Eighteen months ago, my 18 year-old kitty, Aspen was diagnosed with renal (kidney) failure. They said he had six months to live. He’s still happily alive and seems no different today.

In January, our 12 year-old German Shepherd, Scully (my husband had a thing for the red head on The X-Files…) was diagnosed with anal gland cancer. Our vet said she had a few weeks to live. She’s doing great six weeks later.

Through all this tragedy, I’ve become quite the cancer/kidney failure expert. Being trained in science, I don’t just take what any doctor says as the final word. I do my research to find ways to help keep them happy and alive. I’ve managed to fight the odds with all three pets so far by turning to plants and in the cancer cases – staying away from sugar.

I did some research on the internet and found that in the late 1950’s there were vet students at Johns Hopkins who studied and published findings stating dogs and cats don’t need carbohydrates. They also don’t need sugar, corn or processed wheat. They’re carnivores and they ate meat and only meat in the wild.

So, why is most pet food made of corn and processed wheat?

It’s cheaper…that’s why. Just like with cows, chickens and pigs, it’s cheaper to feed pets corn and processed wheat. If they say it’s bad for cows and chickens, why would anyone in their right mind feed it to their pets?

I don’t think they know they’re killing their pets.

After reading this article from Hopkins, I did some further research and I found that they also discovered sugar (including sugar that comes from processed carbohydrates) feeds cancer. I learned you shouldn’t eat sugar when you have cancer because the tumor will grow faster. I learned we probably shouldn’t be eating sugar and processed carbs at all because they can cause cancer.

We’ve learned cows, pigs and chickens can’t process these carbohydrates and that this type of food makes them sick.

Wake up folks!

The same thing is happening to us. Until recently, no one knew these facts.

Thanks to all the food movements, people are much more aware of what they eat, but are they aware they are feeding the same bad ingredients to their pets?

We have choices. Most grocery stores are now carrying healthy alternatives to processed foods, but what about pets? Big pet stores still carry mostly processed food. Specialty stores (the equivalent of a Wholefoods for pets) carry healthy, nutritious foods made from meats (real meats – not the scraps that fall on the floor), vegetables and brown rice – all wholesome ingredients.

Ever notice the color of Purina Dog Chow?

The kibble is golden yellow isn’t it? Ever read the label? The first ingredient is corn. Ugh!

What angered me most when my first dog got bone cancer was that the vet said there was no proof that sugar fed cancer. I asked if I should change his food and he looked at me like I was crazy. Then I doubted myself.

I shouldn’t have…

That fall, I went in for my first mammogram. A jolly good time indeed! While I was sitting in the waiting room, I read one of the scary brochures that explains what will happen if they do find a lump. Imagine my surprise when I read a clear description defining how they will inject sugar water into you so that it can find the cancer cells. In other words, if your lump is cancer – the sugar water will stick to the cells.

You’ve got to be kidding me!

I was so mad. My scientific mind had the proof it needed to ask more questions, so I got on the Internet and found other people who had dogs with bone cancer. They all said first and foremost – stop feeding your dog carbohydrates (aka sugar).

Aha! I wasn’t crazy.

I think what made me so mad was that the researchers from over 50 years ago were onto something, but it was never made public. I know this happens all the time, but it infuriates me.

Would my dog have been spared cancer if I knew this earlier?

We’ll never know.

Do doctors tell people who get cancer they shouldn’t eat sugar? I know most doctors care nothing about nutrition. I have worked really hard to find a family doctor and a vet who do care. Both practice Eastern (Chinese) medicine first and then resort to Western medicine if all else fails.

Here’s my proof.

Once I found out he had cancer, Stinson, ate only dog food made from meats and veggies, along with lots and lots of blueberries. He also had Chinese herbs that contained many perennials as well as weird things like hornet’s nest.

He had no amputation, nor did he have chemotherapy. He did have two shots of radiation, which didn’t seem to do anything, but I’ll never know.

I chose to keep him comfortable as best I could, while spending my money on Chinese medicine and acupuncture. He had a happy seven months and was nearly pain free for most of that time. This is Stinson’s portrait on the left. It was painted by Baltimore’s own Robert McClintock. He did a wonderful job capturing his regal presence.

Aspen, the kitty, has been spared through the use of Chinese herbs as well. In the mixture he’s taking, there is Cornus (dogwood), Paeonia (peony), Dioscorea (wild yam), Aconitum (monkshood), and Cinnamomum (cinnamon). His kidney levels have not declined as they predicted and you’d never know he’s sick. I’m sure it will happen some day, but for now, these fine plant extracts are keeping him going…haha – if you’ve ever had a cat with kidney failure – you know they “go” a lot.

Scully-girl, our German shepherd is doing quite well despite the anal cancer and I know the herbs are doing something. I ran out for two days and she had this forlorn look on her face, as if the end was near. Hours after she got the new batch, she was her old self. She’s taking Angelica (purple angelica), Cimicifuga (bugbane), Jujubae (Chinese date), and Zingiber (ginger).

