The Blogging Nurseryman by Trey Pitsenberger

I think that there are a lot of us that could have said “duh” to this story. Open Register points us to a Forbes magazine article titled, “Shop ‘Til Your Husband Drops”.

Here is the gist of the article. Major retailers like Bloomingdales have made a HUGE discovery. After a “comprehensive analysis to learn how to make shopping more enjoyable.” “Stores need more areas for weary shoppers to relax.” Of course it’s only the wise retailers that are catching on, “’Park-your-husband lounges’” are slowly making their way into retailers from Bloomingdales to Kohl’s.”

Its taken these retail giants this long to figure it out! I love this from the article, “Retail analysts say it’s impossible to quantify the return on investment these lounges bring in. But the results speak for themselves.” Those analysts always have to quantify everything, don’t they?

When you read stuff like this it makes you wonder how these business have become retail giants and stayed in business for this long. I guess we as customers have been willing to put up with this stuff for so long that it now seems like news that most men would like to sit and relax while the ladies shop.

What this says is that the most obvious things that matter in the shopping experience have been, in some cases completely ignored by the major retailers. I am sure many of us could have told these stores just what they needed to do, YEARS AGO! You can imagine the amount of money spent on analysis just to figure out that a few chairs for the men to sit in might make a difference. Of course it will take much more analysis and money to discover that its not just men that need a place to sit, but with the aging population there might be a need for the elderly to sit while the younger member of the families shop.

This all goes to show that just because these places are large with multiple outlets they can be completely oblivious to the most obvious things. I hear that in store sales this year are likely to be a bit softer than they had hoped. Yet, Internet sales rose by 20%. Maybe its not just price, but the fact that you can shop comfortably from home without having to drag the mate to the store, where they will just bug you complaining about the lack of a place to sit.

I know a lot of people end up here at my blog because they would like to start a nursery and are looking for advice. Most recently Joe in Florida wants to know if starting a nursery is the right thing to do . He has received mostly negative feedback so needless to say he is confused. I would imagine the same thing holds for most small business. I for one can’t imagine starting a restaurant. That must be an awful hard and difficult business to make profitable. The same could be said for opening a bookstore. The competition from the chains as well as peoples changing shopping habits make starting a new business in almost any field a difficult endeavor.

The fact that its a difficult proposition explains why so few people own and run their own small business. There is no safety net. If things go wrong you can blame the economy, competition, the weather, you name it. Just because you can blame the competition for your woes won’t cause the empty feeling in the pit of your stomach from going away. You must see, like I do business going in where you ask, “what are they thinking?” We have small business going in and out of business all the time in Placerville. Its like a revolving door.

I got involved in this trade right out of junior college in the late 70’s. It was a time when the independent nursery ruled. The only chain competition was K-Mart, and they did a terrible job with the garden department. I remember the first Home Depots going in. The nursery I worked at, Christensen’s nursery was located in Belmont, just south of San Francisco. It was a business that catered to the carriage trade and as such the Home Depot’s didn’t have much of an effect. It’s gone now. The land became too valuable to operate a garden center on. It’s now condominiums.

Where am I going with this? I don’t know except that the business of garden centers has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. Would I still get involved in the business now? I don’t know. When I got into the business it was “cool” to be into gardening. You had the hippies moving out of the Haight and into the mountains where they could “get back to the earth”. So times have changed, or is it myself that has changed. Both I suppose.

We are on vacation for two and a half weeks now. The nursery is closed until Jan. 12. This will be a good time to plan out what we want to do next year. I find that time away from work helps open your eyes to new ideas that might have been hidden when you are simply focused on work. That’s one of the hard things to do when you work for yourself, finding time to get away. It’s most important as I find the best ideas often come from “out of the blue”, when you least expect it.

