Lenox to launch retail outlets
Lenox Group will open 3 retail concept stores this year and a 4th in 2007. All the Hoopla stores will sell all the company's brands: Department 56, Lenox, Gorham and Dansk. "These stores will be a new source of top-line growth," said Joel Anderson, president of consumer direct. Lenox Group's latest financial statements show the Department 56 brand is still facing challenges. Year-to-date sales show a decrease of $14 million or 26%. Lenox attributes the sagging figures to the timing of receipt of product from overseas manufacturers as well as continued softness in the gift and specialty channel.

Heronswood Nursery lists for $11 million
Some local citizens balked at the $11 million asking price for the 15-acre Heronswood Nursery in Kingston, Wash. The nursery's extensive grounds include world-renowned botanic gardens. George Ball, Burpee president, responded to critics in a guest column in the Aug. 4 edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Ball said $11 million is a fair price for the "living museum." He noted that real estate appreciation rates in the Seattle area nearly doubled from 2000 to 2006. "I assure Seattle gardeners and garden lovers I am doing all possible to maintain the Heronswood property so that it remains, whether public or private, a wonder of world horticulture and a source of pleasure to the community for years to come," Ball said. Parent company W. Atlee Burpee & Co. is looking to sell the property after moving Heronswood's mail-order business to Pennsylvania.

Doctors want new shopping cart standards
The American Academy of Pediatrics is asking parents to bypass shopping carts until carts are redesigned to prevent injury. AAP also recommended that current safety standards for carts be revised to include "clear and effective performance criteria" for child-restraint systems and cart stability to prevent injuries due to tip-overs. The Academy wants the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Comm. to monitor and enforce manufacturer compliance and regularly review child shopping cart-related injuries.

Centerton perennials get movie role
Plants from Centerton Nursery were prominently featured in M. Night Shyamalan's new movie, "Lady in the Water." Some of the film's outdoor scenes include 3,000 containers of Centerton's perennials and ornamental grasses. "It gave me stage fright when Warner Brothers came asking for BlewLabel perennials," said Denny Blew, Centerton Nursery president. "This is the closest I'll ever come to getting a part in a movie." The plants did fine on the set, Blew reported. They weren't nervous at all.

Office garden shows display possibilities
Some enterprising landscape horticulture students at Ohio State University put discarded office furniture back to work in an unlikely place. Virginia Oswald and Joseph Tychonievich installed their finds in the Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens. The pair blanketed the collection with colorful annuals. The display includes desktop and cabinet-top plantings, as well as small pots tucked in file cabinet drawers. The project was inspired by a new book, "Gardening on Pavement, Tables and Hard Surfaces." Oswald and Tychonievich hope the outdoor office will prompt more people to look into this unusual form of container gardening.

X-Factor contest winner selected
Congratulations to Steve Bowen of Feed & Seed Depot in Crestwood, Ky., and Ann Lisa Carver of Cottage Nursery & Gift Shop in Nashville, Ga., who won the July X-Factor contest and received a combined total of $470 worth of J.B. Designs products. Enter the current contest here.

Worth a visit
Follow along as staff writer Sarah Martinez takes you on a behind-the-scenes tour of Monrovia's Dayton, Ore., nursery. Only on GreenBeam.com.