Pretty cool, huh?

It’s not just Echinacea any more folks, just about every plant we grow in the nursery industry has some herbal-medicinal use. Did you know Rhus (sumac) was good for joint pain? We all know Taxus (yews) are used to make Taxol, the cancer-treating drug, but did you know there were so many natural remedies coming from non-tropical plants?

This makes Avatar, the movie, a bit more believable, doesn’t it?

I truly believe this is the reason we’re in this horrible health state in the US. We don’t take care of ourselves. Here I go telling you to take care of your pets too! I know. It’s just one more thing to add to the list.

I feel like I want to scream from the rooftop “Stop feeding your kids, your pets and yourselves CRAP!”

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could beat the odds on some of the horrible diseases like diabetes and cancer by changing the way we eat?

Wouldn’t it be nice if most big dogs didn’t die of bone cancer?

We’ll see if my theories work on the new dog. Our youngest dog (the exuberant German shorthaired pointer you’ve heard about) has never had anything but wholesome grains, meat and veggies to eat. If he gets cancer, I’ll eat my words, knowing I did my best. Hopefully, I’m right and he’ll die of old age many years from now.

Our generation of pets and people may not die of old age, unless we start taking care of ourselves and eating right?

Until next week…

Happy Weeding!

Angela Treadwell Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau

P.S. Here’s an interesting fact I found while researching the medicinal properties of many of the plants I am introducing from around the world, the coolest use I’ve found is for Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis). Did you know that a poultice of the leaves can applied to the head to relieve the pain of headaches?

So, if you drink too much wine while relaxing in the garden, chop up some cardinal flower stems and make your self a poultice, which is a soft moist mass, often heated and medicated, that is spread on cloth over the skin to treat aching and swelling.

We have interest in our new Lobelia cardinalis ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ from nurseries in the US, Canada and all over Europe. This is one terrific selection. Most purple leaved cardinal flower selections are not long lived and they can be weak garden plants.

Fried Green Tomatoes is a super strong selection that grows to five feet tall and three feet wide in two growing seasons. I’m not lying when I say this selection grows a foot each day while I am at work in June.

Sometimes plants that grow quickly like sunflowers (Helianthus sp.) and cup plants (Silphium sp.) also flop rather quickly. Not Fried Green Tomatoes. This plant stands tall throughout the summer without flopping. This selection also has green new growth that fades to deep, eggplant purple – completely opposite of most other purple leaved selections. Most purple leaved selections begin purple and age to dark green.

Like I said in the the issue entitled, Towanda! Empowering Gardeners to Plant Cardinal Flowers Again, all cardinal flowers are biennial, so you MUST cut back the stems after they flower to have this plant survive year after year. Once you cut back the old stems, a new basal rosette of foliage appears, and that’s what makes next year’s plant.

Fried Green Tomatoes comes to us from New Moon Nursery in Bridgeton, NJ. New Moon specializes in native, mostly seedling grown, perennials, grasses, aquatics and ferns. Their motto is “From the water to the woods.”

James, the owner of New Moon has been scouring the seedling flats looking for unusual seedlings. Thank goodness he did because this is quickly becoming one of our most popular selections.

In closing, I leave you with a quick video update on the garden. Heuchera ‘Stainless Steel’, Campanula ‘Viking’ and Stokesia laevis ‘Elf’ have poked their heads out and they are so very ready for spring.

Click here to view the Plants Nouveau video Blizzard Update 2010.

The snow is melting, the birds are chirping and much to my dismay – the squirrels are back. Spring is near and everyone knows it.

Time to get out in the garden and enjoy!

As I write this, it’s snowing once again. They say it’ll be a dusting, but any snow these days is too much for me.

I am totally ready to head to Mexico and plant hunt for unusual agaves.

As the snow melts, it’s apparent that this year’s spring cleanup will require mightily sharpened pruning implements and lots of elbow grease. Just about every shrub I see in landscapes all over Baltimore city has some damage.

This week, I tried something totally new. Instead of whining about the carnage and destruction in my garden, I thought, let’s make a video and show everyone. It was fun.

After making this, I think seasonal video tours of the trial garden are in order. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show!

Click the link or the image below for Plants Nouveau’s Blizzard Carnage 2010 Video.

Outside of my garden, deciduous shrubs and small trees have taken the brunt of this monumental storm. Many are just now popping up from the massive snow mountains that have held them captive for the last three weeks. Evergreen foundations are toast from the crushing weight of snow falling from rooftops.

Rain gutters are bent from the weight of ice and melting snow and lots have broken off. I’ve not seen anything like this. Do they make blizzard strength gutters? Are ours inferior quality or does this happen in other parts of the country where they have lots of snow?

It’s carnage, I say, carnage. Carnage with a capital “C”!

Full-grown boxwoods and arborvitaes have been destroyed. Most deciduous shrubs, especially if they were less than 3 feet tall, were crushed by the weight of the melting snow.

I predict specimen evergreens will be in high demand. Is Mother Nature aware of the poor economy? Was she trying to help?

