The Blogging Nurseryman by Trey Pitsenberger

Michele is concerned about how the slowing economy is going to affect her gardening budget. We in the garden center business are also concerned. We know when money is tight, or it seems tight that the first place we cut back on is what we consider extras. These non-essentials of course vary from one person to another. While I might think of the garden as an essential, others consider it a luxury.

Now is the time for people to make some choices. What is worthy of spending your hard earned money on, and what really isn’t. Should you buy and plant those cherry trees, or put gas in the fuel tank. Should you spend more time in the garden, sunshine, and fresh air, or is it time to hunker down in the house reading the latest depressing economic news.

Choice about how to spend you money and time are even more important during economic down times. Yea, the housing market is down. That house you we’re going to “flip” and make a bundle on is now what it should have been thought of as all along, a home. It’s time to put some thought into our gardens, and design ones that bring joy and nourishment, rather than just heighten “curb appeal”. Get rid of the front lawn and put it in the back, where the kids can actually play on it. Turn the front yard into the envy of the neighborhood. I remember just having moved out of my parents house into a duplex with a small front yard. My room mate and I turned it into a vegetable garden. We had lots of fun hanging out there talking to people walking by. We need more of that stuff.

Time to learn how to grow you own vegetables. Not because it’s cheaper than buying them at the store, it’s not! It’s because growing your own food brings you closer to the essence of life. Invite the neighbors over for a dinner party held in the garden, using food that you have grown in that very garden. Fruit trees, berries, and vegetables can be incorporated into almost any garden plan.

I think this will be the “trendy” thing coming down the garden pipeline. To entertain, have fun, and serve the freshest food, all the while living the “good” life in our own yards will be where it’s at. The ability to enjoy life and spread that joy to our friends and family during the good and rough times is the true measure of success.

I wanted to comment on Sid’s comment at my Speak up!post I had mentioned that “We don’t start selling tomatoes here in the foothill until the middle of April. Plant them sooner and odds are they will succumb from a late frost or the cold ground. My local Home Depot already is selling tomatoes. We get people in telling us they have already planted their tomatoes. Well they didn’t get them here! These are my customers, too. They mean well, they just saw all these great summer vegetables at The Depot.” Sid commented, “I don’t see anything irresponsible for selling early plants, just in not getting to know the customer and their expectations and then helping them enjoy eating a fresh own-grown tomato as early as they’d like if they’re willing and able to protect and grow it. If they can do that they can grow a lot of other things, and will be more inspired to do so.”

I agree! As a matter of fact if I had a greenhouse or somewhere I could store tomatoes during the cold early spring I would have no problem selling a tomato early. Sure we would not recommend it, but maybe they have a greenhouse and want an early start, or just go ahead and try it in the ground. Fair enough.

This is where I think the regional differences show up at various garden outlets around the country. I was interviewed the other day for a magazine and the writer asked how we were cutting expenses or saving energy in our greenhouse. When I told her we don’t have greenhouse she had a “ah ah” moment. This is California and we don’t need a greenhouse. Unlike much of the country, most retail garden centers here in California don’t have greenhouses. Since I don’t have a greenhouse, we bring in our vegetables from our grower that does have a greenhouse. If I take these tomatoes and place them outside for sale in the cool nights of early spring, they will be stunted. Were still getting down into the thirties Fahrenheit at night. If we don’t want to lose, or sell stunted vegetables we have to wait till mid to late April.

This is true of the local Home Depot, which like most California garden shops also does not have a greenhouse. They bring in vegetables, straight out of a growers greenhouse and display them outside day and night. The vegetables that are flying out of their store right now are not being nurtured by homeowners with greenhouses or “Wall of Waters”. They are planting them right out in the soil, just like they did where they moved from, Sacramento, the Bay Area, or Southern California. These places are either frost free or have a much earlier planting season than we do in the foothills and mountains. Of course with Home Depots policy of paying the vendors only after the plants have sold, they just throw out any that die in last nights frost and have more sent in. No monetary loss to the store, just some disappointed customers. That’s o.k., since you can just take back your dead tomato and they give you a new one. No loss on The Depots part.

We offer a guarantee, too. We just don’t have a vendor that will replace them for us. They want to paid, and any loss of tomatoes that we brought in, and had die is ours. A double loss, since we will replace the dead tomato for the customer. Actually a third loss since we have lost the trust of the customer, who finds out later as they get to know people in the area that planting a tomato in the foothills before May 1^st is a big mistake. The soil has just not had enough time to warm up, even if we don’t encounter a late frost, which we will.

I agree that if we had a place to store a few tomatoes and people wanted to buy them early, thats o.k. Where I have a problem is with displaying greenhouse tender plants outside when the threat of cold nights, mid thirties just the other day, are still a possibility. At that point it’s not just a customer taking a chance, but a business selling plants that have not been hardened off for the local climate. That’s where proper horticultural practices come into play.

