The Blogging Nurseryman by Trey Pitsenberger

A lady came in looking for organic fertilizer for her vegetable garden. We sell organics so I walked her over to some bone meal and blood meal to work into the soil. These wouldn’t do as she is a vegan! This was the first time this had happened to me. She not only ate vegan but didn’t want to use any animal bi-products in her soil. I just saw a celebrity mention that she only wears vegan clothes!

The eco-movement which gains steam every day is fragmenting. People refuse to be lumped into the general picture of the organic gardener. As a business to just call your self eco-friendly is not going to do for long. Everyone is going to be “eco-friendly” soon as they try to tap into this lucrative market. In the garden center business this means being able to address the needs of the vegan gardener as well as the non-vegan gardener and everyone else who shows an interest in any aspect of organic gardening.

This is a great opportunity for the small garden center. While the larger chains and box stores will wrap themselves in the “eco” banner will they be able to help the vegan gardener? How about the organic gardener that requires “certified” organic seed? Open pollinated seed varieties? The gardener interested in cover crop rotation? What about native plants and excellent substitutes that are drought tolerant?

The opportunities for attracting this type of consumer to the garden center are great! This person is generally willing to spend more to meet their goals and is quite loyal to the business that has earned their trust. They will spread the word to their like minded friends. While most of our organic customers are not quite as particular as some, the market for the various sub-categories of organic gardening is one that might be worth addressing. I know we will.

Anna in Spain wants to start a small garden center and has questions about the water needs of plants, how many plants to start with, and all the other questions that someone starting a garden center would have. I have been trying to find the time to get to the answers in the middle of the spring rush. Hang in there Anna and I’ll find the time.

I am not a cook but I watch real ones on TV. Last night I watched a great biography of Chef Emerill Lugase. It’s the story of a man who worked his way up to the top of his profession. The reason I like to watch his show and I am sure most people watch it is to be filled with his passion for cooking and life. Despite having challenges to face all through his career his passion and joy have always trumped any negativity.

This would be the one quality that a new garden center owner should have in abundance. Passion is going to carry you through the times when the weather doesn’t cooperate and despite you best intentions you loose money that year. Passion is going to carry you through the next year when the same thing happens. How is it possible to get up in the morning and greet the customers with a smile and cheerful demeanor when the pile of bills in the office would scare anyone?

I see many similarities between restaurants and garden centers. Going to a restaurant involves many of the same reasons you go to a great nursery. Besides plants or food we each provide an experience. You go to Home Depot to buy plants, you go to a great nursery or restaurant to buy and take home a piece of the passion you felt when you we’re there. We both want the experience to be so great that you can’t wait to tell your friend’s about the really cool place you have found.

I’ll see if I can answer Anna’s questions well enough to help but the best advice I can give is to look to the great chefs like Emerill and imagine your self as passionate and excited as they are and have been. Create your garden center just as if you we’re creating a restaurant and provide the consumer with an exceptional experience. Get excited and let you passion carry you through the up’s and down’s.

A post at Today’s Garden Center Blog about how Frank Blake, CEO for Home Depot has apologized for the lousy service his stores are known for. The reason he is apologizing is the over 10,000 e-mails and messages he has received. The message board registers 423 pages of complaints and discussions about Depot.

This is what business everywhere should fear or delight in. With the internet we are able to lodge our complaints or complements about anything we want. Soon the complaints get grouped together and eventually even large corporations have to respond. To his credit Mr. Blake has responded, but who knows if it’s too little too late. As a business owner I want to be out their communicating with the consumer before any mis-understandings arise. The best way to do that on the internet is through blogging. Invite people to comment on your blog, even if it’s to complain. Just by being out there you send a message that you want to work with people to build your business.

I am disappointed that Frank is not going to start a blog. Right now he wants you to send an e-mail to wehearyou@homedepot.com if you have a concern. With a blog Frank could let us know in real time just what he is doing to make it right. He wouldn’t even have to do it. Maybe there is someone on staff that would be good at blogging and is passionate about the business. It won’t be easy changing the culture at a huge operation but with a blog we could be kept informed of the progress or lack of it.

Just read an interesting article on Smith & Hawken in the latest edition of Garden Chic Magazine. According to the article the company is “now in the midst of a major shift to return to its ‘roots’, its horticultural beginnings.” Senior Vice President Gordy Erickson joined Smith & Hawken after 10 years at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., where he was senior vice president and general merchandise manager. He said he “feels the previous management and various owners lost track of their core focus.” In the article “Gordy proudly points to the original catalogue from the early days of the company, when the hippies-turned-visionary businessmen were still at the helm.”

