Big problems in "Busy Lizzy" land

One of the most popular flowers grown in greenhouses in The Impatiens.  Known lovingly as "Busy Lizzie's", these plants make up a huge proportion of the flowers grown in greenhouses for retail sale in spring. Imagine being a grower that depends on this flower to make ends meet, and you find out that a new disease is threatening your crop. The disease, Plasmopara obducens, is also known as "Impatiens downy mildew".  In 2011 the disease was confirmed in coastal southern California, northeast Illinois, northern Indiana, the Twin Cities region of Minnesota, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Long Island, and upstate New York. If you’re in those regions, keep an eye out for the disease. Green Profit, a trade magazine tells us what growers will be looking for in the greenhouses.

"• Lightly chlorotic or stippled leaves. Subtle gray markings may also appear on the upper leaf surface. • Leaves may turn downward from the leaf margins. • A white, downy growth may be present on the underside of affected leaves. "

This disease is so serious that Thompson & Morgan, a larger seed company won't even be offering Impatiens this year. According to their website, "Thompson & Morgan has decided to drop all walleriana types (as this is the only strain that succumbs to the mildew) from the range. With sales in excess of £1,000,000 it would have been an all too easy for us to carry on offering our best selling bedding plant, but we want our customers to be completely satisfied."

This disease only affects the "Walleriana" type of Impatiens.  "New Guinea" impatiens are highly tolerant of the disease and should not be confused with the "Walleriana" (Busy Lizzie) types. A big issue with this disease is  it often does not manifest itself in  the greenhouse, but later in the customers garden. A lot like the Late Blight of Tomatoes that occurred in 2009.

Green Profit has this advice for anyone thinking of selling Impatiens at their garden center this year. "The phrase 'What they don’t know can’t hurt ’em' is not applicable here. In fact, it could end up hurting you. Customers who find impatiens downy mildew on their plants after purchase—whether it’s in baskets or beds—will likely assume your business is at fault. 'What, me go back to Joe’s Greenhouses? They sold me those bum impatiens.' Not what you want happening." Here is what garden centers should do for their customers according to Green Profit,

"Inform the customer of: • the disease’s existence, especially if the disease has been verified in or near your region. • the symptoms (leaf yellowing and premature leaf and flower drop) to watch for. • that although plants may be healthy when they leave the garden center, they could become infected once planted into the landscape, with the risk of susceptibility being higher in beds with a previous history of the disease. • its higher incidence of occurring in locations that are heavily shaded, densely planted and stay moist for long times. • planting measures that could lower the likelihood of the impatiens downy mildew—and diseases, in general. "

If you live in one of the affected areas check out your local garden center, and see what advice they are or will be offering this spring. Garden centers that have worked hard to build trust with their customers will be honest and forthright, explaining the issue and possible solutions. It will be interesting to see how garden centers, growers, and the individual gardener respond to this issue come spring, and summer.

The health benefits of antique apples

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away". Some apples may outperform others when it comes to the healthy benefits. According to research from The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, modern day apples strip away many of the health benefits of eating apples. Through years of hybridizing we have created more adaptable and sweeter fruit, but fruit that is not as healthy.

One of the benefits of heirloom apples is they help control blood sugar levels, which some have found contribute to obesity. Can it be that the so called "healthy" modern day apple, bred for ever increasing sweetness, is spiking blood sugar levels and contributing to obesity?

Are people ready to embrace growing heirloom apples like they have heirloom vegetables? There are many hybrids that are excellent fruit, and have increased adaptability to differing climatic and soil conditions. However, it's fun to think that these old apple varieties have something going for them that has kept them on the radar all these years.

Do we need to have progressively sweeter and sweeter food to just get people to eat fruit and vegetables? Through breeding  have we sweetened the taste, but lost many of the health benefits of the  fruit our grandparents ate?

Some food for thought.

Build your brand!

There seems to be a lot of talk these days about the branding of plants.  The following was a post I wrote in 2006 about building your own brand first. I think it still applies, and maybe even more so these days.  Some of the links on the old post don't work. "Carol made a comment at my last post on Scott's.  She said 'Well, I guess Scott's must still think the independents are worth partnering with, still viable in the marketplace, still worthy of attention, so maybe that is good news?'

Yes, it is good news. We have never thought that independent nurseries were going to go away. We believe that the number of independent nurseries will fall, but the remaining ones should be better able to differentiate themselves from "The Boxes", and better follow their own "independent streak".

It"s that independent streak that needs to be nourished. It's so easy to fall into the trap of trying to please all the potential customers out there. A couple of people ask about Miracle-gro or Scott's Turf Builder and most garden centers will carry them to keep those people from shopping elsewhere. Don't want to loose a sale. Scott's wants to saturate the gardening public with its products like Nike does with sports. Chains, boxes, independents, or hardware stores, they all carry the stuff. It's a smart business move, and the reason Scott's is such a powerful brand.

