I’m generally not much into superstitions, but if I were, the way my 2025 started would have had me worried about what the rest of the year held for me.
In early January, I had a trip on the books that was going to take me to Florida for a meeting of Jeffrey Scott’s second-in-command peer group, followed by a few days in Baltimore for the annual Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS). I’d get to meet some of the real up-and-comers in the industry, get a little warm-weather respite from Kansas City in January and explore one of the horticulture industry’s premier events.
Old Man Winter had other ideas, though. As the first leg approached, a major winter storm took aim at Kansas City, first with freezing rain and then a 10-inch dumping of snow. A full day before I was scheduled to head to Florida, my flight was canceled, and there were no options to rebook that would get me to the Sunshine State before the Jeffrey Scott event ended.
Bummer, but I licked my wounds, booked a new flight directly to Baltimore for MANTS and started thinking about the crab cakes I would take down while I was in town.
That, it turned out, was wishful thinking, because that flight got canceled, too. Not before I had driven to the airport and even boarded the plane, mind you, but the result was the same. I wasn’t going to Baltimore that day, couldn’t get there the next day in time to do anything of substance at MANTS, so ultimately had to scuttle the trip entirely.
Fortunately, the train wreck to start the year was the exception and not the rule. Aside from a few delays here and there and the usual stresses that come along with modern travel, it was smooth sailing the rest of the year.
And as I reflect on that year as we wrap things up for 2025 and look ahead to 2026 … man, what a year it was. I spent time in virtually every corner of the country for events big and small. I got up close and personal with landscape companies in North Carolina, Ohio and Maryland, which made this industry newcomer feel a little less new with each passing tour.
I hiked around mountains in Colorado (at a Kress media event) and Park City, Utah (at the OPEI Annual Meeting). I rocked out to Pearl Jam in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., during a visit to Bland Landscaping, and to Wilco in Cleveland when I was in town for North Coast Media’s Content Meetings. I met a real-life former Blue Angel pilot at Aspire’s Ignite conference in Southern California, walked 145,000 steps and did 375 meetings (give or take) at October’s Equip Expo in Louisville, Ky., and saw trick-riding cowboys and cowgirls during Elevate in Phoenix. I went to the Masters!
And most memorable of all, I got to hang out with some of the best people I’ve had the privilege to meet in my career — the landscape pros I got to spend time with along the way. I’ve learned this is an amazing industry made up of amazing people, and I feel fortunate to be a part of it. It was a great year for Landscape Management, a great year for the landscape industry, and I can’t wait to do it all again in 2026.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer a heartfelt tip of the cap to Bill Roddy, a longtime friend and a trusted colleague here at LM who left in October for a new career challenge with Envu.
Bill was one of the reasons I decided to join the LM team last April, and we’re going to miss his publishing expertise and deep industry knowledge. Fortunately, Envu is a good friend of the magazine, so we’ll still see him around plenty, including at this month’s LM Growth Summit in Orlando. We wish him nothing but the best in his new adventure.
And similarly, we have nothing but good wishes for all of you as we wrap up 2025 and prepare to roll into 2026. We hope your year was as productive as ours, and we can’t wait to see how we can grow things even more in the 12 months to come.
