People want to grow their own fruit. Distinguish your nursery business by offering delicious, easy to grow, regionally adapted varieties. Jim's extensive knowledge and experience will help you choose for your customers the newest and best varieties of apples, pears, kiwis, figs, pawpaws, berries and other valuable and unique fruits. In addition, planting and growing tips that will help your customers succeed will be shared.

Increase your understanding of the environmental and regional adaptivity of select maple species, with a special emphasis on those uncommonly found in the trade. Growers will appreciate hearing about provocative maple possibilities to diversify their product line. Small, tough maples for the yard or street-side should spark the imagination of landscape trade professionals, and retail garden center staff will look forward to offering customers maples—and insights—they can be sure "Susie and Bill" won't see at a store.

Gardeners need chic, sustainable, thriving plants for modern lifestyles. Plants after all are the very essence of fashionable gardening. The horticulture industry needs to shift and re-tool its focus on emerging demographics, including how to market plants to a generation of new gardeners. Learn key ideas for talking about plants in a bold-faced, exciting way that makes them seem less like "products" and more like living things that sustain beauty in our environment. Twenty-something plantsman Kelly Norris will take the audience on a journey through a world of hot, functional and head-turning plants for modern gardens, including the unusual and new, plus a few tried and true.

This panel will highlight the diverse experiences of Oregon nurseries that have implemented and sustained biological control for a variety of plant pests. Each panelist has 10 years or more of on-site experience with biological control and will talk about the pests they control, the natural enemies they utilize and illustrate the key aspects of their biological control programs that help make their programs successful.

When using biological control, good technical support is golden. Learn the common factors that help or hinder the implementation of biological control in Pacific Northwest nurseries. Common questions about chemical compatibility, insect thresholds for action and how best to get started with a new program will be addressed.

Can biological control agents (natural enemies) be used in conjunction with pesticides? Learn about the prospects of incorporating biological control programs with pesticides including insecticides, miticides and fungicides. This presentation will focus on how pesticides impact natural enemies, and which pesticides may be compatible with natural enemies such as parasitoids and predators. The direct and indirect effects of pesticides on specific natural enemies will also be addressed.

In today's tightened economic environment, companies are looking for ways to reduce expenses while continuing to grow and market their businesses. Effective e-newsletters provide a systematic, highly targeted, extremely cost effective means for achieving this. In this hands-on workshop, Michael Katz will explain how to think about, plan and create an effective e-newsletter for your company. Using real world examples, Michael will show how to put this tool to work in the marketing of your business. You'll learn: why sharing stories from your own experience are more important than product features, benefits and price; where to find an endless supply of newsletter topics; which elements of format and design matter (and which don't); how to strike a balance between promotion and "useful" content; how often to publish; social media integration; and more.

Today's green businesses face dramatic economic changes, along with threats to our future workforce. In response, most companies have had to reduce risk by making cutbacks in labor. This panel will discuss how they mitigate these risks by getting more work done with fewer people. How are they doing the job without causing overtime or creating over-stressed staff? How are they still meeting customer expectations? Learn some of the innovative ways these companies have faced these challenges by increasing performance using Lean principles.

Understanding the psychology of leadership provides a pragmatic approach to leadership development. Learn will share innovative ways of leading and thriving inspite of the exponential change occurring in our economy. The mindset and skills required to compete in today's turbulent environment will be discussed, including the practices of exemplary leadership; using collaboration to improve performance; empowering others; being the model of change; and rewards that work to increase performance. Attendees who apply and integrate this information will enhance their understanding of their own capacity for innovative leadership during uncertain times.

It can begin as harmless banter and then develop into disrespect that quickly breaks down communication and makes the workplace unpleasant. Bullying, harassment, intimidation, and nickname usage are a few examples and they don't belong in the workplace. Derogatory behaviors can be frustrating, especially when a language barrier compounds the misunderstandings and disrespect. Learn how to identify the behaviors that contribute to the breakdown in the workplace and strategies to help prevent them.

Great Plant Picks is one of the premier plant education programs in the Northwest. Learn how this non-profit organization evaluates and selects the best from the thousands of plants available, and how you can make the most of this information for you and your customers. Attendees will also get a sneak peek of the 2013 additions to the GPP list.

Public gardens and universities play a vital role in the development and evaluation of new landscape plants. These programs function to breed new varieties as well as test emerging and established cultivars for performance under a variety of conditions. This session will discuss several of these programs from various regions of the U.S.

Tough Plants for Tough Times
Speaker: Todd Lasseigne, Ph.D., Executive Director, Oklahoma Centennial Botanical Garden
Heat, drought, too much cold, not enough cold, new pests, old pests… Our landscape plants are dealing with stresses that even Washington bureaucrats might find hard to bear. What options are available to us? Are the newest of the new really as good as the time-tested old favorites? Join Dr. Lasseigne for a lively discussion on plant stress, plant selection, regionalism in horticulture, and how this all relates to growing, marketing and selling better plants.

Chicago Botanic Garden 1972-2012: Forty years of horticultural excellence
Speaker: Andrew Bell, Curator, Woody Plants Chicago Botanic Garden
The Chicago Botanic Garden first opened its gates to the public in 1972. Forty years later, the garden, with its world-renowned plant collections and displays, is one of the country's most visited public gardens and is a preeminent center for learning and research. Core to the institution's mission, garden staff have evaluated numerous genera of ornamental plants and promoted the best performers to the green industry and gardening public while also developing new varieties through its plant breeding program. This presentation will highlight the Garden's brief but accomplished history, report on the latest results from the evaluation and breeding programs, and showcase both existing and future releases of the Chicagoland Grows Plant Introduction Program.