What we would like to see is true independence. There are plenty of products out there that do as good or better job than Scott's. Find those and give people a choice. While 70% of the gardening public will always shop the big brands the other 30% would love to try something different, for a variety of reasons. We are an independent, not a chain store. Why carry chain store products?

We don't carry much that you will find in a box store. Most of my plants, fertilizer, soil amendments, and garden accessories won't be found in box stores. My suppliers have made a conscious effort to stick by the independents and we support them. They do not try to sell to both independents and chains. It's hard to please both kinds of customers. Maybe Scott's will pull it off, but I just don't know.

Large brands like Scott's, Hines, Bayer, and others belong in large brands like Home Depot, Lowe's, K-mart, and Wall Mart. They are for the 70% of the gardening public that will not be your best independent nursery customer. Focus on the 30% that are looking for something different. Having Scott's products on your shelf won't help in branding your small nursery.

Scott's products are not bad. They are better than many others being sold, and it shows in Scott's growth. We just feel that if you're going to travel the independent garden center route you ought to quickly differentiate yourself in the marketplace, and carrying what everyone else has won't do it."

Big changes for two nursery trade organizations

This is not unexpected, but points out the huge changes the garden business trades are experiencing. According to an article in Garden Center Magazine, "OFA—The Association of Horticulture Professionals and the American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA) are responding to industry challenges head-on together. The two national organizations are expanding on previous collaborations and forming a joint venture that involves sharing resources, including appropriate staff, to expand the capacity of the organizations to better support our members and advocate the horticultural industry's interests before government and the general public." While the two organizations are not merging at this time the article continues. "This is not a merger, but in several years, if both organizations see the joint venture as a value to our members and further collaboration will better serve you and the industry, the intention is to form a new, single premier horticulture organization serving North America."

Are we the "green industry"?

Over at Garden Rant, Elizabeth's say's, "In 2012, it would be nice if..." then lists some of her wishes for the new year. One wish is, "Independent Garden Centers Would Stop Whining  About The Box Stores." Agree or disagree, it's something those of us in the trade are aware of. What caught my eye today however was  the last comment after the post. Tara, a regular commenter at Rant say's, "Nothing green-eco-friendly about the annual industry. (Green houses, heating, cooling, petroleum made packaging, transportation, insecticides, fungicides, fertilizer, man-made soil, irrigation & etc)."  Interesting observation.

Are we as green as we think, and does the public think along those lines also?  Is there a contradiction with a  garden center that say's it's "green", all the while carrying annuals and other plants produced at large greenhouse operations, as Tara describes?  Is there a marketing opportunity for garden business that actively advertise that they don't carry these plants?  Interesting, and further evidence that the trade is fragmenting along different paths.

Still rings true

2011 is the year that many garden companies fully embraced social media as a component of their marketing efforts.  Conventional advertising such as the newspaper or radio just don't offer the same results that social media offers. In the gardening trade there is no longer the feeling that was prevalent just 5 or 6 years ago that social media has little bearing on the trade, or your business. I pulled up one of my blog posts from 2006, "Garden Center Magazine Interview".  Is it still relevant? While you could substitute the term  "social media" for the term "blog", in my mind the post still rings true.  A link to the post is below.

Thanks for stopping by all these years and joining in the conversation. Happy New Year!

Garden Center Magazine Interview here.

A place for growers and vendors of IGC's

Are you a grower or vendor who is interested in meeting with retail garden centers, as well as garden media? We have a group for you.  In a not sales oriented site, but a place where we can work together to build a stronger relationship.  It's like a giant Rolodex (remember those?) of all the important people in the trade. Of course you can do business away from the site, but it's refreshing to be able to throw out questions, and get answers you wouldn't have elsewhere.

If your a vendor, grower, or in garden media (garden bloggers included) our Facebook site "Retail Independent Garden Centers, Vendors, and Media" is the place for you.  Join here.

A game changing trend

With all the talk about how to use social media one trend has emerged that has the potential to change the garden center trade more than any other. It's not the use of social media by the garden center as a tactic in their marketing efforts. It's the use of social media as a business to business tool.

This instant communication between garden centers has the potential to completely disrupt the way things are currently done.  Most recently The Dig, Drop, and Done campaign was "dropped" on us by the the Royal Trade Association for Nursery Stock and Flower Bulbs headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This 1.9 million dollar effort was designed by a PR Media company to promote the use of bulbs in the  garden. In the past it would have rolled out with great fanfare and never received any critical feedback from garden centers or nurseries. This time it was rolled out, and immediately critiqued by the trade.

