Monrovia branded plants to be sold in Lowe's stores

According to Today's Garden Center Magazine, "Monrovia will begin selling its branded plants in Lowe’s stores in 2013. As a result of an exclusive agreement with Lowe’s, Monrovia plants, currently sold in Home Depot in plain pots, will pull out of Home Depot." In the article David Kirby, the new vice-president of sales say's , "that Lowe’s agreeing to maintain the premium brand image, partly through pricing, was key to Monrovia making the agreement. Until 2010, Monrovia had sold exclusively to independent garden centers." Not sure what "premium brand" image they are talking about? It's the one independent garden centers worked many years to help Monrovia build. Oh well...

We have covered Monrovia at this blog over the years, and there is a lot of background info here. I always thought they would end up at the box stores even after they asked their independent customers to buy more, or else. I even met with Monrovia executives in 2011 who told me they would never let their branded plants go to the boxes.

They might do o.k with the Lowe's deal. Really, what other choice do they have? Many independents have stopped buying from them as they have begun their move into the box stores. In addition, many of Monrovia's independent customers have closed, or gone out of business. The only place that offers any growth for them in the short term is the box stores and chains. Even there, it's likely to be muted as the consolidation of the horticultural businesses continues and economics work against some of the larger wholesale operations, like Monrovia.

The cost of cheap, Panama Pottery closes after 99 years

Panama Pottery has been operating out of Sacramento for the last 99 years but is now closing.  As one of

the last  pottery makers in the area the current owners cited State regulations and the box stores for their demise. According to The Sacramento Bee, the current owner, Carol Honda says she ..."got roped in by its charm. There are kilns as big as rooms and mounds of shards that tempt you to dig deep for a piece of the place's 99-year history." Unfortunately, after buying the facility the owners we're informed by CAl OSHA (California Occupational Safety and Health Administration) that "expensive renovations (we're) needed to continue running the factory". In addition customers said they could buy similar products at Home Depot and Costco at lower prices. According to Honda, "the pots that we were making didn't work any different than the ones coming from Mexico and China, and they cost twice as much. In addition she adds "'foreign companies"' buy the clay from Lincoln, CA. They ship it to Mexico, make a pot and ship it back to us for cheaper than we could manufacture it.'"

How is it that the clay which is local, can be shipped to another country and made into pots cheaper than we can do it here? Do people realize that this kind of stuff is why we are losing our place as "makers", and have become a country of "users". Do the customers who say they can buy stuff cheaper at Home Depot or Costco realize what they are responsible for? Yes, where you do your shopping does make a difference. Instead of always looking for the "cheapest" stuff maybe we could look at the big picture once and awhile?

Does anyone care?

There is a guest post at Garden Rant by James Roush titled, “Japanese Beetles for Sale? Really?" James relates a story about his day at “a large regional nursery about 60 miles east of Manhattan, Kansas.” He says, “This nursery sells each spring, among other plants, the largest variety of potted roses in a 100-mile radius. I could not help but stop to view the few remaining potted roses on sale, hoping particularly to find a ‘St. Swithun’ marked down to a price that even a curmudgeonly rosarian would accept.  And there, I saw them.  Japanese beetles!” The nursery is at fault for not letting its customers know about this up-front. Rather than educate, they sell the plants infested so you can deal with it at home. This is what can happen with large nurseries and growers that ship all across the country. You get diseases and insect pests being spread faster than they would on their own.  I am sure they will have some pesticides you can buy later to get rid of them. See, everything will be better.

Where you choose to do business does make a difference. Not all nurseries, or nursery people are as uncaring. I work with nursery people from all over, and they would never allow this to happen in their businesses. They watch as these large regional stores, their suppliers, and customers continue the long slow march to the bottom.  See if you can find a garden center in your area that cares, and then show you care by supporting them. If you can't find one, it could indicate a need (business opportunity) for the community. It appears the local regulatory agency has done a poor job of alerting the public, and the “large regional nursery” could care less, so who are you going to call next time a pest or disease threatens your garden? It's kind of scary when no one cares.

Sunset magazine, now a box store brand.

Sunset magazine seems intent on dragging itself into the box, and chain stores.  According to SFGate, "Sunset introduced a line of branded plants designed to thrive and shine in virtually every California garden. The introduction was timed to coincide with the release of the ninth edition of Sunset's influential Western Garden Book."  The article continues, "Sunset's Western Garden Collection is on nursery shelves in all 89 Orchard Supply Hardware stores and 40 Lowe's in California, and the company hopes to expand into selected small chains and independent garden centers."

