Monrovia Nursery's latest scheme

Monrovia Nurseries has come up with yet a new scheme they hope independent garden centers (IGC's) will jump on. According to Garden Centers Magazine,“Monrovia Nursery is launching an e-commerce website by mid-January 2014, and consumers will be able to buy plants directly from the company. But Monrovia won’t ship the purchased plants to gardeners’ homes. Instead, the California-based nursery will deliver the plants to participating independent garden centers, which will then distribute them to customers.”

The customer chooses the plants at the Monrovia website. The plants are pre-priced according to what Monrovia feels is an “appropriate retail price”. The plants are then shipped to the local IGC for pick-up by the end customer. According to David Kirby, vice president of sales at Monrovia,“The plants will be delivered directly to the stores, and the garden centers will receive the normal retail markup from the sale. Once consumers purchase the plants, they’ll receive a message indicating that Monrovia will ship them to the local IGC once they have finished growing and are in prime condition. The plants will be delivered between March and May, have a label with the gardener’s name, a thank you tag and a fresh, clean container.”

Of course Monrovia hopes IGC’s will jump on board with this. It was IGC’s who tried to help Monrovia out of a jam just a couple of years ago, but to no avail. Monrovia threatened to go out of business or into the chain and box stores if IGC's didn't buy more plants. Many IGC’s did buy extra plant stock, but to no avail. Turns out Monrovia had been planning on going into the chain stores all along, and used the IGC’s long standing relationship of support to sell a few more plants. Monrovia eventually headed to Home Depot. These day's they sell their plants through Lowe's.  Why wouldn't Monrovia eventually just sell and ship the plants directly to the end customer, keeping all the profit?

I have followed and reported on Monrovia for years. Monrovia is doing exactly what is to be expected these days as the horticultural trade continues to fragment, and shrink. It's the future, and it would be unwise of them not to at least look into it. However, expecting the (IGC) to help them out again? Seems a bit of a reach. How does that saying go? “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me”.

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.

Where the "new plant" action is

According to the American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA) the winner of the "Garden Idol 2012" award is "The Scallywag Holly" from Monrovia Growers. The Garden Idol awards are are held at The ANLA annual clinic and are for what attendees think is the best new plant introduction of the year. Each grower presents their new introduction, with some presenters putting on quite a show.  In the case of Scallywag Holly, Monrovia Growers put on a skit complete with pirate gear and song. It can be viewed here.

While the presentation by The Monrovia staff in their pirate gear is great, no amount of "song and grog" will change the fact that the winner is a holly. What are the outstanding attributes of this plant? Here is the description according to Monrovia. "Ahoy Maties! "X" marks the spot for this four foot, dense, Ilex Scallywag. This is your next garden treasure that is sure to bring in lots of loot. This will make all other dwarf hollies walk the plank. An exciting discovery, this attractive sport of Little Rascal® Holly is a more upright grower, still having a dense, rounded form. Shiny dark green foliage takes on attractive purple-burgundy tone in fall and winter. A wonderful foundation shrub with improved disease resistance. This male holly will not produce berries; use as a pollinator." Yarrrr, a pollinator.

If "Scallywag Holly" doesn't have you running to the local garden center, what will? How about  a local grower who is crossing various heirloom tomatoes to get new varieties? Wild Boar Farms is "Located 40 miles North-East of Berkeley bordering Napa County to the East is the Suisun Valley which is located in Solano County". Check out this page with pictures of all the new tomato varieties. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the future of garden diversity is in the hands of the amateur and small gardener. Wild Boar Farms currently sells to restaurants around The Bay Area. "'Wild Boar Farm's Tomatoes are Beautiful and Flavorful. They're Tomatoes You'll Never Forget'. The Office and Staff of Alice Waters at Chez Panisse". Wild Boar Farms is starting to sell their seedlings to smaller, local garden centers. Now that's exciting!

From the pictures and description I cannot attest to how "exciting" Scallywag Holly is, nor have I tried any of the tomatoes from Wild Boar Farms. It just seems that the action in the gardening world is increasingly in the hands of the smaller operations who are not afraid to take chances, or have no other choice but to take chances. Look for the real exciting stuff in gardening to come from the smaller players in the corners, when you least expect it!

Right on Dana!

I wanted to highlight a comment made at my post "Jamie Durie say's..." Dana Stenger, of  Pike Nursery in Atlanta gives her view as to the mash-up of businesses and personalities we discussed.

Here is the comment:

"Right again, Sir! I just gave my two cents on this issue on the blog at Today’s Garden Center recently; Home Depot To Open Detached Garden Center.  (here is the link) This is all about the subliminal message that is screaming to the IGC consumer as a result of this powerhouse marketing relationship. Whether Lowe’s sells Monrovia or not doesn’t matter, Jamie Durie is the face of Monrovia and they will assume that Monrovia’s product is on the shelf–that gets them in the door and pulls them away from the IGC. From there, if dissatisfied, they will toddle across the street to Home Depot since both feed off of one another. IGC’s that are sleeping will be left in their wake. The writing is on the wall and has been for some time. Because of the humanistic tendency to default to the 'Normalcy Bias', the IGC owner will become confused and immobile, unable to move forward; only capable of pulling on experiences from the past rendering them unarmed and helpless. I am seeing this right now on many levels and I’m sure you are too. These are the new deep, deep waters of commerce where you can’t touch the bottom and you can’t see the surface but you have to keep functioning at optimum levels—and they most certainly will prove lethal to the leaders who lack the vision to see what’s coming or the ability to process information and quickly pivot in order to avoid losing their companies. Keep ringing the bell Trey, in the end when it’s all said and done, none will be able to say you didn’t warn them. Carry on!"

Right on Dana!

In addition I have been receiving great comments concerning my post, "Guess who is not coming to your flower show". Scroll to the bottom for the comments, and the great back and forth between Gen X and the older generation.  Some real good stuff that can benefit those who can look beyond their generational prejudices, and work together to keep the local owned garden center alive and thriving.

Monrovia not selling to Lowe's

Received a call from Bob Smiland of Monrovia Nursery. He tell's me Monrovia does sell to Home Depot, a little to Costco, but does not sell to Lowe's.  He did mention a couple of other chains, but I can not remember which ones.  I am awaiting an e-mail, and then might be able to clarify who they are.  What got his attention was my post concerning Jamie Durie, "Jamie Say's..." In that post we talked about how Jamie works for Monrovia, while at the same time working for Lowe's, where I said he would have access to Monrovia's plants. Well if Monrovia doesn't sell to Lowe's then he won't be able to get his plants there! My mistake, hence this post. I appreciate Bob taking the time to clear this up.

Jamie Durie say's...

This is interesting. Jamie Durie is the host of an HGTV show titled, "The Outdoor Room".  He also works for Monrovia Nursery as a spokesman for Monrovia plants on HGTV. As many of you know Monrovia has started selling plants to the box stores, which includes Lowe's Home Improvement Stores. I just received a link to this webcast site put out by Lowe's.  It say's Jamie will now be helping Lowe's "get your garden ready for spring". It will be convenient for Jamie, as he will have ready access to Monrovia plants while shooting at Lowe's.

The nursery trade is changing at lightning speed. The people that once championed the locally owned garden center are now focused on where the money is. The box stores, and their suppliers are now teaming up with social media PR companies to push the message that you can get quality plants, endorsed by well known figures, on well know home improvement channels, at the local box stores."

Where is the locally owned garden center in all this? You tell me.