I see a HUGE opportunity for nurseries specializing in large, field grown evergreens. There will be lots of plants that need replacing this spring. On a positive note, I guess we could say this is good timing. Just when nurseries were about to throw in the towel on field grown evergreen specimens, lots of existing plantings get crushed in the blizzard.

Maybe a few large field grown plants will be saved from chainsaws and burn piles since they can now find homes in some of the mature gardens that were destroyed.

And how about the landscapers who have been fearful of money lost all winter since their contracts are fixed and they removed way more snow than they expected for the same price? I predict they will make it up in pruning and replacements work.

Anyone who specializes in pruning, especially those who are good at trying to save plants, will be in high demand this year in the Mid-Atlantic. I’m not sure anyone can save the Al Capone Cherry Tree at Union Memorial Hospital, but it sure would be nice if someone tried. I can’t imagine it’s possible, but miracles do happen, right?

I’m sad for the plants, but this couldn’t be better timing for our failing landscape contractors and nurseries in this down economy. A blessing and a curse, eh?

So, if your white pine lost a few branches and more sun is coming through, or if you lost your coral bells (Heuchera sp.) and Lenten roses (Helleborus sp.) to the river of melting snow, I have the perfect solution for you.

How about some plants that can take both wet and dry conditions? Doubt they exist? Trust me…

Introducing the Diva-rella Series from our World famous Pharaoh of foamflowers, Sinclair A. Adam, Jr. of Dunvegan Nursery in Coatesville, PA. If you’ve tried and love Sinclair’s ground covering selections in the River Series, but want more flower power and don’t have room for their roaming tendrils, the Divas are for you. This series contains clumping selections, so they won’t be good groundcovers unless you plant them en masse, but boy do they flower.

The name Diva-rellas came out of a conversation between Sinclair and I (usually via email…) where he mentioned the Latin meaning of the word tiarella. Aparently, it means a small crown, from the Greek tiara. I also found that tiarella is Latin meaning little tiara, referring to the form of the pistil. This and his genuine want to name the plants in this new series after “divas”, led me to Diva-rellas, which I think is a great name for a series named after such super-significant ladies.

What super-significant, lady DIVA doesn’t want a tiara? Especially a foamflower tiara!

These fashion beauties were selected for their flower power and lovely foliage. To say they have a flower tiara is an understatement. Both selections are covered in blooms throughout the blooming season. Some of the selections, yet to be named, have flower power better than anything I have seen on the market today. In Sinclair’s greenhouse last spring, I counted over 100 blooms on a single 1 gallon specimen. We hope to introduce this selection next year.

The delightful aspect of this series of foamflowers is that they are named for diva’s of horticulture and the environment. These are ladies who have had a hand in promoting and developing this exquisite native plant, and it’s use in home landscapes as well as in ecology.

The term diva, today, is used in myriad applications… BUT the actual correct definition is “a singer of renown”. The ladies who have been selected are not actual musicians, but rather figures of impact in our field who have “sung” their message through the (printed and spoken) word, and through their good works benefiting plants and people. They are indeed diva’s for the environment and for horticulture.

AND THE DIVA’S ARE:

‘Stephanie Cohen’, named after world recognized speaker, author, and educator on gardening and horticulture.

This is a pretty plant. The winter foliage is deep purple-red and still glossy, making it a wonderful winter accent. The buds emerge pink and open to unveil loads of creamy white blooms on deep red stems for an overall “pink” effect that lasts through spring and into early summer. The foliage is super shiny and incredibly drought tolerant. I have watched this plant lay flat on the ground from thirst, and in minutes after I give it water, it bounces back as if nothing ever happened. How’s that for drought tolerance?

‘FM Mooberry’, named after the wonderful lady who founded the Brandywine Conservancy’s plant program, started the Native Plants in the Landscape Conference at Millersville University, and has tirelessly promoted and popularized native plants, and their many applications.

This plant performed fantastically well in the garden and it looks quite nice with other dry shade favorites like Heuchera ‘Mocha’ and Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’. I love the leaves of this selection.

The other thing I really like about this one (although it is a true clumper) is how it spills over the edge of the pot and continues to bloom as it spills. It grows and blooms and grows and blooms on a long cycle from mid April to about mid June. The leaves of this selection are small, but lovely, as they are deep purple-black with a bright grass green margin.

More will be added to this series, so look for them in the future and nominate your favorite horticultural diva today!

If you’d like to trial these, send me an email.

Until next week…

Happy Weeding!

Angela Treadwell Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau

P.S. – If you haven’t joined yet, please visit the Plants Nouveau Facebook Fan Page and become a fan! We’re having contests and special plant give aways… it’s lots of fun and a great bunch of friends. Come join our plant geek craziness!

Want to come along?

The past two storms in Baltimore have simply crippled the city in every way. Schools were closed for 10 days, some streets were NEVER plowed and city businesses are desperately seeking customers with nowhere for them to park. There’s no salt, there’s no sand and there’s not a snow shovel to be found in any store for miles and miles and sadly, some cherished plants have been severely damaged with all of the weight.

