Jul 7, 2017

Start Preparing for 2018 Today By Tim Hodson

Even though we are only into the second week of July, before you know it, 2018 will be here.

National Garden Bureau is already planning for next year, and last week the organization announced its 2018 “Year of the” crops.

Each year, the NGB’s board of directors selects crops specifically for the North American market that are easy to grow and genetically diverse with a lot of new varieties that are available.

Growers, breeders, brokers, seed companies and garden centers throughout the United States and Canada are urged to highlight these flowers and plants when planning their marketing for the 2018 season to take advantage of the publicity that is generated by this program.

So, without further ado, here are the 2018 “Year of the” crops …

For annuals, 2018 will be the Year of the Calibrachoa.

For perennials, 2018 will be the Year of the Coreopsis.

For the bulb crop, 2018 will be the Year of the Tulip.

For vegetables/edibles, 2018 will be the Year of the Beet.

The Bureau encourages horticulture professionals to use the free “Year of the” logos to promote these varieties in their 2018 catalogs, websites, advertisements and other marketing materials.

Later this year, NGB will have photos of numerous varieties of all four crops (provided by NGB members) posted on its website. NGB also will provide PDFs of fact sheets, flyers, handouts, signage, etc.

In November, all of the above can be downloaded at no charge from the NGB website at www.ngb.org. These tools will help the North American home garden industry promote the crops to consumers and encourage gardening with these specific crop classes.

Time flies when you are working hard, so there’s no time like now to start planning for next year.

Are you ready for 2018?

— Tim