Nursery Management magazine received four Azbee Awards in the Heartland region

As one of the most competitive awards programs for B2B media, the Azbee Awards of Excellence honor the best in B2B media, recognizing outstanding work by business, trade, association and professional publications.

Check out the award winning articles below.

Regional Gold Award, Case Study

Survive the gauntlet: A plant must pass every test these growers give before becoming a new introduction.

Pots of hydrangea line the benches of a hoop house under shade cloth near Athens, Georgia. These are the best of the best, the potential mothers and fathers of the next great hydrangea to come from Bailey Innovations.

David Roberts supervises the collection of pollen and seed, as plant breeders armed with tweezers and petri dishes perform their careful crosses. David is director of plant breeding at Bailey Innovations, the in-house product development division of Bailey. The family-run multi-state nursery is known for brands like Endless Summer hydrangeas, First Editions trees and shrubs and Easy Elegance roses. David has led the breeding program at Bailey Innovations since it opened the Winterville, Georgia, location in 2018.

“When I went to school, it just seemed like such a cool idea to be able to invent a plant,” David says. “That concept was just very foreign to me.” Continue reading

Regional Gold Award, Editor's Letter

Below are Editor Matt McClellan's award winning letters.

• New beginnings
• Human touch
• Progress is incremental
• Pump yourself up
• Planting a legacy
• One step at a time
• Apply AI
• Summer vibe
• Crossing the border
• Kill 'em with kindness
• Small pumpkins, big dreams
• Trend spotting

Regional Silver Award, Individual Profile

Stride for stride: Second generation leader Ed Overdevest is making a difference in the horticulture industry by viewing change as an opportunity and leading by example.

One day, a young boy was walking alongside his father in a field. The boy was amazed by the length of his father’s stride. He was trying to match him stride for stride, but he wasn’t quite able to stretch his short legs to the same extent as his father’s.

Just as the boy watched his father walk, he grew up watching him run a nursery business with the same purpose and determination. His father inspired him through his work ethic and drive. More than 60 years later, the boy is now the second-generation leader of Overdevest Nurseries, and he often reflects on this significant memory of the way his father walked in the field and approached life.

Ed Overdevest is president of Overdevest Nurseries and co-owner alongside his wife, Gail. The nursery grows more than 2,000 varieties of trees, shrubs, vines, perennials and patio plants. They sell to independent garden centers (IGCs) and distributors within a 300+ mile radius of Bridgeton, New Jersey. Continue reading

Regional Silver Award, Q&A

Q&A with Shubber Ali: Shubber Ali is the CEO of Garden for Wildlife Inc., and his goal is to get more native plants and education about native plants into the hands of homeowners and gardeners all over the country.

NM: What goals do you have for Garden for Wildlife?

SA: The short-term goal is to start to scale up this company, expand our reach nationally and launch a number of programs. The long-term goal is actually the purpose of the company. The business was set up to support achieving the aims of National Wildlife Federation (NWF) faster. Specifically, that’s about getting more native plants into more places, more quickly. The best way to do that is to make it easier for people to get the plants, so my goal is to scale up our business and get more native plants and education about native plants into the hands of homeowners and gardeners all over the country. Continue reading

Congratulations to Editorial Director Kelli Rodda, Editor Matt McClellan and Assistant Editor Katie McDaniel for winning these awards!

"We are proud to serve the horticulture industry by sharing the amazing stories of growers across the country and by keeping our readers informed on the latest breeding, industry news and production techniques," says the Nursery Management editorial staff.