The plants in the Sunset Western Garden Collection are not even new to the trade. They are in most cases already being sold, but will now be "branded" as "The Sunset Collection". Sunset say's, "The Sunset Western Garden Collection is the first live plant collection to focus exclusively on top performing plants for the Western gardener. The Sunset Western Garden Collection will debut this spring." What a bunch of crock! I, and other western independent garden centers have been selling plants that focus exclusively on the western gardener for many, many years. I guess our independent garden center brands don't count with Sunset.

When Sunset released the most recent edition of their "formally" influential Sunset Western Garden Book, many small garden retailers we're upset when the books showed up at Costco first. Topping  it off, they we're at  prices we small retailers would have to pay just to be able to sell them in our stores. Now Sunset disses the small locally owned garden centers that helped build the Sunset Brand over all those years, and heads straight to the box stores with their collection?

What's with all these branded plant collections? Does no one do anything original anymore? It's all cut and paste for these companies. Take existing plants or products, buy the rights, slap your name on them, tell people how original you are, and hope no one notices it's just more noise. Sunset magazine has managed in just a couple of attempts to alienate small locally owned garden centers across the west. Why would an independent garden center sell plants that are easily recognized as a "box store" brand with Sunsets name on them? I know we won't. Like other small western retailers we will concentrate on building our own brand. We have been "focusing exclusively on top performing plants for the Western gardener" long before this recent attempt to stay relevant from Sunset.

"Hand-Made Plants?"

Interesting article in Wired magazine,"These May Be The Droids Farmers Are Looking For".The article is about robots and technology working for the wholesale nurseries.

It seems the trade continues to fragment along two lines. Large agriculture (wholesale growers)their customers (box stores and mass merchants), and a smaller ("hand made")agriculture for smaller customers. It would seem that we are coming close to a time when we in the smaller garden center businesses will be able to call our offerings "hand-made", distinguishing our offerings from the "robot-produced" goods the competition carries.

We have strayed too far from the garden.

This from Fred Hoffman in Sacramento. He has a listener who writes,

"Fred:

Thought I would let you know the Home Depot at Folsom Blvd. & Power Inn Road just got in a shipment of one quart, Bonnie brand, Early Girl and Cherokee Purple tomato plants at $5.98/ea.  Great looking plants, no tomatoes on any of them but a sign on the front that said 50 days to harvest.  I asked the nursery clerk why they had tomatoes now (when they haven't had any for at least six weeks) and she said the vendor assured her this was the time to plant them.  Do you think Bonnie knows something about 'climate change' they aren't telling anyone else?"

50 day harvest means will start picking fresh tomatoes around the end of October.  In places like Texas they plant tomatoes in the late summer, but here in northern California they die when the frost comes, in October. So was the Home Depot in Folsom, CA sent tomatoes meant for Texas? No. According to the "nursery person" at The Depot the vendor  say's it's time.  Well that settles it!

What more disturbing? That Bonnie Plants insists it's time to plant tomatoes here, or a "nursery person" working at The Depot goes along with it? We have strayed too far from the garden. Something that our grandparents would have known, the first frost date has been forgotten by the later generations. They don't even know that in a month tomatoes will be done. What most disturbing is perhaps these nursery people questioned tomatoes arriving now, but because the vendor say's it's time, it's time. No one willing to stand up to the boss as ask, "why are we doing this?". Keep quiet, keep you head down, and be thankful you have a job. Now sell those tomatoes!

Where Home Depot gets it's plant names from

Just in case you we're wondering where Home Depot get's its plant names from they made a video for you to answer that burning question. According to Home Depot's Garden Club videos "Watch Kerry Meyer, Project Manager at The Home Depot, describe how the names of the plants at The Home Depot are created. She specifically details the most challenging plant, a purple and green petunia." Oh, wait. Is Kerry from Home Depot as the video description say's, or Proven Winners as her sweater and video intro say? Does it matter? Just a Freudian slip on the part of Home Depot? Or is this closer to reality than they might like to admit?

Dreaming up the future of garden retail

Our Facebook Group, Independent Garden Centers and Nurseries grew a little bigger. Today Dan Mulhall of Mulhalls Nursery in Omaha got on the bus and became our 300th member. Our group has now become the leading forum for independent garden center owners, and employees. One reason the group continues to grow is the amazing cost to benefit ratio. For the price of membership (free) the benefits are huge. Where else could you ask what fellow garden centers think about QR codes, or whether they have started to use the codes? Wondering “How can a wholesale nursery survive selling so cheap to Home Depot?” They can’t, and we discuss why. One member asked “Have any of you had HD (Home Depot) post a sign in their nursery area with your name and plant prices with no size so they look cheaper.” One of our members has, and tells what he thinks of that, and what they plan to do about it.

