The Sunflower has been announced as the first European Plant of the Year at the Home Garden Conference held last week by Fleuroselect at Horsley Towers in Surrey.
80 delegates from 9 countries across Europe representing 50 companies attended the 4th Home Garden Conference targetted at increasing domestic plant sales.
Following the example of the American National Gardening Bureau, the Home Garden Association will now orgainise annual pan European campaigns to promote specific plant groups to consumers. Sunflowers will be the first campaign in 2015, with Cosmos and Tomatoes scheduled for 2016.
Speaking at the conference about the success of Garden Re-Leaf Day in the UK, Boyd Douglas-Davies said that Sunflowers would feature high on the agenda for Garden Re-Leaf Day 2015 "What a great idea to get thousands of children planting sunflowers in March 2015 and then taking them to hospices and hospitals to grow tall and flower to bring delight to many in the summer!"
Boyd also told delegates that there would be other special plant promotions linked to Garden Re-Leaf Day 2015 that would be launched at the National plant Show in 2014 to give growers and retailers time to prepare and plan for even greater success.