It's not enough for Burpee, the seed developer, to know what gardeners are craving.
They need to know what gardeners will be craving -- and that takes more than horticultural know-how.
Saturday's open house at Fordhook Farms, Burpee's Doylestown, Bucks County, test garden, welcomed thousands of visitors to a lush oasis of flowers and vegetables. A day earlier, Fordhook welcomed media visitors to talk about the future of American gardening.
What will gardeners be doing in 2016 and beyond?
- "Tomato mania," says Burpee owner George Ball. There are 135 varieties on trial this season.
- Brassicas. The popularity of these sometimes-maligned plants is on the rise. This means you'll see more broccoli (sorry, President George H.W. Bush), cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and cabbage.
- Edible landscaping. Foods like fruit trees, garlic and herbs add garden interest and supply the kitchen.
- Garden sizes are decreasing, but the love of gardening is not. So more varieties of plants that don't need a lot of room to grow are in the works.
Though Burpee has been around since the 1880s, its involvement in the gardening world has evolved over time. It's involved in President Barack Obama's recent National Pollinator Initiative with donations of seed packets, and also initiated the Welcome Home Garden: promoting gardening as a way to heal and reconnect with family after deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Burpee donated seeds for nearly a dozen common garden plants, along with recipes, to 100,000 service members in two years.
