MANTS 2025 recap

The 2025 Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS) welcomed 10,460 attendees, including exhibitors, to a sold-out trade show floor featuring 923 exhibitors at the Baltimore Convention Center from January 8–10, 2025. The GIE Media Horticulture Group staff walked the trade show floors to be your eyes and ears.

Here are a few things that caught our attention at MANTS 2025.

A new boxwood selection from Littleplants

Norman Cole III, president of Cole Nurseries and co-founder of Littleplants LLC, introduced a new selection of boxwood called ‘Little Mister.’ It features the same blight resistance as ‘Little Missy’ at a larger size and faster finish time. Cole sees it as a ‘Green Velvet’ replacement, a popular boxwood cultivar that he says has been plagued by leaf miner and blight problems.

Cole propagated 400,000 Little Misters in 2024 and has sent cuttings to growers this year. He’s expecting the plant to hit the market in 2026.

25 years of Knock Out Roses

Star Roses and Plants gathered to celebrate 25 years of Knock Out Roses. Mr. Knock Out himself, Will Radler, received an award and letter from AmericanHort for his outstanding breeding and contribution to the horticulture industry.

Also recognized at the gathering were this year’s Legacy Award recipients: Dewar Nurseries, Flowerwood Nursery and Greenleaf Nursery Company. Star Roses and Plants honored these growers for their exceptional contribution to the growth and success of The Knock Out Family of Roses.

A new Encore Azalea

Kip McConnell, business development director with Plant Development Services, Inc. (PDSI), is excited to introduce Encore Azalea Autumn Kiss. McConnell explains that it grows similar to other Encore Azaleas, so growers who already grow this series will know how to grow Autumn Kiss and can add it to their operation easily.

“Autumn Kiss grows in between Autumn Bonfire and Autumn Fire,” he says. “Bonfire is a faster grower. Fire is a little bit slower but more compact, so this one is in between, which is the best of both, I think.”

This newest addition to the Encore collection features semi-double blooms with deep pink edges that fade into a soft pastel pink, almost white, toward the center. This heavy bloomer reblooms in spring, summer and fall. Autumn Kiss thrives in full sun and is hardy in USDA Zones 6 to 10, reaching 3 to 4 feet high and wide when mature.

Autumn Kiss liners are available to wholesale growers now and will hit independent garden centers in 2026.

Virtual nursery tour

Exhibiting at trade shows is costly. Dave Braun found a way to make more people stop at his booth: virtual reality headsets that allow visitors to virtually tour his tree nursery from 500 miles away.

The Braun group has three companies: Braun Tree Nursery, Braun Wire Baskets and Braun Garden Products. The nursery grows large-caliper trees on 1,100 acres in southern Ontario.

The idea originally came about when Braun had a potential customer who wanted to see his nursery, but the customer was in the U.S. and didn’t have a passport.

The second component to the trade show booth experience is a small handheld controller. This controller is used to virtually measure the caliper of a tree, highlighting the guarantee Braun offers with all its trees.

“If it doesn’t measure up, it’s free,” Braun says. “That’s why we’re emphasizing the guarantee. If you order a 3 inch tree and it’s 2 and 7/8, it’s free.

Braun says the VR project has led to many more booth conversations.

“The value of getting a new customer is so high for us, it’s an easy investment to justify.”

Ryan Clifford and Charlie Andersen with Burro Grande

Collaborative robots

Burro are robots that utilize computer vision, high-precision GPS and AI to follow people and navigate autonomously from A to B while performing multiple tasks. The robots run on “digital train tracks” through complex settings, all day long, even if GPS is not available. They use AI to understand their surroundings and safely travel through tall weeds and branches but stop for real obstacles and people.

Burro robots can carry items, tow, mow, spray and patrol. Growers control it with a simple remote control and a built-in touchscreen interface.

Burro offers three models, the original, Burro Verde and Burro Grande. The Verde is designed for transport to and from greenhouses. It was built to travel congested indoor pathways, at only 27.5 inches wide, but can carry 500 pounds on asphalt and tow 2,000 pounds.

“What’s unique about it is it can go indoors and outdoors autonomously,” says CEO Charlie Andersen. “You map your site one time and from that point forward your site is set up and you can have robots driving between things rather than having people drive when they should be doing higher-value things.”

The Burro Grande is the heavy-duty pack mule of the group. It can carry up to 1,000 pounds and tow 3,500 pounds over rough terrain like gravel and up to 5,000 pounds on concrete. The Grande is 48 inches wide and it pairs well with the newest addition to the Burro family, the Cortador. The Cortador is an electric 3-spindle rotary cutter that attaches to the Grande to allow fully autonomous mowing. It can mow up to eight acres per charge. A full charge takes 11 hours.

New sustainable packaging for Proven Winners ColorChoice

Spring Meadow Nursery and Proven Winners ColorChoice are offering a sustainable packaging option for growers. The new package is made of woven plastic and includes handles for easy transport, a wide base for stability and root expansion and drainage holes at the base and sides.

Holden’s Fuchsia rhododendron

A new line of Phytophthora-resistant hardy rhododendrons

Also at MANTS, Briggs Nursery introduced a new line of Phytophthora-resistant hardy rhododendrons. The five cultivars all maintain a compact habit, 3 to 4 feet tall and wide, and are hardy to Zone 5.

According to Bill Moyer, Briggs Nursery’s sales manager, the program’s goal was to develop a series of rhododendron that was resistant to the soil pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi.

The selection and trial process took place at Ohio’s Holden Arboretum, which is why all five colors bear the Holden name: Holden’s Fuchsia, Holden’s Pink Flare, Holden’s Peach, Holden’s Red and Holden’s Pink.

Blueberry Lemonade peony

Garden Candy peonies

Don Smith is a former atmospheric research physicist whose science-based approach to breeding has resulted in 11 new ITOH peony introductions. Plants Nouveau is bringing Don’s work to the masses. The plants in the Garden Candy series are deer-resistant, practically disease-resistant and have strong stems that don’t need staking, but the calling card for these peonies is their exciting color combinations. All are 2.5 to 3 feet tall by 4 feet wide and hardy from Zone 3 to 8a, or in other words, Alaska to North Carolina. They are sold as fully rooted 1-gallon plugs grown from tissue culture in the U.S.

New sustainable packaging for American Beauties Native Plants

Jack Sellew, co-owner of Prides Corner Farms, shared the new sustainable packaging for theAmerican Beauties Native Plants line. The Eco Container is a paper-based product that is easily recyclable anywhere cardboard milk cartons are accepted. Sellew said the Eco Container also creates a healthier, highly branched system.