Optimism, excitement reported at 2025 Farwest Show
The Oregon Association of Nurseries (OAN) reported that a sense of excitement and optimism for the future prevailed at the 2025 Farwest Show in Portland, Oregon.
“This year’s Farwest Show had great energy and traffic on the show floor with more than 4,000 attendees and 326 exhibitors,” said OAN executive director Jeff Stone.
“It’s amazing that we had 60 first-time exhibitors this year,” said OAN director of finance and administration Stephanie Collins.
One of the exhibitors this year was T&L Nursery, which returned after a 10-year absence.
“We were so excited to be back with a booth at the show. It was wonderful reconnecting with customers, checking out the amazing products from other vendors, and spending time with our peers in the industry,” said T&L marketing and communications coordinator Anastasia Brondino. “A special shoutout to two members of our growing team, who attended two full days of seminars and are bringing back fresh ideas and insights to T&L. We’re grateful to be part of this special community and can’t wait to see what the future holds for the show.”
James Szadek, who represented Blooming Nursery, said the foot traffic at his booth was very good on opening day Wednesday, but he was surprised that it was equally good on the second day as well.
“It’s been a positive show for us,” said Szadek, who has been attending Farwest since 1999. “It’s been really exciting. We’ve had a lot of good interaction with existing customers and new customers. We made some great new contacts.”
“This is more than 40 Farwest shows for us,” said Jerry Simnitt, co-owner of Simnitt Nursery. “We’ve been coming for a long time. It’s a good industry meetup. Lately it’s a great meetup for our sales in the West, which is a bigger part of our portfolio. And the education seminars were great.”
For the first time, the Oregon Association of Nurseries hosted a Climate Summit at Farwest. It was a two-day, comprehensive discussion of the role of the nursery and greenhouse industry in climate issues. Day 1 focused on science and data and Day 2 focused on policy. It included participants from Oregon Department of Agriculture and staffers from the offices of U.S. Reps. Andrea Salinas (D-Oregon 6th district) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-Oregon 1st district).
“The discussions were far-ranging and very productive,” Stone said.
In addition, or the first time in years, Farwest offered three pre-show nursery bus tours on Aug. 19, rather than the usual two.
An Automation Tour was added to the Garden Center Retail Tour and Wholesale Grower Tour. The Wholesale and Automation tours were the first to sell out. With scarcity of labor and immigration enforcement concerns top of mind, interest in the Automation Tour was high.
Attendees got a broad overview of labor-saving mechanization and machines that provided more consistent products than human hands could at GK Machine, Brentano’s Tree Farm, Woodburn Nursery & Azaleas and Bountiful Farms. At each nursery, owners highlighted how automation allowed them to shift labor to work that was more rewarding, more satisfying, and less physically strenuous and letting the machines do the backbreaking tasks.
The 2026 Farwest Show will take place Aug. 26-28, 2026, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon.
Photo courtesy of OAN.
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