Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses, located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, has adapted to the changing market and demands of the consumer while maintaining its family atmosphere.
Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses, a long-standing establishment in the heart of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, is currently celebrating its 60th spring in business. This independent garden center is a local favorite with loyal customers and dedicated employees.
Glenn and Mary Ellen Gross founded Ashcombe in 1962 as a roadside vegetable stand. The business thrived as a small farm market manned by one or two employees. Between 1970 and 1978, the business underwent a major expansion into a garden center. As the business continued to expand, more departments were added, including garden supplies, a gift shop, a café, and a bakery. Unfortunately, along with its flourishing, Ashcombe faced many hardships, including two fires. The most devastating occurred on May 22, 1989, destroying the retail store. However, the employees of Ashcombe rallied and continued to operate out of tents in the parking lot. Following the fire, the Ashcombe you see today was born.
Each spring, Ashcombe is home to local gardeners looking to fill their gardens with colorful annuals, perennials, garden supplies, and more. In the production department, Ashcombe grows annuals, vegetables, herbs, and hanging baskets. Springtime fills the greenhouses with thousands of flowers, including dozens of varieties of spring favorites like petunias and dahlias. In the past 60 years, the business has adapted to the changing market and demands of the consumer while maintaining its personable, family atmosphere.
Ashcombe is a local favorite for Mechanicsburg gardeners and families. The business offers classes and events every week to help teach the wonders of gardening to its customers. In its 60th year, Ashcombe is bringing back its garden-themed summer camp, Ready, Set, Grow, which is designed to immerse children into the wonderful world of gardening.
Other classes include floral arrangements, potting classes, and informative demonstrations by Ashcombe’s knowledgeable managers and local gardening experts. Ashcombe is also home to Fern, the mobile plant bus bringing plants to those who can’t always make it the brick-and-mortar store. Fern is a renovated mini school bus that visits local nursing homes and retirement communities as a pop-up shop. During its 2021 tour, Fern visited seven living centers in the Mechanicsburg area.
Ball Seed Customer Days scheduled for July 28-29
Reserve your visit this summer to The Gardens at Ball in West Chicago, Illinois, and experience the newest products for 2023 live and in-bloom.
Ball Seed is pleased to welcome visitors once again to The Gardens at Ball in West Chicago, Illinois, during Ball Seed Customer Days, Thursday, July 28, and Friday, July 29. Registered guests will spend a full day engaging with Ball team members on ideas to optimize their production for next season, and stroll The Gardens filled with hundreds of new introductions for 2023 from across the industry representing over 77 breeding companies.
The event will also offer plenty of opportunities for continued education and inspiration. The popular Container Solutions Demonstration with Joan Mazat of Ball Ingenuity will once again show new ways to mix the latest genetics, and educational showcases will share trends, resources and best-practices.
Additionally, guests can sign up for guided tours of the Ball campus, including the Ball Premier Lab, Seed Distribution, and the new Ball Helix Center for Research and Development.
"Ball Seed is ready to help you and your team optimize plans for 2023. Scheduling your summer visit to The Gardens at Ball is a great first-step to business success," says Jim Kennedy, Sales Director for Ball Seed. "From the inspirational mixed containers and in-ground comparison trials to one-on-one demonstrations with Ball Seed WebTrack, there’s plenty to explore in this year’s showcase of 'All the Best.' We can’t wait to see you here."
Registration is open now! Reserve your visit today and see the full schedule of activities online at www.ballcustomerday.com.
Seed Your Future announces winners of plant drawing contest
The contest encourages middle schoolers nationwide to consider the characteristics of two existing plants to create a plant mash-up with new qualities that could help their community.
Seed Your Future’s fifth annual plant drawing contest captured the imaginations of a record 6,050 children — a 36% increase from 2021 — opening their eyes to the possibilities of plants and a potential career path.
Seed Your Future and Scholastic’s Plant Mash-Up contest encourages middle schoolers nationwide to consider the characteristics of two existing plants to create a plant mash-up with new qualities that could help their community.
The 2022 grand prize winner, courtesy Seed Your Future
The Plant Mash-Up is more than a contest for a monetary prize; it offers children three ways to tackle larger societal problems that don’t have clear or easy answers, says Jazmin Albarran, executive director of Seed Your Future, the Society of American Florists’ partner to help build the floriculture and horticulture labor pipeline.
“One, it allows them to express their own creativity and show that they have the potential to be a problem solver,” she says. “Two, that they can then impact their community, their backyards, their families, their school, their environment. Three, they can do it through plants.
“That’s the whole thing. We want to get young people excited about coming into careers working with flowers and plants, and what better [way to do that] than using plants to solve issues in their own community.”
This year’s first place winner is Chloe Grace N., an eighth-grader from New Castle, Indiana. She combined an aloe vera plant and a burgundy rubber tree to address air pollution and promote wound healing. “The leaves of the hybrid tree are aloe leaves, which produce useful antioxidants for improved health, and have powerful health remedies that accelerate wound healing, as well as fighting off dangerous bacteria,” she wrote in her entry.
This year’s runner-up is Anna K., an eighth-grader from Shawnee, Kansas. She combined a silver maple and a breadfruit tree to address the problem of food deserts and malnutrition. “If these two could be combined, low-income citizens could have access to nutritious food from a tree that grows everywhere in the U.S. already,” she wrote in her entry.
This year’s sweepstake winner is Itais E., a sixth-grader from New Albany, Ohio, who combined a snake plant with an areca palm to address air pollution.
As Albarran reviewed the entries, she noticed mature themes mental health, shelter, erosion, air pollution, climate change, hydration, world hunger and diseases such as malaria.
“It was incredible to see the different topics that this contest can touch,” she says.