If you remember back when we talked about Scott’s here it was mentioned “I can’t imagine that Smith and Hawken is the same store that Paul Hawken built and then sold. You can look the same on the outside but once corporate gets a hold of it the culture changes.” I guess Gordy Erickson agrees.

What I find interesting is how Scott’s, who owns Smith & Hawken is trying to recapture something that they can’t possibly bottle. When Dave Smith and Paul Hawken (hippies) started the company it was a new idea and had the interest of the “enthusiast’s” in the garden world because it was ground breaking venture. Those enthusiasts spread the word until now, when it has become the main stream entity that it is today, predictable and boring. The enthusiasts have long since moved on.

How is Scott’s is going to “re-hippy” Smith & Hawken? According to Garden Chic they will go “green”. “The new ‘green’ S&H will get back to a much larger percentage of houseplants and flowering material. While not truly a ‘garden center,’ they will be much more green and less of a furniture store.”

As a small independent garden center owner it’s kind of fun to watch huge corporations like Scott’s try to reinvent themselves as cutting edge ‘hippies’. They may be successful in luring many new customers and regaining some momentum but they will never again have the interest on the garden enthusiasts who look for the cutting edge and are the ones who spread the word when they find a truly novel idea.

That’s why the small garden center might have a leg up on the large corporations for the garden enthusiasts and other gardeners business. More often than not these days many people make purchasing decisions based partly on a companies “authentic story”. Many small garden centers have what Gordy Erickson wishes Smith & Hawken still had, an interesting and authentic story.

The time is ripe for the small garden center. The mood is unmistakable. People are looking for the unique experience. Weather its cooking, traveling, or gardening people want to try new things. I don’t know about you but I cringe when I see another power mall going in with the prerequisite Borders, Sports Authority, Home Depot, and Baby Gap. The power mall in Folsom looks just like any other mall in the U.S. Sure I patronize some of these places but they don’t inspire me.

Embrace eccentricity! The fun nurseries are always the ones that are a bit eccentric. Generally the smaller stores have the ability to express their “difference better.” The larger independents and the box stores are generally very predictable with out much excitement going on. Running a successful small garden center means having to step put of the current trends and quit being so predictable. Now I am not saying you should open the doors to the shop at any old time of the day. Certain practices should be predictable, but the experience of discovery at the garden center should not be.

I tried to think of some of the ways that we are different than most other garden centers. Our name ‘Golden Gecko’ comes to mind. We wanted a name that was unique and had nothing to do with gardening or us! Our former nursery “Happy Frog” is another example.

We have been arranging our plants in a “theatrical’ manner for the past 13 years. We dropped alpha numeric rowing of plants then and never looked back. Grouping the plants in “vignettes” by color, shape, and smells was quite novel then and unfortunately still is.

Every plant is labeled with Latin names. The sign for a group of plants may not have the Latin name but every plant comes with it. We believe that as more and more garden centers drop the use of Latin names the use of Latin will become more exotic and therefore more interesting to gardeners who care and want to learn about plants. We want to be that source of information.

I am into playing music, jazz and classical mostly. It’s in the background and never obtrusive but helps to set the scene that we are creating. It amazes me how many garden centers don’t use the sound of music to help mask the noise from the road.

We use our mailing list and the internet as our main sources of advertisement. We try not to use mass media much as we have found our best chance of reaching people is through those who have signed up to receive information from us. The internet also focuses our message to those who have an interest already in what we are offering.

We use water a lot! We have two water falls and quite a number of smaller water tub pots, in addition to our creek. The sound of water is a help in masking the sounds coming from the street as well as setting a relaxing mood.

Have Fun! It is sometimes the hardest thing to do when one looks at the bills coming in but is critical to your health and success. Monica and I constantly remind ourselves that if we are not having fun then the customer won’t. The “feel” of a store is directly related to the moods of the people who run it. We have been through some amazing hardships in running our businesses and have had periods where the fun was really lacking. You know what? The sales showed it. It’s not easy but “letting go” and trusting our instincts while trying to keep a playful attitude has been a great benefit.

Here is some good news for independent garden centers. According to the folks at Open Register the Garden Writers Association , who conduct garden surveys during the year have a new survey which reports, “for the first time in years, more consumers say they plan to shop at garden centers (47%) than mass merchants. Further, according to Open Register “This hasn’t been a neck and neck race. A mere 39% of consumers planned to shop at garden centers in 2006, compared to 52% wanting to shop at mass merchants. The split was similar in 2005, at 40% to 51%. So this year’s turn around is a major shift.”

Whether this benefits a local garden center will ultimately be up to the store and how well run it is. If the store does not offer a better experience than a chain store this study won’t mean much. It is encouraging to see the shift in consumer sentiments however. It appears that quality is one of the main reasons sited for the shift.