Last week, I asked on the Plants Nouveau Facebook Fan Page if our fans suggested brushing off evergreens in heavy snowfall. I got a mix of answers, but most people say leave them be, let nature take its course. I’m glad I did not. I trudged out in over three feet of snow, with my dog bounding behind me like a rabbit to brush off some of my smaller evergreens. I could hear them sighing as I removed what seemed like tons of snow at the time.

As I drive around the neighborhoods, I see many upright junipers and Leyland cypress destroyed. Fifty year-old yews are flattened and there are 4-5 feet tall boxwoods that have yet to see the light of day. White pines took a beating and there’s not many left standing unscarred. A 70 year-old cherry tree, cherished by generations was damaged so badly, they may loose the tree. This tree had a rather seedy beginning (haha – pardon the pun – seedy beginning), so it’s the perfect tree for Baltimore’s rather seedy past. Read the full story on the Landmark Baltimore Cherry Tree Damaged by the storm. Al Capone is involved…it’s worth reading!

I know this kind of weather and massive snow accumulation happens in lots of cities. Canadians think we’re wimps for complaining. But Baltimore and many Mid-Atlantic and southern cities just can’t handle this extreme weather. We don’t have the money or the manpower to get rid of all this snow. Our plants can’t handle it either and people don’t know what to do to help them.

Innocent plants being hurt make me sad. The traffic nightmares having only one lane on many two and three lane roads and no parking makes me want to move somewhere where they can handle all this snow…OR…someplace much warmer.

Hmmm…where will it be?

After all the snow melts, what will I look forward to? I have my spring favorites. There’s a house on the corner on my drive home that has a crocus lawn in the spring. That’s my harbinger of better days to come. It’s the most glorious carpet of lavender, yellow and white. It takes my breath away each spring.

I also look forward to lots of spring bulbs. In my garden (also the Plants Nouveau trial gardens) I get all tingly inside when I see the allium and the small camas (Camassia sp.) foliage come up. Those are a bit later, but they’re definitely the most dramatic in my garden. I also had, for the first time, a foxtail lily (Eremurus bungei) come up in one of my front beds. I planted it about three years ago, but it never came up. They are one of the more persnickety bulbs I’ve tried, so I wasn’t surprised.

But boy-howdy was it a sight for sore eyes when it came up and grew five feet tall before the bloom opened. A new rule was created in the Palmer house last spring when this lovely beauty emerged. The rule was – no ball playing in the front yard and if you were caught throwing a ball – no more balls.

My seven year old hated me, but he WAS scared to death to play ball in the front yard. Even walking down the front walk to get to the car for lacrosse practice made him nervous. What if he dropped his ball on the way? Would I send him off to live with distant relatives in far away places?

The fear I instilled in him was just about as great as the fear I instill each June when my regal lily (Lilium regale) is in full bloom. No soccer balls…period. If you break my lily, I’ll disown you.

If you come to my garden in June when the lily is in it’s full glory, my garden would surely be classified as white trash. There’s so much temporary fencing surrounding the treasures, it’s hard to see the beauty, but I have to protect them from balls and most importantly, dogs.

I remember the day, vividly, when my brand new Iris ensata ‘Lion King’, one of the most gloriously colored Japanese irises I’ve seen, was in full bloom for the first time. I got out the camera and positioned myself to take the perfect picture. Just as I was focusing and about to click when Porter, my bounding German Short Haired Pointer, came over to see what I was doing.

He smashed the bloom scape. I cried. He didn’t understand. I was so mad. He had jumped the fence to be closer to me. What was I going to do???

The iris bloomed again and I got the picture, so I guess all was not lost, but I’ll surely never forget it.

I dream of new plants that were planted last fall coming up for the first time, poking their heads out of the soil or leafing out for the first time in my garden. I am so happy to be representing Charles and Martha Oliver of the Primrose Path and their glorious new coral bell selections.

I mentioned two of those new coral bells (Heuchera sp.) selections that we plan to introduce to the trade in 2011 a few letters back. These are scrumptious new selections touted for their ability to withstand tough, drastic climates and have the most beautiful, florist quality cut flowers.

Heuchera ‘Dark Chocolate’ and ‘Stainless Steel’ are going on their second spring for me in my garden. They were small when I planted them in the fall of 2008, so I didn’t see many flowers in 2009. I’m expecting a grand display from each selection and a bouquet from each for my favorite vase.

We have more trial plants available if you’d like to plant some this spring. If you do, please respond to this email and let me know where you are and how many you require for a trial. We’ve sent quite a few out for tailing in different parts of the US, but the more the merrier!

These new coral bells excite me because most coral bells were breed for foliage only. It’s a real treat to get nice looking blooms on top of really beautiful foliage. I am also excited because Charles and Martha live in a pretty harsh climate. Their breeding and trials are done outside of Pittsburgh, PA, where it is both hot and humid in the summer and extremely cold in the winter. They live in a place that is known for the worst of both worlds (weather wise, that is). As harsh as the climate can be, it is a great place to breed plants that will be able to survive in most parts of the US and beyond because they haven’t been pampered by mild weather and perfect soil.

