Last week, I visited IGC East in Baltimore and was impressed with several new gardening products as well as plants. IGC is a trade show where staff from Independent Garden Centers gather to learn and possibly order new plants and products from wholesale vendors to sell at their garden center. They also have the opportunity to attend lectures designed to help them in their nursery business. I attended as press and visited hundreds of vendor booths to see what new items might appear in the garden centers next year.

Medinilla on left and Dolce Vita on the right

I think the biggest “Wow!” plant was the Medinilla and the double bloom variety called Dolce Vita. Native to the Philippines, these large-leaved plants are grown as houseplants year round or outdoors in the summer here in our Mid-Atlantic area. They have incredibly large pink flowers that last for months. I originally thought “banana” when I first saw them because of their pendulous shape but the spokesperson from Northend Gardens said the two varieties are related to the tibouchina plant, another tropical plant that is commonly sold in the summer here for its purple flowers. A series of Medinilla plants on a rafter with the pink blossoms hanging down would be such an eye catching “Wow!” for customers in a nursery but also in any public area such as restaurant or store.

Lil’ Cuties

For me, the second “Wow!” plant was a red-stemmed, green-leaved succulent that I spotted in the Overdevest Nurseries’ booth. This particular plant stood out for me as unique but it was part of their line of “Lil’ Cuties,” arrangements of succulents in small containers. Drought-resistant, these succulent combinations offer a lot of color for minimal effort; perfect for decks and patios.

Overdevest’s new line of “Chick Charms” was cute and would make a nice gift. Chick Charms are hens and chicks in small containers, each with a novelty name. This particular collection of hens and chicks were selected from an evaluation of over 400 varieties of sempervivums; who knew there could be so many!

In the world of edibles, I thought 2 Plant International had an exciting idea: The “Seeds are Easy” line of cleverly designed burlap bags of seeds would entice anyone to start growing herbs or vegetables.

Seeds are Easy

These bags are easy to pick up by the handles, making them a clean, no mess gift–easy to drop into the shopping cart. All one has to do is water and watch the seeds germinate and grow. Perfect for windowsills. Distributed by Bloom Pad North America, there are bags of tea herbs, culinary herbs, and vegetables. They also sell a sprouts glass jar with sprout seeds such as radish, mustard, and alfalfa.

Lake Valley Seed packages of sprouts

Speaking of sprouts, Lake Valley Seed has increased their line of sprouts and I love the design of the seed packets. You should be able to find their rack of seed packets in your local garden center – look for alfalfa, broccoli, mung bean, radish, rainbow mix, salad mix, and sandwich mix. My family would be particularly interested in eating the sandwich mix and the salad mix, which I know are easy to grow indoors.

And for the upcoming holidays, gardeners may be interested in the new line of soaps by Garden Voyage Botanicals. These are all natural, shea butter enriched soaps made in the U.S.A. Of particular interest is the Gardener’s soap with cranberry seeds and walnut shell powder and a special Noel holiday line of peppermint, bayberry, and evergreen soaps. I am always looking for a good soap to use after gardening, I hope Santa puts some of these in my stocking this year.

Gardener’s, Peppermint, and Lavender soaps

Flexzilla Garden Hose

But really Santa, try fitting a Flexzilla garden hose in the stocking this year. I had seen these kink-resistant garden hoses on the P. Allen Smith Facebook page but at IGC East I was able to see a demonstration of the swivel grip connections that make them easy to fit onto the spigot and garden attachment – really ingenious!  Plus these hoses have extreme all weather flexibility making them easy to bend around trees and bushes and are drinking water safe. Flexzilla markets its products in its signature lime green color and its garden hoses come in various lengths. P. Allen Smith introduced the “water colors” collection of blue, green, coral, and brown in 50-feet lengths.  I don’t care if Santa gets me a water colors shade or the lime green — a kink-free hose with swivel grip is a must for every gardener!

Two other new items for veggie gardeners like me: Neptune’s Harvest, a well-known line of organic fertilizers, will introduce a liquid tomato and vegetable fertilizer next year with a 2-4-2 formula. Made with hydrolyzed fish, molasses, seaweed, yucca extract and humic acid, this all natural fertilizer is supposed to repel deer. That’s what I need for those few times I accidentally left the garden gate open only to discover in the morning that my pepper plants have been decapitated.

EarthBox Root & Veg Garden Kit, photo courtesy of EarthBox by Novelty Mfg.

The second new item hails from my favorite self-watering system, EarthBox, which will introduce a root and veggie box  in 2016 designed to be deeper for root vegetables. I have several of the original EarthBoxes on my deck that I use specifically for tomatoes and I never have a tomato disease problem so I am most interested in trying the new design for root crops. These boxes are taller than the original EarthBox and square instead of rectangle but with the same tube, screen, fertilizer, and black plastic wrap.

These are just a few highlights from spending a day at IGC East. If you don’t see these items at your independent garden center next year, contact the dealer directly (click on the hyperlink) to locate a local retailer in your area.