I love the outside world, and working in and owning a garden center has allowed me to enjoy that world. Whether or not I would start a nursery today is meaningless. I have one now, and we are committed to having the best one possible. To those of you contemplating opening a nursery don’t get bogged down in the negativity. Search out successful business of all types, not just nurseries. See if some of the ideas they are using might work in your business. You cannot just sell plants anymore. You have to sell the whole experience. Gardening has been and will continue to be a source of joy for a large segment of the population. Why would those people want to come to your store? What are you offering that the competition isn’t? What could you do better than the competition? How can you continually “wow” the consumer that walks through the door so as to turn them into and keep them as customers. Figure that out and you will be in business as long as you want. We’re still working on it.

Here is an link to a garden forum at Garden Web discussing starting a nursery.

The Internet is a great resource that wasn’t available when I started out. There are more and more websites you can use to find out more about horticultural business. I am thrilled to think that people would come here to seek advice. Thank you.

It’s Mandarin season is here and this year they are extra good. We had a long spell of dry weather when they we’re ripening and that may have helped in the flavor. The larger trees in the background are Washington Navel Oranges, which will be ripe in another month or so. The mandarins are Owari Satsuma’s, also known as “zipper skin”. The skin will peel off in one fell swoop, plus few if any seeds!

At about 1400 foot elevation its one of the higher elevation citrus groves in the foothills. It’s located at Gold Hill, which I drive by on the way to work each day. Its self-serve, you leave the money in a slot by the door and take your bag of fruit.

The response for my “Closed on Mondays” post has been great. Hearing from both the consumer as well as industry professionals has been very helpful. We have decided to make some changes based on these recommendations, as well as our own feelings on the subject.

First, we will be open seven days a week during the spring and possibly the summer. I agree with the commenter’s that Monday can be a good sales day. We have always found that Saturday or Sunday is our best sales day’s with Monday or Friday being the best weekdays for sales. Spring is just so important for our business, with almost half of the years sales coming during that time, that to be closed any day just cuts into the profitability of the business. So, will take good care of our selves and just “go for it” during that time of year. We’ve done it before!

During spring we will not only be open seven days a week but will stay open till 6 pm, instead of our current 5 pm closing. This will allow people to stop by after work. During the weekend we will likely close at 5, maybe continue with the 4 pm Sunday closing.

Summer is interesting since it usually gets so hot here that most people don’t do a lot of gardening, especially from July to September. We are thinking of opening earlier, about 8:30 pm, instead of our current 10 am so folks can get out to the nursery before the heat is on. By 5 pm its often the hottest part of the day and I am tempted to close earlier, but we will see.

So for now we will stick with our decision to be open 7 days a week during the critical spring season as well as staying open until 6 pm. Thanks to everyone who commented. Your advice helped us to make some important decisions. The sharing of ideas with like minded people from across the globe is one of the promises of the Internet that will help small business stay in business.

I came across this post titled “Restaurants and Monday Nights” at “Fishing for Customers”blog. This stuff is likely well known in Restaurant circles but it was news to me. The post deals with why restaurants are not busy on Monday nights. The post talks about how our first instinct is to build Monday business by increasing our advertising, and offering deals to increase traffic flow. The blog author Chuck tells us why this might not be the way to go.

This made me think of our garden center and how hard we try to build business during times of the year when folks just don’t want to garden, like now! Remember that I write from California where the tradition is for nurseries to be open all year. I know of garden centers in other parts of the country that close down for winter, since the ground is frozen and absolutely no one would come in anyway. Here there is always the chance that someone will come in since the ground does not freeze and we have warmer winter temps. Yet the time of year from November to February is the land of small sales and little or no profit.

We are also closed on Mondays. We chose that day since it seems everyone else closes on Mondays. Monica and I run the store so we needed to pick a day to have off and Monday worked out. Yet, when I wanted to go shopping at downtown Placerville on Main St. last Monday, lot’s of the stores we’re closed. Monday seems to be the day lot’s of small business close. I wonder if we are making a mistake? One reason we chose Monday was we need to be at the store Tuesdays to place orders with some of our vendors for Wednesday deliveries. In other words we let our suppliers dictate to us when we should be closed. Again I wonder if this is backwards?

