January 2023 - 38

VARIETY INFORMATION
Year of the
Celosia
This versatile annual comes in many popping colors, with its plumed
and spiky textures drawing a lot of attention from consumers.
'First Flame Purple'
BY HEATHER MACHOVINA
l
ate last year, National Garden Bureau (NGB) announced
six new " Year of the " crops for the coming year. One
crop from each category is selected by the NGB board
of directors to be highlighted and promoted throughout the
industry; an annual, perennial, bulb crop, edible, shrub and
houseplant are selected specifically for the North American
market. These crops are chosen because they are easy
to grow, popular, and have good adaptability, genetic
diversity, and versatility.
National Garden Bureau generates a lot of publicity
throughout the year from this program, which is a great
incentive for breeders, brokers, seed companies, growers
and garden centers to consider promoting these plants
when planning their marketing campaigns for the new
year. The NGB website also provides great marketing tools
for use like fact sheets, posters and presentations for
each of the non-branded, non-specific varieties to help
encourage consumers to take interest in these plants and
use them for their gardening activities.
For the annuals category, celosia was selected for 2023.
The flowers come in many colors, and different varieties
have appealing shapes that pop in any garden. To learn
more about this crop, I reached out to some experts in the
industry to see what they had to say about celosia: Scott
Mozingo, regional sales manager at Griffin Greenhouse
Supplies; Denise Mullins, director of product innovation at
Smith Gardens; and Tim Kaewrianthong, global product
manager at PanAmerican Seed.
38
JANUARY 2023 GPNMAG.COM
(Photos: PanAmerican Seed)
GPN: Are you familiar with the National Garden
Bureau's " Year of " program? Do you take advantage of
and promote the selected crops when they pertain to
your business?
Scott Mozingo: I'm a board member for NGB, and I
was excited to see celosia chosen for the " Year of the "
program. Griffin does use NGB promotional materials in
its marketing to our grower customers. This helps drive
awareness to growers that customers will be looking for
these items NGB is promoting. In addition to the unique
logo style for " Year of " that people will recognize, NGB
does a great job with written materials to help talk about
the products with fun facts and longer form blog posts.
Denise Mullins: Yes, I am aware of NGB and we do
promote the selected items where we can.
Tim Kaewrianthong: PanAmerican Seed has been a
big supporter of the National Garden Bureau, and we are
always pleased when our plant classes align with a " Year
of " promotion. We welcome any chance to build excitement
with the consumer audience, especially with plant classes
that are less well-known in the general gardening world.
GPN: 2023 has been named the " Year of the Celosia. "
In your opinion, why do you think this crop was selected
for the upcoming year?
Scott: I think celosia is an old crop that's being
discovered again by gardeners as breeders have introduced
new, standout varieties and series. It's a genus with
http://www.GPNMAG.COM
January 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2023
