Posted by admin to media, nursery, nurseryman, retail on 2008-02-03, 10:31:17

These instructive words and more can be found in an article by Valerie Easton of The Seattle Times. Her article, “Word to Live By” talks about the importance of having a trustworthy nurseryman or woman available.

“There’s nothing as instructive as pumping a knowledgeable nursery person for information”, continues the article. Yes! I love reading stuff like this on a cold, rainy Sunday.

Posted by admin to Blogging, nurseryman, retail on 2008-02-01, 11:08:43

Per my last post I tried what Ian had suggested. It worked.

Posted by admin to Blogging, nursery, retail on 2008-02-01, 07:54:15

Here is an interesting piece on how to attract Generation X and Y to the garden center. It is written by Ian Baldwin, a well known nursery consultant. The piece I have linked to is written by a Generation X worker in the horticultural industry. Be sure to follow the links to read the original article by Ian.

One thing that stood out was Ian’s recommendation to, “write an active blog with your name all over it. You want their 24hour blog scan to pick up on key phrases like ‘party’, ‘puppies’, ‘new home’, ‘decorate’, ‘wellness’, ‘organic’, ‘fresh’, ‘first holiday at home’, and so on.” I don’t know about trying to fill the blog with key phrases to attract search engines. It’s easier to just write what’s on you mind, and let the story speak for it self. Never the less its good to see the value of blogs being recognized by the industry.

Posted by admin to The Big Boys, lifestyle, retail on 2008-01-25, 15:57:49

This is interesting yet not un-expected. Langeveld Bulb Co has filed for bankruptcy protection. Check out this quote, “many insiders are speculating that the closing is mostly the result of declining sales of bulbs, which are less popular with younger consumers, who want instant results in the garden.”

Yep, it’s those dang generation X and Y folks that are to blame. It appears that these two generational demographics are almost entirely responsible for the decline in our industry. It’s becoming fashionable for closing businesses to blame the younger generation. After all the older generations still support the garden industry, NOT!

I have noticed a decline in interest in bulbs for a number of years and it’s not just the younger generation. It’s also “Baby Boomers” who have other things to do with their time. It also explains the decline in bare root sales that I have been noticing over the years. Both bulbs and bare root are available in the winter when lots of folks just don’t get out in the garden anymore. Hey, if they want bulbs or fruit trees they figure we should have them in spring when they are doing their shopping.

I think the industry is so caught up in trying to appeal to Gen X and Y they are missing the big picture. Generation X and Y want to garden just as much or little as the other generations. They are the up and coming home owners who with a patch of ground want to see what they can grow on it. Most of the boomer generation is just as fickle with its gardening and would just as soon be skiing or traveling to warmer climates.

I think we need to quit trying to appeal to particular generations. Try instead appealing to people who are interested in gardening regardless of age. What with Urban Outfitters entering the gardening market we are all standing around just waiting to see the magic that they posses with these younger generations. It’s like we have to completely rethink gardening to appeal to these people. I like what the comments at the end of this post said. Don said this, “I read a lot of analysis about what “Gen X” and “Gen Y” wants, and I find a lot of it pretty patronizing.” I think a lot of generation X and Y think it’s a bit patronizing.

When all is said and done I think the decline in bulb sales is a result of all generations having a lot more that they can do with their time. It’s the big companies that have the most to loose since so much of their sales depend on a larger percentage of each generation buying their products. Let Home Depot, Hines Nurseries, and Scotts’ worry about this stuff. They pay people to worry. The smaller nursery can fine tune its message to gardeners of all ages. I only need 10% of each generation to find gardening interesting and jump in. Yes, it’s good to be small.

Posted by admin to nurseryman, retail on 2008-01-24, 09:03:11

It would seem that nursery workers have a image problem when I read stuff like this. In an article on punning in the Kitsap Sun Newspaper in Washington state an article on punning has this, “Poor quality anvil pruners are called the nurseryman’s best friend because they lead to so much plant death.” Ouch!

Now I realize that this is suppose to be funny since the idea is plant death leads to people having to replace the plants. That means more money for the nursery. So lets see, nursery folks are hoping you screw up because when you kill plants, you have to buy more.

This is how it works. I hope you buy some great quality Felco pruners so your pruning doesn’t kill the tree. That way you will be successful in your gardening ventures and want to continue, which means more money for the nursery. If you fail your more likely to give up on the whole gardening thing.

I can’t speak for all nursery people. Maybe some of us do think this way. But I can assure you the last thing I want is for you to fail at your punning. I want you to spend money on a great pair of shears and be successful.

Its funny how the we in the nursery business are thought of by some people. The author of the article just assumes that if the gardener fails they will run back to the nursery and spend more money. If that was the way it worked the industry wouldn’t be wringing its hands worrying about the future. And I would be selling cheap punning shears.

Posted by admin to nurseryman, retail on 2008-01-24, 09:03:11

It would seem that nursery workers have a image problem when I read stuff like this. In an article on punning in the Kitsap Sun Newspaper in Washington state an article on punning has this, “Poor quality anvil pruners are called the nurseryman’s best friend because they lead to so much plant death.” Ouch!

