Columbus, Ohio – AmericanHort is excited to be hosting the 2019 Landscape Operations Tour taking place September 30 – October 1 in Chicago, IL. This tour is an opportunity to network with leaders in the landscaping industry while touring seven world-class landscaping companies and covering topics like sustainability, specialization, and operation efficiency.
“After the successful debut of the first AmericanHort Landscape Operations Tour in 2018, we are excited to again be providing this opportunity to the landscaping industry,” said Ken Fisher, President and CEO of AmericanHort. “I invite you to join us and learn innovative ideas for landscape operation efficiency and sustainability while networking with other leaders in landscaping.”
Each of the seven stops will include facility tours showcasing the unique practices that make their businesses thrive.
· Acres Group – Acres Group hires hundreds of seasonal laborers every year for snow removal, landscape maintenance, and installations. With so many seasonal employees, they have perfected their own unique management structure as well as ways to source labor – from utilizing the H-2B program to an internal internship training program.
· Mariani Landscape – Specializing in high-end residential clients, Mariani Landscape is the largest privately-owned landscape company in the United States and they take customer service to the next level. Mariani Landscape strives to create the best customer experience throughout the entire landscaping process; from maintenance to annual color, huge installations to individual plant selections.
· Lurvey Landscape Supply – Lurvey provides quality landscape products to both landscapers and retail customers as well as landscape design and distribution services. They saw a need to connect their retail customers to landscape professionals, so they created Lurvey Connect where landscapers can not only get referrals, but also bring clients into the garden center and create an entire customer experience.
· Chicago Botanic Garden – The Chicago Botanic Garden boasts beautiful landscapes to be inspired by, yet maintaining it all is not an easy job. Their horticulturalists and landscapers have had to overcome the challenges of taking care of an extensive property filled with high-management landscapes in a public space.
· Midwest Groundcovers – Midwest Groundcovers is an industry leader in the propagation, growing, and wholesale distribution of quality container nursery stock. They operate over 700 acres including an extensive trial garden where landscapers can see how the plants Midwest Groundcovers offers perform in the landscape.
· Sebert Landscaping – Sebert Landscape is a full-service, commercial landscape contractor with a unique, sustainable approach. Everything from their creation of LEED® certified designs to their low-emission equipment to their use of indigenous plants are carefully curated to let them create functional, ecologically-thriving, and beautiful landscapes.
· Cornerstone Partners – Cornerstone Partners provides an array of horticultural and snow/ice management services to fit both commercial and residential environments. They credit their high employee and client retention rates on their investing in their employees and training them on horticultural best practices, as well as focusing on educating their customers about plants and services – so that the job is done right the first time and with the long-term effect in mind.
For more information and to register, visit AmericanHort.org/LandscapeTour.
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About AmericanHort
Green industry businesses perform better, grow faster and prepare for the future as a member of AmericanHort, the green industry’s leading association. With a rich history of serving horticultural professionals, AmericanHort supports nearly 14,000 member and affiliated businesses that include breeders, greenhouse and nursery growers, garden retailers, distributors, interior and exterior landscape professionals, florists, students, educators, researchers, manufacturers, and all of those who are part of the industry market chain. The horticulture industry’s production, wholesale, retail, and landscape service components have annual sales of $196 billion, and sustain over 1.6 million full- and part-time jobs.
