Newsscape September 2019

Bakker celebrates anniversary 

J.C. Bakker & Sons (Bakkers) of St. Catharines, Ont., is celebrating 70 years of business with an open house over the second week of September. “We look forward to hosting many customers and industry partners,” said general manager John Bakker III. “We are also delighted to concurrently host this year’s Landscape Ontario Industry Auction on Sept. 12.” 

Founded in 1949, with horticultural roots as far back as the early 1900s, Bakkers began with John Bakker Sr., an immigrant from the Netherlands, who settled his family in the Niagara Region in 1948. John Bakker Sr. brought with him over 25 years’ experience as a grower in the Netherlands. The first 10 years in Canada were difficult – a few teenage boys, a few spades and hoes, an old cultivating horse, and $300 in the bank.

Brothers, Dave Bakker Sr. and John Bakker Jr. (d. 2012) continued growing the business, working closely with government, universities, the International Plant Propagators’ Society and crews in the field, supervising all aspects of the work to grow some of Canada’s finest nursery stock. Today, third and fourth generations of family from both brothers are involved in the nursery’s daily operations. Bakkers began as a wholesale operation, but also catered to local consumers through an award-winning retail garden centre from 1971 to 1987. Today, Bakkers delivers nursery stock to garden centres and select mass merchants across North America.

GISC returns to Calgary

The Green Industry Show and Conference returns to Calgary for 2019 at the BMO Centre at Stampede Park, Nov. 14-15. Run by Landscape Alberta, the annual event features a conference program “aimed to inform and inspire everyone from designers to arborists, owners to students, growers to contractors.”

Conference speakers include economist, Todd Hirsch, award-winning author, Christina Salwitz, and Vineland research scientist, Rose Buitenhuis. Visit greenindustryshow.com for full details.

Hort East heads to Moncton, N.B.

The HortEast Trade Show and Conference is set for Nov. 27-28 at Casino New Brunswick, Moncton, N.B., with over 50 exhibitors and a packed lineup of speakers. The annual event is geared towards people who have an interest in the landscape industry in Atlantic Canada and surrounding areas, focusing on seminars and exhibits for landscape design, maintenance and construction professionals, greenhouse and nursery operators, municipalities, tree specialists, garden centre operators, lawn care specialists, turf producers, and golf course professionals. The event offers the opportunity to network with new and old friends at social events (including a welcome reception and kitchen party), learn at pre-show workshops and conference sessions, participate in industry exams and visit over 50 exhibitors from across Canada. 

Speakers include Landscape Ontario executive director Tony DiGiovanni, on-the-spot marketing guru Alyssa Light, Toronto Botanical Gardens horticulture director Paul Zammit and more. For full details, visit www.horteast.com.  

Cullens win GardenComm award

GardenComm recently announced the winners of the 2019 Media Awards Silver Medals, a special designation recognizing the top talent in more than 50 competition categories. Canadians Mark and Ben Cullen were among the recipients, for their newspaper column “When Gardeners Get Growing in Shared Gardens.” 

Held annually for more than 20 years (Formerly the Garden Writers of America), the GardenComm Media Awards recognize the top professional horticultural communicators in the areas of writing, photography, digital media, broadcast media, publishing and trade.

Syngenta buys Varinova cyclamen business

Syngenta Flowers announced in June it has acquired Varinova’s cyclamen business. Varinova is a Dutch company dedicated to the breeding, production and commercialization of cyclamens.  Syngenta Flowers produces seeds, cuttings and young plants in the pot and bedding plant markets. The company’s North American headquarters is in Gilroy, Calif.

Solasbee’s hires outside sales manager

Solasbee’s, a Kinshofer company and manufacturer of heavy equipment attachments, announces the appointment of Lane Scroggins as outside sales manager. Scroggins will be responsible for bringing the brand’s years of global product expertise to local customers. He will continue to oversee the sales department and will also manage dealer relationships across the country.

Scroggins brings more than 15 years of industry and sales leadership experience. Early on in his career, he led inside sales with Solesbee’s, where he established relationships with a long list of customers and dealers in the Southeast. Solasbee’s is based in Winston, Ga.

ASV and Yanmar look to merge

ASV Holdings announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with an affiliate of Yanmar Holdings (Yanmar). Under the terms of the agreement, which have been approved by both the ASV and Yanmar Boards of Directors, ASV stockholders will receive $7.05 (USD) in cash for each outstanding share of ASV common stock, for a total value of $70.7 million. 

The transaction is subject to approval by ASV stockholders and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2019. In conjunction with the Merger Agreement, a subsidiary of Terex Corporation, which owns 34 per cent of the outstanding shares of ASV, has entered into a stockholder voting agreement in support of the Merger.

ASV Holdings is a Grand Rapids, Minn.-based provider of rubber-tracked compact track loaders and wheeled skid steer loaders in the compact construction equipment market. Yanmar is an equipment manufacturer based in Osaka, Japan.

GardenGenetics relaunches Dahlightul brand

GardenGenetics (G2) announced the relaunch of its Dahlightful Dahlia brand through the GardenChoice group. 
“These compact growers, with gorgeous blooms set off by deep chocolate foliage and exceptional tolerance to most powdery mildew strains, are now widely available as unrooted cuttings and rooted liners,” the company said in a media release. 

GardenGenetics is Bellafonte, Pa.-based com-mercial plant breeding company that develops new varieties of ornamental, edible, and medicinal plants and licenses the plants to grower and broker companies around the world.