SHOW DATES: AUGUST 20-22, 2025 SHOW HOURS: Wednesday: 10am – 5pm | Thursday: 10am – 5pm | Friday: 10am – 2pm Contact: 503-682-5089

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Practical Use of Plant Growth Regulators in the Plant Nursery

Room B116

Speaker: Dr. Jozsef Racsko, Technology Manager, Mycorrhizal Applications LLC.
In this technical seminar, attendees will learn about the commercial applicability of plant growth regulator (PGR) products; when and how to apply them, what rates to use, what factors influence their efficacy (weather conditions, water pH, plant health status), and how these products can be integrated into the production practices. The presentation will review results from commercial trials and research experiments and provide guidance to the audience on how to interpret such research information. This will help growers find the right solution tailored to their turf or ornamental crop and growing conditions. The presenter will discuss how growing protocols can be adjusted to specific conditions to take full advantage of PGR products.

Registration Required

The New or Improved Greenhouse: Labor-Saving Technologies, Mechanization, Innovation, Design and Layout

Room B110

Speaker: Paul Golden, Commercial Greenhouse Sales Manager, Prospiant Inc (formerly Nexus and RBI Greenhouses)
For many producers and retailers, the past two years have led to record-breaking sales and new challenges that come along with rapid growth during a time of unprecedented supply chain issues. Present conditions require operations to have a fresh new look at how they are building their greenhouse business. The practices and strategies of the past might not apply to modern-day needs. With ever-increasing labor challenges operators are having to ask themselves if their existing greenhouses layout, design, equipment, and processes are most labor efficient and how they should design their new operations going forward? This session will cover changes in trends in wholesale greenhouse production as well as technological improvements.

Registration Required

Gain the Upper Hand This Season on Root, Crown, and Foliar Diseases

Room B119

Speaker: George Grant, GGSPro Technical Specialist, Griffin Greenhouse Supplies
This session will take a deep dive into the prevention and control of common root and crown diseases, including water molds, Fusarium, Botrytis, Rhizoctonia, Thielaviopsis, and more. Learn how you can also maximize your chemical control toolkits by implementing microbial-based fungicide options. This session will provide detailed fungicide rotation strategies, cultural best practices, and practical prevention tips that will benefit growers at every level.

Registration Required

Cultivating Cultivars Seed to Tree: The 30-Year Timeline for Climate Resistant Urban Trees

Room B116

Speaker: Nancy Buley, Communications Director, J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co.
It’s a long and complex journey from seed to city tree. Many hands and a decade or more are needed to grow a tree from start to finish. It takes even longer to develop, select, trial, and introduce new and improved cultivars. Bringing new and improved urban tree cultivars to market is a multi-generational effort that may take 15–30 years or more, via the collaborative efforts of plant breeders, growers, urban foresters, arboreta, and academia. Understanding the timeline and processes of new tree introduction and the how and why of cultivar development will help you plan ahead for choosing, growing, and planting the best trees for the future urban forest.

Registration Required

H-2A: Tips and Tricks for Navigating Your Way Through

Solution Center (end of Aisle 10,000)

Speaker: Cheyenne Protz, H-2A Coordinator, Labor Consultants International
This FREE mini-session is included with your trade show pass!
At LCI, there is over 20 years of guest worker visa experience. Every day we help our clients expertly navigate the guest worker programs utilizing experience, intuition, and industry involvement. We have seen every situation, roadblock, and victory in this industry and are directly involved with every political, legislative, and industry discussion and forum for these visa programs. Let us share our knowledge with you to produce the best season possible with skilled, reliable labor.

FREE

Promising Plants for Native Plant Gardens in Western Oregon

Room B116

Speaker: Gail Langellotto, Ph.D., Professor of Horticulture, Oregon State University
Native plant landscaping and gardening are repeatedly listed as a hot trend for gardeners and landscapers. However, native plants represent a relatively small segment of retail plant sales, with many promising plants difficult to find in the retail marketplace. Based on OSU research, this presentation will highlight some promising plants for the native plant gardener and landscaper.

