Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Time: 8:30 am
Election Aftermath: How Congress and the Administration Could Impact the Green Industry
Presenter: Matt Mika, AmericanHort 

Description: As the dust settles from the 2024 election, the decisions made in Washington will have implications for the green industry. Matt will explore how the incoming Congress and the administration’s policies will shape key regulatory, environmental, and economic priorities that may affect horticulture and landscape professionals. Attendees will gain insights into what to expect in 2025, from legislation to agency actions, and how to prepare for the changes that could impact the industry’s future.

ABOUT MATT MIKA

Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Time: 8:30 am
Consumer Trends Industry Can’t Ignore
Presenter: Katie Dubow, Garden Media Group

Description: Why should you care about trends? It’s simple. Trends drive consumers and consumers drive sales, which impacts all segments of our industry. Join Katie Dubow, global trendspotter, president of Garden Media Group and QVC guest host, in this informative session as she outlines the 2025 Garden Trends, including the color of the year, and offer tips on how to apply each trend to your own business whether you are focused on wholesale or retail sales. Garden trends are more important than ever to guide us in uncertain times and give us hope. When you’re ahead of the curve, your company becomes a trendsetter and you become the go-to place for what’s new whether you are a breeder, grower, or retailer.

ABOUT KATIE DUBOW

9:45 am – Prairie Garden Design Principles
Presenter: Neil Diboll, Prairie Nursery

Description: The interest in using native wildflowers, grasses, and low-growing shrubs of the North American Prairie in gardens has been building for the past fifty years.  What were once considered to be “weeds” are now recognized as essential members of a healthy landscape that requires little or no pesticides, fertilizers, irrigation, and when done correctly, reduced weeding.  Of equal or greater benefit is the sustenance these adaptable plants provide to pollinators, birds, and a host of other wildlife and garden visitors that can delight us as much as the plants themselves. Neil explains the ecological principles of prairie garden design, including the importance of understanding each plant’s root system, foliage structure, bloom time, and interactions with neighboring plants to create sustainable, long-lived, low-maintenance ecologically sound prairie gardens.  The best flowers and grasses for urban and suburban gardens are presented for a variety of different soil conditions.  Dig deep into the fascinating world of prairie plants and how they can add beauty and value to your gardens!

ABOUT NEIL

11:00 am – Marketplace Trends: Understanding Plant Supply and Demand Dynamics
Presenter: Lisa Fiore, LandscapeHub

Description: Ever wonder what is going on outside your own sales world? “Marketplace Trends: Understanding Plant Supply and Demand Dynamics presented by LansdcapeHub” will explore current supply and demand trends in the Midwest, highlighting unique regional preferences and contrasting them with nationwide patterns. We will address unmet buyer demands due to supply shortages, examine outside region’s horticultural practices that the Midwest should consider, and analyze how the top-selling plants have evolved over time, culminating in a list of high-demand species currently facing supply challenges.

ABOUT LISA

1:00 pm – Industry Round Table (round table topics & moderators TBD)

After lunch, attendees will gather at the main tables in the large conference room where the Plants Day speakers will be featured.  Each table will be marked with a topic and hosted by a moderator. Participants will have an opportunity to select the topic of their choice and participate in 25 minutes of moderated discussion. At the 25-minute mark, you’ll be prompted to move to another table featuring another topic of discussion. There will be 10 minutes between each round to catch your breath and talk with other attendees.  After the session, everyone will have participated in three total table topics.
Exhibitors & sponsors are highly encouraged to participate in the round table sessions, as this is where a lot of interaction and networking occurs.  This is a great chance to make important connections with other industry leaders, so bring your business cards!

2:40 pm – Creating Sustainable Gardens and Landscapes
Presenter: Andrew Bunting, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

Description: Together with partners, PHS helps to build beauty in key public landscapes across Philadelphia by managing landscapes and gardens using environmentally and ecologically responsible methods, materials, and techniques. Join PHS’s VP of Horticulture, Andrew Bunting for a virtual tour of favorite perennial combinations throughout locations such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Logan Swann Memorial Fountain, Rodin Museum, Azalea Garden, Navy Yard, Eastern State Penitentiary and more! Attendees will also learn about how PHS provides landscape management services to make sure public landscapes flourish—sustainably.

ABOUT ANDREW

3:50 pm – Check back for details!

TRIVIA TIME!

After a day of invigorating sessions, grab your smartest (or most fun) friends and see if you have what it takes to win the night during trivia at Lil Beaver Brewery.  This year, all trivia categories will be horticulturally-related, but don’t worry, there is something for everyone so you don’t have to be a plant geek to be victorious!  Registration is required and dinner is included!   It is not included in your conference registration and there are a limited number of tickets for this event, so register today.

On day two, participants are invited to move freely in and out of the breakout sessions that are of greatest interest. There will be twelve total sessions in three different rooms. You are not required to stay within one learning track for the entire day.  ‘Choose your own adventure’ and move from room to room to ensure you gather information that will be most useful for your role on the job. 

Plant Solutions for Landscape Challenges
Presenter: Susan Martin, @Gardener Sue’s News

Description: Is your store or design business located in a well-established neighborhood where mature trees cast heavy shade? Does that shade also offer a haven for deer and rabbits? What kinds of plants are you offering as solutions to those landscape challenges? If the soil is particularly sandy or heavy clay in your area, are you recommending plants that can thrive in the native soil? This talk will help you build a Rolodex of plants that provide much-needed solutions for these and more common gardening challenges..