Tree and Shrub Evaluation in the Fly Over States
Speaker: Jason Griffin, Associate Professor & Director, Kansas State University John C. Pair Horticultural Center
"Tough Trees" means something different for everyone. Explore how common and underutilized trees fare in the southern Great Plains. With the rapid rate of new plant introductions, evaluation in harsh climates is more important than ever. How far can we push them, when do they fail, and which ones continue to impress?

Beaver Bred: Ornamental Plant Breeding at Oregon State University
Speaker: Ryan Contreras, Assistant Professor, Oregon State University
What is polyploidy and why should you care? Hear what techniques are being used at Oregon State University to develop the next generation of high-performing landscape plants. See what's coming down the pike and what has made it to industry testing.

For the first time, widespread outbreaks of impatiens downy mildew were observed in North American landscape and container plantings in the summer and fall of 2011. Learn the history of the disease in Europe and in the U.S, the biology of the pathogen, the difficulty in managing this disease and why early detection and prevention are so important for control.

Are western flower thrips causing you problems? Are you ready to try almost anything to deal with this destructive insect pest? Learn about the "holistic" approaches associated with western flower thrips management, including understanding the biology, scouting, cultural and physical controls, pest control materials, and biological control. Issues associated with resistance management and incorporating sugar-based compounds into spray solutions will also be discussed.

The different equipment available for greenhouse chemical application will be compared and how to utilize them in a variety of situations will be discussed. You'll also learn techniques to improve the evenness of spray applications. The focus will be on particle size and how to utilize smaller droplets to achieve better coverage of plant surfaces.

How are some companies able to continuously improve and gain market share while others fall behind in the race? Your operations strategy can make the difference between winning and losing. Characteristics of a successful strategy will be revealed, including tips for implementation and what you as a leader can do to keep your business ahead of the pack. Find out how to make the next three years your best.

The expectations our industry has for what a "garden center" is and what it sells are universal and also almost universally un-acceptable. Those expectations and the injuries and wounds they cause are primarily self-afflicted and are business-life threatening. Garden centers that struggle for profitability almost always have too much operating capital tied up in the wrong stuff, in the wrong amount, at the wrong time and at the wrong price points. In this session, learn a set of strategies that provide the Merchant's Advantage: the Right Stuff, The Right Amount, at The Right Time, at The Right Price.

Are you taking full advantage of ALL your free online marketing opportunities? Pinterest is the hottest place to be. Some stats say it's even more powerful than Facebook. If you already are using Facebook successfully, then Pinterest is your next step. Learn the top 10 ways you can drive more of the business you want to all of your online venues with this fun and addicting new website.

Get it straight from a Generation X Director of Marketing from within our industry! This fun and fascinating class will teach you how to become more effective and efficient in today's ever-changing world of social media. You'll leave with a relevant cultural and technological understanding of how to use social media effectively to grow your business and our industry as a whole.

In a world where garden centers seem to sell the same thing in the same way, Peace Tree Farm has made a name for itself by doing just the opposite: providing retailers, botanical gardens and other growers with surprising alternatives. Look beyond the mundane for the quirky, brand new, ancient and heirloom, edible, bizarre and dangerous plants to create excitement for the consumer; after all, they are the ones that really matter. Find the garden geeks who desperately want to shop where they can find the cool stuff and make that YOUR store!

Let's face it. We're all in the business of selling plants. Or are we? The competition for the money in your customer's wallet is intense and in today's market, it's more important than ever to create a unique experience focused on the customer. Learn from two of the industry's top garden centers how they keep their customers coming back for more and what gives them an advantage over their local competition.

Many current trends and driving forces indicate that consumer demand in the green industry marketplace is maturing. This dictates a strategic response on the part of growers in order to survive! This comprehensive session will address economics underlying the industry, the challenges and outlook for making profits in operations, overcoming obstacles to raising prices, the pitfalls of speculating on production, and the results of proactive strategies to reduce costs and increase price.

Tired of running out of sales in the fourth quarter? Time to leap across the finish line with fresh, innovative offerings. Come learn about crops and new programs that are sure to boost sales and profits during Fall and Winter seasons.

It seems like the simplest question a nursery grower can ask is: "What do I need to sell?" But real life isn't that easy. This session will provide insight about how to make decisions that suit your business and will make you money in the short-and long-term.

From New Year's Day to Day 365, a well-designed container garden has the ability to impact sales in the nursery in innumerable ways. From gloves to miniatures and edibles to art, the only limitation is your business savvy and imagination. New and loyal customers are relying on YOU to set the pace of new ideas in container gardening. Your container design team can be one of your greatest sources of creative ideas for customers and landscape designers in ways that you may not have thought of...yet Learn how to translate container design ideas into bigger year-round sales volume.

Visual merchandising is often about being resourceful and finding cost effective solutions for creating strong merchandising statements and visual displays. It's amazing what can be created by digging a little deeper into the intrinsic creativity we all possess. This session looks at affordable solutions for garden centers, with a focus on using items you may already have on hand.

Customer service is one of the best ways to separate yourself from your competition, but the face of customer service is changing. What are you doing to modernize your customer service and give your customers the experience they expect? Discover the seven "X factors" you need to focus on to multiply repeat and referral business starting now.

Experience a dynamic visual presentation filled with many examples of how you can take better photos to excite buyers to purchase more plants, engage your landscape design services and visit your garden center more frequently. This image-packed photography seminar will help you better understand light and encourage you to try different angles and other options for composition. You'll leave with insightful information you can use every day.