This contest is designed to get children thinking about plants at a critical age that could have a lifelong impact. Seed Your Future’s research has found that middle school is when children are starting to think about what they want to do when they grow up. In many states, middle schoolers are deciding what high school they want to attend based on their interests, such as a performing arts school.
“You can play a part in reaching young people and reaching the next generation of professionals simply by putting this contest in front of as many middle schoolers in your area as possible,” she says. “I want to see 50,000 kids participating in this event next year.”
The Plant Mash-Up is but one way to introduce children to a possible career in flowers and plants, and there are plenty of other ways to get them involved the rest of the year. For example, a florist could invite a local Boy Scout Troop or Girl Scout Troop for a field visit, Albarran says. The florist could then use resources from Seed Your Future or come up with a hands-on activity for the children, such as arranging a bouquet for their moms.
“I want people to see our resources as a gateway to starting a relationship with the local school, the local YMCA…and every organization that is serving youth in outdoor spaces,” Albarran says. “Reach out to these people and say, ‘Do you know about Seed Your Future? Here are some cool videos, and if you ever want, you can come on site and learn more about different [career] roles.’”
And if the prospect of helping to find the next generation of workers for the floriculture and horticulture industries sounds daunting, it doesn’t have to be — and industry professionals don’t have to do it alone. Albarran emphasizes the importance of relationship building to help address labor shortages.
Albarran suggests that floral business can seek out other floral professionals, community organizations and partners such as Seed Your Future to help teach children about careers with flowers and plants. Working together makes the task more manageable, she says, and those partnerships can focus on finding two or three area schools or organizations to build relationships with.
She also wants to be sure that industry professionals know they have a partner in Seed Your Future.
“I always want the industry to know that they play a role in this and they have allies in Seed Your Future,” Albarran says. “They can volunteer with us, whether it’s through sharing our resources or volunteering and building relationships. And together, we can reach out to schools in their neighborhood.”
Already the recipient of 10 awards overseas, Proven Winners ColorChoice Oso Easy Double Red rose is making news this spring, earning important U.S. regional awards.
The American Rose Trials for Sustainability (A.R.T.S.) recently announced trial results for the 2023 season and Oso Easy Double Redlandscape rose has earned Local Artist Awards in three regions.
Bred by Alain Meilland and introduced by Spring Meadow Nursery, Proven Winners ColorChoice Oso Easy Double Red shrub rose offers bright red, doubled blooms that are self-cleaning and appear continuously on the plant without deadheading. Glossy, deep green foliage stays free of black spot and powdery mildew. Oso Easy Double Red rose grows to full, mounded, 3 to 4 feet tall/wide shrub, and is hardy down to USDA Zone 4.
Nursery Management magazine announced the results of the A.R.T.S. trials to the public in its article titled “Regionally resilient roses” where its states, “To win, roses must prove they are resilient on their own merits, without being buffered with repeated fertilizer applications or chemical sprays. A.R.T.S. helps you identify which roses have real-world resilience in your region to meet the high expectations of your customers.”
The A.R.T.S. adjudicators identify which roses are the most pest-resistant, drought-tolerant, low maintenance, vigorous and beautiful in each region. In order for a cultivar to be awarded an A.R.T.S. Local Artist award, they must perform equal to or better than the industry standards.
One judge commented that Oso Easy Double Red rose was the “Best rose in the block.” Other judges’ comments included, “Loaded with flower buds. Winner of the day; big and beautiful. Little disease and insect damage. Gorgeous plant. A winner on flower color and size.”
A.R.T.S. uses the Köppen climate system to delineate rose evaluation regions, as it accounts for both temperature and precipitation levels. Oso Easy Double Red rose performed exceptionally well in an impressive three zones the CFA (humid subtropical), CSA (Mediterranean), and DFB (Humid continental, cool summer) regions.
Dandy Man Color Wheel, bred by Dr. Tom Ranney
Proven Winners ColorChoice
Proven Winners ColorChoice cultivars named Rhododendron of the Year
Black Hat and Dandy Man Color Wheel were recognized by the American Rhododendron Society.
The American Rhododendron Society has released the results of its 2022 Rhododendron of the Year Awards and two Proven Winners ColorChoice cultivars have earned regional awards.
The committee selects rhododendrons for adaptability in eight regions of the United States and Canada. The site states, “To be selected for a Rhododendron of the Year award a plant must have excellent foliage and flowers, have an attractive plant habit, be pest and disease resistant, and be cold hardy for the region.”
Proven Winners ColorChoice Black Hat and Dandy Man Color Wheel rhododendrons were named Rhododendron of the Year for the South Central region. For each region, the Plant Award Committee chooses an elepidote and a lepidote rhododendron, a deciduous azalea, and an evergreen azalea.
Black Hat rhododendron is a lepidote species, generally noted for small foliage with scale-like structures on the undersides of the leaves. Bred by Dr. Tom Ranney at North Carolina State University, Black Hat rhododendron is a triploid, making the flowers longer lasting than conventional selections. This rhododendron has thick, dark, evergreen foliage that takes on dramatic purple-black tones in cool weather.
Also bred by Dr. Ranney, Dandy Man Color Wheel rhododendronis elepidote, with the large leaf size that typically comes to mind when referencing rhododendrons. They are called elepidote because they lack the scale-like structures on the undersides of the leaves. Dandy Man Color Wheel rhododendron has ruffled pink blooms that transition to crisp white, creating the effect of three different colors blooming at once. Handsome evergreen foliage, excellent disease resistance, and heat tolerance make this NCSU hybrid an adaptable, widely usable broadleaf evergreen.
The American Rhododendron Society is a non-profit organization designed to encourage interest in and provide information about the genus rhododendron. Society activities include public education, plant sales, flower shows, seed exchanges, and scientific research.
Posted by Kate Spirgen
Posted by Matt McClellan
