California florists are an "endangered species"

According to Hoy Carman, professor emeritus at The Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics at UC Davis, the retail florist trade in California is an “endangered species”.  A recent report put out by Carman details the loss of both florist and nurseries in California, and mentions the trades are in for some "rather basic structural changes" going forward.

The report states that the number of florists peaked in 2008 with 6,427 before dropping 25% to 4,798 in 2011. Total sales by California florists plunged nearly two-thirds in just three years while the sales by nurseries also dropped by 25%, with a partial recovery in 2010 and 2011.

Interestingly although sales by California florists dropped sharply during the recession, the change in farm sales of floral products “was much less dramatic” according to Carman. He attributes that to the rise of supermarkets and other outlets selling floral products.

Just as we have talked about before, traditional garden centers and florists will continue to see competition from other less traditional sources.  Soon, most florists and many garden shops will be like the local book store, nowhere to be found.

IKEA, maker culture, and hydroponics

We talked earlier about How the Competition May be Hard to Spot. Food growing has taken on a life of its own and everybody has new ideas and techniques they want to talk about. Eliooo is a book which describes how to make a hydroponic system for growing food from parts bought at the local IKEA.

Two huge takeaways for me are, the explosive growth of the “maker culture”, or DIY (Do it yourself) movement and the mainstreaming of hydroponics. Oh, and one other takeaway. This is all done without the need of a local garden center. It’s only a matter of time before IKEA seize on this and start selling vegetable plants. They already sell house plants.

When we first started talking about selling hydroponics here in July of 2008 it was considered esoteric and something only marijuana growers used.  No more! It’s going main stream and the problem for many garden shops is the people who are really interested in this stuff often think of places like IKEA, or Home Depot before they think of the local garden center.

The other important trend going on here is the "maker culture". The author of Eliooo, Antonio Scarponi says he wants to show how to make this out of stuff you may already have, or can buy cheaply.  How will you stay relevant when you need to sell "stuff" and these projects are more about ideas. How can you spread ideas and still make enough to stay in business? It will involve a new way of thinking and valuing what we do as horticultural professionals.