Resilient Trees to Mitigate Climate Change
Presenter: Andrew Bunting, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

Description:  Join PHS’s VP of Horticulture, Andrew Bunting, as he explores The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s tree programs and the variety of climate-resilient tree species that can help combat the effects of climate change. Andrew will provide recommended tree species and cultivars that provide ecological functions and are resilient to a variety of challenging conditions including urban settings, heat and humidity, poor drainage, varying temperatures, and diseases such as bacterial leaf scorch, Beech leaf disease, and the effects of the Emerald Ash Borer. This presentation will also cover predictive approaches and why these tools are critical to mitigating climate change and ensuring a thriving future for the urban forest and street trees.

Getting a Grip on Your Video Search Strategy
Presenter: Valerie Smith, Sod Solutions

Description: Search engines like Google drive over 50% of most industries’ web traffic, making search optimization critical for businesses and content creators. With video now making up 82% of all internet traffic and platforms like Google and YouTube prioritizing video in search results, optimizing video content is more important than ever. This session will cover SEO and VSEO strategies, how to conduct keyword research, and techniques for optimizing YouTube videos to rank higher on both Google and YouTube.

Landscape With Intention
Presenter: Lynn Kuhn, Outdoor Transformations

Description: We all want to create spaces that are functional, sustainable, manageable, and of course beautiful, which seems like a lot, but it’s not enough. We also need to satisfy the WHY of the project. This requires a more focused client-profiling process. In this presentation/workshop, you will learn Lynn’s Landscape With Intention (LWI) system for getting at the heart of what truly matters to clients. Using the LWI workbook, Lynn will take you through a process to guide a client to the WHY, WHAT, and HOW of their project and how that effort translates into the creation of a landscape clients will truly enjoy.

Growing Healthy Trees in the Built Environment
Presenter: Michelle Catania, The Morton Arboretum

Description: Overcoming the difficulties of growing healthy trees in compacted, urban soils is a challenge without appropriate site preparation.  This talk will aim to provide science-based and peer-reviewed recommendations to ensure healthy urban trees persist and thrive in the built environment.

Conifers in Midwest Landscapes: Strategies for Success
Presenter: Dr. Bert Cregg, Michigan State University

Description: Conifers provide year-round landscape interest and are the backbone of many landscape designs. However, widely planted conifers, such as blue spruce, are in decline due to an array of diseases and abiotic issues. In this program, participants will learn the principal issues facing conifers in the Midwest and approaches to keeping trees healthy and thriving.

Role Reversal: When the Designer Becomes the Client
Presenter: Susan Martin, @ Gardener Sue’s News

Description: As an avid gardener, former garden designer and 25-year horticulture professional, it has been both a thrilling and enlightening experience to work with a brilliant crew to design and build my own new home and garden. Hear how the process is evolving, including key lessons learned for myself and the landscape crew, when the tables were turned and I became the client. This unique perspective and insight offers tips for handling even your most discerning customers.

Demystify the Municipal Planning and Planting Process
Presenter: Steve Lane, Graf Tree Care

Description: To the uninitiated, street and park tree planting may seem like a process that happens like magic: one wave of the Forester’s magic wand and the trees just dance themselves into the sites like brooms in the movie Fantasia. This is far from the truth, and there are many different companies, individuals, industries, departments, customers, etc. to wrangle to get the right tree planted in the right site. Not all of us in that chain may be aware of each other’s processes and standards. Join Steve as we demystify the processes of the key players in the planning, planting, and maintenance critical to the tree’s survival, from site and species assessment to communications, purchasing, market trends, aftercare, and all points in between. You will leave with a better understanding of critical concepts such as diversifying your plantings, using things like GIS and soil testing for the planning process, and how small issues now might develop into big issues later. Please note, we will also be discussing best practices for work on private property as well! So if you do design-build work, we’ll have some ideas for you to diversify your plantings and your revenue streams.

Big Bold Perennials
Presenter: Heather Prince, Fearless Gardening

Description: Tall plants are cool plants! The secret to a stunning garden design is a variety of plant layers that draw the eye up, yet many clients shy away from plants that grow to more than three feet tall. Discover how to add height and drama into your garden designs with big, bold, bodacious perennials that grow three feet to 12 feet. These fabulous flowers and grasses can also add a creative screening element that people and pollinators will enjoy. We’ll review plants for both shade and sun, including natives and ornamental choices.

Using Plant Phenology to Predict Pest Treatment
Presenter: Aaron Schulz, Oak Bros Tree Care & Removal

Description:  Trees are valuable assets designed to survive for decades to centuries, depending on the species. However, not everything goes according to plan due to human error. This session will look at preventable tree issues observed by a Consulting Arborist and how to mitigate them, beginning in the nursery. Topics covered include: structural pruning, species & site selection, planting practices, and field identification of manageable tree issues.

The Social Impact Workshop: Creating Content That Matters
Presenter: Julie Joyce, GreenID Marketing

Description:  In this presentation, I will cover the essential strategies for creating social media content that resonates and drives results. Learn how to craft impactful posts on Instagram and other platforms while repurposing your best content for maximum exposure. Discover practical techniques to amplify your reach, optimize your distribution strategy, and build a social media presence that truly matters. Additionally, we would cover how social is a top-of-the-funnel marketing tool, and how they can create a funnel from social to owned media (collecting emails and leads).