Open Register

Retailer shares a garden moment

Jeff Griff, owner of Lowe’s Greenhouses, Florist & Gift Shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, shares some thoughts on a recent morning spent wandering through his own garden. His essay is also slated to appear in a local newspaper.

God is calling… are you in?

This morning I heard a tree fall in the woods… because I was listening.

It was going to be a busy day, so I didn’t have much time. I poured a cup of coffee and headed out into the early morning sunshine to walk the yard. The bluebirds were taking turns delivering nest materials to their box. Grasses from the edge of the woods seem to be their order of the day.

I was worried that my peaches may not be pollinated for the lack of bees, but was pleasantly surprised to find a bumble busy at the task. The wild dogwood at the edge of the woods has more flowers this year than last. It is happy in its home.

It’s marketing mania at California pack trials

David Kuack, editor of GMPro magazine, made his yearly pilgrimage to the California pack trials in April. Today, he shares some of the interesting (and eye opening) marketing materials companies displayed. Look for full coverage of the trials in the July issue of GMPro.

This year’s California pack trial displays offered something for everyone, from the whimsical to the provocative. Several companies that participated in the trials said they are seeing an increasing number of retailers stopping and visiting their displays--this includes both big boxes and independents.

Fides’ point-of-sale posters drew the most comments. At many stops people were asking “Have you been to Fides?” Each poster incorporated the specific flower that was on display. Would the posters help sell more flowers? Not sure, but they would certainly get people to stop and look.

Do not operate in fear!

Sid Raisch is president of consulting firm Horticultural Advantage. Today he offers some tips to help retailers make headway despite a lackluster economy.

The time to increase your market share is now. Competitors are likely in retreat mode, saddled with their fear of increasing prices to offset rising costs. Early movers will enjoy a clear advantage. Spring offers a narrow window, and the next season is a long time coming. Make hay!

They: May run out of stock on the best-sellers.
You: Never be out of stock on your best-sellers.

They: May be understaffed at critical times.
You: Make sure your employees are highly visible in bright colors with name tags on.

They: Cut spending on merchandising and facilities.
You: Make low-cost, noticeable improvements.

They: Reduce advertising expenses.
You: Put more advertising dollars in things you know work, and less where you’re not sure -- until you learn more about how to use them.

They: Talk negatively to customers and staff.
You: Talk and write optimistically to customers and staff. Focus on the positive at all times.

They: Sit on prices while expenses rise.
You: Price as necessary to provide excellent value through service.

They: Deal with employees looking for other jobs.
You: Work to retain your best people, lose dead weight and recruit the best of the best.

They: Fail to train and develop their people.
You: Improve your company by investing in people.

-- Sid Raisch

Rebate checks could fund landscape improvements

Jeff Edgar with Silver Creek Nurseries in Manitowac, Wis., offers a few thoughts on how consumers could spend economic stimulus checks that will be hitting mailboxes this summer.

You probably have received your notice from the Feds about the economic stimulus payment checks that some of us will be receiving in May.

According to the president, this money is to be used to buy things and not for paying off debt. Although some will pay off existing bills, some are probably thinking the money would put a dent in the cost of a HDTV or something similar. While that might be good, the profit from a sale like that goes out of the country.

What better way is there for people to enhance their homes than to use this money to buy plants or put it toward a landscaping project? The money will be spent on goods and services instead of reducing any personal debt and most, if not all of it, stays local.

Most landscaping plants are produced in this country, sold by local nurseries and installed by American companies. When the economy comes back, any landscape improvements will just add to the value of homes.

If this interests you, there's still time for you to advertise this idea to your potential customers and just maybe we can benefit from a greater portion of this money.

Just a thought on Tax Day ...

-- Jeff Edgar

The Plant Hunter’s checklist

Tim Wood travels the world in search of new plants for Spring Meadow Nursery. He also writes the blog The Plant Hunter. Today, Tim talks about characteristics that make for winning plant introductions.

Each year at the ANLA Management Clinic in Louisville, Ky., Nursery Management & Production magazine hosts its New Plant Pavilion where growers and breeders showcase their newest offerings. This year the pavilion featured 42 new plants. That's right -- 42 new plants! There seems to be no shortage of new varieties.

While at the conference I heard someone say that we have way too many new plants. In some respects I agree -- there are too many new plants. The problem is that there is no way that people, let alone nursery professionals, can digest so many new introductions, let alone grow them.

I see the same thing when I travel overseas. New plants are a dime a dozen. As I've said before, the difficulty is not finding new plants, it's finding new plants that are better and superior, and that people will want to put in their yard.

To make matters worse, in one of the clinic lectures one retail expert said that garden centers need to cut back on the number of plant varieties they offer. His point was that by offering so many choices we are overwhelming the consumer. Again, in some respects I agree. Unless a garden center has a customer base of avid gardeners and plant collectors, too many plants can make it overwhelming for casual shoppers.

