Looks like the trickle down effect of the Jackson and Perkins Bankruptcy has drug the buyers of that company down with them. According to Today's Garden Center, both Weeks Roses and Iseli Nursery have declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Weeks roses is one of the largest wholesale rose growers in the U.S. Iseli Nursery produced some of the nicest plant stock we ever dealt with. The problem is people are just not buying ornamental plants in the volume they use to. As one of the members of our Independent Garden Center and Nurseries Facebook page said, " Kind of makes it a wake up call for independents to use smaller more efficient vendors. Seems like the big companies can't manage money very well."
Update: I received a call from Iseli Nursery. They want people to know that they are still in operation. It is a Chapter 11 reorganization and the day to day business is still operating. As we are learning these days there is a difference between the different types of bankruptcy. The representative from Iseli indicated the problem was with the holding company, International Garden Products, that bought Weeks and Iseli. Most important, if you like Iseli or Weeks, they are still in business and ready to service your needs.
One area we both agreed on was the huge mistake it was for horticultural business to get involved with Wall Street. As I have been saying at this blog since 2006, horticulture and Wall Street are just not a good match. The very nature of horticulture means unpredictable revenue based on weather and other variables. "The Street" want's steady returns, and horticulture is all about working with mother nature, and she doesn't always supply steady returns.