Planting Seeds for 2026: A Horticulture & Trade Show Q+A with Kathleen Hennessy

Over the past few years, our team has wit­nessed a renewed invest­ment in out­door green spaces, with the hor­ti­cul­ture indus­try expe­ri­enc­ing a notable boom. Trade shows are gain­ing momen­tum across the board, and the ener­gy is already build­ing toward a big year in 2026. 

We recent­ly sat down with Kath­leen Hen­nessy, Vice Pres­i­dent at Bell­mont Part­ners with more than 25 years of hor­ti­cul­ture and agri­cul­ture PR expe­ri­ence. Over the past 15 years, she has attend­ed Cul­ti­vate, the world’s largest hor­ti­cul­ture trade show in North Amer­i­ca as a round­table leader, sub­ject mat­ter expert and to offer PR sup­port for var­i­ous clients. 

In our con­ver­sa­tion, Kath­leen shares insights on the increas­ing impor­tance of trade show atten­dance, mov­ing beyond a sales first mind­set, rela­tion­ship build­ing with trade edi­tors and a sneak peek of Monrovia’s new hydrangea called Cen­ten­ni­al Ruby ™ — the halo plant for the company’s 100th anniver­sary in 2026. 

Tell us about Cul­ti­vate. How many years have you attend­ed the show?
Cul­ti­vate is the world’s largest hor­ti­cul­ture trade show in North Amer­i­ca, with around 650 exhibitors. Pre­sent­ed by Amer­i­can­Hort, the lead­ing nation­al asso­ci­a­tion for the green indus­try, the show attracts breed­ers, grow­ers, soil and plant sup­pli­ers, label mak­ers, sig­nage com­pa­nies — essen­tial­ly every busi­ness that con­tributes to the hor­ti­cul­ture indus­try. I’ve been attend­ing off and on for at least 15 years, some­times as a speak­er and some­times to sup­port dif­fer­ent clients.  

Year after year, this trade show is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to recon­nect with clients and indus­try con­tacts. Face-to-face inter­ac­tion with edi­tors and clients is key in PR and rein­forces our com­mit­ment to the indus­try while strength­en­ing our rela­tion­ships.  

What types of orga­ni­za­tions, busi­ness­es and pro­fes­sion­als attend Cultivate?
The show attracts a wide range of pro­fes­sion­als each year — gar­den cen­ters, breed­ers, grow­ers and sup­pli­ers of every­thing from plants and soils to sig­nage and labels. There are edu­ca­tion­al tracks tai­lored to dif­fer­ent areas of the indus­try and the exhi­bi­tion hall is the cen­tral hub where every­one gath­ers. Cul­ti­vate serves as a kick­off to the next grow­ing sea­son, show­cas­ing prod­ucts and inno­va­tions that will be seen in gar­den cen­ters in 2026 and 2027. The time to plan for next year’s sea­son was yes­ter­day, and the day before! 

Did you rep­re­sent any BP clients at Cultivate?
This year we rep­re­sent­ed Mon­rovia, one of the largest shrub, peren­ni­al and tree grow­ers in North Amer­i­ca, facil­i­tat­ing meet­ings between their chief mar­ket­ing offi­cer and trade edi­tors and jour­nal­ists. Mon­rovia intro­duced a new hydrangea called Cen­ten­ni­al Ruby ™, which will be a halo plant for their 100th anniver­sary in 2026. It’s a vibrant, beau­ti­ful hydrangea that is receiv­ing strong media cov­er­age.  

Our team con­duct­ed booth tours to show­case new plants for 2026 and beyond, giv­ing edi­tors a chance to see and touch the plants in per­son. Mon­rovia also shared ini­tial data from their annu­al con­sumer research project, which helps iden­ti­fy gar­den­ing trends and sup­ports gar­den cen­ters in under­stand­ing what their cus­tomers want. These meet­ings are valu­able for build­ing rela­tion­ships. 

Did you attend any mem­o­rable ses­sions? What were your key takeaways?
I attend­ed the Women in Hor­ti­cul­ture lunch, which has been grow­ing steadi­ly over the past four years. It’s inspir­ing to see more women in the indus­try each year. This year’s speak­er focused on hon­ing and under­stand­ing intu­ition — how to use it effec­tive­ly in your career and dis­tin­guish it from emo­tion. We had mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sions around the table! 

We’ve heard that trade shows are back in full swing, with a lot of pro­fes­sion­als eager to gath­er in per­son post pan­dem­ic. What is your perception?
Trade shows are back in full swing! Cul­ti­vate was busy this year, and the last two years have shown a steady ramp-up in atten­dance. The pan­dem­ic boost­ed the hor­ti­cul­ture indus­try — peo­ple had time and mon­ey to invest in their out­door spaces, which gen­er­at­ed excite­ment and eco­nom­ic growth. The focus these past few years is to keep those who became inter­est­ed in gar­den­ing dur­ing the pan­dem­ic engaged and plant­i­ng. The feed­back I heard from Monrovia’s team is that they had great con­ver­sa­tions with cus­tomers and were pleased with the turnout. 

Can you share a few high-lev­el trade show tips for busi­ness­es who are inter­est­ed in attend­ing Cul­ti­vate next year?
Busi­ness­es often focus sole­ly on sales at trade shows, but it’s impor­tant to engage with oth­er audi­ences too. Com­pa­nies should pri­or­i­tize edi­tor meet­ings — face time with trade media staff is invalu­able. Even infor­mal booth con­ver­sa­tions can be impact­ful.  

Even indus­try trade shows can attract con­sumer media. Be sure to con­nect with key writ­ers and edi­tors – espe­cial­ly those that are local – to see if they’re attend­ing.   

Sched­ul­ing these meet­ings and inter­views in advance and mak­ing them a pri­or­i­ty is key. Also, explore award pro­grams tied to the show, which can high­light new prod­ucts, employ­ees or ini­tia­tives. In-per­son inter­ac­tion shows com­mit­ment to the indus­try and builds strong rela­tion­ships.  

Look­ing Ahead to the Next Sea­son 

Now is the time for hor­ti­cul­ture and agri­cul­ture com­pa­nies and orga­ni­za­tions to strate­gi­cal­ly plan how they will show up in per­son and with pur­pose in 2026. Whether it’s recon­nect­ing with long­time part­ners or intro­duc­ing new prod­ucts backed by con­sumer insights, trade shows offer a pow­er­ful plat­form to engage with both indus­try and con­sumer com­mu­ni­ties. Bell­mont Part­ners is excit­ed to sup­port the con­tin­ued growth of the hor­ti­cul­ture and agri­cul­ture indus­tries — we’ll see you at the Cul­ti­vate show in 2026!