Coral bells are one of those “to die for” plants for which everyone longs and they are now sold in so many colors and with so many different leaf shapes, that it’s hard to keep track of all the new selections.

Successes and failures will come to many who collect all of these new selections. Trust me – it’s like me trying to plant “hardy” agaves – I’m a sucker (and a dreamer), so I keep on reaching for that horticultural holy grail that survives and even thrives in my garden year after year.

I have yet to find it.

Like coneflowers, coral bells have a cult-like following. Some gardeners have to have them all. There are few selections of either that perform well throughout the US. I work with breeders who take that into account. Breeders who start with the best, most hardy stock they can find and improve it. I trust these selections will perform as well in the drought and humidity for you as they have for me. I am so looking forward to the added bonus of cut flowers.

Who wouldn’t?

Everyone needs cut flowers from their gardens. ‘Dark Chocolate’ and ‘Stainless Steel’ were bred to produce really long, sturdy stems with large “bells” that stand out in a bouquet or look great by themselves. Such an added bonus!

Dreaming about spring, I’ll leave you to your seed catalogs and mouthwatering images that grace the covers of every gardening magazine this month. If thoughts of Dark Chocolate make you hungry or shiny, Stainless Steel has you dreaming of new kitchen appliances, add them to your garden and let me know how they do. I have high hopes for them and for the fact that someday soon, the snow will melt and uncover my plants, spring will be here, and we’ll be off to work in the garden again.

Until next time…

Happy Weeding!

Angela Treadwell Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau

— Angela’s Garden Notes —

Introducing Heuchera ‘Dark Chocolate’ – Chocolate brown leaves topped off with creamy, cherry-pink blooms

From the tough, hardy breeding lines of Charles and Martha Oliver of The Primrose Path, we are proud to bring you Heuchera ‘Dark Chocolate’. This is a medium-sized heuchera that produces a stunning combination of handsome, dark purple foliage and showy spires of creamy pink flowers. Three inch leaves are dark bronze-purple with silver markings between the veins. The beautiful foliage holds its saturated color all summer, even in the Mid-Atlantic, where heat and humidity reign.

Dark Chocolate has relatively large flowers (about 8 to 9mm long) that begin as deep pink buds and mature to a soft, pale pink bloom with fringed edges. Blooms appear in late spring in long, narrow panicles reaching to a height of 18-24 inches and dangle gracefully at a very pleasing angle. The flower stems are dark purple and contrast very well with the soft pink blooms. Well-grown plants should have at least 8-10 inflorescences. This has been a tough and enduring plant, surviving dry and humid summers with no problems.

I grew 4 small plants in my dry shade garden this summer and they handled the drought very well, even as small plants, not requiring any extra water – unlike other selections I planted last year from other breeders. I can’t wait to see them emerge and perform this spring!

Size: 8-12” tall by 20-24” wide
USDA hardiness Zones: 5(4) – 8
Sun/shade: Full sun to full shade
Soil: Average garden soil, well drained.
Moisture: moist, but well drained to get established, once established, it is very drought tolerant.
Disease and Pests: None known
Landscape use: Mass plantings, front or middle of the border, urban gardens, containers.
Market appeal / Uniqueness: Deep chocolate brown leaves with a slightly luminous, silver overlay make a stunning combination. This pant is heat and humidity tough and can withstand the coldest winters. Thick, sturdy chocolate brown stems hold many creamy-pink bell flowers that make for stunning cut flower displays.
Propagation methods: Tissue culture, divisions.
Bloom time: Early May for 4 to 6 weeks.

“Businesses using social media to market are desperate…”

“People who use Mac computers are doing so because they are too stupid to use a PC…”

Granted, one was actually from a lecture given by a garden center consultant who I feel is totally out of date in his marketing approaches and one was from a pretty drunk 50 something man who runs a PC based IT department… but come on!

I completely understand and agree when consultants tell their clients they need to have their business in order first to properly use and reap the advantages of social media and that social media isn’t going to “save” a failing business, but to call people who embrace one of online marketing’s fastest growing technologies for engaging new and existing customers “desperate” really got my britches in a bunch.

“Social media will not save a failing business, but for a business to grow, it must incorporate online marketing into the business strategy. AND Social media must be a active component of any businesses online marketing strategy.”

This is what Andrew Palmer, online marketing guru to the publishing industry says and he has made businesses millions with this approach. You guessed it, he’s also my husband, so I may be a little biased, but the making millions part speaks volumes.

In today’s market, we need as many ways as we can get to communicate with consumers and prove to them we are worthy of their business.