We hear a lot of talk about how the Independent garden center businesses need to band together. We have! It’s happening right now, and we want your input. Do you want to change the trade for the better? Do you just want to survive to do it again next year? Either way our group is the place to be. To request membership head here, and read our document listing the criteria for joining.  The future of garden retail is being dreamed up, and implemented by our 300 plus members.

Expecting the unexpected

Walking into a store one can quickly size it up. Same old, same old, or something "unexpected"? Unexpected because we have grown complacent concerning our experiences. We seem happy enough just to get out of some stores without spending too much, and having a "decent" experience. Unfortunately, we have become so jaded that often a "not so bad" experience is the best we can hope for.

What separates one garden center from another? Often it's the "unexpected" that makes the difference. It might be, "unexpected plants" a term coined by plantsman Barry Yinger. That special plant that you either didn't know existed and catches your eye, or perhaps a plant from the past you might have thought had faded from production. It doesn't have to be an unexpected plant however that makes the difference.

If rudeness, complacency,and boredom are the norm in most shops, the "unexpected" would be politeness, exploration, and excitement. When was the last time you we're bowled over by a polite, aware, and excited salesperson? When was the last time you walked into a garden center and said, "wow, I had no idea you could do that?"

Lot's of bad stuff can be unexpected. Lot's of great stuff can be unexpected. The middle way is seldom unexpected. We have all learned to expect that our change will not be counted back to us by the bored cash teller. We expect that the selection at The Boxes won't be anything to write home about. We expect that the stuff we buy won't last long under regular use. There is a lot of expected mediocrity in our world today.

Do something that let's people know you "get it" when it comes to the shopping experience. How about an "unexpected" knowledge of how to grow plants in your particular area? Unexpected new way's of doing things like selling compost tea. How about delivering what the customer just purchased that same day? How about being unexpectedly upbeat about the future, and showing people a better way?

The places that stand out are the ones that provide you with that feeling something wonderful and unexpected will happen while your there. A friendly smile, helpful hand, enthusiasm, knowledge, or a weird and wonderful collection of plants, or garden supplies. The secret to building your business is providing the customer with the knowledge that visiting your store will provide something unexpectedly wonderful during their visit. Of course, once you do that they will "expect the unexpected". It's not easy, but it's the only way to stand out in a world filled with the "expected".

A nurseryman's lament

It's a cold, rainy day here in northern California. The perfect opportunity for those of us in the nursery business  to contemplate the future of our trade, and then write about it. The following is a post from Don Shor, a fellow nurseryman who runs The Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, California. It is a wonderful summation of the "IGC (independent garden centers) vs. Box Store" argument.

"An open letter to the Big Box stores, and other non-garden stores, that sell garden supplies.

When I first moved to Davis to go to college, I went out in search of houseplants. There was a little drugstore chain called PayLess Drugs where they would put out displays of little houseplants. Only problem was, they had no way to water them. So we all learned that within 3 to 4 days they would be half off. And half dead. But we could snatch up some great bargains if we timed our visit right.

As a budding (har!) hort student I found this very amusing. Little did I realize it was going to become an industry standard for plant aftercare at many retail establishments that treat plants as commodities rather than as living organisms.

Those plants you are selling took a lot of resources to get to your store. There are breeders and greenhouse managers with a lot invested there. Lots of water and fuel to grow them and get them to you. Pesticides and fertilizers, and growth regulators, and often careful management of lighting and nutrients to induce bloom.

So the least you could do is keep the thing watered for a few days, and put it in the right place.

There are a few basic practices that we as plant-sellers should abide by. These are really ethical standards for our industry.

The plant should be properly labeled.

It should be healthy, free of pests and diseases.

It should be monitored to keep it free of pests and diseases.

It should be watered as often as necessary to keep it vigorous.

It should be displayed in the light that is appropriate to the species.

What you are selling should be appropriate to the season and to the region.

So when I see poinsettias displayed outside in freezing weather in Northern California;

when I see orchids outside on a west-facing wall in full sun in the summer;

when I see house plants displayed among landscape shrubs;

when I see dead plants that could have lived but for a little water;

when I see blighted tomato seedlings;

when I see summer vegetables being sold in February in the Sacramento Valley;

when I see pelargoniums labeled as azaleas:

I want to turn you in to have your License to Sell Nursery Stock revoked.

So your grower guarantees your plants, and doesn't even charge you for them until they sell? The customer doesn’t know that. The novice gardener believes that you are selling a healthy plant that will grow here, at the right season. Your guarantee isn't an excuse either. Our industry prospers when you sell success. A beginning gardener who fails often just gives up.

