Gardening Green with Doug
Exploring the Annual Mid Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS)
by Doug Oster
February 24, 2025
The halls of the Baltimore Convention Center are teaming with over 900 horticultural exhibitors along with thousands of attendees slowly filing through the crowded aisles during the 55th annual Mid Atlantic Nursery Trade Show. I visit the show annually each January to explore what’s new and interesting for gardeners.
Sabine Seeling is standing next to a large display of blooming plants and asks, “do you like hellebores?” in her German accent. She is product consultant for a company called Heuger, the breeder of the Helleborus Gold Collection and many other plants. One of my gardening obsessions revolves around the plant, specifically Helleborus niger, also known as the Winter or Christmas Rose.
Hellebores are perennial plants which are evergreen, deer resistant and depending on the variety, can bloom at the start of spring or like the Christmas Rose, in early winter.
In most cases Helleborus niger is sold locally as a holiday plant, meant to be discarded at the end of the season, but local nurseries are starting to carry the plant to be sold as a perennial which will return year after year.
Seeling discusses some of the winter blooming varieties offered by Heuger. “‘Diva’ is one of the first flowering ones, as early as November,” she says. ‘Jacob’ has a very nice habit with lots of flowers, Seeling adds, blooming at the end of November.”
When asked why people should grow H.niger, Seeling answers, “I think it’s perfect, it’s always nice to have something flowering.”
To see the plant start to bloom with pure white flowers around Thanksgiving and continue to flower most of the winter is spectacular. Many varieties fade to pink.
The Lenten Rose or Helleborus niger blooms early in the spring in a range of different colors. “To me, the palate is so wide and beautiful,” Selling remarked. “So many different colors, shapes and sizes.” Hellebores are also drought, disease, pest and deer resistant, she added.
The Ice N’ Roses series are bred to have “large outward facing flowers, lots of flowers, we have tons of different colors,” she says. “They’re basically very robust and vigorous.” Some varieties bloom as early as November, others January and later.
These hellebores take the plant to a new level and should find a place in everyone’s garden.
Lisa Hyvonen is national sales manager for seeds for Botanical Interests, which is owned by Epic Gardening. She is surrounded by beautifully illustrated seed packets which catch the interest of attendees.
I asked her what she was most excited about in this year’s introductions. “My number one favorite thing is I'm a flower gal, so I am really hot on the echinacea ‘Allen's Pride,’ she said. “It’s tall and grows really well in many regions and is a great pollinator plant.” The variety will bloom the first season from seed, gets about two feet tall, with pretty lime green flowers. It won the 2022 Fleuroselect Novelty Award.
Coneflowers love full sun are somewhat deer resistant and the seedheads area favorites of goldfinches.
Next on her list is the ‘Pandora Poppy.’ “Think of a poppy, coming in the bright orange, explains Hyvoned, and this one's a pale pink, which is really pretty.” The plant is drought and deer resistant, along with being pollination friendly. The dark burgundy perennial blooms are held on 15-to-25-inch stems and fade to soft pink. Poppy seed is often direct sowed into the garden and traditionally sowed over a layer of snow. Even though this variety loves full sun, Hyvoned says, “they can grow anywhere.”
How could you not want to grow ‘Mashed Potatoes’ acorn squash? “It has a texture when cooked of mashed potatoes, she says, also does really well with butter and appears to look like mashed potatoes.”
One of the interesting things about Botanical Interest is that they employ 17 different artists to create the artwork on each packet, a tradition that dates to the origins of the company 30 years ago.
At the Root Pouch exhibit, vice president and owner Ashley Fromm is answering questions about the innovative containers the company makes. “it's a fabric planting container made out of recycled water bottles, and some of them have natural fibers mixed in,” she says.
The pouches with natural fibers draw water and nutrients through the whole pot, she adds.
The containers range in size from one pint to 670 gallons, the biggest are mostly used for large specimen trees. The five-gallon version might be the most popular for home gardeners. “It depends on where and what you're growing, adds Fromm, I was just talking to a pepper grower that's growing a couple 100 Peppers in a five-gallon Root Pouches.”
Another advantage of the fabric pot is something called root pruning. “It creates a dense fibrous root structure, Fromm says. “It prevents circling roots.”
They are lightweight, can be stored flat at the end of the season and many include handles to move the container around the garden.
Environmentally, Root Pouches are a plus too. “Not only are we removing the water bottles from the landfills, she adds, but preventing new plastics from getting into the ecosystem.”
From commercial growers around the world to home gardeners, Root Pouches provide a great platform for planting with the bonus of recycling all those water bottles.
Fromm adds that when choosing the right sized container, there’s no limit to what a gardener can do. “Pretty much if you're going to plant, she says, you can grow it (in a Root Pouch).”
LINKS
Doug is taking gardeners to London this May on a direct flight to see the Chelsea Flower Show and the gardens of the city. Information about the trip is here.
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Host of "In Doug's Garden" on CBS KDKA-TV Streaming
Host of the Talking Trees podcast for The Davey Tree Expert Company
Consultant for Farm to Table Buy Fresh Buy Local
Columnist for Pittsburgh Earth Day's "The Green Voice"
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