A study by the global public relations Edelman found “the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of information about a company dropped by almost half, from 45% to 25%, since 2008.” (Thanks to Green Profit editor Ellen Wells for first posting this info in her latest GPbuzz e-letter)

Richard Edelman, believes it’s a sign of the times — and “the lesson for marketers is consumers have to see and hear things in five different places before they believe it.” These results should go hand in hand with an online community building philosophy. Again to quote, Edelmen, “Tapping into peer-to-peer networks is a way for marketers to tell authentic, credible stories to consumers whose confidence in corporate CEOs, news outlets, government officials and industry analysts has taken a beating.”

For more, read the Ad Age article: In Age of Friending, Consumers Trust Their Friends Less.

It’s seems pretty clear – in order to be a visionary in any industry, you need to be visible in many places. Social media, if done well, can increase your visibility to a nearly endless audience, so why ignore the potential power?

I’m tired of people who hate change and diversity calling folks who do accept and even embrace these challenges “not real.” Sound like anything else controversial going on in the country right now?

If someone on the news tells me I’m not a “real American” one more time because I believe something different, I think I’ll just give up being American and move to another country where me and my beliefs, as different as they may be, are accepted.

The marketing and unwillingness to adapt in our industry frustrates me even more.

“The i-generation isn’t real.”

Really? Tell that to Apple, who is making tons of money from this hip, young crowd. Heard of ipods, iphones, ipads? Granted the ipad launch has taken a lot of heat, but not real? You’ve got to be kidding me, right?

“Macs are for the less intelligent.”

Tell that to any graphic designer or businessperson who switched to a Mac because they lost laptop after laptop to viruses that target PCs. And don’t tell me it’s because there aren’t as many Mac users as PC.

That’s a load of crap.

“Facebookers and Twitterheads aren’t real and anything they tweet or post on Facebook is worthless.”

Tell that to Home Depot, Coca-cola, Unilever, and Pepsi who have dumped their traditional advertising budgets for Facebook and Twitter. Pepsi just announced that 1/3 of their marketing budget would be put toward social media. ONE THIRD!

CEO’s of those companies believe. If it wasn’t real, do you think they would be spending any time on this?

And tell that to Sarah Palin, who uses Facebook as her political platform of choice. Love or hate her, each post is taken seriously by the media. Some think she’s the realest “real” there is.

I’m easily kerfluffled these days because I am a bit sensitive when it comes to the word “real”.

Can you blame me? According to what I’m hearing, I’m not real. Heck, those of you reading this might not be real either.

I was impressed to see two very relevant articles posted yesterday on the ANLA News Brief E-letter that comes out each week. One was on marketing to Gen-Y and the other was on social media.

This excerpt is from the article on marketing to Gen-Y.

“To put it bluntly, if you’re uncomfortable with marketing to Generation Y, or refuse to understand our unique demographic, your store will not see 2020. To understand Generation Y is to overcome many obstacles in the retail industry.

“The retailers who are embracing and adapting to our needs are the retailers from which we are purchasing products and services. They also are the retailers we are recommending to our parents, the Baby Boomers. Our generations combined account for more than half of all Americans, and while Generation Y purchases $150 billion in goods a year, we influence another $50 billion of Baby Boomer’s family purchases.”

Everybody say, “Oh…yeah!”

That’s what I’ve been trying to tell people for a while. No one listens to me. Maybe they’ll take heed when they read this targeted article written by a Gen-Y’er. Read the entire article Why Generation Y Isn’t Buying Your Products.

As if that wasn’t eye opening enough, they hit us with another snippet from a well-respected expert on social media. Here’s a teaser for you.

“Social media is no longer a trend for marketers; it is a reality. eMarketer forecasts that social network ad spending will reach $2.5 billion worldwide in 2010 and $1.3 billion in the US. About 64% of US Internet users will interact with user-generated content this year, and 26 million US adults will use Twitter at least monthly. Mobile social networks will reach 223 million people around the world.”

You can’t spell reality without real…can you?

eMarketer is great and they have terrific tips in their e-letter. Still not convinced you need to explore these new mega-trends?

I think you’ll be sorry if you ignore what the experts (outside our industry) are saying.

At the clinic, there was a great session on social media given by Today’s Garden Center Magazine editor Sara Tambascio. Sara gets it and the trade magazine she works for gets it. They are embracing social media and doing a great job. Sara gave lots of great tips, like have a fan page for your business and keep business and personal life separate. This is really hard because, as I’ve found, when people feel they know you from reading your writing or seeing you speak, they want to be your friend.

Should you have two Facebook pages? Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Anyone else have two? Should we all have one for friends and one for business? I thought having a fan page for my business and a personal page was good enough. As if we all need more to do.

That’s the biggest beef about social media. It takes time.

I’m hoping it’s worth it, but I don’t want to be left behind as the world changes. As my husband often says when he sees many of our industry websites, “1989 called… they want their web design back.”

I plan on living and profiting in the Twenty-First Century, thank you very much.

I also learned more about what people want in new plants and more importantly, what they expect of the companies introducing and marketing them. This was invaluable…

I was surprised to hear that garden center buyers don’t trust the marketers. They want to trial new plants too, so they know how they perform in their area. I asked if it would help for them to have results readily available on a new plant that had been trialed thoroughly. They said that information would be helpful, but they still wanted to trial before ordering big numbers.