So here are a few pointers.

Very few landscape plants will live long inside your store. Just a few days in low light (I know it seems bright, but it isn’t from a plant’s perspective) will lead to etiolation: weak growth with thin leaves and stems that are vulnerable to infection.

Plants that require sun in the garden require at least some sun in your outdoor display. Plants that prefer shade will burn in full sun. My, this seems obvious, but it is probably the most common blunder I see.

Tropical plants that aren't hardy in your region should be clearly identified as such and kept separate from those that are hardy. Perhaps you should sell them as houseplants.  It doesn't matter what the label says. Your display is what matters, and the training you give your staff. The customer is counting on you. If they see it outside, they think it grows outside.

Know your seasonal annuals, both flower and vegetable. I know you don’t actually have in-house buyers any more. The mega-growers are deciding what is stocked, and they make their decisions for an entire region. So those snapdragons you are getting in May in the Sacramento Valley? They aren't going to bloom all summer. In fact, they won’t last more than a couple of weeks in 90 degree heat. Nothing wrong with selling them to someone who wants a quick display SO LONG AS THEY KNOW that.

Diseased plants should be removed immediately. Again, I know they aren’t really your plants. The grower is supposed to decide when they get pitched. But he doesn't really have much incentive to do so, does he? So when there are spots on the leaves, remove those from your display. Remove them from where water will splash the fungus spores onto healthy nearby plants. Maybe put them by the dumpster, or some place in back. I’m kind of sick of explaining the disease cycle to your customers after the fact.

Those rolling vertical display units of bedding annuals and ground covers? I call those disease factories. If you wanted to design a perfect way to inoculate young plants with fungus, you couldn’t do a better job.

Let’s see:

o      low light? check.

o      high humidity? check.

o      poor air movement? check.

o      movement of spores in running water? check.

Perfect. A few bits of Pythium or Rhizoctonia on top, overhead watering, drainage from one flat down onto another, and you have successfully spread seedling diseases across the entire display.

It’s ok. The problems from these diseases don’t usually show up until a few days after the plant is infected.

Please treat your plants and your customers with respect. These should not be disposable commodities. But when I hear that 15 to 25% of them get thrown out by the grower, there are being treated as disposable. That isn't good for gardeners or our industry."

Thank you Don.

Don Shor and his family have owned Redwood Barn Nursery, a small retail garden center near downtown Davis California, since 1981.

The box stores are breeding plants for easier shipping

My last post was a link to Annie of Annie’s Annuals and her most excellent rant, "Dwarf Madness". It concerns some breeders, and their mad science. It seems they are breeding plants to flower sooner for quicker sales at the box store garden center. It’s not only for a quick sale, but they are also breeding plants to grow shorter so they fit into the racks used to deliver plants. It use to be that plants we’re loaded onto trucks individually, and unloaded that way. Not very efficient since plants are all different sizes and shapes when shipped. To speed loading and unloading many suppliers now load plants onto racks that are wheeled off their trucks, and into the nursery. You can fit more plants on the truck this way, cutting costs, and making for easier unloading. They collect the empty racks, and take them back to be filled again. It’s all very neat and organized.

Now the box stores are demanding plants be bred for easier shipping. A friend in the breeding/growers world, Lloyd Traven of Peace Tree Farms had an interesting conversation with a box store representative. Lloyd relates this conversation. “Conversation at Lilytopia yesterday, among 10,000 STEMS of incredible Oriental lilies, many with 12 flowers each a FOOT across and 4+ feet tall: ‘What growth regulator can I use to get these less than 18" tall, including pot?’ Response from bulb breeder---"WHY would you want to do that? The flowers will shrink to 5", they won't last, and the customer will think they are short varieties.’ Blank stare from box store grower—‘I need to fit these on a shipping rack, 3 layers minimum, all the same height and size and bloom stage.’ ‘Maybe you should look for another product to force into a mold. We worked hard to make these magnificent, and you will make them ordinary.’"

It’s worse than I thought. Not being a breeder this kind of stuff was off my radar before. Since I have been hanging with other nursery folks at our Indie garden center group I am getting an earful on a subject that is now on my radar. It seems this is an area where the independent garden center can make some headway against the standardization, and homogenization of our trade. What if the decline in interest in gardening was being helped along by these practices? They are breeding plants for better shipping? That’s what has happened to our vegetables, and look what that did. Now people are growing their own, and finding they taste a whole lot better.

