Want a Sneak Peak at What’s Coming to Local Garden Centers?

By Teresa Woodard

Clematis ‘Diamantina’

A hardy super-nutritious Goji berry bush, an exquisite double clematis and a dwarf thornless raspberry bush were three of the plants that caught my fellow bloggers’ and my eyes as we toured the CENTS show (Central Environmental Nursery Trade Show) earlier this month in Columbus.  Billed as the largest annual horticulture and landscape trade show, the trade show and workshops provided a glass ball to what’s hot in 2013.  Here are five trends that created a buzz at the show:

• Edible landscaping —
  

  Lycium barbarum (Goji Berry)

  The industry is serving up more tasty options for this year’s gardens.   We saw dwarf thornless raspberries, hardy Goji berry bushes, expanded selections of heirloom plants and seeds, and increased inventories of fruit trees, especially dwarf varieties.

• Small-space gardening – City dwellers and empty nesters are looking for ways to maximize their smaller gardens, and the industry is happy to oblige with new options for container gardening, vertical treatments and more dwarf varieties.  A multi-grafted espaliered crabapple, a new collection of clematis climbers and clever vertical wall planters caught our eye.
• Heat lovers – Midwest gardeners will be delighted to find more options available in tropicals and drought-tolerant plants like succulents. Acorn Farms showed oodles of hanging baskets full of eye-catching and trailing succulents.  Willoway Nurseries displayed Brugmansia ‘Snow Bank’ — a showy variegated angel trumpet from Novalis’ “Bring on the Heat” group.

• Miniatures — The miniature craze continues, and the industry is stepping up its offerings with miniature hostas, succulents, conifers, and other wee plants and accessories especially suited for terrariums, fairy gardens and small containers.
• Sustainable landscapes – CENTS show speakers repeatedly talked about how to garden in a more sustainable – more eco-friendly – way with ideas for lawn alternatives, suggestions for tough plants, and new solutions for pest and weed control.