On the rebound

Photo: Sheridan Nurseries

If the first and second trade shows of the new year that I’ve attended — MANTS and Green & Growin’ — are any indication, 2016 could turn out to be a memorable year.

I recently tapped several colleagues from various green industry channels of distribution across the United States and Canada, asking for their analysis on what will be long and/or short in plant material.

Ironically, although several colleagues said the housing market is coming back, I had just as many tell me it really isn’t. They felt the increased plant sales are for existing homes, not new ones.

And, with the unseasonably warm start to the winter followed by a cold snap in the new year, who knows what crops or landscape plants will survive the winter and ultimately affect our spring and future production plans.

Find out how product availability and demand are affecting these green-industry representatives.

AJ Petitti, Petitti Garden Centers, Ohio

Our nursery department sales were up 15 percent this past year and we’ve budgeted for a 15 percent increase for the coming year. I think consumers who built half-million-dollar homes before the recession never put in a landscape, as they couldn’t see the value in it. And those people are now coming in for plants to install that missing landscape.

John Lewis, JLPN Liners, Oregon

The reduction in production of understock and field-grown liners during the recession is still visible in the volume of larger caliper shade trees available east of the Rockies. This has left a large hole to fill by West Coast producers, and that can’t happen overnight.

The volume demand is right around the same levels as last season, or greater. We’ve had very few products go down in sales, and have been surprised by some that we thought might still be in over-production, but have turned around. Commodity items such as sugar, Norway and red maple, linden, ornamental fruit and zelkova, are all seeing a nice recovery.

Ashley Ahl, Northern Family Farms, Merrillan, Wis.

Generally speaking, we are seeing a shortage on liners and finished shade and ornamental trees throughout the Midwest, particularly the Chicago area, north through Wisconsin, and even in the Twin Cities, where emerald ash borer is rearing its ugly head. We see municipalities addressing EAB problems and implementing proactive, and in many instances, reactive programs to replace ash trees.

There has also been increased residential building activity taking place that could be driving the increased demand for trees. Most likely, the increases we are seeing could be attributed to a decreased supply of liners produced by the West Coast.

DeVonne Friesen, Van Belle Nursery, Abbottsford, B.C., Canada

We’ve definitely seen the effects of shortages in the market when it comes to flowering shrubs. After the economic downturn there was much less speculative growing, and now with increased demand there just isn’t a lot of extra product available for last minute decisions. As a result, our customers are ordering earlier in the cycle to ensure they get the plants they need. We’ve also seen a trend toward significant summer and fall second shipments as our customers rebuild their stock after they’ve had better than expected spring and summer shipping seasons.

Read more in the February issue of Nursery Management.