National Garden Bureau, the non-profit organization promoting gardening in North America on behalf of the horticulture industry and its members, is pleased to announce the five plant classes that will be featured in the 2021 “Year of the” program.
- For the bulb crop, 2021 will be the Year of the Hyacinth.
- For annuals, 2021 will be the Year of the Sunflower.
- For edibles, 2021 will be the Year of the Garden Bean.
- For perennials, 2021 will be the Year of the Monarda.
- For flowering shrubs, 2021 will be the Year of the Hardy Hibiscus.
The “Year of the” program chooses crops specifically for the North American market that are easy to grow, genetically diverse, and with a lot of new breeding to showcase. Breeders, brokers, seed companies, growers and garden centers throughout the U.S. and Canada are urged to highlight these flowers and plants when planning their marketing for the 2021 season as the publicity generated from this program is substantial.
How popular is this program? The five “Year of” pages on the NGB website are consistently in the top 10 visited pages by thousands of site visitors every month.
New for 2021: The “Year of” program is being turned into a special exhibit opportunity for public gardens! By working with the American Public Garden Association members, NGB has created a way for pubic gardens to create educational programs and seasonal exhibits that feature the plant classes above. For more information on this special new program, click here.
NGB members and non-members alike are encouraged to take advantage of the publicity this program generates by using the attached logos in their 2021 catalogs, websites, advertisements, presentations, trade show booths, event exhibits and other marketing materials.
By November 1, 2020, National Garden Bureau will have photos of numerous varieties of all five crops (provided by NGB members) posted on our website. NGB also provides PDF’s of fact sheets, flyers, handouts, signage, poster, PowerPoint presentations, etc. After November 1st, all of the above can be downloaded at no charge from the NGB website. These tools will help the North American home garden industry promote the crops to consumers and encourage gardening with these specific crop classes.
Garden writer publicity will begin in August 2020.
Consumer publicity will begin in January 2021.
For more information about this program and/or membership in National Garden Bureau, please email Diane Blazek