So what’s the answer? In my opinion the free market will solve the problem. The best plants will rise to the top as growers, retailers and consumers vote with their pocketbooks. With this in mind, it’s very important for growers to be careful in introducing new plants or they’ll soon discover that they’ve wasted a lot of time and money.

To help me avoid making these kinds of costly mistakes, I’ve developed a checklist that reflects the plants attributes I feel are needed to be successful. Here’s my simplified checklist that I use when considering a new plant:

More color. The trend in gardening -- or more correctly yard decorating -- is color. Plants with a longer bloom season, multiples seasons of color (flowers, fruit, fall color), colorful foliage that lasts beyond the flowers, etc. are all high on my list.

Easy to grow. The majority of people do not know much about gardening. They want to plant it and enjoy it, so I look for shrubs that are dwarf or compact that require little or no pruning. I look for plants (particularly roses) that do not have to be sprayed. And I look for plants that do not require special fuss.

Lastly, I look for plants that connect with our emotions. In other words, plants that make us feel good. Everyone likes to feel good. Who can resist the sweet fragrance of a lilac or the joy evoked by a flock of brightly colored butterflies darting about a butterfly bush? Not me, and I suspect most people feel the same way. Certainly a rose connects with our emotions, but the need to spray it can negate those feelings -- so even plants that connect with our emotions must be easy to grow.

The days of breeding plants strictly for bigger flowers are long gone. Sure, big flowers are great. A dahlia has a remarkable flower, but only the rare enthusiast is willing to overlook its ugly habit and excessive need for care. Times have changed, and so must the nursery industry.

What do you think?

-- Tim Wood

Green industry Gen Xer gets her say

Jessica Hall, a grower from the East Coast, read Garden Center columnist Ian Baldwin’s December article about how to connect with Gen X and Gen Y gardeners, and sent in this reaction. (To check out Ian's column for yourself, click on the links to pages one, two and three of the article.)

Dear Mr. Baldwin,

My name is Jessica and I am 25. I just finished reading your article on Green Beam and WOW did it hit home. I finished college in 2005 and found myself in my current career working in the grower department for an East Coast lawn and garden distributor. The generation gap that your article highlighted is something I face in one way or anther on a daily basis.

I got into this industry because of my passion for horticulture; however, I feel that’s the only thing I have in common with my peers. Unfortunately there just aren’t that many young people involved in this industry and for the few there are, our joint voices just aren’t being heard. Your characterization of my generation fit me to the T! Not only did I recognize EVERY brand you mentioned, I am a repeat customer for most of them along with my “Mr. iPod” and our lovely three children (all of which are the four legged kind). The only difference between my husband and I and the rest of our Gen X and Y peers is that we are on the horticultural industries side. We both are very passionate horticulturalists and gardeners, and try to offer our opinions and advice all the time to help bridge the gap. Unfortunately no one really listens to us.

It seems that this industry doesn’t really care about marketing to the tastes and wants of Gen X and Y. The very expensive marketing techniques down to the simple daily marketing inputs all seemed to be geared to a much older (pardon me for saying that) customer base.

A simple clay planter with the typical annual combo might be just fine…for my mother, but what about my taste? Where are the sleek black planters to match my lacquered black IKEA furniture? Or why does going to the local garden center feel/seem dirty and cluttered compared to my quite regular visits to “Tarzhay” where it’s always bright, clean and the employees are easily identifiable with some form of red on (not even a “true” uniform in the sense).

It isn’t for lack of interest that my generation isn’t shopping at the greenhouse and garden centers. Most of us, myself included, hold fond memories from our childhood of celebrating Earth Day and like to take any extra measures we can to be environmentally friendly. The way to market to us is by going green and going upscale. We want to buy things that make us feel “high end” and know that we are doing something positive for the environment in the process.

Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, if the industry doesn’t soon start attempting to offer products in ways that appeal to my generation, the consequence will be losing out completely on a group of consumers with the disposable income to really turn things around for an industry that has been fighting an uphill battle for a while. I wanted to take a moment to tell you how right you are in what you wrote and to say on behalf of Gen X and Y thanks for saying what we’ve been screamin’ all along.

Sincerely,
Jessica Hall

The Next Big Thing

Industry insider Clint Albin has found a new home for his regular column, The Next Big Thing, at Open Register and Garden Center Magazine.

For those of you new to my column, I would like to take a moment to help you better understand what the column is and how I select the things I choose.

I think all trends are local. These are based on merchandising and advertising that reflects a store’s buying strategy, which leads to local consumers buying the products and therefore launching a trend. One element to the local trend is national and global consumer patterns in fashion, food, luxury, housing and health. I select 15 to 20 items a month that I believe will play a role in determining The Next Big Thing!

