Top 15 Plants

Survey points to a year of growth

Greenhouse growers mean business as the New Year begins, according to Greenhouse Management’s third Top 15 survey. This year’s group was based on input received from top breeders and the growers surveyed seem to agree, for the most part, with this year’s list.

In fact, at least 20 percent of the survey respondents indicated that they would be increasing production of the following: begonia, calibrachoa, echinacea, geranium, petunia, tomato, and vinca. Of those, geranium is the clear sales-volume leader, followed closely by petunia. Pansy is a distant third.

As for which plants are the most profitable, tomato is the clear front-runner, with petunia and geranium a distant second and third.

As for the remaining eight, production will remain about the same for each, even impatiens, despite downy mildew, which has been killing crops for the past couple years. However, nearly 54 percent of the respondents did say that they decreased production of impatiens in 2013, with the majority reporting decreases of 25 percent or more.

Furthermore, 38 percent of overall respondents said they replaced the traditional shade impatiens with New Guinea impatiens and sun-tolerant impatiens as well other crops, including begonia, coleus, and torenia.

So as you prepare for 2014, we invite you to use this guide to perhaps round out your offerings while increasing your bottom line.
 

Cheers!

—Joe Jancsurak