An Exciting Conference in Boston

March 2, 2010

Last month, my gardener, Shaun Kass, attended the New England Grows 2010, one of the biggest and most respected horticultural and green industry events in North America. This outstanding trade exposition, held at the convention center in Boston, Massachusetts, is known for its fantastic diversity and for its enlightening speakers. For the three days of this expo, one can wander around the 1400 vendor booths, displaying the latest in plant material, products, equipment, and services for the green industry. The educational sessions are conducted by world-renowned speakers, who present the latest research, trends, and predictions for the horticultural field. Shaun had a wonderful time at New England Grows and is looking forward to attending next year's event. Enjoy his photos!

: This is the beautiful convention center located in South Boston, which was a two block walk from the Marriott Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.

: The overhang on the front of the building goes over three lanes of traffic.

: The building on the left, The Renaissance Boston Hotel, is where I stayed.

: The New England Grow’s Founding Partners banner – The partners are: Massachusetts Arborist Association, Massachusetts Nursery and Landscape Association, New England Nursery Association and Massachusetts Association of Landscape Professionals

: This show is HUGE! This is only the left one-third.

: The middle third

: And the right third of the conference floor – This is, by far, the largest professional show I have ever attended.

: This is a birds-eye view map of the show floor. There were 15 aisles of vendors!

: This is the official welcome arch that all attendees pass under in order to get to the stairs that lead down to the show floor.

: The amazing view as I was walking down the stairs – Every aspect of the industry was represented, from heavy equipment to hand tools to seeds.

: There was a wonderful educational component to the conference that allowed attendee’s to gain credits towards their pesticide license, International Society of Arboriculture license, and towards the Northeast Organic Farmers Association accreditation.

: This was a great talk on how we can use biological and botanical controls in both the garden and greenhouse.

: This lecturer came from Bellingham, Washington to give her talk.

: This is a really great photo, detailing the ideal requirements for perfect potting media.

: An interesting reiteration of what is happening biotically during compostion of organic matter

: We use compost tea twice a month, at the farm, as a foliar spray in the greenhouses – here are some of the benefits of this spraying.

: Between educational sessions, I walked the show floor and talked to vendors about their products.

: This was one of my favorite displays at the show. Oesco, Inc https://www.oescoinc.com/ had a great variety of hand tools for the professional horticulturist

: These are my favorite Japanese saws, Silky. http://www.silkysaws.com/ This is the first time I saw them in their ‘pole saw’ version.

: Another shot of the great variety of Silky Saws

: I had never seen these hand sickles before. They can be used to cut down grasses, perennials, and along sidewalk edges.

: They even carry my favorite soil knife! A really good deal at $39.92!

: The Silky saws I am very familiar with – The one in the yellow sheath has two teeth sizes for extra fine and coarse sawing – a revoultionary design.

: There were also many types and sizes of equipment on the show floor, including this medium sized excavator.

: This is a large bucket loader, manufactured by Kawasaki, http://www.kawasaki.com/ which also makes the utility vehicles we use on the farm.

: Attendees discussing the lastest FINN bark blowers, http://www.finncorp.com/ which are used to blow mulch out of a pipe. These are generally used on large commercial sites.

: This is a Pro Tech snow pusher, http://www.snopusher.com/ which gets chained to the front of a backhoe, or large loader – it is frequently used to clear snow in large parking lots.

: This is an amzing display of DeWit Tools, http://dewitt-tool.com/ which are Dutch-made and immediately caught my attention. They were offered by Tierra-Derco International, LLC http://tierraderco.com/ from Jasper, Indiana.

: Another line of DeWit’s. They have been manufacturing since 1898 and all have a lifetime guarantee. The steel is high quality boron and the ash handles come from sustainable forests in Europe.

: I love to learn about hand tools and their uses. Many have been used and unchanged for generations and they are all designed to make our tasks easier.

: Their spades have ‘T’ handles – very distinctive and quintessentially Dutch.

: A closeup of the solidly forged Boron steel heads of the Digging Spade, Transplant Spade, and Perennial Fork

: Shelter Tree, Inc http://www.sheltertree.com/ from North Attleboro, MA had a great display with all of their wares, including these shot bags and safety lines.

: There are different size carabiners for every task – from hooking a chainsaw, to your harness, to lowering large limbs for a take down.

: They had a representative demonstarting their products on this steel truss.

: This was a lecture I attended that focused on water managment in the garden – it was taught by my friend, Jeff Jabco, Coordinator of Horticulture at The Scott Arboretum http://www.scottarboretum.org/ of Swarthmore College.

: Here is Jeff speaking comfortably in front of the ballroom which held hundreds of attendees.

: Informative water management tips put together by Horticulture Magazine http://www.hortmag.com/ for the home gardener and professionals alike.

: My favorite chainsaw – Stihl, http://www.stihl.com/ had a mobile booth set up with their large selection of power equipment. Here are half of their chainsaws.

: They had a very pleasing visual display of their products.

: Their line of stong trimmers

: They had one of the better displays of the show, I think.

: Another facet our the industry – plastic nursery containers

: Nursery containers are essential to the green industry and many of us don’t realize where they come from.

: We order many of our supplies from Griffin, http://www.griffins.com/index.asp especially potting soil. Here are many of their retail products on display.

: A greenhouse grower can never have to many watering wand rosettes.

: A.M. Leonard http://amleo.com/ is a company I have been buying from for years. They have diversified their inventory by creating their very own line of hand tools.

: Another great lecture – This one about the whole gamet of beneficial insects available to help us fend off pests in our greenhouses and gardens. They can easily be purchased and released from many insectory’s throughout the US.