Cultivate16: Sunday, July 10
By: John Morgan
Today was the first day of the Cultivate trade show, and the morning began bright and early with a great keynote by Jeremy Kingsley. He shared the seven characteristics of successful people. Do you want to be successful? Shoot for these traits:
Passion (Excited, Love, and Commitment)
Loyalty (Family Atmosphere)
Patience
Communication (Always include all pertinent details, don’t assume.)
Integrity (Knows the right thing, says the right thing, does the right thing)
Humility (It’s not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. -”Dreaming in 3D” by Doug Clay)
Going the extra mile.
After the keynote, I headed to a couple of very informative sessions. The first session was on better event planning. As you might know, hopefully, we're hosting a workshop at our production facility each month this summer. Eventually we plan on expanding this more, and I got some great ideas in this session! (As a side note, look for information on August's workshop coming soon. It has us buzzing with excitement!)
The second session was about awesome perennial selections that are sure to perform well in landscapes. The key with these selections are that they are truly "low-maintenance". Be sure to look for future articles on perennials. Since we don't specialize in growing perennials at Bob's, I sometimes write about them less. They are an important part of the landscape that I need address more often.
After lunch, I mainly toured the trade show looking at what's new, making new friends, and meeting up with old friends. It's hard to believe that this is my 8th year attending the trade show. Over the years, I've seen the show grow, and the formation of a new organization. In 2014 AmericanHort was formed when the American Nursery and Landscape Association and OFA-The Association of Horticultural Professionals combined into one organization. With over 10,000 attendees from the US and 22 other countries, Cultivate16 is the largest horticultural conference of its type in the US.