Dec 18, 2017

2018 is Almost Here — Are Your Ready for the Year of …? By Tim Hodson

Back in July, the National Garden Bureau announced its “Year of the” crops for 2018.

If you don’t recall what those selections were, let me refresh your memory.

For 2018, those crops include:

• Annuals: Year of the Calibrachoa — A relative newcomer but comes in many beautiful colors and designs.
• Vegetables/edibles: Year of the Beet — Tasty, easy-to-prepare, healthy and can grow anywhere!
• Perennials: Year of the Coreopsis — Cheery, delightful native plants to brighten any garden.
• Bulbs: Year of the Tulip — Beautiful in the vase or in the garden.

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

Calibrachoa, coreopsis, tulip and beets are all very representative of that definition.

Now, the National Garden Bureau is ready to help growers, garden retailers and garden communicators spread the word to consumers and help them discover and embrace these four crops in 2018 and beyond.

NGB is offering free promotional materials for anyone in the industry that is looking to promote these crops. These materials range from printable fact sheets to photos and logos which can be used in catalogs and advertisements, on websites and in other appropriate marketing materials.

For seminars and presentations, free PowerPoint presentations showing many varieties of beets, tulips, coreopsis and calibrachoa are available on NGB’s SlideShare account.

In the vegetable/edible class there is even a humorous and educational video that can be viewed and shared by anyone who wishes to promote gardening and cooking with beets.

The promotional materials for the “Year of the” crops are all available on the National Garden Bureau’s website: www.ngb.org.

If you are growing any of these crops, this is a great program to help generate excitement — and sales — for your business.

It’s hard to believe, but 2018 is only a couple of weeks away. Are you ready for the New Year? Are you ready for the Year of?

One More Thing

We are into the home stretch of 2017 so I’d like to wish you Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from everyone at GPN!

— Tim