I can certainly understand since they have been burned more than once by companies saying something was truly hardy (when it wasn’t), or it bloomed all summer (when it didn’t), or a it’s dwarf version (when it grew and grew), or the most overused falsity – that it’s more disease resistant (when it clearly isn’t).

I guess this is “proof in the pudding” and the article above about people not trusting anyone anymore has some truth to it. As former President George W. Bush said, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me… you can’t get fooled again”. Or wait…maybe he was just breaking into a Who song?

Most plant introduction companies are working very hard to gain back the trust they’ve lost by years and years of new introductions that were not properly tested. I mean, come on…how can a company that introduces roses trial their plants for black spot and cold hardiness in northern California or Oregon.

Dost thou think their customers a fool?

We all know EVERYTHING grows well there.

How about testing plants “deep in the heart of Texas” (clap, clap) where everything dies and as Jimmy Turner of the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens says, “My hobby is voraciously collecting, trying to grow, and murdering one of every known annual, perennial and bulb in my search for the perfect plants for our area.”

How about some cold hardiness tests in Chicago where it’s cold and windy with little protective snow cover? How about trialing in Minnesota where they get plenty of snow, but even colder temperatures?

If new plant introduction companies had been truthful and trialed plants in these extremes all along, maybe we wouldn’t have to spend so much time getting people to try new plants now.

Imagine if they trusted us?

I try to trial every plant in the most extreme climes I can find. I’m not afraid to give Jimmy Turner plants. If they live, he promotes the heck out of them. If they die, I know they can’t take the heat. We have a love hate relationship. He loves plants. I love him to trial them. I (although bad news hasn’t come yet) hate to get bad news about my plants, but my company is greater for it. I can be honest and that’s what gaining trust is all about.

Wouldn’t you have loved this warning on all of the lovely new corydalis (Corydalis sp.) selections or that blue Himalayan poppy for which all plant geeks were willing to trade their first born?

“Warning: Not suitable for hot, humid summers.”

Six honest words would have saved many a lot of money and frustration.

There are always gardeners who are willing to push the limits, yours truly included, but we know what we’re in for. Innocent consumers don’t know and they buy new introductions, plant them and watch them die.

Then…here’s the kicker, they think they can’t grow plants and they stop trying.

Talk about losing repeat customers. We can’t afford to let this happen.

Until next time…

Happy Weeding!

Angela Treadwell Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau

P.S. I take pride in the new introductions that come from Plants Nouveau. I love seeing the introductions in gardens all over the world. When a plant can perform in many different garden settings, it truly is worthy of introduction. Take Echinacea ‘Coconut Lime’ and ‘Pink Double Delight’. They have done well in just about every trial garden around the US. I am happy to report that Coconut Lime has done so well that the editors of Better Homes and Gardens have chosen it as one of their top choices for 2010. Because they had it in the trials for a few years, they know how it grows in Iowa. If it can grow in Iowa, I’m told it can grow just about anywhere.

It’s a terrific plant and because it stood the test of time in the trial gardens at BHG, they will now tell their 7 million readers how great it is in their April edition. How’s that for PR?

Coconut Lime was also one of the top white coneflowers and the only double to receive high marks in the Mt. Cuba Center coneflower study. Pretty cool, eh?

Earlier this week, I presented four brand new plants at The Garden Idol new plant session, which was part of the ANLA (American Nursery & Landscape Association) Management Clinic in Louisville, Kentucky and it rocked the house!

It was new and a little bit scary, and there were high expectations from the organizers to step up the way new plants are presented.

We certainly stepped it up. Was it successful? Who knows? Do more people know who I am? Do they know more about my new introductions? For sure!

It’s all too new and I have no idea how to measure this new stardom. The ANLA organizers wanted to have a new plants session where people would get up in front of the audience and talk about their new introductions, but they wanted something totally different. They wanted it to be entertaining, so they asked us to be creative, but they also added a twist.

Normally (I’ve done hundreds of these presentations…) you stand up in front of a group and you talk about your new plant, showing pictures and telling the audience about all of its unique qualities. You try and convince them this new plant is better than anything on the market. This time was different.

The organizers decided to mock the reality TV show American Idol. They made a mock logo that looked just like it, except it said Garden Idol. Get it? Garden Idol…he-he.

They used the American Idol music and they even had celebrity judges commenting on each presentation. To top it off, they talked Grower Talk’s magazine editor, Chris Beytes, into performing as a Ryan Secrest-like master of ceremonies for the event.

It was pretty cool.

I decided to dress up in a different costume for each of my four presentations. I brought an extra large suitcase with me to hold it all. The wigs took up a lot of space. I wonder if George Washington had this much luggage?

They asked us to make an otherwise boring session exciting and interactive, so I chose to play music and dance for two, dress southern-style and present one in my best southern accent, wear really uncomfortable, plastic elf ears for one, and finish it up groovy-like and hippie.

