Got a couple of comments on my post, "I couldn't make it to the IGC show." Sabine asked, ”Do you visit other garden centers that are not in your area whether on a faraway trip or 100 plus miles away? If you call ahead, how are you received? And have you ever had a fellow garden center stop by for a visit? Do you like them?” The answer is yes! Monica and I almost always stop in and visit nurseries where we are traveling. I let them know who we are and that we are just checking things out. Most of the time they are thrilled, just like when I receive visits from other nurseries. We just had a visit a couple of months ago from the manager of Amador Flower Farm. It's about 30 miles from here. Apparently some of our customers we're there and raved about us ,so he made the trip to visit. The best part is he bought some plants! I say visit other garden centers as much as possible. As far as the IGC show I agree that being there would be the best experience. What's being missed is we CAN"T go. Like Sabine said, " We were planning on going but couldn’t for two reasons, timing, we are super busy right now with getting our little garden center up and running (open by spring 2009) and secondly, money. It would have cost over $3,000 just to travel there, hotel, food, trade show, and registration. That money would cover the new doors on the greenhouse or half of the shade structure."

Small garden centers are always left out of the loop. That's just the way it is. We don't have the money, or time to fly half way across the country. Besides we have trade shows a lot closer to us, like San Francisco. The other thing is after going to trade shows for the last 25 years they just don't excite me much. Yea, I am burned out on them. I go the the Nor Cal show every so often and it just doesn't cut it for me anymore. Please don't take this as a put down of trade shows. It's just that for me personally the idea of attending doesn't get my juices flowing. That's why I like the idea of simulcasting the speakers presentations. At least we could be involved at a level we can afford in time, money, or intrest.