I would love to hear your take on this. Sometimes it feels like we are spinning our wheels when it comes to certain times of the year. Why throw a lot of advertising $$$ during a season that people just are not going to garden. Maybe we should open Mondays when everyone else is closed and close down another day. Maybe we should be open 7 days a week during spring and only a couple of days during winter. During winter we could open Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and close the other days.

Wishful thinking doesn’t pay the bills. Sure it would be nice to have more business this time of year but I wonder if thats just wishful thinking?

Aquascapes is a multi-million dollar organization that has seen an amazing rise in its fortunes over the last couple of years. They we’re featured in Inc.com in an article titled, “And there was happiness in Aqualand.” The article written August of this year describes the amazing perks that the people working at Aquascapes have. The article describes how employees came to owner Greg Wittstock and said, “we have no soccer field. When we play in the parking lot after work, our shins, they get scraped, and we cannot do our sweet moves.”

‘If I built you a soccer field, would that make you happy?’ the CEO asked.

‘Almost,’ answered the employees. ‘We could use a hot tub.’

‘I will see what I can do,’ the CEO said.

As he was walking away, the employees added, ‘Oh, and if we could have a place to nap in the afternoons, that would be great. Thanks!’”

Did I say they built everything the employees asked for, including the nap room? The Inc.com article continues with, “Oh, and they did some work too. The company grew to $56 million in annual sales.

And they all lived happily after.” (my italics)

Fast forward to today when I read at Open Register about owner Greg Wittstocks new blog. It would seem that just four months later all is not so well at Aquascapes. As a matter of fact things have gone downhill fast. They have recently laid off 17 employees and Greg has admitted that they are having a serious cash flow problem. If you read the blog check out the comments from some former employees. It must really hurt being the owner and having to read that stuff. Never the less that comes with the territory.

Let’s give Greg credit for starting his blog and laying out the problems for all to see. It is a bit weird that he started the blog one post before admitting all was not well at the company. Better late than never, perhaps.

Hines nurseries, one of the countries largest wholesale nurseries is having something of the same problem. They do not have a blog and as such folks have been finding my post of August detailing Hines de-listing on the stock exchange. The comments continue to trickle in. The problem for Hines is no one at the company is trying to get the organizations point of view out, so there is nowhere to get up to date info and as such people are using my blog post to vent. That’s o.k., but Hines really should be out in front laying its cards on the table concerning its future. It has been and continues to be my belief that a blog is a necessity for a well run company.

Chigiy asked about some pictures of the fragrant wreath making class. Eucalyptus, incense cedar, rosemary, California bay, and lavender were some of the fragrant plants that could make up your wreath. The one common denominator was the grape vines used as the frame.

Sean mentioned “Nice area, makes a great day trip for those that live in Sacramento. Trey, do you get a lot of tourist traffic, locals or Sacramento traffic (a combo or all)?” With the wreath class we had a couple of people from Sacramento, most from the immediate area. We seem to get a few people from Sacramento, Davis, or other places that are at least 20 miles away when we have these workshops. I ask why they come up here and the reason they give generally is “no one is doing it there”.

If you live in the metropolitan area of Sacramento and want to do something for your days off it often becomes either “lets go west to San Francisco” or “lets head east up into the foothills.” It’s a step back into “old California” and the region is starting to address the tourist trade more every year. We are located just 5.5 miles from The American River and Coloma, which is one of the most visited state parks in the state. There are a number of wineries located nearby as well as other small farms that cater to the individual. We are members of El Dorado County Farm Trails which has maps and information on all the stuff going on. We actively work at attracting people from outside our immediate area to the nursery.

Josh asks “Do you ever reach a point where it seems like workshops that were popular, no longer are? Almost like everyone who wanted to do it, has? Maybe you are in a highly populated enough area that it isn’t an issue, but that has happened here.” The answer is yes, but we just keep trying! I have had workshops where no one came! We look at weather we did something wrong in promoting it and ask “should we try again”? If it just wasn’t well received we try the next idea. Wreath making might be a class that’s been done before but we thought the “fragrant” aspect set it apart. In addition all the material’s for the wreaths where gathered locally, which we didn’t but should have promoted. Next time we will.