This is just ridiculous. Remember when you buy plants from the box stores you are helping promote this type of thing. Individually smaller plant nurseries and garden centers don’t have the pull necessary to get stuff like this done. It’s the chains and box stores that are breeding the “Shazam” out of gardening. The only people fighting this are places like Annie’s, smaller locally owned operations, and their fans. Next time you think all the plants are the same no matter where you buy them, think again. It does matter where you buy your horticultural supplies.

Bill's comment say's it all

The Garden Gloves Come Off is an article appearing in The Wall Street Journal today. It concerns Home Depot and Lowe's ongoing battle to have the newest plant introductions. As the article states, "the weapons are scientifically altered versions of common flowering plants, engineered to bloom a little brighter or withstand benign neglect a little longer. Lowe's and Home Depot are locked in an annual arms race to discover and develop new plants—ideally as exclusives sold in only their stores."

There is an interesting thing I have started to notice with The Wall Street Journal, and other online publications.  This article is not one of them, but many of their articles are hidden behind "pay walls." They will start the article and then finish what you can see about a paragraph or two into it. If you want to see more you have to subscribe. So for those of us who refuse to subscribe we only get a taste of the article, unless you jump to the comments!

This is a phenomenon that is starting to show up at various publications that institute a pay wall.  By reading the comments of some who are regular contributors to the comment section you can get an overview of the article. If you have read the commenter's comments before, and trust what they say, you can get some real insight. Some of the comments are better than the article they are commenting on. You have to be selective and ignore the comments that are useless, and if you read the same publication regularly you get to know who to listen to.

So it was with great pleasure that I read through this article and saw the first comment by Bill Jung. I am not sure who Bill is, but independent locally owned garden centers owe him a big "thank you".

Bill say's, "Starting about 3 years ago, after I determined my success rate with plants purchased from either Lowe's or HomeDepot was 50-50, I bought more and more from the local independent nurseries and greenhouses where my success rate with the plant living and blooming increased to 90%. Sure those plants sold at the big boxes initailly looked great but within two weeks they faded and showed less vigor. Those purchased at the independents took off beautifully after two weeks and lasted all season long. I planted my first garden in 1959 and try to keep up with as much of the literature in horticulture and forestry as possible. I am not a novice gardener in my opinion. Many of my plants I start from seeds or cutting on my own.

I have since reduced all my purchases at either lowe's or HomeDepot and have since bought lumber and building materials at REAL LUMBERYARDS, major appliances at a real KITCHENAID DEALER, paint at a PITTSBURGH PAINT STORE, and my chainsaws and garden equipment at a STIHL DEALER. Soon I will be in the market for a JOHN DEERE lawn and garden tractor, I will buy it at a JOHN DEERE dealer. AS of last year, I won't even go into a bigbox to 'look around'. I don't have the time to waste.

Funny too, were the prices competitive if not better at the 'little guys'. I was getting perennials for a buck each at a grower's greenhouse whereas the comparable plants were priced at 3.98. 4.98 and 5.98 at the big boxes. Plus the people were trained horticulturists with degrees and were plant breeders too.

Maybe STIHL was onto something when they said you can only buy a new STIHL at a Stihl dealer and not a BIGBOX. Besides, I got tried of having the clerks tell me, 'You have to go to a LUMBERYARD for that'".

Thank you Bill!

Pay at scan for Independents

A question for the wholesale growers who sell to The Depot, and other chains. Why not offer the pay at scan deal to the independents? In case you don't know, wholesale growers who sell to the box stores are not paid until the plants they supply are sold at retail. If the plants don't sell they have to pick them up, and are not paid. It seems to me that most independents would take better care of the plants so there would be less pickups. You might think that once independents got a hold of this deal, they would allow the plants to go downhill and then just return them, like The Boxes. I doubt it though, since the condition of the plants is a big selling feature for the independents.

We have been told in the past to look to the boxes and other large chains like Target, to see how they operate.  We are told that there are ideas we as independents can use. Well, how about pay at scan for independents? Don't tell me that only the Big Boys can produce the volume to make this work. Apparently they can't.

As we end the year who knows what 2009 has in store? It will be a year of great change in the nursery business. I have a feeling we are going to see more large companies hitting the skids. There is just not enough volume to support all the wholesale operations. The ones that remain will need to figure out what "nursery industry" they want to service. I feel that the industry will continue to fragment. You cannot service the box stores and chains while still giving the service that independents require. You'll have to pick. If I we're a grower I would find out how to service the independents  and stick with them. Sure it means your company will be smaller, but it will be more nimble, and less effected by one or two large businesses.

I think 2009 will be a very, very, interesting year when it comes to the nursery industry. Maybe the most interesting any of us in the trade have seen for quite a while.

Happy New Year!