Registration Required

Integrating Biological Control Agents with Chemical Spray Programs: Innovative Ways to Manage Pesticide Resistance

Room B119

Speaker: George Grant, GGSPro Technical Specialist, Griffin Greenhouse Supplies
Over the past decade, using “beneficials” or biological control agents (BCAs) to help growers deal with pest issues has grown dramatically. BCAs can play a critical role in preventing and managing pesticide resistance when used effectively. However, growers require a comprehensive knowledge of their life cycles, target pests, and compatibility with organic and conventional pesticides. This course will cover these topics for some of the industry’s most commonly used beneficial insects, mites, and nematodes along with how growers can begin integrating BCAs into their current crop protection programs.

Registration Required

Nowadays Tulipmania: Flower Bulb Extravaganza

Room B110

Speaker: Philipp Laagland, Country Manager USA, ADR Bulbs Inc.
Join internationally recognized flower bulb expert Philipp Laagland as he shares his knowledge about setting trends and current struggles within the industry. This session will examine the working flower bulb life circle from farmer to the homeowner in The United States and new landscape designs and retail concepts using flower bulbs.

Registration Required

Solving Plant Problems Virtually

Room B110

Speaker: George Grant, GGSPro Technical Specialist, Griffin Greenhouse Supplies
Whether a grower is working internally with their cultivation team or externally with cooperative extension personnel, product vendor representatives or technical specialists often rely on some form of virtual communication (e.g., cellphones, emails, or video conferences). We are all familiar with the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but knowing what picture to take and what information to gather before reaching out for consultation is important in diagnosing an issue correctly and efficiently. The objective of this presentation will be to build a checklist growers can use for gathering valuable information once they have identified an issue in their production setting.

Registration Required

Current Market Demands New Approaches to Container Growing

Solution Center (end of Aisle 10,000)

Co-Presenters: Tom Springer, Chris Murphey, NurserySource
This FREE mini-session is included with your trade show pass!
NurserySource’s and RediRoot’s goal is to help nurseries and grow operations integrate new approaches to container production and gardening. Their markets span nursery, cannabis and home gardeners giving them a unique look into the ways all growers are learning from each other and improving their production. They see the pressure labor and regulatory costs have upon different operations and work to help clients mitigate those challenges. This seminar will briefly detail their observations and recommendations.

FREE

Crop Protection and Cultural Considerations When Propagating

Room B113

Speaker: George Grant, GGSPro Technical Specialist Supervisor, Griffin Greenhouse Supplies

Propagation is a balance between maintaining an environment conducive to young plant production while managing a myriad of insect and disease pests that also thrive in these conditions. We will walk through various cultural, chemical, and biological inputs useful when propagating to ensure an efficiently and cleanly grown product. Strategies discussed during this presentation include moisture management, biological and conventional pesticides for below and above ground pests, cleaning up material using plant dips, sanitation steps, use of plant root stimulants and more!

Registration Required

Transforming vs. Evolving: Turn Your Vision into Dramatic, Measurable Results Using Policy Deployment

Room B119

Speaker: Rick Peters, President, The Peters Company

Every leader faces the challenge of translating vision into results. Most have goals to achieve over the next 3–5 years; the difficulty is converting long-term goals into daily activities that can be measured. Oregon nurseries are using policy deployment ("Hoshin Kanri") to develop annual improvement targets that align and link with their long-term strategies. The process engages team members at every level. Each person understands how they can impact the organization's goals. Bring your leadership team for an introduction to this powerful tool. Learn how Robinson Nursery uses policy deployment to transform the business and achieve their mission of “growing people and plants to change the world.”

