A Letter to Independent Garden Center Owners

Here's a rant from Barbara Pintozzii/Mr. McGregor's Daughter. UPDATE: I have moved this post up because the discussion is great and I hope more will join in. Also, please see Trey/Blogging Nurseryman's recent posts for more great talk about IGCs.

Dear Independent Garden Center (IGC) Owner:

I want to make it clear right away, I love IGCs.  They're among my favorite places to visit on earth. I get a bit of a high while wandering through a great garden center. I have just one complaint, and it's a deal-breaker.  At the IGC show a couple weeks ago, Raymond Evison ignored the title of his "Five Trends from Chelsea" presentation to assert that there was only one trend: quality.  I couldn't agree more.

 

 

It doesn't matter if you provide free snacks and coffee, have the most stunning displays, are up on the latest trends, or have the biggest selection of plants, if the plants you have lack quality, you're not going to make it.  I don't care if you have plants normally available only in England, I am not going to buy them if they won't survive the planting.

Consumers will pay for quality, even in a down market, because quality saves money in the long run.  For example, it costs more to buy cheap annuals, have them die, and replace them than it does to pay a little more for the same plants that have received better care. I lost a zucchini in July because it was pot-bound when I purchased it, and the roots never expanded into the soil in the container.

There's no excuse to offer for sale plants with weeds in the pots.  I'm not talking about a little ground sorrel here.  I'm talking weeds that rival the plant itself.

 

There's also no excuse for offering stressed plants for sale at full price.

While the failure to pot up perennials and woody plants is understandable, the extra cost should be expended.  A pot-bound plant may take years to recover.

I talked with representatives from companies that require their plant product to be sold in distinctive containers.  One had no answer to my question of what an IGC should do if one of their plants needed to be moved to a larger container.  The other, Proven Winners, informed me that the IGC should send the plant back to the wholesaler for potting up.

Evison suggested that IGCs could avoid this problem by buying smaller amounts of plant material more frequently.  I've talked with gardeners who buy from the big box stores. They buy only when "the truck" has just come in.  IGCs need to follow the gardeners' lead and Evison's advice on this. Yes, you'll pay more in transportation costs, but you'll have less leftover inventory and happier customers.

An IGC near me is closing.  Some people say it's because of the big Menard's that went in next door. I disagree.  I did not patronize this IGC because it didn't have quality plants.  Every year I visited, hoping to see a change, and every day I was disappointed. There were still big weeds in the pots, some of the plants near the back of the bench clearly hadn't been watered, and others looked stressed.  I did not recommend this IGC, nor mention it on my blog.

I love IGCs, and I will happily name them and recommend them if they carry quality plants.  Heck, I'll even list them on my local resources page.  If you sell quality plants, and offer a good selection, including some unusual plants, I'll be more than happy to drop big bucks at your business, rather than get plants through mail order or buy from a big box.  

 

Take heed—don't let this (above) happen to your business!

Comments

[BoxedDirt]

I couldn't agree more. Besides quality plants, selling quality mulch and compost is high on my list too. Yes you can buy $3 compost but what's in it? Boiler ash? Ground up pallets? Toxic chemicals? Let the BOX STORES sell that.

I visited two IGC's this past month, and was amazed to hear phrases like "It's cheap and customers buy it" and "I really don't care what's in the compost as long as it says natural on the bag".

What good is buy a quality plant if you sell me junky soil to plant it in?

Come on people, let's kick it up a notch.

[Potato Queen]

On the subject of root bound plants, the last time I bought a plant from a big box was three years ago, when I couldn't turn down a fabulous $50 deal on a 3-ft high boxwood (I love that smell). Took it home and got ready to plant a week later--only to find upon removing the plastic pot that the shrub was burlapped! Yes, they potted an already burlapped shrub. You want to talk root-bound.

I should have taken it back, but by this time I had already named the shrub (Big Julie; don't ask), and decided to do everything I could to give it a chance to fulfill its garden destiny. I babied that thing as best I could, and amazingly it survived and is now a lovely part of my landscape. But I sure never bought another shrub from The Box again.

[ANTIGONUM CAJAN]

Since I live in Puerco Rico,USA and all nurseries STINK.

Not only in quality but in VARIETY, I propagate what my collection deserves by the known procedures with or without root hormones, division, and seeds.

Your rant is really pertinent considering that most people depend on their local nursery to have a so so garden.

[Tara Dillard]

Sadly the average gardener doesn't know poor quality at an IGC or big box.

Long before the bad economy IGC's were critiqued for their management style, nepotism.

Happily some IGC's have become employee owned. They are the great green hope!

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

[Lisa]

I couldn't agree more on quality, and along w. Potato Queen, I've turned to just growing my own using whatever means of propogation that I can. I used to look for on sale stuff, but it'd usually be to far gone to save. Funny, where else do we buy on sale and accept poor quality? When I buy at sale from the grocery store, I don't by meat past it's prime, or buying clothes on sale, I don't buy a sweater with a gynormous run in the front of it.

