When people think about Agriculture, one of the first ideas that I think pop into people’s minds is what would be properly defined as the Green Industry, greenhouses, florists, gardens and plant nursery’s. Ms. Tracy Wootten and Ms. Valann Budischak are two ladies very involved in the Green Industry in Delaware. Ms. Wootten is a self defined farm kid that grew up to be a farm adult and Ms. Budischak is a lady who has had, and who currently wears many hats, working with the Delaware Nursery Association, DelDot and the Botanic Gardens.
These two ladies gave us a class length tour of Delaware’s Green Industry! Ranging from who is involved, the different aspects, different types of growing, sales, suppliers and more. It was really interesting to hear how much there is to the green industry, because people understand it’s huge but just how much it actually encompasses isn’t really thought about. For example jobs in the Green Industry aren’t just working directly with plants, but also with accounting, transport, legal, inventory work etc. I really liked hearing about the different programs in Delaware like DNLA and the Livable Lawns.
Delaware’s Green Industry was presented by Tracy Wooten and Valann Gudischak. We learned what and who is part of the green industry, with that being producers, retailers, landscapers, land managers, golf courses, and suppliers of equipment. Probably one o the most important lessons learned was the difference between floriculture crops and nursery crops. Floriculture crops being those bedding/garden plants, cut cultivated greens, flowers, potted flowering plants, foliage plants, and propagative floriculture material. Nursery crops being those of broadleaf and coniferous evergreens, deciduous shade trees and flowering trees, deciduous shrubs and other ornamentals, fruit and nut plants for home use, cut and to-be-cut Christmas trees, and propagation material or lining out stock. Grower sales of nursery crops accruing to approximately $8 billion annually and floriculture crops at approximately $4.8 billion. Learning about this part of agriculture was interesting as you do not hear about it often and the many job and career opportunities lie within the green industry.