“People think horticulture and garden trends are static, never changing,” said Tim Hamilton, marketing director at Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville, Md. “But breeders are always engineering more interesting plants in new colors that we never thought possible.”

Convenience and ease of growing were common themes at Fashion in Bloom. Several plant companies launched programs that help would-be master gardeners know exactly which plant should be used in which setting, and how to combine it with other plants and containers for foolproof results.

It’s impossible to report on every plant introduction or every exciting marketing innovation presented at Fashion in Bloom. But we’ve gone through our notebooks and picked out a few standouts that we think every garden center manager needs to know about. Read about them in three categories: Plants, Programs and Pizzazz.