President’s Message
Sitting in the office has definitely been a warmer option than being outside lately. With near record cold and a decent spell of it, we look forward to getting back to spring soon. Time to think about plants, greenhouses, gardening and taking care of customers. It won’t come soon enough.
Hopefully everyone had a very good season in 2020. We had our doubts in March as we came to grips with the pandemic and what it could do to our businesses. Cancel or push back deliveries? Will we even have customers? Coming up with new and creative strategies to market and deliver our products to our customers. New challenges brought new changes and the world will never be the same. Many people and companies coped with working from home and for some of us teaching from home. This brought unexpected opportunities however, as people spent more time and money improving their outdoor living space and spent time with their family in their own backyard. It turned into a prosperous year even with all the challenges.
One of the challenges for this year is the continuing search for plants and trees. With many suppliers digging into spring 2021 crops during 2020 many of the higher demand items are in very short supply. For trees that take longer to get back to size that could take several years, specifically evergreens and slower growing trees. Being creative with your use of trees and plants may be the norm for a little while moving forward. Get the imagination and creative juices flowing! Year 2020 gave us a number of great reasons to live in Nebraska. How do we social distance in Nebraska? We live here! Moving forward NNLA is working hard to improve on what we do and get more membership and member involvement. Navigating a world where trade shows are now virtual and some are even extinct gives us a rallying cry to move our organization forward. We value your support and participation. Bring your ideas and help us navigate the future. Here’s to seeing you all in person where we can again shake hands and visit in person. Thanks for all you do and look forward to a great 2021.
Warmest regards,
Jason Kuehl, NCNLP, NNLA President