This posses great problems for businesses that have in the past played the role of  "information gate keepers". What happens when the gates have been thrown open? Suddenly ideas that in the past would have been rubber stamped "approved" are put under a critical microscope. Money that once would have been thrown at advertising campaigns is now questioned. Companies that operated in  less than desirable ways are now exposed for all to see. Treat one customer poorly and all your other customers find out. The reveres is true. Treat your customers great and the next thing you know, others want your services.

This is exciting, as it has the potential to create marketing campaigns that actually work, since they have been designed by the very people they will most affect.  Is that wholesale company treating you differently than it's other customers? Now you can find out from your fellow nursery people. What do you think of selling plants online? Ask, and next thing you know your hearing from people who have been selling plants online and know the ins and outs. Is that gross margin on Christmas trees inline with the rest of the trade? QR codes really that big a deal? "We're all bombarded with being 'green' and 'sustainable'. How are you responding in your business practices? What education do you offer your customers/staff/suppliers?" Within two days 25 responses from fellow business people.

Get on the one trend that has the most potential to really change your business. It's the use of social media between like minded businesses. It's also a great training ground for your forays into customer based social media.  The only place for this type of interaction is here. It's on Facebook, and it is The Independent Garden Center and Nurseries (IGCN) page. You need to be an owner or employee of a Independent Garden Center or Nursery. Ask to join and usually within a couple of days your in. IGCN Group.

A magical day

Today is a magical day. Science, and Wikipedia would tell us it's the day when, "the axial tilt of a planet's polar hemisphere is farthest away from the star that it orbits." Yes, we are that planet, and the star, our sun.  It's the Winter solstice and the beginning of winter.

Back in the day, and even today in many regions this time is, " immensely important because communities were not certain of living through the winter, and had to be prepared during the previous nine months...most cattle were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter, so it was almost the only time of year when a supply of fresh meat was available. The majority of wine and beer made during the year was finally fermented and ready for drinking at this time."

As a nurseyman who leaves work at the end of the day in the dark, it means everyday will be just slightly brighter at closing time. Just that thought is enough to raise ones spirits! You look forward to spring when the days will finally start becoming longer, and business begins to pick up. There are not many trades that are tied into the seasons quite like horticulture.

We underestimate the importance of the season.  We feel immune from such seemingly trivial information as the changing of the season. We work and live inside where lights turn night into day and our only connection to the season is the call by desperate businesses to "shop, shop, shop".  I guess the shopping thing harkens back to our need to hoard stuff to get us through the "famine season" (winter).

It's a mistake for our trade to abandon so much of the magic that horticulture entails. We use to speak of plants using a language long thought dead, Latin. We use to encourage people to plant fruit trees in the winter (bare root season)when they are dormant. Now we pot them so people don't have to think ahead, but rather pick them up while spring shopping. Latin? Too much for customers to deal with. We seemingly don't have to worry about how we are going to feed ourselves during the upcoming winter. Someone else has done that for us. Hungry? Head to the grocery and pick up some asparagus flown in  from Chile, where it's the Summer Solstice.

We have reached the depths of darkness and now we begin our slow return to light.  To those who garden or deal with the weather and seasons daily, enjoy the magic that is today. It gets brighter from here. Cheers!

No cup for you!

A story about lousy customer service from a small town merchant.

Monica and I we're in Nevada City yesterday. It's Victorian Christmas, a huge celebration designed to get people in the mood, and shopping. As we wondered through town we saw a coffee cup displayed in the window of a small shop. It had a design, a dog carrying a basket. It  has  a name, "Doggie Do-Good".  It was identical to a cup Monica and I had when first met. Lot's of sentimental value. So we wonder in and ask the man inside "how much is that doggie cup in the window?" He doesn't know so he get's the boss.  The boss doesn't know. We asked if they had anymore in the store? No, said the man, it hadn't sold so we moved it to the display in the window to get some attention.  Great! So how much is it?. The manager said that if he sold it, the display would be ruined. He then walked away.

We we're left looking at each other dumbfounded. It didn't sell in back of the store, they move it to the window display so it might sell, and when asked to sell it refuse, because it's too much trouble.

Small store, small town.  It doesn't matter the size of the store, or whether it's locally owned or not. Customer service can be lousy anywhere.  Oh, and it's available at ebay for $14.99, used! At least they know the price.

Don't Support Your Local Bookstore (or garden center)

I often feel like garden centers are up against much of the same issues as book stores. Having grown up in smaller, indie bookstores (that's all there once was), I find this post, "Don't support Your Local Bookseller" at Slate interesting.  Could the same things be said about your local garden center? How would you respond to a post titled, "Don't Support Your local Garden Center"? Interesting reading with one commenter saying that, "indie bookstores are like indie record stores (or indie garden centers)— they’re either great, or lousy, without much in-between. When the staff is composed of hipsters (experts) who look down on customers, they’re lousy". What say you?

