Weekend Reading 3/1/24

Welcome to Garden Center magazine's Weekend Reading, a weekly round-up of consumer garden media stories meant to help IGCs focus marketing efforts, spark inspiration and start conversations with consumers.

This week: A genetically modified purple tomato, Clematis seeds in Ukraine with an international following, parenting lessons that apply to the garden, a living wall at the World Trade Center and extending the life of cut flowers.

Gardeners can now grow a genetically modified purple tomato made with snapdragon DNA, NPR

The Purple Tomato, a genetically modified crop created by Norfolk Plant Sciences, is available to home gardeners to start from seed.

For a Ukrainian Gardener, Flowers Offer a Way Forward, The New York Times

Margaret Roach writes that when war came to her country, Alla Olkhovska had been planning to open a rare-plants nursery. Now her Clematis seeds have an international following.

Gardening as a lifeline — through life’s demands, and through generations, The Seattle Times

Lorene Edwards Forkner writes that some parenting lessons apply to the garden, too: accepting and embracing the brilliant and the mundane, cherishing brief movements while holding on to the long view.

The Hanging Gardens of Lower Manhattan, The Broadsheet

The “living wall” at the World Trade Center is a unique combination of horticulture and architecture — a vertical garden that stretches 336 feet between West and Greenwich streets and reaches 25 feet high.

Year-round gardening: Extending the life of cut flowers, The Denver Gazette

Colorado Master Gardener Debra Stinton Othitis shares some tips on extending the life of cut flowers.

Enjoy your reading, have a great weekend and we'll see you next week!