Now I realize that this is suppose to be funny since the idea is plant death leads to people having to replace the plants. That means more money for the nursery. So lets see, nursery folks are hoping you screw up because when you kill plants, you have to buy more.

This is how it works. I hope you buy some great quality Felco pruners so your pruning doesn’t kill the tree. That way you will be successful in your gardening ventures and want to continue, which means more money for the nursery. If you fail your more likely to give up on the whole gardening thing.

I can’t speak for all nursery people. Maybe some of us do think this way. But I can assure you the last thing I want is for you to fail at your punning. I want you to spend money on a great pair of shears and be successful.

Its funny how the we in the nursery business are thought of by some people. The author of the article just assumes that if the gardener fails they will run back to the nursery and spend more money. If that was the way it worked the industry wouldn’t be wringing its hands worrying about the future. And I would be selling cheap punning shears.

Posted by admin to The Big Boys, independent, nursery, retail on 2008-01-22, 08:24:37

If you think there is a disconnect between wholesale nurseries and retail this will just confirm that. Baileys Nurseries is offering a two-year guarantee for their new “Easy Elegance” Roses. According to their website “Easy Elegance Roses are so easy to grow that we guarantee your success. This limited guarantee covers all residential plantings for two full years from date of purchase and covers the following,
• Guarantee applies to residential use only.
• Limit of $60 or two roses per household.
• Guarantee does not cover damage from animals or roses over-wintered in containers.
• Roses can take some time to grow after a hard winter, so be patient. Guarantees are not accepted until after June 15th.
Just send us you name, address, receipt, plant tag and a photo of the rose in question…”

Baileys seems to think that’s what is keeping younger people from gardening more, a lack of guarantees. They found that Generation X, and Y find roses hard to grow. They equate roses with grandmas garden. Nothing about wanting a guarantee, just old fashioned, and hard to grow. So we are going to solve that by a guarantee. Let me see, I buy a rose and I am suppose to hold on to the receipt for two years, I can’t plant it in a container and over water it(which I guess means container gardening must be hard), but I guess if I over water it in the ground thats O.K. Only two roses? Why? If your going to guarantee the roses shouldn’t someone who has bought ten of them be entitled to the same guarantee?

This is where the disconnect between some wholesale nurseries and retail operations is growing. My customers do not want more guarantees, but the assurance that the plants they buy are in top condition and that we will be here if they need help. Why only guarantee the roses for two years? What about a lifetime guarantee? How about guaranteeing all the roses a home owner buys instead of just two. Why require the homeowner to deal direct from Bailey’s. Shouldn’t I be able to take the rose to the retail center where I purchased them and receive my refund or new roses? Do they guarantee the roses will live, or thrive? If they live, but don’t thrive as I thought they should, do I still get a refund. Why not give the guarantee to the retail nursery that actually bought the roses from the wholesaler?

Small retail garden center business need to understand that this kind of marketing only benefits the chain stores where this type of mentality reigns. We in the small garden center market are trying to get people interested in gardening, with all the risks and personal responsibility that entails. Who said gardening, or anything worthwhile was risk free? Shouldn’t we be encouraging people to make mistakes, learn from them, and jump back in?

Guarantees that have a list of requirements to follow before the guarantee can be enforced just don’t resonate with me. Maybe with the market that Bailey’s is targeting, but not with the customer I am working with. My customers get a lifetime one-conditional guarantee. The condition is they tell us how to prevent their dissatisfaction in the future. That’s it. They also don’t have to contact some grower to get the guarantee. They bought the plant from us, and they will deal with us. I’ll deal with the wholesale grower.

Posted by admin to independent, retail on 2008-01-20, 08:15:29

I wanted to write about why I think small is cool when it comes to business, especially the nursery business. I have friends, a couple who are not in the nursery business but another retail type business. They recently bought out another business so they now have three outlets. When things were good they were great, but now with the softening economy as well as the sub-prime mortgage mess, which hit their business hard, they are having second thoughts. He told me the other day that he admires us and our small operation, and wishes they hadn’t expanded to quick.

It started me to thinking about how as a small operation we are able to better handle different types of issues that come up for business. Right now with the softening of the economy and people not able to get money from their homes you can bet that business is holding its breath. Being a small operation if sales don’t match up to our wishes we can cut back without doing to much harm. We don’t have a lot of employees that will need to be laid off like Aquascapes. Monica and I do most of the work along with my daughter and one helper.

We can also make changes to our operation on a dime, whereas the bigger you become the harder it is to turn the ship in mid-course. My friends now have to decide weather to try and hang in there or close a store and lay off the employees. Just like Greg at Aquascapes said, laying off employees is one of the hardest things you will ever do. I don’t know for sure but I would guess some of Aquascapes problems stem from expanding the business a bit too fast.

I came across this post today over at the gaping void blog It’s about a Savile Row tailor and how his business has grown while staying small. It expresses exactly how I feel that a small garden center should proceed. The tailor and we both offer the best quality, have a niche clientel, and are committed to making the customer experience one of a kind. I like this from the post, “We commonly refer to the people who buy our suits as ‘customers’, though as the relationships deepen with time, that word no longer seems to do the relationship justice. Words like ‘allies’ or ‘partners in crime’ seem somehow more appropriate.”