Here are The Next Big Things for January 2008:

1. LED lighting moves from the Christmas tree to the landscape.
2. GKI/Bethlehem Lighting’s outdoor decorative line of flower shapes.
3. YouBars -- make your own protein bar based on individual body chemistry.
4. The new Apple store in NYC.
5. VW's Phaeton automobile assembly plant and showroom combination in Dresden, Germany.
6. Self-contained Christmas tree kits that include ornaments and lights for all sized trees.
7. The un-conical Christmas tree -- The new and improved Charlie Brown tree.
8. Committee Caller technology used in political action campaigns.
9. SimplifyMedia -- changing technology for satellite radio.
10. Even free music downloads on the Internet have to be great quality -- RadioHead learned the hard way.
11. Disney as a religion.
12. The Church of Stop Shopping.
13. “The Dangerous Book for Boys.”
14. Emotion-sensitive dresses.
15. Without agriculture -- without horticulture -- there is no culture.

See you next time. If you have something that you think will be an element of The Next Big Thing, send me an e-mail.

-- Clint Albin

Customers are no longer kings

Jyme Mariani is managing editor of Garden Center Magazine and group editor--grower for Nursery Management & Production and GMPro.

While in high school and college, I worked in one of the most customer-service-intensive and thankless industries: food service. I worked in cheap dives, ice cream stores, Italian restaurants and -- for a seven-year stint -- at one of the country’s largest amusement park chains.

These experiences taught me a lot and drilled the “Guest Is Always Right” rule into my head. (Yes, customers were “guests” that were to be welcomed into our “home” to spend an insane amount of money.)

Thanks to this intensive training, I usually bristle when I witness or read about bad customer service. Sometimes though, my initial instinct is a little off base.

Amazing, horrifying and true!
I recently read an interesting article in Zagat Buzz (brought to you by those fascinating people who publish the regional dining guides). It made customer service sound not only dead, but stuffed, mounted and placed in a natural history museum.

In the article “Would You Like a Side of Attitude With Those Fries, Sir?” staff editor Randi Gollin details restaurants from across the country that have a downright anti-customer policy. My favorite was The Vortex Bar and Grill’s menu. This Atlanta restaurant has a section on its Web site entitled, “Stuff You Should Know.” Here’s an excerpt:

SPECIAL ORDERS AND EXTRAS
The Vortex is a true short-order kitchen and we will always try to prepare special orders whenever possible. If you order something that is not on the menu and we do make it for you, we will charge you whatever damn price we want to and you will thank us for it. If you request extra stuff, that’s no problem, but you will be charged for it. Hey, we don’t get any of this stuff for free you know. Requested deletions will not reduce the price of any menu item, tightwad.

Grower shows plants have personal impact (Even tattoo artists dig them!)

Garden Bloomers Takao Nursery in Fresno, Calif., recently released its 2007-2008 catalog. But this publication is unlike any nursery catalog you’ve seen before. This year the company’s creative director, Lisa Takao, took to the streets to chronicle real-life reactions to the company’s plants. Today, Lisa tells us more about the creative process behind the catalog.

Q. What was the inspiration behind the campaign? What prompted you to approach people on the street and give them plants?

A. This year I knew I wanted to focus the design around our new tagline, “Cultivating Life,” but the final product was just one of several initial ideas. From my own personal experiences and from my research I knew that plants had a positive effect on people. I thought if we could capture that it would be a great way to show what “Cultivating Life” meant. What better way is there to show the positive effects of plants than to approach unsuspecting people and surprise them?

Q. Do you have a favorite on-the-street encounter?

A. Hmm. That’s a tough one. I’d have to say my favorite would probably be Rico, a tattoo artist. You could really see how truly surprised, pleased and flattered he was after receiving the plant. It seemed as if behind the tough guy exterior he was blushing on the inside.

Kathleen was pretty memorable to me. I approached her as she was waiting at the bus stop. She was very sweet and shy, and receiving the plant seemed like it just made her day.

Charlotte and Jonathan also stood out. They had been married just a year and were about to move into a new apartment. You could really feel how genuinely happy they were to receive the plant. Their warm personalities and great energy made it enjoyable to spend a little bit of time with them.

Q. What would you say the overall message of the catalog is?

A. Connect with those around you and in the process you’ll both grow because of it.

-- Sarah

For me, green may not mean go

Jyme Mariani is managing editor of Garden Center Magazine, Nursery Management & Production (NMPro) and GMPro (Greenhouse Management & Production). Today she gives us her take on the greening of the industry.

As far as green goes, I’m already jaded.

As a consumer, I’m already tired of hearing the word “green.” When companies started advertising air filters, toothpicks and toilet paper as “green,” my mind blocked it and the entire concept out as another ploy to take my hard-earned green. The concept is more pure marketing than an idea that people can wrap their minds around. I know that I’m not the only one out there with this thinking, too.

One concept that consumers (and, therefore, retailers who want to please these consumers) can digest and even embrace is sustainability.

According to Wikipedia, one of the most often cited definitions of sustainability is the one created by the Brundtland Commission, led by the former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. The Brundtland Commission defined sustainable development as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

THE green industry
So, what can we -- as the true green industry -- do to cash in on this idea?