Long time, no blog

Here's what's up at Greenhouse Grower lately. Our May Top 100 Growers list is just about to hit mailboxes, we just finished up work on our Mid-May structures issue and now we're onto our June issue.

We have a new number one grower on the list this year -- Color Spot Nursery. The operation added almost 5 million square feet of greenhouse area in the last year. Stay tuned to your mailbox and to www.greenhousegrower.com to read more details on the largest greenhouses in the U.S.

The mid-May issue of Greenhouse Grower follows Buckley Growers Illinois and Elzinga & Hoeksema's new greenhouse projects, and a really nice article by Danny Takao on tips for planning a new structure.

Looking ahead now, in our June issue, we're looking for your tags. Send me your custom-made labels and/or tags and we'll include them in the magazine. E-mail me at satambascio@meistermedia.com. Thanks!

And finally, I'll be attending the Southeast Greenhouse Conference this year. I've never been to this show before, so I hope to see and learn a lot. See you there.

Pajaro Valley Sold

There is always a ton of good information in SAF's E-Briefs. The one I received yesterday included the news that Pajaro Valley Greenhouses, Watsonville, Calif., has been sold to Rocket Farms based in Salinas, Calif.

It's interesting to us because Pajaro Valley is No. 79 on our Top 100 Growers list. So we'll be getting to know Rocket Farms a bit better now. The news is interesting, as there is so much going on with our list.

In addition to Pajaro Valley, Powell Plant Farm (No. 18), Bell Nursery (No. 20), Baucom's Nursery (No. 62t), Boven's (No. 71) and Ulery Greenhouse (No. 97) have all made major moves in the last year. The 2008 version of our Top 100 list will appear in the May issue of Greenhouse Grower.