We are quickly shifting to spring mode here. Temps today in the high 70’s and 70’s for the rest of the week, at least. Compared to last year when we had 4” of snow on the ground it’s quite a turnaround. While cold weather might still come, “it always snows on the dogwood blossoms” this nice weather and encouraging report is just what nurserypeople in northern California have been waiting to hear.

The picture above is of an old Western Redbud in front of The Vineyard House in Coloma.

These are the blooms of the California Bay Tree (Umbellaria californica). It grows in the foothills below 4000’ elevation, in our case mixed with manzanita and other chaparral. The leaves when crushed have a wonderfully powerful fragrance, more powerful than bay leaves (Laurus nobilis). California bay can be used in cooking but more sparingly than Grecian Laurel.

Another native plant in bloom is manzanita. The flowers are bell shaped and pink. Often the first that you notice the blooms is the sound of bee’s busy flying from flower to flower. Manzanita is a main component of the chaparral that occurs in the foothills.

What music do you hear when you garden? This is an area dear to my heart since I have always made it a point to have music playing at the garden center. We play classical and jazz. We play this music since I have always liked it and have found that it fits in nicely with the garden center experience. We don’t play opera, country, rock, or most other genre. I love most music and have a special spot for good old rock and roll but have found that classical and jazz are great as garden center music. Since people don’t listen to classical and jazz as often it is something different that they associate with the garden center. “I love the music you play” or “Where did you get this CD” is what we hear.

We don’t just play any classical but gear ourselves toward Mozart, Bach, Handel, and other baroque or rococo styles. The melodic melodies are uplifting and not as intense as modern classical. In the world of Jazz we like the classics. We have also started playing some Afro-Cubana, and Caribbean style tunes. The music should be something that is easy or fun and not the normal background music you hear at the grocery store or when stepping on an elevator.

I don’t believe that any music will work. Rock and roll does not work for us but maybe it would for someone else. Monica and our employees are always trying to get me to change the CD or tuner to something more hip. I don’t play the music to be hip but rather to set the tone for what we hope will be a remarkable and different garden center experience.

This is where we’re at weather wise in the foothills of northern California. These daffodils are growing in front of the old school house in Coloma. Flowering plums and pears are starting to bloom as spring has sprung! We will still have cold weather and even a little snow but the grass has turned the hills green again and the manzanita is in bloom.

The last two years we’re washouts for the garden center biz around here. We had rain constantly through May of last year and June the year before. This year we are at 60 % of average rain, but that means the spring has been a lot drier which is good for business. The water resource board came on and said we have enough snow and water to supply our needs for this year. So perhaps this will be a year when folks can get out into the yard in spring and enjoy the garden.

Over at Mr. Brown Thumb he mentions my post on Home Depots new CEO’s plan to bill the mega-retailer as the “friendly local retailer”. Mr. Brown Thumb says “On his blog (thegoldengecko.blogspot.com) he’s criticizing Home Depot for their latest ad campaign that tries to brand HD as the “‘friendly local retailer.’” I’m not sure Trey has much to worry about because I don’t think anyone will ever really buy into the idea, but what I don’t agree with is how he puts local retailers on a pedestal.”

Mr. Brown Thumb then goes on to relate how “’friendly local retailer’” is a myth created by Hollywood and people’s selective memories of days gone by.” In my post I had mentioned “The only thing that Home Depot has done is work on running most of the local friendly retailers out of business. I’ll admit that some of those retailers needed to go out of business…”.

Mr. Brown Thumb may be correct. I don’t know about the Hollywood myth part but he is right in that the way it’s worded I did put the local friendly retailers on a pedestal. It was unintentional and just sounded that way. What I should have said was “most of those retailers needed to go out of business”. Just like Mr. Brown Thumb I have no illusions as to the state of the retail sector as it relates to customer service. Its poor, and shared equally by box stores and local retailers.

We found out about Mr. Brown Thumbs post after I goggled “Golden Gecko Garden Center”. I do that every now and then just to see what comes up. I followed a link Mr. Brown Thumb had on the post to message board by a disgruntled customer of a well known nursery in the Chicago area. This nursery apparently has no web page but they are sure getting interest on the web. The first entry takes you to a posting at Gardeweb.com that has a lively conversation going on. I would think the owner of that store would want to take action to rectify these customer’s complaints. However if they don’t check the web they won’t know what being said.

People using the computer are exactly the type of consumer that might very well patronize a smaller independent nursery. People are creating communities of like minded individuals on the internet. Because they are communities what is said often has more meaning to the readers than other forms of communication and bad news as well as good spreads fast. Google your name or your business name today and see what comes up.