Embracing the JOMO

Jennifer Polanz

There’s a lot of acronyms out there these days, thanks to text speak. I’m still an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy who texts with proper grammar and punctuation (though I do enjoy emojis).

I recently heard a new one: JOMO. You may be familiar with FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. That’s when you have anxiety from watching your friends on social media do fabulous things and capture it all in a perfect messy bun on Insta, FB, Twitter and Snap. Quite frankly, FOMO sounds exhausting and I want to take a nap just thinking about it.

I think I’m going to like JOMO better: Joy Of Missing Out. That’s turning it all off and taking a serene walk through the woods without documenting every step on some social media site. It’s about disconnecting from the online world and living in the real world of laughter with friends, bad days, mistakes and sometimes even tears.

The key is helping customers get to that JOMO and that’s why the cover story for our 6th annual Style Issue is all about wellness. How can garden centers take that step to create an environment for customers that promotes wellness and a connection with nature? Ellen tackles multiple facets of our industry and how we can help people be well.

It turns out, we aren’t the only people who’re looking to wellness in the future. In researching color trends for a short item in this issue, I found virtually all the descriptions of the Colors of the Year from paint manufacturers and color trends analysts mention some type of calm or restorative nature.

If you do have FOMO, don’t fear, we’ve got a rundown of the Stuff We Love this year so you don’t miss out on some of our favorites. We run the gamut, from European plant trends to modern medicine and everything in between.

Part of life is tough love, too, and columnist Bill McCurry—who clearly missed his calling as an advice columnist—gently dishes some out when it comes to working with family in the business. You won’t want to miss his advice.

Meanwhile, probably the trendiest of all of us in this magazine, hort maven Amanda Thomsen (that’s right, I bestowed on her the moniker maven—fight me) gives us a sneak peek at what trends 2020 will bring.

Here’s to JOMO instead of FOMO in 2020. GP