News

Leading growers honored for recycling efforts
Eleven of North America’s largest growers are leading an effort to improve the industry’s sustainability by recycling water bottles into plant containers. The success of their programs was recently recognized by induction into the Million Bottle Club, an award given to growers who have recycled over one million plastic water bottles into plant containers. The program is organized by McConkey’s rEarth plastic water bottle recycling program.

“Combined, the Million Bottle Club honorees have recycled 50 million bottles by growing in rEarth—that means 50 million fewer bottles polluting our oceans, streets, and landfills. Stacked end-to-end, that’s enough water bottles to stretch from Tokyo to New York, and back,” said Dave Edenfield, Business Development Manager at McConkey. “By choosing a 100% recycled, curbside-recyclable grow container made from water bottles, these 11 growers and others across the country are making a widespread positive impact on the environment.”

This year’s Million Bottle Award recipients include: 10 million bottles or more – Colorama Wholesale Nursery; 5 million bottles or more – Armstrong Garden Centers, Do Right’s Plant Growers; 1 million bottles or more – Kawahara Nursery, Cal Color Growers, YC Nurseries, Hong’s Nursery, Iwasaki Brothers, Smith Gardens, Certified Plant Growers and Sidhu & Sons.

For more: www.mcconkeyco.com

EAB found in Iowa
The emerald ash borer has been found in the city of Burlington, Iowa hundreds of miles from the first sighting of the invasive insect in Iowa three years ago. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship said officials and the U.S. Department of Agriculture will issue a quarantine for Des Moines County in the next few weeks. It means a permit will be required to move hardwood firewood, ash logs and wood chips out of the area.

For more on EAB: www.emeraldashborer.info

Website connects growers with buyers
The Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association’s newly developed website, Nursery Stock Select, connects wholesale buyers with growers across Ohio who offer inventories of over 1,000 different plant varieties. The website was developed to help landscapers quickly find the plants they need.

Nursery stock inventories are updated regularly on the site and can be located by plant, by grower’s name, and by region.

“Nursery Stock Select gives wholesale buyers an easy, quick, and no-cost way to find the exact plant stock they are looking for, which grower has them, and even how many,” said ONLA associate executive director Jennifer Gray.

For more: www.nurserystockselect.com

Nursery Supplies merges with Summit Plastic
Summit Plastic Co. and Nursery Supplies Inc. are merging.

The companies have been owned by the same equity group since 2006. Now under the same credit agreements with the same U.S.-based bank, they will be able to pool their resources.

The continuity of product design and the cross-communication will bring a lot to the two companies’ customers, said Norm Belliveau, CEO of Summit Plastic Co.

The combined companies have seven facilities total to serve the North American market, and each company’s sales force will cross sell.

For more: www.nurserysupplies.com; www.summitplastic.com

RISE meets with members
RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment) held its first-ever member event at the OFA Short Course in July. RISE connected with members and their customers at a breakfast for 50 leaders focused on grassroots engagement and networking.

“Being at OFA is a great way for us to reach out to those in horticulture to learn about their issues and to talk about the importance of grassroots engagement on pesticide and fertilizer issues at the local and state levels,” said Dan Stahl, OHP and RISE Governing Board Member.

For more: www.pestfacts.org