Trends: Trends
Ouija bored... I begin this month's first e-missive with an interesting statistic regarding my most prolific season as a baseball player. The year was 1965, and I was a slick-fielding 9-year-old with the Mustang League Braves. You'll note the use of the term "slick-fielding." That's always inserted when the player in question has "holes" elsewhere in his game. For me, I generally had a big hole in my bat. Otherwise, I can offer no logical explanation why I managed to bat just .231 that year.

For those keeping score at home, I had six hits in 26 official at bats to earn that below-average average, which, even during the "dead ball" era and even taking into account the fact that I walked 31 times that season, severely hampered the likelihood that I was someday going to be a major league ball player.

Curiously, however, had I managed just two more hits that year, and maintained that same pace over the next, say, 30 years, you might be reading this column in Cooperstown, N.Y., home of The Great Game's Hall of Fame.

That's right: Six successes in 26 tries makes you a bust; Eight successes in 26 tries might earn you a bust.

Which brings us to the topic of gardening trends and those who predict them. I do talks every so often at trade shows and industry conferences, and I'm frequently asked about trends. I generally tell this story: For two straight years the area in which I lived suffered a severe drought. The cracks in the ground were so severe, I distinctly recall hearing someone beckoning me in Chinese as I peered into the chasm. As is my custom prior to the selling season, I visited a number of garden centers to see what was going to be "hot" for the new year.

Five visits yielded one answer, the same one everywhere: "Drought-tolerant plants." Five for five is not just hot, it's sizzlin'.

So what happens? That spring it rains the usual amount. May comes and it rains some more. June comes and it doesn't stop raining. Our floods we so severe, I distinctly recall Noah beckoning me to get in his boat as I watched my curb disappear farther with each rain drop. An area that would routinely record 30 to 50 days marked by 100-degree heat had but three all summer. A lot of garden centers' hottest trend tanked big time — about .231's worth, to put it in perspective.

I write all that as a warning of what you are about to read, should you venture to this 2008 Gardening Trends story, one of the first I've seen this year. Consider this e-mail the "grain of salt" I would offer to all trend stories and to all trend predictors.

Please understand: I'm not saying the aforementioned report will be wrong. I frankly hope it helps you flourish this spring.

But you sometimes have to look closely at the crystal ball. It occasionally comes with some holes in its game.

Puzzling pictures
Jumble-aya... One of these photographs is a puzzle. The other two are inserted strictly to fool you into thinking they are puzzles. Ignore them. Don't pay them the time of day. Don't nod or even make eye contact. Instead, choose the one that is the puzzle, put the product together again, and go to bed tonight satisfied that you have soundly defeated the beast that was just moments earlier taunting you and stuff.

Gritty details of recycling pots
Check our *BLOG*

Pick 'n Click
Products of the system... This list of links to suppliers will magically enable you to find gardening items you desire. Just point and click to retrieve information about the various products in GCP&S magazine. OK, it's not magic, per se. Our Information Technology guy made me say that so you'll think what he does is, like magical, which is sort of true, especially when he plays, "Pick a memory card, any memory card."

Achla Designs:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12013

ATLAS Glove Consumer Products, a Div. of LFS, Inc.:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12040

A-V International:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12034

Bamboo Accents:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12045

Bartlett Bench & Wire, Inc.:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12010

Best 1 Hummingbird Feeders:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12052

Bird Brain, Inc.:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12004

Carruth Studio, Inc.:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12026

Charlie Cook Associates, Inc.:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12022

Clean Air Gardening:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12031

Country Originals, Inc.:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12028

Danove Corporation:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12043

Deer Out:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12021

Discount Pond Supplies, Inc.:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12041

Dr. T's Nature Products:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12018

Echo Valley:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12019

Fabriscape:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12033

Freedom Ponds:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12001

Gardenware:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12025

Gifts That Bloom:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12006

H. Potter:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12014

National Lawn & Garden Show:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12011

Novelty Manufacturing Co.:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12053

Par A Sol:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12015

Pentair Aquatics:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12046

Poly-Tex, Inc.:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12003

Protective Industrial Products:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12032

Red Carpet Studios:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12030

Retail Service Company:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12035

Riverside Enterprises:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12027

Rubber Resources Ltd:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12024

Ruibal's Topiary Systems & Ironworks:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12023

SATO Labeling Solutions:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12002

Stoney Creek:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12042

Structural Plastics:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12054

Sunlight Supply, Inc.:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12036

Sunshine Paper Co.:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12037

The Perfect Garden Tool:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12051

Tierra-Derco International:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12020

T-Mate-O:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12029

Tula Hats:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12050

Ver-Mac Industries:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12038

Vitamin Institute:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12039

WeatherPort Global Shelters:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12009

Winston Company:
Request info · Web site · 1-800-690-1826 ext. 12044

Gritty details of recycling pots
Check our *BLOG*

Oh, yeah, the riddle answer...
Elmer Johnson was buying house numbers.

 
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