Registration Required

A Milkweed Contamination Study Spotlights Pollinator-Safe Growing – An Oregon Nursery Shows the Way

Room B113

Co-Presenters:
Sharon Selvaggio, Pesticide Program Specialist, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
Sam Bidwell, Integrated Pest Manager, Log House Plants; Founder, Sunnyside Sam’s Wholesale

People across the country are working to help restore monarch butterflies by planting milkweed. A recent study showed that milkweed plants purchased from garden centers across the country contained a wide variety of pesticide residues, putting monarchs at risk. In this seminar, we invite a thoughtful conversation about how nurseries can use practices that result in pollinator-safe plants. We will present the findings and implications of the milkweed study and share examples of how a local nursery, Log House Plants, puts pollinator-safe growing into practice.

Registration Required

Keynote Address – Katie Tamony

C123-124

Speaker: Katie Tamony , Chief Marketing Officer, Monrovia Nursery Company and Former Editor-in-Chief of Sunset Magazine and Sunset Books FREE to all registered Farwest Participants. Many of us have spent years in our industry, and it’s easy to forget what it’s like not to know what we know. It’s also natural to fall into habits of seeing problems and patterns a certain way. But holding a “beginner’s mindset” can help us solve problems more effectively, adapt to change more easily, and actually create more original ideas. So how do we change our perspective and see things with fresh eyes? Looking at the familiar in an unfamiliar way can help us be better leaders and refresh our teams and our approach to our business. Using examples from throughout a career where she has been forced to be a “beginner” operating at a high level, she will share some techniques and ways of leading and innovating with fresh perspective.

FREE to all registered Farwest Participants.

Profiting With Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Solution Center (end of Aisle 10,000)

Speaker: Mary Choate, Chief Operating Officer, Pest Wizard Brands LLC

Integrated Pest Management is good for the environment, but did you know it is also good for your bottom line? IPM is a great tool for improved profitability for Independent Garden Centers (IGCs) and for growers. Learn how to implement an effective IPM strategy in your greenhouse or nursery to reduce costs and decrease loss from pests. For IGC, we’ll discuss how IPM can be a key marketing strategy to improve sales through cross-marketing and upselling for your entire line, from irrigation to green goods.

FREE

H-2A 101: What Your Business Needs to Know

Room B110

Speaker: Chelsea Ibarra, Deputy General Counsel, másLabor
Free Session (Open to all attendees)

This session will cover the ins and outs of the H-2A program for growers. The session discusses the program’s requirements, barriers to entry, and best practices for employers, including pertinent current events. As the labor landscape continues to be difficult, more and more businesses are turning to H-2A to solve their shortages.

FREE

What Do Washing Dishes and Sanitation for Plant Production Have in Common?

Room B113

Speaker: George Grant, GGSPro Technical Specialist Supervisor, Griffin Greenhouse Supplies

Regardless of your standard operating procedures, sanitation is a key factor in having a successful season. Very few management practices have the duality of being preventative, curative, and cost-effective whereas a strong pre-season and mid-season sanitation plan does. For this reason, we strongly focus on maintaining clean production spaces, inputs, and equipment to manage a wide variety of plant-related issues. Surprisingly, there are scenarios we run into in our daily lives that overlap with plant production such as washing dirty dishes. We will use these common scenarios to help demonstrate the cultural and chemical steps necessary for effective sanitation.

Registration Required

What it Takes To Build A Robust IPM Program & Resistance Management

Room B113

Speaker: Brock Martindale, National Nursery & Greenhouse Strategic Account Manger, Corteva

Broch will cover the importance of building a robust IMP program and how you can avoid building resistance in your facility. You are bound to find several things that you can take back to your facility to improve your process. Broch will cover the 7 steps to success and a deep dive into preventing resistance.

