing environments — landscapes, mono containers and mixed containers, hanging baskets or indoors. Mangave finish much quicker than agave, so this makes them a good choice if growers want to sell the plants in the same season or decrease the time it takes to get them to retail. “If you treat these like a cactus or like a straight agave and water them sparingly, you’re actually going to slow down their growth, so growers who are looking to push that premium agave type product to market faster, we see these finish in half the time or double the size if you grow them along the same plant,” Jager said. He explained that growers who already grow perennials could easily work mangave into their operation because it grows more along the grow path of a slower growing perennial.

Top: Even with automation, Spring Meadow Nursery still uses employees to stick cuttings by hand as well. Bottom Left: Assistant Growing Manager Freedom Shelley talked about how biological controls are used at Spring Meadow Nursery. By incorporating biological controls, the nursery is able to fight against chemical resistance in pests and use softer chemistry sprays. Bottom Right: Many plants at Spring Meadow Nursery are housed in Westbrook Greenhouses from Canada. These greenhouses are high tech and can monitor the vapor pressure deficit in the space.

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