Cultivate25 Recap
July 12 to the 15th this past weekend, representatives from Bob's Market attended Cultivate25 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The event is the largest horticulture industry conference in the US, with attendees from all over the world. Follow along with me, John Morgan, as I recap the event.
Saturday, July 12
On Saturday, I attended a number of educational sessions ranging from marketing to some of the exciting new technology being tested in our industry. One exciting technology with the potential to change our industry is the use of ultraviolet light to control diseases in the greenhouse.Currently used in hospitals to kill antibiotic resistant bacteria, UVC light has been found to kill many pathogens in agriculture too. In many cases this eliminates the need for harmful chemicals. The tech is still in its infancy, so it will be interesting to see how it develops.
That evening, I hopped on a bus over to The Ohio State University Cultivar Trials at The Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Garden. The trial garden is basically a “real world” test of how new plant varieties perform in the landscape. In the trial garden there’s no perfectly preened plants for gorgeous catalog photos. You can see how they really would perform in a home owners landscape. It gives growers, like Bob’s, insight into what we might grow for you.
Sunday, July 13
On Sunday, I attended even more educational sessions. The big session that day is the always much anticipated 2026 Garden Trends Report by Garden Media Group, but for right now that’s classified intel. You’ll see it in a blog post around the start of the new year. To give you a hint, if you know what “Lemonading” is, then you’re on trend.
Monday, July 14
Monday started off with, yep, more sessions. Up first, was the State of The Industry presentation featuring updates on what’s happening in DC and also the economic outlook based on sales data and some number crunching by our industry’s economic Yoda, Dr. Charlie Hall. … The outlook is pretty good.
In the afternoon, I attended a session that might impact you entitled "Elevating Customer Experience", and also a great session on using drones in horticulture. It might seem counter-intuitive since we grow indoors, but there's actually a number of uses for drones in, or rather above, a greenhouse like inspecting structures for damage.
On Monday evening, I went over to the Franklin Park Conservatory. If you’re ever in the Columbus area, I recommend checking it out. I’ll be sharing more about it when Bob’s LIVE resumes in August.
Tuesday, July 15
On the last day of Cultivate, I headed out to the trade show floor to check out the newest plants and tech, and also meet with folks, and, of course, chat with friends. I know a person that refers to them as “pocket friends” because you normally only communicate via social media, text, phone calls, etc. That’s something our industry gets right. Maybe it’s the shared trauma of fighting the unpredictability of the weather in the spring, but usually the first question you get asked is “How was your spring? … That rain! Right?” Then, it proceeds into sharing war stories from the past year. We’re always eager to share our knowledge with others and help out or offer advice.