[trey]

The person from Proven Winners said, "the IGC should send the plant back to the wholesaler for potting up"? What are we missing out of her in nor Cal? Do IGC's is different parts of the country have this option?

Let me see if I get this straight, my local Home Depot only pays for plants that sell (pay at scan). Plants that don't sell are picked up by the wholesaler, or dumped. IGC's buy the plants outright when they are delivered. This representative from Proven Winners is saying what? We should send back our over grown perennials or annuals and we will receive new replacement plants? Or do we send them back and get a refund on the purchase price we paid?

You hit on why people who shop at box stores right when the truck delivers plants. Once the plant hits the ground it's either bought by the customer or starts a slow (or fast) decline to the point where the vendor is required to pick up the plants. Where is the motivation for the box store to care for these plants when they are just thrown away if they don't sell? The box doesn't loose any money.

I don't buy it. Will a Proven Winners representative please comment on this new plan? Have they told their growers, who are independently owned, about this new plan? Would a representative of these growers speak on this? After all, they will be the ones picking up these plants for, "re-potting".

[Aubs]

I like to patronize IGC's whenever possible, and there are some fabulous stores near me whose employees and selection can't be beat. So I decided to stop by a local mom and pop place I'd never been to before, excited to see what treasures they had. First, they had hand made signs all over the store and greenhouses that basically stated that they were on the verge of going under, and to please keep shopping there and tell our friends to shop there as well. So right off, I'm getting hit with the guilt big time. They had some 3 inch potted perennials on sale for a dollar a piece, so I decided to take 10 of them with me. All of the perennials were clustered together in a heavily shaded area, none looked anywhere close to blooming, but I figured what the heck. I get them home and set them out on the deck to await transplant, and the next day they had all withered in the sun, despite the fact that they were all full-sun plants; geum and mallow. They hadn't been hardened off to sun at all. I was sorely tempted to return to the store and let them know that their business might improve if their product was properly cared for. You can't blame everything on the big box.

[Kaviani]

Antigonum- that really is a tragedy given how the climate in PR could host such an *awesome* array of plant life.

I guess I'm lucky in that the IGCs in Austin are very cogent and perceptive about their products while providing an excellent selection. The only crappers I end up with are my rehab babies- cast offs from friends who don't know a thing about plant care. And that's fine. I'd rather nurse them back and regift than let them perish.

[WesternPlantPro]

I couldn't agree more with have great plants. It is what we, as IGC, can do better than the big box stores. Thanks for all you do.

[commonweeder]

I shop at IGCs, partly because there isn't much in the way of 'Boxes' on my routine routes, but the biggest problem I see is poor watering. Quality quickly deteriorates when plants routinely dry out. I remember a friend had gone to work at an IGC and one day she boasted that she had proved herself and had been promoted to watering. She knew how to do it properly. Those of us who have trouble keeping our own container plants watered can appreciate the attention it takes - but we also know it must be done.

[Don Shor]

"The other, Proven Winners, informed me that the IGC should send the plant back to the wholesaler for potting up."

Ha ha ha! Hoo hoo hoo! Oooooo ha ha ha ha!!! Oh, thanks for the great laugh. That was good.

[VP]

Hearty clapping coming from this side of the pond too Barbara. We have exactly the same issues here and it just doesn't make sense - either from a gardening or business viewpoint.

[Mr. McGregor's Daughter]

Boxed Dirt - good point. They also need to have quality potting medium for their plants, too.

Potato Queen - I don't know about naming a plant (much less before it's in the ground), but that kind of tactic is a cheat. But then I've also seen plants in containers that were rootbound in a smaller pot and simply stuffed into a larger pot with more potting soil around them.

Antigonum - that's disheartening, but at least you can propagate. My efforts at growing from seed and propagation have been more failures than successes.

Tara Dillard - good point, the horticultural industry needs to do a better job of educating consumers of what to look for when buying plants.

Lisa - too true! The sale or clearance plants should be those that are beyond their season of bloom, but are still healthy and will perform again the next year.

Trey - I hadn't thought of the problem like that. Maybe they were just fobbing me off because I asked a difficult question. I'd like to hear how Proven Winners, Monrovia and Bailey Nursery (the Endless Summer Hydrangea people) respond to your more pointed and informed question. In the meantime, I think I'm going to be extremely careful when buying anything in a trade dress pot.

Aubs - I don't think you did them a favor by not at least complaining. I feel somewhat complicit in the failure of that IGC near me, because I never bothered to complain. Maybe if I had, they would have changed their methods.

Kaviani - you're lucky to live in Austin, for many reasons, but I'm aware of how great some of your IGCs are.

Western Plant Pro - thank you for providing a quality horticultural retail therapy experience.

[Susan]

I saw a large garbage bin in the garden section of my local big grocery store filled with small shrubs. I asked the clerk if they were being thrown away. The answer was yes. Could I have some? No. I spoke to the store manager. I couldn't have them because their contract with the nursery required that any they couldn't sell must be thrown away. I tried to sell him on "Customer service" to no avail. Crazy!?

