The USDA has released their new zone map of the country. The first new map since 1990, and some zones have been changed. Maragret Roach explains the nuances of the changes at "A Way to Garden".
Out west we use The Sunset Western Garden Zones, which are much more detailed than the USDA zoning, accounting for hills, valleys, and micro-climates. According to Sunset we are in zone 7, while according to the USDA we are in zone 8B. Seems that always confuses newer gardeners out here.
This February 8th I'll be holding a workshop on "Social Media is the New Village Square-Where Do You Fit In?". The workshop is held at The Pro-Green Expo in Denver, Colorado. We will discuss the use of social media in your marketing. Most importantly we discuss how to get your customers to spread the word of your wonderfulness. That's really the key to social media, make or do something wonderful and give your customers a method to spread the word.
This is the latest is a series of workshops and talks I have been holding for the trade. If your interested in having me put on a workshop, talk at your event, or train you or your staff on how to use the available social media platforms, contact me.
Rarely do I buy magazines. However the latest issue of Fast Company caught my eye. The cover story is "This Is Generation Flux, Meet The Pioneers Of The New (And Chaotic) Frontier Of Businesses". According to the article, "the future of business is pure chaos. Here's how you can survive--and perhaps even thrive." We read interviews from various people who are managing to survive and thrive in the new business climate.
The nursery trade is obsessed with how to appeal to a younger demographic. What's cool about Generation Flux is it's not age based, like Generation X, Y, or "The Baby Boomers". You can be any age, and be a member of Generation Flux. It's not just about the fast changing business climate, but the whole changing at the speed of light world we find ourselves in. You can be 20 or 60, and still be a member of this inclusive generation. Generation Flux ties together differing generations, while labels like Generation X are exclusive to someone born during that period.
I am growing weary of the supposed divides between differing generations. We are all trying to feel our way through this new world, older and younger together. What binds us is a willingness to accept the challenges, and change when necessary. Sure, it can be harder for the older members of this tribe to make those changes, but try they must. Easy or hard, change is coming and how you respond is what matters, not your age. Welcome to Generation Flux.
Wanted to pass along some advice I received via Doug Greens Blog. Well, it's actually not written to me, but it could have been. Doug Green is one of Canada’s most-published garden writer's. The title of Doug's latest post is, 4 Bits of Advice for A New Writer. I have been looking to do more with my writing, so the subject is timely. Self-publishing is changing the world. For the first time someone can publish their own books without the assorted baggage that comes with going through a legacy publisher. You have control, which can be a scary thing, but also liberating. It's going to revitalize the book industry, and breathe life into the writers profession.
Doug has done much of the ground work in his own publishing efforts, so its great to learn from someone who is walking the talk. I wasn't going to post today but I followed Doug's advice. If you have thought about self-publishing, or taking your writing to the next level read Doug's post. Be sure to read the comments at Doug's blog for even more information.
History and horticulture are two passions of mine. Someone who shares that passion is Paige Johnson, who authors the blog "Garden History Girl". She also has a masters degree in garden history, which is very cool.
Her latest post is titled, "The Cabbage that is King: Brassica oleracae longata" It's "the curious case of the seven-foot tall cabbage, which brought two seedsellers and one Reverend Laycock of Hampshire into Westminster County Court in 1898." Mis-represented seed, lawsuits, The Canary Islands, 16' tall cabbages, and the unusual reason they we're grown for originally.
Garden History Girl has many interesting posts concerning horticulture and history. As we ponder the future of gardening and it's place in our lives it's fun to see how much things have changed, and in many cases how little.
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.
"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.
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."
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."
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
