Open Register

More small businesses are embracing online networking

Small businesses are turning to Facebook, Twitter and other online platforms for networking opportunities, The New York Times reported. According to the April index of Discover Small Business Watch, compiled by Discover Financial Services, 38 percent of owners were a member of an online social networking community, up from 22 percent in October 2007.

A recent study for Sage North America found that 65 percent of small businesses that used social networking sites said that they felt more comfortable doing so this year than they did last year, and 51 percent said that they had acquired and retained customers because of it. More than 260,000 North American businesses currently use social networking to promote their businesses.

-- Sarah

A hot new way to see what’s hot and new

Here’s a quiz. It has but one question. I’m guessing you pass with colors of a flying nature.

As resident editor, I’ve given dozens, if not hundreds, of speeches over the past two decades, and the “Q” I’m asked most during the obligatory post-talk “Q &A” time is …

A. Has anyone ever told you that you look like Tom Cruise?
B. Do you know the way to San Jose?
C. How ‘bout them Cowboys?
D. What trends do you see affecting the industry this year?

If you answered (A), you are now my best friend for life. However, you are also probably both blind and not very bright, and I would suggest that the next time you take the quiz you either study with or copy off of the paper of the person who answered (D).

Indeed, trends – specifically, your ability to anticipate them, know them and adapt a business strategy for them – represent the trump card for most successful retail operations. Catch the wave early, and you become the Big Kahuna. Don’t, and you wind up doing a lot of dog paddling trying to keep your head above water.

Trend/wave catching is at the heart of a new project from Brandwise and the Gift & Home Trade Association, which have collaboratively launched an index that monitors statistically relevant industry trends based on aggregate sales information from vendors that attend the events.

Brandwise is an application service provider that delivers hosted and distributed software solutions to manufacturers and their sales channels within targeted industries. The GHTA is the gift and home industry’s non-profit trade association formed to help vendors, sales agencies and industry affiliates work together to improve relationships. In essence, Brandwise has the technology, while the GHTA has a market that can use it. Hence, a marriage that has “win/win” written all over it.

In a nutshell, the index gives subscribers pertinent trend patterns based on sales (and lack thereof) of various products lines at the various shows. Brandwise President Todd Litzman said the index was used most recently to monitor sales traffic at AmericasMart in Atlanta. Ultimate potential targets include the gift shows in Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, and the Highpoint furniture market in High Point, N.C.

“The whole concept is to give people something to judge their business on,” said Litzman. “What’s trending up? What’s trending down? We have hard information based on the dollars spent at the shows.”

While the system helps vendors know what to vend, it also could be a boon to buyers looking for “that special something” that their competitors might not carry. This is where the garden center operator comes in. If you do the home and gift thing, you can become an index subscriber and have at your fingertips, literally, information that can help you stock your shelves – with items that are “hot.”

And hot is good. Just ask my “twin,” Tom C.

-- Yale

Garden seeds among top ‘recession items’

Some products—like gardening seeds—are flying off the shelves despite the economy, USA Today reported. Other hot sellers: running shoes, chocolate, wine and gold coins. Recession shoppers are drawn to items that make them feel safe, both personally and financially. “The focus on the family hearth is something that has happened in nearly every recession. It’s, ‘How can I have more fun at home?’” said Paco Underhill, whose company, Envirosell, monitors the behavior of shoppers and sellers across the U.S. and in other countries.

-- Sarah

Columnist asks: Is gardening really worth the trouble?

I guess it was only a matter of time before someone tried to burst garden-retail’s bubble. Garden centers have been reaping the benefits of articles discussing the nation’s newfound interest in gardening. But last week I came across this. A columnist for the Boston Herald asks, “Is gardening really worth the trouble?” The author predicts that “recession gardens” are a passing fad that will wither away under the summer sun.

Maybe I’m deluded, but I sincerely hope that at least some of the folks sucked in by the vegetable garden craze will get hooked and become “true gardeners.” Is this wishful thinking? What’s your take on the situation?

-- Sarah

Upgrading landscape adds value to homes, research shows

This ought to add oomph to your sales pitch: Buying plants isn’t just a nice diversion—it’s an investment. The Horticulture Research Institute’s Journal of Environmental Horticulture recently published a report showing that upgrading a home’s landscape does increase property value. Findings were based on an analysis of sales within the Melonie Park neighborhood in Lubbock, Texas, from 2003 to 2005.