Sid is right! Tomato season really is the beginning of the gardening season for most people. How I would love to capture some of that early season business. Alas, we have the same weather here that my customers have, and if I don’t want to loose the vegetables that we sell, I have to wait. Meanwhile some of my customers are buying and planting tomatoes from Home Depot, because we didn’t have them! Here is the up-coming forecast for Garden Valley.

The picture above is of my Granddaughter, Savannah. This was from an earlier post.

I was asked today, does this blog help my business? I don’t know. It has morphed far beyond what I might have originally envisioned. We have a web page that we like to think of as our virtual store front. This is where you go to sign up for our e-news, learn about plants, or just check things out, like our hours or location. The blog is something else. If the web page is about the store then the blog is like sitting down on the old pickle barrels with me. We might not talk about what sale is coming up, or which workshops are scheduled, that’s at the web page. Generally we talk about whats going on in the business or the larger world of horticulture, as seen through the eyes of a small business owner, me. Sometimes its interesting, and sometimes its not.

This is where I think the future of advertising is leading the better businesses. More and more we want to know what the companies we do business are really all about. Blogs are an excellent way to allow anyone with an interest to learn more about your business, and who you are. “Whats your story” will matter to more people when choosing a business to patronize. Small garden centers depend on a loyal “fan base” to survive. People who choose to shop at your store not just because you have the best, rarest, cleanest, or whatever, but also because they have had a chance to get to know you, weather its in person or via the blog. They understand that all your pots may not be perfectly uniform, but are being recycled to grow new plants. You have chosen to re-use those plastic pots rather than buy new. These are also the same people who might be more understanding of a few munched leaves on an ornamental plant, because you have chosen to use organic pest controls in your nursery. As long as your plants and everything else about the business is the “best” it can be, they will support you because they are “invested” in your story.

Sometimes price is the deciding factor when it comes to a purchase. I have bought things from places that don’t have the best stories, but had the best price. More and more though, I find myself gravitating towards places that may have something that “costs more”, but tells a better story. I want to support the business so it can continue to tell a great story. The more you look at what you buy as a part of a story the more you realize its not just bout the end product.

The pictures you see here are a result of Annie the Transplantable Rose request for pictures of me blogging from my gardens. I have been a bit lax on picture posting so I will include a few here, though since I was taking the pictures none include me. We are just coming out of dormancy here with the native alders, oaks, and willows just starting to send out new growth.

The picture on top is of the picnic area with the lawn and its second cut of the season. It’s sooooooooo lush! We use it for picnics and Frisbee tossing. The second is the willow which we have managed to keep from falling over. Monica has just cut off the willow shoots from last year and sells them in the store. We also added a second stake to help hold it up. The third is our portion of Empire Creek, spring water fed from the mountains.The fountain just above is behind “The Guacamole Shed, hence the color of the wall. The fountain has gotten nice and mossy.The next is the yet un-planted new raised bed we built at our workshop of a few weeks ago. Finally the frog prince hangs out amongst the cut back pennisetum grass. By summer he will be well hidden again, left to doze in peace.

My post on “This is what happens when chain stores sell plants” got a lot of interest from people concerned or surprised at whats going on at chain stores when it comes to what they are selling. My most recent comment comes from John Peter Thompson who says “As Chairman of a 78 year old family-owned nursery in Maryland (Behnke Nurseries), I have worked very hard to get the word out to the public and to the industry. I have opportunity to serve on the Maryland Invasive Species Council as the industry representative. And, as the current Secretary of the National Invasive Species Council Advisory Committee (NISC ISAC), I am working to help facilitate discussions at the federal level, and to assist with State efforts with on the ground control and eradication.” He ends by saying, “I think I will pay a visit to the local box stores this spring and see what they are offering up outside of Washington, DC.”

I couldn’t find the comment, but somewhere at a post I did someone mentioned how interesting it was that various factions in horticulture were having problems with how the other faction was doing business. There is the idea that somehow since all of us are selling plants, box stores, chain stores, independents, etc. that we are all on the same page. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Since I am an independent and tend to stick up for independents it might be construed that I like all independent nurseries. I know of a number of independents that do a terrible job. It’s not about being independent or being a box store. It’s about giving the customer a great experience coupled with great horticultural practices.

We don’t start selling tomatoes here in the foothill until the middle of April. Plant them sooner and odds are they will succumb from a late frost or the cold ground. My local Home Depot already is selling tomatoes. We get people in telling us they have already planted their tomatoes. Well they didn’t get them here! These are my customers, too. They mean well, they just saw all these great summer vegetables at The Depot.

I am also learning that garden centers are vastly different from region to region. I can’t say that our experiences here in northern California are like anyone else’s. I hear from people who say the local independents just don’t cut it, and that the box stores are the best choice. What a drag!