Registration Required

The UC Landscape Plants Irrigation Trials (Part One)

Room B116

Speaker: Lorence Oki, Ph.D., Specialist in Cooperative Extension, University of California, Davis

The University of California Landscape Plants Irrigation Trials project evaluates performance of plants exposed to three different irrigation treatments based on evapotranspiration (ETo). The data collected leads to recommendations for irrigating those plants that are used by landscape designers and architects to design landscapes that comply with California water conservation regulations. This project started in 2004 as a graduate student research project, was expanded periodically, and then duplicated at the UC South Coast Research and Extension Center in 2017. We will discuss plant lists, data collected, irrigation recommendations, and project background.

Registration Required

Trial Garden Report: Best in NEW Annuals and Perennials for Spring 2024

Room B119

Speaker: Allison Pennell, Sales Representative and Horticulturalist, McHutchison Horticultural Distributors

This session will report on new introductions from trial gardens across the country. Annuals and perennials from your favorite breeders will be the focus. Ali will share garden performance results from trial sites to help you decide what to add to your own production plans for 2024. This session’s focus is on spring and summer selling crops. Breeders covered will include: Dummen Orange, SelectaOne, Syngenta, Danziger, Ball, Pan American Seed, Westhoff, Terra Nova Nurseries, Sakata, Think Plants and more!

Registration Required

Prune Clematis Like a Pro! (Pruning Demo)

Solution Center (end of Aisle 10,000)

Speaker: Linda Beutler, Rogerson Clematis Garden

Forget everything you have ever heard about Clematis pruning. Linda, the curator of the Rogerson Clematis Garden, North America's only accredited collection of clematis through the Plant Collections Network, will share her wealth of knowledge is this fantastic pruning demo. Rather than learning the "rules", follow some common sense-based suggestions to open a world of beautiful possibilities for your garden and your clematis.

Defining and Building Your Culture to Create a Thriving Team (SPANISH ONLY)

Room B119

Speaker: Elizabeth Peña, Value Stream Leader, Peoria Gardens Inc.

A culture is how you solve problems and how you behave toward others. You must strike a balance between knowledge and behaviors, between head and heart. If you want your team to thrive, you must first define your culture, then do the important work of building your culture into everything you do together. You are invited to learn how Peoria Gardens, a second-generation greenhouse in Albany, Oregon, defined their culture, then built that culture into a business that continues to be recognized as one of the best places to work in the horticulture industry.

Registration Required

Butterfly Bush: Sterility and Availability

Room B113

Co-Presenters:
Ryan Contreras, Ph.D., Associate Department Head and Professor, Oregon State University
Kara Mills, Lead Horticulturist, Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA)

OSU has conducted extensive research to evaluate nearly three dozen cultivars for their seedling production and attraction to pollinators. This work has identified the relative fecundity of all selections within the context of current regulation for Buddleja. The Oregon Department of Agriculture will describe how Butterfly Bush is currently regulated and forecast the future of these regulations in light of new data.

Registration Required

The Climate Ready Landscape Plants Project (Part TWO)

Room B116

Speaker: Lorence Oki, Ph.D., Specialist in Cooperative Extension, University of California, Davis

The University of California Landscape Plants Irrigation Trials project evaluates performance of plants exposed to three different irrigation treatments based on evapotranspiration (ETo). The data collected leads to recommendations for irrigating those plants that are used by landscape designers and architects to design landscapes that comply with California water conservation regulations. This project started in 2004 as a graduate student research project, was expanded periodically, and then duplicated at the UC South Coast Research and Extension Center in 2017. The project recently has expanded to the University of Washington, Oregon State University, Utah State University, and the University of Arizona that facilitates the comparison of plant performance in response to deficit irrigation treatments across the western region of the U.S. We will discuss plant lists, data collected, irrigation recommendations, and project background.

Registration Required

Pesticides and Water Quality

Room B113

Co-Presenters:
Kathryn Rifenburg, Pesticide Stewardship Partnership Coordinator, Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA)
David Green, Columbia River Coordinator, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

The Pesticide Stewardship Partnerships (PSP) program is a locally led, voluntary program to identify potential concerns and improve water quality affected by pesticide use. Partnerships combine local expertise and water quality sampling results to encourage voluntary changes in pesticide use and management practices. This presentation will give recommendations for keeping pesticides on site and protecting water quality and regional biocontrol projects happening around the state.