Watching the Trend Watchers

A  post by fellow nurseryman Greg Draiss at Garden Center Magazine will get you stirring this morning.  Greg takes issue with some of the trend reports we receive every year. Head on over and see if you agree or dis-agree. Are you a Generation X or Y? Greg lays it out concerning appealing to this demographic.  Trends that we are told are hot, according to Greg, are not.

Agree, or dis-agree its thought provoking.  You can find the article here. 

Quit trying to please me!

Over at Garden Center Magazine they are talking trends in the garden center world. I enjoy reading this stuff whether I agree or not. It helps open your mind, and think about stuff beyond today. At the same time I hate trend reports!  Is that weird? My feeling has always been to start the trends, don't follow them.  So I find myself interested, yet jaded and skeptical. Turns out I am not alone.

Read the side bar at the Garden Center article titled, "Gen X customers demand a genuine retail experience".  I read a quote from a Gen. X on a Facebook post the other day. They said, "In this season of new-found 'political correctness', I am completely offended and infuriated by your attempts not to offend me. Therefore, I'll be boycotting as many of you as possible."

Until our trade quits obsessing over trying to "be cool", we'll never be cool. Quit trying to please me, and instead perform your craft or trade with the best of your ability.  That's cool.

Wanted: "Change Agents"

Are your in the garden center business? Are you interested in becoming involved with other "change agents" in our trade? Do you find some organizations to "top-heavy" with no real interaction amongst the members? I do, and have found the solution. It's the most active garden business page I have found on Facebook, Independent Garden Centers & Nurseries. To join you need to be working at, or own a retail garden center or nursery. The size of the nursery is not important, but rather the size of your ideas that matters. You'll get more information, in a quicker format than any other place, or event. No top down hierarchy to water things down. No advertising. No mass merchants. No vendors. No wholesale growers. Cost? Your time. Results, usually within minutes. We are now an international group with members from Europe joining in.

Just yesterday someone in our group asked, "How are Christmas Tree Sales so far?". This morning there are 22 comments. Real time results. Another member the day before asks, "Have any of you relocated your business from an out of the way location to a better location?" 16 comments by the end of the day. Again, nowhere is there this kind of interaction in our trade on any other trade media page.

Why do we get results? The people on the page WANT to be there. It's not about "being a member", but rather seeing results. Many of our members have mentioned how the ideas that have been discussed on the page, when implemented have produced positive outcomes.

If you feel like your just not getting the results you would like from your current efforts, join us and make a difference. Go to our Facebook Page, ask to join, and be patient. It takes three days to be accepted, but it's worth the wait. You'll be amongst others who see things a little differently than the mainstream.

Buy Quality, Made In America

The shopping season approaches and the seasonal call to buy "Made in America" is heard, this time from ABC news. "Made in America Christmas:Are you in?" asks us to spend just $64 on stuff made in America. Supposedly this will help save 200,000 jobs. Why they figure spending $64 on made in America will save 200,000 jobs is questionable. I guess they needed a big number and that one came up. No explanation how this will save that number of jobs, but who needs facts or figures? No, just tell us how you plan to spend that $64.

Here is the thing. I am not going to buy made in America if it's not a great product. That's what I dislike about efforts like American Expresses Small Business Saturday, or this Buy America effort. Just because it's a local business doesn't mean it's a good business. Just because it's "Made in America" doesn't mean it's a good product. If my locally owned business sells stuff imported from England, what do I do?

Bottom line is, make a better product, provide a better service, at a cost people are willing to pay and you will be successful. I am not sure how many products my local Target carries that are made in America, but I couldn't find any. It is actually quite depressing to walk through any of our major retailers these days looking for "Made in America". What happens if your efforts to "Buy American" causes Target to lay off employees? How does that help the community?

We recently bought an All-American Pressure Cooker for our new hobby, canning. While being American made was a factor, the deciding factor was it's the BEST pressure cooker out there. If it had poor rating, or reputation we would have bought a different brand. I am proud to support "Quality, Made In America".

The way forward is to become a nation of "makers", instead of just takers. We need to make a better product, at a price that the customer will pay. It's that simple. Here is an interesting nugget from the Wall Street Journal Article linked to above, "Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees." I am not criticizing government worker's. My Dad worked in city government all his life. It's just the place we find ourselves today.

If we want people to really get behind the "Made in America" effort we need to build better stuff, at a price people feel gives them value. We could call it, "Buy Quality, American Made"