The plants I chose to present were: a coneflower named Echinacea purpurea ‘Milkshake’, a new cardinal flower called Lobelia cardinalis ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’, a tiny little Stoke’s aster we call Stokesia laevis ‘Elf’, and a perennial sunflower-blooming machine named Helianthus x multiflorus ‘Sunshine Daydream’.

For Milkshake, I chose a song from the early 2000’s called Milkshake Song by Kellis. It’s a dance song, so I had to shake it a bit. I wore a white Barbie meets Lady Gaga wig and Jackie-O sunglasses to accompany my opening photo of Barbie wearing a dress fashioned out of Milkshake blooms and petals by one of my oh-so talented horticulturist friends at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Irvin Etienne. Thanks Irvin!

The song states, “My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard”, so I shook my milkshake and made the crowd laugh. (Funny side note: I practiced shaking my milkshake in the mirror so I could see what a fool I’d be making of myself, in preparation for the comments.)

I was competing with Tim Wood from Spring Meadow Nursery, a part of Proven Winners, or as he calls himself, the Plant Hunter. The Plantweenie vs. the Plant Hunter. (For those of you who don’t know, on Twitter my name is @plantweenie) I tweeted “Plantweenie vs. the Plant Hunter…bring it on!” right before the competition. The Plant Hunter presented his new introductionHydrangea arborescens ‘NCHAI’ Invincibelle Spirit, a lovely new pink flowered selection of our native hydrangea. A percentage of sales from this plant will be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. For every plant sold, $1 is donated.

After we both presented, we were judged. The judges wanted to know why I wasn’t dressed like the Barbie in the picture. As if…

They liked my plant, but I think they really liked the cause associated with his hydrangea. I explained how I previously got into trouble wearing a coconut bra and a grass skirt while presentingEchinacea purpurea ‘Coconut Lime’, and that I like to keep things on the up and up. No need to scare the breeders.

I presented Lobelia ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ in my best Sunday dress (red of course), a dowdy straw hat and spoke in my best southern tongue. As you can imagine, I mentioned Towanda.

Then there was Stokesia ‘Elf’ which I presented wearing an elf hat and ears, all the while referencing the shortness of this plant as many times as I could to make my point. Even Will Farrell in the movie Elf made an appearance.

And last, but certainly not least, for my groovy friends at North Creek Nursery, who found Helianthus ‘Sunshine Daydream’, I twirled and danced in my grooviest outfit to the melodic beat of the Grateful Dead’s beloved Sunshine Daydream.

I went for a groovy outfit instead of a hippie chic outfit, donning canary yellow go-go boots and a large, reddish-brown “fro” wig. With a tie-died background to all my slides, the crowd was certainly feelin’ the groove. They totally got into the music and would have rushed the stage to join me as fellow twirlers, (total Deadhead reference here – sorry if you’ve never been) had the music played longer.

The crowd voted and sadly, none of my plants won. Hydrangea paniculata ‘Renhy’ Vanilla Strawberry from Bailey Nurseries won the event vote. Jonathon Pederson from Baileys presented Vanilla Strawberry. He started his presentation in a black hoodie, and sunglasses mocking the Pants on the Ground singer from American Idol. Jonathon’s version of this viral rap was titled “Plants on the Ground”.

It was a catchy ditty, with the following lyrics:

Plants on the ground, Plants on the Ground
Lookin’ like FOOLS with your plants on the ground!
Get ‘em on a bench, Use P.O.P. (point of purchase…aka signs and posters and stuff that identifies a plant)
You’ll be looking like heroes with your plants on a table.

You will have the chance to vote online once the videos are posted. I’ll send the link out in The Weeding Gnome as soon as I get it from the folks at ANLA. Vote often and please vote for Plants Nouveau plants.

You can also follow Plants Nouveau on Facebook and Twitter to find out the latest. Click here to become a Facebook Fan of Plants Nouveau. To follow me, the plantweenie on Twitter, just log into Twitter and search for @plantweenie to follow my Tweets.

I hope you enjoy the plants I presented. It was a hoot and the group had fun rushing the stage to sing Plants on the Ground at the end. I’m sure that’ll all be in the forthcoming video. I’ll be patiently waiting to be embarrassed in front of the entire nursery industry.

They asked for exciting, right?

Tweets, tweeting, friending, facebook fan pages…defining these terms and much more on the new, enticing world of Social Media, plus lots more on what I learned this week in the clinic in next week’s issue.

Sorry this is a bit late… it’s snowing buckets here in Baltimore. We’ll be shoveling this very heavy, wet snow for a while. Hopefully we’ll finish just in time to watch the Super Bowl. We’ll be wearing our beads and rooting for the Saints, since no true Baltimorean should root for the Colts. They left us in the middle of the night. Enough said.

Go Saints!

Happy Weeding!

Angela Treadwell Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau

P.S. This week’s gnome picture was given to us by one of our fans at Terrapin Trading Company in Victoria, BC. They sell gnomes…