PANTS09

Source: www.TurfMagazine.com

Oaks, Pa., July 28-30

PANTS09, the Penn Atlantic Nursery Trade Show, is produced by the Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association.

PANTS has made its mark as the green industry event that provides the best summer opportunity to network with suppliers. And, as the first show of the buying season, PANTS offers you the first opportunity to find out what the hot new trends are so you can jump ahead of your competition. See what’s new, learn the trends and talk to over 500 exhibiting companies about how to make the most out of your spring 2010 season!

PANTS will be taking place at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pa. For complete information, visit www.pantshow.com.

2009 Show Hours

Tuesday, July 28 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Wednesday, July 29 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Thursday, July 30 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

PANTS Discovery Zones

GIE Media Hot New Trends
A must-see display area at PANTS! Visit the display area where exhibitors will highlight what they see as new and upcoming trends.

Garden Center Pavilion
After a big hit last year, the PANTS Garden Center Pavilion is returning! Judy Sharpton will present her Retail Ready program and show you how to best market your products to customers. Judy will conduct small group consultations for those who want that personal touch from an expert. Discover new ideas on product placement, merchandising and point-of-purchase.

  • Small group consultation with garden centers
  • Sustainable products for retail stores based on USGBC LEED practices
  • Creating a container gardening department
  • Outdoor retailing—covered shopping for products and presentations in the great outdoors
  • Slow-down and impulse aisle display techniques
  • Creating an edible gardening department
  • Garden necessities and garden niceties—creating add-on sales with product placement
  • Easy sustainable practices from USGBC LEED for maximum public relations

And more!
Horticultural storm water management programs featuring horticultural business opportunities in the green roof market, and garden sheds, rain gardens and maintenance.

  • Skid steer purchasing
  • Production management software that helps grow plants and profits
  • Innovating POS—registers of the future

Schedule

Monday, July 27
7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Registration Open

8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Green Roof Tour—This tour will start at Swarthmore College where you will earn about the inner-workings, benefits and beauty of green roofs while exploring the three they have at the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College. This tour will include a chance to see several of the three green roofs at the college.

Next, this group will venture into Center City, Philadelphia, and stop for lunch at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS).

Following lunch, the group will walk to the PECO building green roof and on to the Parkway Central Library green roof project.

This tour will operate rain or shine. Note that part of the tour will include walking between destinations. Cost is $69 and includes lunch and transportation.

Limited seating.

1 p.m. NJNLA Golf Tournament—The New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association is hosting a summer golf outing during the PANTS show. Visit www.njnla.org for details.

Tuesday, July 28
7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Registration Open

8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Private Garden Tour—Celebrating a return to Pennsylvania along with the opportunity to visit private gardens, we welcome the return of Chuck Feld as your PLNA host for the day. Originator of the private garden tours in 2002, he has identified the following destinations for this tour:

  • Janetta Residence, Malvern, Pa.—A private residence located on a historical property with specimen plantings. Swimming pool with travertine marble, old well house, summer kitchen constructed of brick, field stone and granite, cedar pergola, antique well pump that pours into a granite cistern and spring and summer blooming plants to delight the senses and provide seasonal changes. Dave Mull, landscape architect, will lead this tour.
  • Wayne Guymon Garden, Chadds Ford, Pa.—A private residence with many rare and unusual plants. Located on 15 acres, thousands of hostas on a hill in drifts, 2-acre lake with many plants, bamboo forest and one of the largest collections of Rhododendrons in the Northeast. Wayne Guymon will guide this tour.
  • Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades, Media, Pa.—Enjoy a box lunch on a 220-acre trade school founded in 1888. The students enrolled in the Horticulture, Landscape and Turf Management program maintain the grounds and gardens. Chuck Feld will guide you through many gardens and specimen trees. Here you will find the largest collection of American Architect Frank Furness buildings in one location in the world.
  • Beth and Mike Walh Garden, Wallingford, Pa.—A private residence with an 1800 carriage house on a small lot. Here you will find a garden built in the stone ruins off the side of the house giving a two-level living space. Raised stone planters with Pennsylvania bluestone and gravel paving. A small water garden and an 1800 stoned wall garden. Many plants and color for the summer months. Mike Walh will be your guide.
  • Monica and John Feehery, Media, Pa.—A private residence offering a garden and house on a small lot laded with perennials and potted plants, a stone walled driveway courtyard with stone edging, large inviting steps leading to the front door, and large Pennsylvania bluestone patio in the rear with a summer kitchen and seven wrap-around steps leading to a boulder wall and woods. Chuck Feld will lead this tour.

This tour will operate rain or shine. Cost is $65 and includes transportation and box lunch. Limited seating.

9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Exhibit Hall Open

9:30 a.m. – 4:15 p.m. Garden Center Pavilion Classes—Discovery Zone

5 p.m. Equipment Auction—Have used equipment with life still left? For the first time at PANTS, PLNA is planning to promote an equipment auction. Contact Sally O’Shea, event manager, at 800-898-3411, ext. 106 or soshea@plna.com for details.

8 p.m. ICE Nightclub (At the Radisson Valley Forge Hotel)—Join attendees and exhibitors for after-hours networking with Wii competitions and a DJ.

Wednesday, July 29
7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Registration Open

8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Garden Center Tour—Venturing into Chester County, PLNA will present three garden centers all thriving in today’s economy, and each offering a different way of operating a garden center business.