Registration Required

Biopesticides: The Ideal Team Players in Plant Health Programs with a Focus on Biofungicides

Room B113

Speaker: Michael Brownbridge, Ph.D., Biological Program Manager, Plant Diseases, BioWorks Inc.

In North America, moves to adopt more biological inputs in plant production are driven by issues with pesticide resistance, market trends and restrictive re-entry intervals. This is where biopesticides can help. Their unique modes of action bring value in resistance management. The fact that they are derived from natural sources makes them more acceptable to consumers, and their safety means they can be applied with minimal disruption to day-to-day crop management activities. Yet there are still many misconceptions around what biopesticides are, their efficacy, and where and how they can be used. This presentation focuses on the use of biofungicides and their effective positioning in plant health programs.

Registration Required

Drop-In OFFICE HOURS

Room B119

Speaker: Chelsea Ibarra, Deputy General Counsel, másLabor

Stop by at any time during this hour (no appointment necessary) to ask our in-house expert questions about H-2A. This is a great opportunity if you missed the Thursday seminar or had additional questions not answered yesterday.

Registration Required

A Plantsman’s Notebook: New Plants and a Reminder of Some ‘Smokers’ We Often Forget About

Room B119

Speaker: Nicholas Staddon, Company Spokesman/Plantsman, Everde Growers

In this session, we will look at a number of new plants that have appeared on the marketplace in recent years. There will be something for everyone, trees, shrubs, perennials, and a few surprises! Staddon will also nudge our memories on a few of the great plants from the past. Nicholas will cover a few of the notable trends he believes hold water for us. As always, he is an avid reader and will share a few choice titles with the audience. With terrific pictures, supported by an informative and humorous narrative, this session is not to be missed if you are into plants.

Registration Required

Pollinators of the Rogerson Clematis Garden

Solution Center (end of Aisle 10,000)

Speaker: Linda Beutler, Rogerson Clematis Garden

Linda, the curator of the Rogerson Clematis Garden, North America's only accredited collection of clematis through the Plant Collections Network, will share the Clematis that attracts pollinators and which pollinators those are. Additionally, she will share her knowledge of the many native, native-vars, and non-native companion plants that enhance our clematis garden.

FREE

Discover the 50% Off Solar Project USDA REAP Grant Program

Solution Center (end of Aisle 10,000)

Speaker: Zachary Peek, Owner, Atlas Consulting LLC

Join this session to learn how Nurseries, Farms, Ranches and Rural Small Businesses are eligible to receive an award equal to 50% of the total solar system cost. Zack will describe eligibility, timing considerations, and next steps for interested organizations. Attendees will also learn how all the available incentives can be combined to bring the payback period of a solar installation to just 1 or 2 years.

FREE

Nursery Science Summit: Plant Pathology

Room B119

  Speaker 1: Jay W. Pscheidt, Ph.D., Extension Plant Pathology Specialist, Oregon State University Title: Smart Spraying Grapes Leads to New Boxwood Blight Management Description:

Top Consumer Garden Trends to Drive Sales

Room B110

Speaker: Katie Tamony, Chief Marketing Officer and Trend Spotter, Monrovia Nursery Company Want to know what home gardeners are thinking? Every year, Monrovia conducts large

Copyright® 2024 Farwest Show
The Farwest Show is produced by the Oregon Association of Nurseries
SHOW DATES: AUGUST 20-22, 2025 | SHOW HOURS: Wednesday: 10am – 5pm | Thursday: 10am – 5pm | Friday: 10am – 2pm
SHOW LOCATION: Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Portland, OR 97232
MAILING: 29751 SW Town Center Loop W., Wilsonville, OR 97070
Phone: 888-283-7219 | 503-682-5089 | farwest@oan.org
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