Wishbones to Pick

John Friel

Things I’m thankful for in the month of Thanksgiving:

5. Photogenic Flora
I love photographing plants. Ours is a visually oriented arena where a good picture is worth a thousand-unit P.O. Sometimes I nail it: right moment, right angle, right light. More often, I reluctantly hit Delete. But that’s the medium. From Matthew Brady’s era to the age of the selfie, everything has changed except
percentages.

Favorite subjects? It’s hard to take a bad clematis closeup. Flat configuration = shallow depth of field = tack-sharp focus.

Other loves: platycodon, spigelia, chelone, aquilegia, lewisia, miscanthus plumes, and passiflora, the flower designed by a committee.

Tough to get right: Verbena bonariensis, which resembles a swarm of bees when everything misfires. Flower closeups don’t tell the story of the plant’s airy charm. Hemerocallis makes great profiles, but that deep throat defies crisp overall focus in head-on mug shots. Pulmonaria and veronica seduce the eye, but the camera doesn’t gloss over the brown florets. And so on.

4. New Varieties and the People Who Bring Them
As Allan Armitage says, “Nobody walks into your store and asks, ‘What’s old?’” Yes, we, as an industry, care way more about what’s new than gardeners do, but that’s okay. We need to keep ourselves interested and every familiar ho-hum garden staple was once an exciting breakthrough.

Among the coolest recent intros is Aralia cordata Sun King, fetched from Japan by Barry Yinger about eight years ago. It’s looked good everywhere I’ve seen it, from Holland to Oregon to Pennsylvania. Dr. Wayne Hanna’s (University of Georgia) tender black pennisetum hybrids are impressive, zooming head-high in a season. And keep an eye out for mukdenia, an up-and-comer at Terra Nova and elsewhere.

3. Camera Phones
Want to see what we’re about to ship you or show a troubleshooter your troubles? Want friends to see the fun you’re having—and they’re not? Done. A few clicks and a remarkably good image is in-hand a continent away.

2. Trade Shows are Better ... Right?
Yes, Mostly.

FarWest 2014 (August) was more upbeat than it’s been in years. Exhibitor and attendee numbers seemed stabilized; the mood on the floor was borderline ebullient. There was talk of product shortages, a welcome change from overstock fire sales.

New England Grows (February) is sometimes slowed, seldom stopped by weather. Bahst’n feahs no wintah. Paradoxically, NEG is where I meet the most new green-industry entrepreneurs. Most are young; others are second-career types embracing their love for plants or planting and/or designing. Why paradoxically? Because this business requires land—pricey stuff in New England. But tons of potential customers await.

Cultivate’14 (July), the erstwhile OFA Short Course, hasn’t lost a step. The retail section upstairs was awfully quiet, but this was Year 1. Two qualms: (a) To me, “cultivate” conjures corn, tractors and dust, not bedding; (b) The hybrid entity, ANLA x OFA, is officially the American Horticulture Association. Why not call the show AHA! as in, “Come to Columbus for three days of AHA! moments?” But nobody asked me. And by any name, it’s still THE show.

1. The economy’s better ... right?
We’re acting as if America’s back on firmer fiscal footing and a nation’s economy is based largely on confidence. It’s been 40+ years since a buck was backed by something tangible, i.e., the silver standard. Units of currency are abstract concepts, no longer representing units of physical substance.

If money is a symbolic battery in which we store our time and energy, an economic recovery is an agreement that things are better, evidence to the contrary be damned.

Moral: You can’t weigh confidence. If you could, it would trump gold. Forget precious metals, we’re thankful for precious mettle. GP

John Friel is marketing manager for Emerald Coast Growers and a freelance writer.