2021 Mulch Colorant Trends
By Brent Packer, Product Manager, Colorbiotics
For a year that was full of curveballs, at least one thing remained the same: Our bestseller list was dominated by shades of brown, black and red. But that doesn’t mean it was business as usual for every segment of the market and every region of the country. Keep scrolling to see which picks from our color palette were the most popular in 2021 — and then I’ll take a closer look at the market trends that had such an impact on the mulch business.
Most popular mulch colors in 2021:
Want to see our entire color palette? You can find it on page 5 of this brochure.
The big picture on popular mulch colors.
When it comes to mulch colorant, shades of brown have been the No. 1 bestsellers for over a decade. In that same time, shades of black have secured the second spot on our bestseller list, while shades of red have seen a slight dip in popularity. With supply chain issues expected to continue throughout next year, it’s critical for our team to forecast trending mulch colors, so we can stay on top of demand no matter what happens in 2022.
Millennials take over the mulch market.
The newest generation of homeowners surprised some experts by choosing to move to the suburbs in significant numbers. As those Millennials bought houses and got to work on home improvement projects, the mulch market trended towards their tastes. As a result, colored mulch continued to grow in popularity, with shades of brown and black proving to be the trendiest picks for Millennial homeowners.
Most popular mulch colorant by region.
Coast to coast, shades of brown represented half of all colored mulch sold in 2021, with each region preferring a different shade of brown: States in the Midwest preferred darker shades, while states in the West leaned towards lighter shades. But when we looked at the head-to-head rankings by region, shades of black actually claimed the top spot in multiple parts of the country.