National Garden Bureau, the non-profit organization promoting gardening in North America on behalf of the horticulture industry and its members, just rolled out all six of the 2023 “Year of the” plant classes last week at Cultivate’22.

For the bulb crop, 2023 will be the Year of the Amaryllis.

For annuals, 2023 will be the Year of the Celosia.

For edibles, 2023 will be the Year of the Broccoli.

For houseplants, 2023 will be the Year of the Orchid.

For perennials, 2023 will be the Year of the Rudbeckia.

For flowering shrubs, 2023 will be the Year of the Spirea.

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 2023 season as the publicity generated from this program is substantial.

By November 1, 2022, National Garden Bureau will have photos of numerous varieties of all six crops (provided by NGB members) posted on the NGB website. NGB also provides PDF’s of fact sheets, flyers, handouts, signage, poster, PowerPoint presentations, etc. After November 1, 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 these non-branded, non-specific varieties to consumers and encourage gardening with these interesting crop classes. 

Revol Greens is moving ahead with expansion into Temple, Texas. Planting within the first of 20 planned acres in Phase 1 of this new greenhouse is expected to start by the end of 2022.  At scale, and coupled with existing capacity, the Texas facility will provide Revol Greens with "nearly 50 acres of organic baby leaf production equaling over 25 million pounds of fresh product annually." per the release.

In the release, Revol Greens alslo announced that it is has hired Warren Bishop as the Director of Sales for the Texas region. Per the release, he joins Revol Greens with a "deep knowledge of the salad category having worked for Dole Fresh Vegetables."

Additionally, Revol has hired Francisco and Efrain Rodarte to oversee growing operations at the Temple facility. Both have 15-plus years experience working for large greenhouse operations, including Windset Farms and Euro Fresh.  

“We are focused on meeting the ever-increasing consumer demand for high-quality, sustainable, greenhouse-protected leafy greens”, says Michael Wainscott, Chief Executive Officer of Revol Greens. “In response to this increasing demand, we’re excited to continue to build capacity at our existing facilities and expand our national footprint with new locations.”

Local Bounti, per a press release announced the commencement of farming operations at its new controlled environment agriculture facility in Byron, Georgia.

"We are cementing our presence in the East Coast market with our new Georgia facility, providing Local Bounti with a bi-coastal presence that is able to service the growing demand for our products," said Craig Hurlbert, Co-CEO of Local Bounti. "Local Bounti is quickly becoming one of the largest CEA companies in America. We have seen strong demand for our superior produce varieties that are grown sustainability with sunlight, use 90% less water and land, and last 3 to 5 times longer in your fridge than traditionally-grown leafy greens."

Per the release, the new facility will allow Local Bounti to supply 19 distribution centers in a roughly 400 mile radius. It awill also allow them to expand their reach to roughly 10,000 retail locations in 35 U.S. states and Canadian provinces. Their retail partners include Kroger, Target and Walmart.

The three-acre facility in Byron is in the process of being expanded 6-acres. Local Bounti will initially utilize the three-acre facility to grow and sell Local Bounti's greenhouse fresh line of packaged salad greens. These include spring mix, butter lettuce, romaine crisp, green leaf and other blends.