Homes that improved landscaping from average-quality to good- or excellent-quality increased selling price by 5.7 and 10.8 percent, respectively. Approximately 30 percent of the increase in sale value was accounted for by added tree cover. The results show that each $1 invested in upgrading an average landscape to excellent quality returns $1.35 in added property value.

-- Sarah

Organic lawn care gains appeal

Growing interest in organics is changing the way consumers look at lawn care, according to a report in The Boston Globe. Mahoney’s Garden Centers, 50-year-old garden center chain, recently joined the Safe Lawns franchise system to provide organic lawn care services in Winchester, Woburn, and Tewksbury, Mass. The goal is to help homeowners slowly improve their lawn, making it denser and healthier. “It’s a gradual improvement,” Peter Mahoney said. “It’s about developing a thick lawn, because in a thick lawn you’re not going to have the weeds, pests, and diseases.”

-- Sarah

Looks great! More filling!

As the good folks at Monrovia reminded us in their April newsletter, you don't have to choose between an edible and an ornamental garden. Most fruit trees and shrubs – and aromatic herbs – are quite beautiful.

Monrovia calls this blending of styles “Farmer Chic,” and offers a few stellar examples to which you can point your customers this month as they hop aboard the edible garden bandwagon that, by now, is actually a caravan.

For example, dwarf citrus trees have rich glossy foliage, fragrant flowers and work well in a container or in an allée (which, apparently, is Farmer Chic for a walkway lined with trees and shrubs).

Meanwhile, grape vines are very easy to grow, climbing on an arbor or trellis to provide shade and an abundance of sweet grapes in late summer and fall. Blueberries are very popular and for good reason: pretty white flowers in the spring, tasty berries all summer and stunning fall foliage. Plant them close together for a delicious hedge.

Your customers can plant Canby Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus 'Canby Red') near a fence or wall to provide support for its fruit-laden, thornless canes. And there’s always Roman Beauty Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Roman Beauty'), a compact, dwarf variety with intense flavor in its small needle-like foliage.

There you have it: Plants that are good, good for you and good to look at. Or, as we Farmer Chic like to say, “good cubed.”

-- Yale

Floriculture wholesale value, number of growers down in 2008

USDA-National Ag. Statistics Service released its 2008 Floriculture Crops Summary showing that the 2008 wholesale value of floriculture crops is down 2% from the revised 2007 valuation. The total crop value at wholesale for the 15-state program for all growers with $10,000 or more in sales is estimated at $4.22 billion for 2008, compared with $4.32 billion for 2007. The wholesale value of bedding and garden plants ($1.84 billion) is up 1% from the previous year. This category is the largest contributor to production value and represents 46% of all reported crops wholesale value.

-- David

My, that’s one smart-looking lawn

According to Husqvarna’s recently released Global Gardening Trend Report, the yard of the future will be the one at the lawn graduation ceremony wearing all the pretty robes and tassels.

Indeed, when asked about their vision of the YOTF, 38 percent of the 1,000 U.S. homeowners surveyed suggested the yard will be entirely self-containing – and very “smart.” To wit, here’s the intelligent yard model the survey revealed:

• This intelligent outdoor space is driven by a busy lifestyle and desire for a low-maintenance yard.

• Within the next two decades, we could see gardens that are capable of watering and feeding themselves, lawns that can submit growth development reports and even self-pruning plants.

• Gardeners will have the ability to simulate different weather and soil conditions, allowing them to experiment with unusual and tropical plants that previously could only grow in greenhouse environments or within their natural habitat.

The report, produced with trend forecasting agency The Future Laboratory, incorporated interviews with more than 6,000 people from eight countries and asked a series of questions relating to gardening and how the development of technology may impact future behavior.

As sci-fi as the answers might seem on the surface, the fact is that companies such as Husqvarna are already marketing products such as the Automower and Automower Solar Hybrid to address the modernization of the lawn. We’re obviously talking “when” and not “if” the paradigm shifts.

Apparently, 38 percent of the people think the shifting has already begun.

-- Yale

Fruiting plant orders up more than 20 percent

Demand for fruit trees is soaring, according to the folks at Eastern Shore Nursery of Virginia—home of the Hollybrook Orchards brand of fruit trees, berries and nuts.

“Bookings and shipments of small fruiting plants this season have been way up, up more than 20 percent overall,” said Nick Covatta, co-owner of Eastern Shore Nursery of Virginia. “Grapes are leading the pack with a 33-percent increase, with blackberries a close second at 32 percent. Blueberries retain market share with about one third of the total. This sector is definitely providing a nice push, especially in this economy.”

-- Sarah