[Laura Bell]

Please stock quality potting mediums, amendments, etc. I'm really tired of asking for a bag of topsoil for a minor infill project and discovering that there's no 'soil' in it. More often than not it's little more than partially composted fir bark. I might use that as mulch, but what do I use to raise those new plant I just bought behind the new retaining wall ?

[lloyd traven]

Proven Winners suggests sending overgrown plants back to the grower for repotting? Hilarious---that HAD to be Marshall Dirks saying that. When Proven Winners BEGINS to police the quality of the product with their name all over it at any garden center, either IGC or box store, then perhaps they have some right to make such a ridiculous statement and outright fabrication of their 'policy'. Right now, there is absolutely ZERO WARRANTY of quality sent to retail, and in my book, that means it is a marketing campaign, NOT A TRUE BRAND.

[Kate]

What a sensible letter. Nine times out of ten, I know where to look for quality perennials and shrubs. Unfortunately when it comes to indoor plants, I've never been able to find a consistent alternative to the big chains. I often buy Norfolk pines as Christmas gifts, only to have them wither away by January. For once, I'd like to give a plant without mass-produced, sparkle sprayed, disease-ridden trauma written all over it.

[Helen Yoest / Gardening With Confidence™]

Susan, what a shame. Pearl Fryar built his amazing topiary garden in Bishopville, SC from throw-away nursery plants.

Tell it Barb! We will pay for quality!

[ann]

If you owned an IDC, how would you price your plants to cover small business's cost of health insurance, shipping, taxes on land, heating costs, labor costs (to keep everything in tip top shape), to mention a few? How would it make sense to buy in anything in late summer on when your customers expect that everything should be discounted and bases a reasonable price on the latest big box flyer! (the media promotes this idea in connection with fall plant shopping!) It is no wonder IDC's are disappearing.

[greg draiss]

Quality sells way more than fancy signs and bullcrap

The TROLL

[Rick Brown]

This is the best discussion for plant people everywhere. The solution, quality, is the only answer. The Home Depot's program is Pay-by-Scan but also is better described as Vendor Managed Inventory. The grower works closely with the Home Depot Merchant/buyer in driving the business with the best varieties, highest quality and most competitive prices to beat their primary competition, Lowes, in offering the customer value and quality they will return for. If a grower is not up to the task, another grower steps up to assume this lucrative business. The model works for growers who can produce, merchandise, replenish and water quality plants. Plants that loose their sales appeal are taken back to the nursery and rejuvenated or composted. In most of the country, The Home Depot has the best garden centers and their business continues to grow despite the economy. Where Home Depot's are located close to quality IGC's, both prosper and there is a need for both. I can assure you, quality is winning in Florida. Check our blog link below for more on this.

[Chris Murray]

Rick-went to your blog because your comment sounded so positive about Home Depot garden centers being the best. No wonder, you're one of their suppliers. Do you offer the same level of service to IGC's that you offer to HD, at the same pricing? Just wondering.

[Tibs]

Who pays to send the root bound Proven Winner pot back to them and to repot and mail back to the IGC? Proven Winner? The IGC? And wouldn't all this travel be hard on the plant, and what about making less of a carbon footprint? I don't buy anything that is a brand name plant. For some reason it just grates.

[Mr. McGregor's Daughter]

Commonweeder - Inadequate watering is a big problem, which could be solved easily by better training of staff.

Don Shor, Lloyd Traven & Tibs- You should get together and do a group rant on this one. This is such a serious problem. I don't know enough about the industry to think of any solution. If branding is the wave of the future, as Evison seems to think it is, we're all in trouble.

VP - I'm completely disillusioned! I had assumed that British nurseries would be paragons of quality.

Susan - crazy, and sick and wasteful. I hate that mode of doing business. Too bad they can't donate those unwanted plants to prison and nursing homes for horticultural therapy programs.

Laura - I hear you. Last summer, I took a photo of what was in a bag of soil I bought, all the weeds and crap that I decided not to use for my retaining wall project.

Kate - holiday plants are the most abused things ever. They're intended to be pitched after the holiday. Very sad.

Helen - I don't think Pearl could do that today, which is a real shame.

Ann - IGCs are in a tough spot, which is why they have to offer what the big boxes can't.

Greg - but the bullcrap helps to get people in to the IGC to find out about the quality in the first place. The quality is what keeps them coming back.

Rick - I have no argument with the quality of the plants when they arrive at Home Depot, it's what happens to them after they've been at the store that makes all the difference.

Chris - good question. Too bad the IGC's don't have the retailing clout of places like Home Depot.

[Barbara Hobens Feldt]

I just cannot head over to the garden area of Home Depot anymore. It makes me ill to see the rows of shade plants baking in full sun, plants crying out to be watered and inappropriate plants for the two zones here - 6 and 5 being sold.

The waste. :(

What hurts more is the piled up Round-Up on sale waiting for uneducated buyers.