There are plenty of examples of large business success. There is nothing wrong with growing and having multiple outlets. Its just not for me. I want to “grow” but not in a physical sense. Our two acres is plenty “large enough”. I was a part owner in a multi-unit operation and can tell you that while its exciting at first the headaches outweighed the benefits.

I want to have a nursery thats not known for its large physical size or the number of outlets but for its incredible “dollars per square foot” figures. The more you sell in a smaller space the higher your dollars made per square foot figure. This would be a sign of using the space to its greatest potential. When it comes to customers its not the volume of customers thats most important but the quality of customer, and the long- lived relationship that we will build with them.

As a small garden center owner I am proud to be small in physical size. I do however want to be HUGE when it comes to name recognition amongst my target audience. Thats where the Internet can come in so handy for the small business. Using the far reaching potential of this medium a small concern can get its message out, and build its brand into a international one without going back on its values. What an exciting time to be a small business. Small is cool!

Posted by admin to Blogging, Small is Cool, independent, nursery, nurseryman, retail on 2008-01-12, 09:00:31

My blog, which started as just a way for me to talk to my potential customers as blossomed into something more. I realized this after someone ended up at my site after Googgling “we want to start a nursery”. Low and behold it is, as of this writing the first site to show up. I have been getting more and more interest from people who want to know what it means to start and run a small nursery or garden center. Of course I am still trying to figure that out, but I do realize that some of the stuff I take for granted is of great interest to someone just starting out.

This year I am going to try and give you a feel for what some of the day to day issues that come up in a small garden center are. Maybe it will help you decide if this business is right for you. I don’t have all the answers. No nursery person does. Its through sharing that we will all be more successful in our efforts. I have received invaluable advice from this blog. Fellow nuserypeople as well as enthusiastic gardeners have given me advice as well as inspiration which we have acted on. Being open this spring seven days a week was one such result of reader feedback.

I invite everyone to participate. If you are a gardener but don’t feel your ideas would be appreciated by a professional, you are wrong! Its your advice that I need to help design a better garden center experience. I also appreciate professional advice from people who have been where I find myself now in my garden center career. Realize that while I appreciate your advice there are others who are visiting this blog who are also listening and learning. By helping me you will be helping lots of people who still find this profession interesting and worth while. The challenges are many but through our “connection” we will be able to meet those challenges and enthusiastically work together to create the “garden scene” of the future. I see a gardening revolution taking place as we speak! Revolutions are generally messy and uncertain, but at the other end I see a stronger “garden scene” that we will all remember because we we’re there at the Renaissance.

All right, enough of that. Monica is giving me that look that says “get off that computer and let’s get to work”. It’s off to the first working day of the new year. Cheers!

Posted by admin to Blogging, retail on 2008-01-10, 09:13:36

Over at Garden Rant Amy has posted a survey asking “who are Garden Rant Readers?” Head on over and take the survey.

Amy, one of the writers for Garden Rant was nice enough to mention my blog in her latest post. Needless to say I am excited and proud that she actually reads my blog. Nothing strokes a bloggers ego more than being mentioned by another blogger, especially one who I have always looked to as an example of a great writer. Amy has her own blog and it was there where she caught wind of my blog a couple of years ago, and posted on it. That was where I found out about the larger world of garden blogging, which I wasn’t aware of then and I thank Amy for that.

I am passionate about business blogs. If you have a business and are not blogging I think you are missing out. Small business especially can benefit from the conversation that blogging brings. Its a way to let your customers and potential customers know about who you are and what your business is all about. It gives the small business a equal footing with the big players, as they hardly ever will be able to blog in a really honest and open way. Corporate culture just won’t allow the honesty necessary to produce an interesting blog. There are to many “secrets” that can’t be reveled.

The future of business, especially small business is in not having any secrets. The customer we are trying to attract wants to know more about the business they shop at. They want to make sure that the money they spend not only buys the “stuff” they want but also supports the type of business they like. Blogs are a way to let the customer know what the business stands for. Its also a way for the customer to respond, as long as you allow comments.

The future of small business is to reduce the feeling of “us” (business) and “them” (customers), and increase the felling of “we”. Small business needs customers who will spread the word about the great new business they have discovered. One way to help spread that word is through a business blog. When I Google a business I am interested in I look to see if there is a blog and check that out. Its generally less buttoned down than the company web site, and a more honest look at who runs the company.

Now that I have been blogging for a few years I am starting to see a lot more horticultural professionals visiting my blog. This is cool as our industry tends to be a bit slow when it comes to change. Never the less I have built this blog on my relationship with non-professional gardeners. They are the customers that give me the vital feedback to build our business. They may not actually ever visit my “physical” location, but I consider them my customers never the less.

P.S. The above picture was one of the last of our vacation. We really enjoyed our coastal adventure from L.A. to S.F. It has rejuvenated us and now we are actually looking forward to getting back to work.