  • Mostardi Nursery, Newtown Square, Pa.—Mostardi Nursery is dedicated to folks who are really into gardening. The product selection is tailored to a range of sizes that can be handled. Perennials vary from being the second or third largest category. Primary sources are Sunny Border Nursery, Quality Greenhouses, Cavano’s Perennials, Valleybrook Gardens and Still Pond Nursery. Mostardi strives to have fresh plants delivered each week with the goal of having a reasonably wide selection and a maximum amount of plants in bloom spring through fall.
  • Michael Petrie’s HANDMADE GARDENS, Downingtown, Pa.—Michael Petrie’s HANDMADE GARDENS is a 2-acre retail plant nursery, garden shop and landscape design business launched in 2008 by award-winning Philadelphia Flower Show designer and garden artist Michael Petrie, along with Sue Phillips, Pennsylvania certified horticulturist. HANDMADE GARDENS specializes in unusual annuals, perennials and nursery stock, container planting, landscape design consultation for homes and businesses, found objects, antiques, original works by artists and unusual collections for the home and yard.
  • Waterloo Gardens, Exton, Pa.—Founded in 1942 by James and Anna Paolini, the company has remained family owned and operated . Now open in three locations throughout Pennsylvania and Delaware, the store carries the largest selection of trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, outdoor furniture, garden supplies and accents, gifts and home décor. In additions, it is home to the landscaping design and build service, Waterloo Landscaping, Inc. by Design.
  • Longwood Gardens Research and Production Greenhouse Tour, Kennett Square, Pa.—Enjoy a guided tour of Longwood Gardens’ state-of-the-art production greenhouse facility led by Division Leader Dr. Jim Herbage. The tour of the 30,000-square-foot facility showcases the inner-workings of the complex, which grows plants for the well-known Conservatory seasonal displays. The facility consists of nine greenhouses that are independently controlled environments, making it possible to produce exquisite plants year-round.

9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Exhibit Hall Open

9:30 a.m. – 4:15 p.m. Garden Center Pavilion Classes—Discovery Zone

10 a.m. PA Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee Public Hearing on the Green Industry

12 – 2 p.m. Legislative Lunch—Join your green industry colleagues and elected officials from the Penn Atlantic region for the annual PANTS Legislative Lunch. This is an excellent opportunity to discuss issues that affect your business like green infrastructure, tax policy, certification for landscape contractors, immigration and visa programs, subcontractor rules, sustainability and more. The lunch costs $25; use the Attendee Registration form to reserve your place.

5 – 7 p.m. First Annual Pig Roast and Networking—Join your industry colleagues for fun and relaxation following a day on the show floor. A cash bar will be available. Sign up for the event when you register.

8 p.m. ICE Nightclub (At the Radission Valley Forge Hotel)—After-hours networking includes karaoke, Wii competitions and a DJ.

Thursday, July 30
7:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. Registration Open

8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Growers Tour—The 8th Annual Growers Tour offers a great opportunity to spend the day with industry colleagues and tour behind the scenes operations of four growers.

Harmony Hill Nurseries—Located in Downingtown, Pa., Harmony Hill Nurseries has spent the last six years growing 28,000 shade, ornamental and evergreen trees. These trees started their life in high-quality Oregon Nurseries and were planted and raises in the rich and heavy Pennsylvania soils. Harmony Hill is run by a team of passionate horticulturists growing drought and disease-tolerant trees.

  • The Conard-Pyle Company—Since its founding in 1897, The Conard-Pyle Company has evolved from a retail mail order firm with garden centers to a wholesale container nursery and bare root rose company. As one of the pioneer container growers on the East Coast and one of the largest and most respected, they have over 5 million plants growing in their Pennsylvania and Maryland nurseries. In the San Joaquin Valley of California, they grow an equal quantity of Star Rose plants. They have more than 275 bare root rose varieties, 150 container roses, hundreds of perennials, groundcovers and woodies, the Knock Out family of roses, the Drift roses and the best from Novalis, Endless Summer and Proven Winners.
  • North Creek Nurseries—North Creek strives to promote sustainable environments while delighting customers. As a wholesale propagation nursery, North Creek specializes in perennials, ornamental grasses, ferns and vines, with an emphasis on eastern U.S. natives. Our Landscape Plugs provide plant solutions for ecological projects including storm water management, landscape restoration, soil stabilization, rain gardens and green roofs.
  • W.D. Wells—W.D. Wells & Associates, Inc. was founded in 1974 by W.D. Well Jr. The company has grown and expanded over the past 35 years to become one of the area’s premier design/build landscape firms and one of the few remaining companies in the area with its own nursery operation. The nursery division, Water Crest Farms Nursery, has over 90 acres under cultivation. They stock a fully range of landscape plant material, and specialize in broadleaf evergreens and unusual specimen material. The tour will highlight the use of intensive European style growing methods they have implemented in the newer sections of the nursery and are moving toward conversion of the entire operation.

9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Exhibit Hall Open

9 a.m. – 12 p.m. PCH Certification Exam

9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CLT Certification Exam

9 a.m. – 1 p.m. CLP Certification Exam

9:30 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. Garden Center Pavilion Classes—Discovery Zone

6 p.m. Plant and Product Auction—The Plant and Product Auction supports the PLNA Foundation. Proceeds underwrite scholarships for horticulture students. Ken Reed will return as auctioneer.

For more information, visit www.pantshow.com.