I heard they really hate annuals.

great part about the perennial symposium is they do it every year
hehe

Do I detect a bit of sarcasm? :-)

I have belonged to the PPA for several years, but only got around to attending the symposiums the last two years. I found the people attending the annual meeting to be GREAT - I had the BEST time and met several new friends.

Hate annuals? Oh, please! These are PLANT PEOPLE. They love perennials, annuals, shrubs and trees. They are excited about new plants and tried and true plants. Basically, they are people who are interested in getting the public excited about gardening... with perennials, yes, but gardening in general. I enjoy this organization because they agree with me that gardening is beneficial and should be encouraged in every way.

One nice thing about this organization and the annual meeting is that there is a good mix of growers, retailers and plant-nuts/gardeners.

The meetings are also a good combination of talks/lectures, garden visits and garden center visits.

After my first PPA symposium, I vowed to try and make every meeting... budget permitting. Hope to see you all there!

I agree with clfo, it is a pretty decent organization with a lot of very passionate plant people. They present tons of info at the show, for all levels and interests. No, you don't have to be a member of the PPA to attend the Symposium.

clfo & goblugal, thanks for the information. I sure could use lots of info on the business of growing plants! I will try to get further information on the Sympsoium. When I tried to go to different pages of their website, I just kept getting blank pages.

The PPA sponsors "Perennial Plant of the Year".
Which is a good recognition of a worthy plant that helps sales.
But lately they have decided to go proprietary and charge the commercial pot tag makers a fee for using the PPA Plant of the Year logo.
Whereupon the tag makers have refused such taxation and have dropped the Plant of the Year mention from their tag offerings.

That's interesting! Where can I read more about that?