We are also stepping outside what might be traditional gardening workshops and heading wherever it leads. Generally the workshops have to do with the outside world. I am a bird watcher so we are going to have a bird watching workshop next year. Our Tin punch class was a step “back into time”, and well received. How about a B.B.Q. cooking class? We are trying to think fresh. We don’t want to let our long time in the business cloud our judgment.

I’ll go one step further and say that the image we want people to have of the nursery is “not a place that sells plants.” Places that “sell plants” are a dime a dozen. We are trying to offer so much more, an “experience” if you will. What is it that we can do that no one else is doing, or doing right? I don’t quite have the answer, but we will keep asking the questions.

Today is our scented wreath workshop. You never know how people will respond to these workshops until you publicize them and wait for sign ups. We have had workshops where nobody signed up, and we have had workshops where more than expected signed up. Today is one of those days. Over 20 people have signed up to learn how to make a scented wreath to take home. We will have snacks and coffee or tea.

I think this workshop is popular in part because its so timely, but also because its about fragrance. Monica has gathered California bay, Incense cedar, and other fragrant and non-fragrant items to use. The one common theme is they are all from the area, gathered locally. The grape vines that make up the body of the wreath are local as well as the Toyon berries.

We will keep putting on various workshops about every week or two. We are starting to get a handle on which ones are popular and which ones are not. Never the less we will keep trying even if no one signs up. We look at each other and ask why, then move on. I think the most important thing is to keep trying until you figure out which ones work.

I have been meme’d by Angela, Billy, and now Eric. I guess three is a charm so I’ll play along. The theme is eight things for which you are thankful for.

1. My youngest daughter just moved out of the house. No, I am not thankful she moved out, but thankful she has learned to live on her own like her older sister. While she has a lot to learn she will do just fine.

2. My wife and I are somehow able to work together. I don’t know a lot of couples that can live and work together without going crazy. I am already crazy so it just a mater of her keeping her sanity.

3. We got another year under our belt and will be here to open again next year.

4. Living in the foothills of The Sierra Nevada. Having been born in So. Cal and growing up in The San Francisco area I can say that where we are now is the best.

5. The Internet. Despite the negatives the positives have changed my life. I am learning more about things I am interested in faster and more enjoyably than ever. It’s true, the Internet changes everything.

6. My families as well as my health.

7. Great credit. I knew it would come in handy someday.

8. That I live in a place and during a time where I have the freedom to do things like this meme. Life is good.

Now I know I should tag some others but I don’t follow the rules well so your all off the hook.

Here is one more thing I am thankful for. I just read that Amy has bought herself a used bookstore in Eureka. What a great place for an author to hold court. I am thankful that there are people out there proving that small independent business can make it. Thats why I listed number 5 as The Internet. This medium allows like minded individuals to connect and support one another, despite physical distance. We, who are involved in this medium are changing the world is ways we can’t even imagine today. What an exciting time!

It’s raining in northern California. That’s good since we haven’t had rain in weeks! I took the picture of the Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) on the way to work. You can see in the background how dry the hills are. Now with the rain the hills will start to green up.

The Toyon seems to be putting on a great show this year. These native plants occur all through the chaparral and on up into the forest. It is sometimes called “Christmas Berry”, or “California Holly”. Some people believe the origin of the name Hollywood was derived from the Toyon growing in the hills.

The second picture is of David Girard Vineyards, well after harvest. They are nice enough to bring their wine to our Creekside festival in summer. I have watched this vineyard from the start, as I drive by it just about every day. Its amazing the amount of time it takes to get a place like this planted and up and running. I am glad to see these wineries going in as it preserves more space for agriculture, with the option being more homes. This is one of the fastest growing areas in the state and land is being swallowed up for subdivisions. Christmas tree farms , vineyards, olive oil production, and other small horticultural endeavors help maintain the agricultural feel that makes the foothills the last example of what “old” California was.