If you are a quality independent now is the time to get the word out about why you are better. I think its important that we don’t just say we are better but show people each and every day how much better we are. Using the medium of the Internet its getting harder and harder for these poor horticultural practices to be hidden behind slick advertising and and the perception that they are nursery professionals.

I was at the Sacramento Perennial Plant Club sale over the weekend. I met a bunch of nurserypeople from small nurseries including Sean and Christy from Mad Man Bamboo. All of these people work hard to produce what they believe to be the best they can offer. It’s not an easy route. When I think of the competition we face from large corporations with loads of cash to advertise its hard not to get mad at the mis-information and poor plant choices these places seem to excel in. I am not against becoming a large corporation if thats your companies goal. In my mind however it should be coupled with a decent knowledge of proper horticultural practices.

The chain and box stores are not going to go out of business anytime soon. There will always be people who shop these places based on perceived lower price , convenience, or a poor selection of independents in the area. There are however lot’s of people who are starting to realize that where you spend your money is about more than just those perceived qualities the chains like to advertise. It’s important that we small independents that do work so hard to do it right, get the word out and not be afraid to call out these shoddy horticultural practices and show people who care a better way.

Saturday I will be at the Sacramento Perennial Plant Club sale trying to entice people to make the trip up the hill to see us. I will be selling some special plants that I have picked out from the nursery. Very special prices for the plant sale, too! Every year Saul Wiseman, who is the president of the club has tried to get me to attend. I usually bow out as “we are too busy” this time of year. I think he grew tired of hearing that, so it was more difficult to say no this time.

I actually like doing these things as it is something different that gets me out of the nursery. It also allows me to me lots of people who would have otherwise never heard have of us, and what we have to offer.

According to the club, “Beginning at 9 AM we will have 11 different specialty nurseries here with their wonderful assortment of healthy plants to aid us with a great jump-start on this year’s gardening season. They will include trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, Mediterranean and California natives; aquatic plants, miniature water gardens, and much, much more, including delightful garden related art.”

“The guest speaker, Sean O’Hara, will speak at noon. He is the co-chair of the Northern California Branch of the Mediterranean Garden Society (MGS), which produces a quarterly journal for our area. ‘The Garden Resource Guide for Northern California’s Mediterranean Climate.’ Copies will be available at his talk. MGS is headquartered in Athens, Greece. It is an international forum devoted to furthering knowledge and appreciation of plants and gardens suited to the Mediterranean climate regions of the world.”

Stop by and say “hi” if your in the area. It’s located at The Shepherd Art Center at McKinley Park, 3330 McKinley Blvd. Sacramento. The event ends at 3 pm.

One thing I don’t get a chance to do much is visit other “garden centers” during the spring. I am just too busy, so when I get sent on an errand outside the nursery I tend to take the long way back, just to get out and about. On the way back from Folsom I passed by a Target with an attached garden center. I stopped because a table full of yellow flowers caught my eye. I knew what they we’re since they are an invasive pest in El Dorado County and Sacramento County, Cytisus recemosus (Scotch Broom). We are not even suppose to sell it in our county, yet the Target is in Sacramento County, right next door does. Sacramento County apparently doesn’t care about invasive pests.

In my last post we talked about Costco selling Leyland cypress (Cupressocyparis leylandii) in the Central Valley. Here is what the Wikipedia entry says about these trees, “it is poorly adapted to areas with hot summers, such as the southern half of the U.S.A., and in these areas becomes very prone to the disease cypress canker caused by the fungus Seridium cardinale. This causes extensive dieback and ultimately death of the tree. In California’s Central Valley, they rarely live more than ten years before succumbing, and not much longer in southern states like Alabama. In these areas, the canker-resistant Arizona Cypress is much more successful.”

We haven’t sold Leyland cypress for years! If I tried to sell Scotch Broom where we are we would get run out of town! Everybody knows this pest, and there are even groups of well meaning people that spend their free time removing these plants. Why do these corporations get a free pass? These are our real competitors for the gardening dollar. They should be exposed for what they really are, opportunists that really don’t care about what these plants mean to the person buying them. There needs to be a counter to these sloppy horticultural practices. Thank goodness for the internet, where we can finally get the word out.

Check out the sign in the Scotch Broom. No, I didn’t stick that sign in there. The display is just how I found it! Needless to say I am not a fan of sloppy nursery practices. I don’t like the idea that as a small independent garden center we work hard to prevent the spread of invasive plants as well as recommending longer lived solutions for privacy screening than Leyland Cypress. Yet the buyers for these companies don’t care at all. What about the wholesale places that are growing these things. I guess a quick buck trumps proper horticultural practices.

Here is what’s cool. We can now speak up and be heard. The internet allows us to spread the word with the chance that someone contemplating buying these plants can find out more about them before they make a big mistake. For years we have been running scared of these box stores and chains with their unbelievable low prices. I have even had customers tell me that they are selling the same thing at Target, Home Depot, Costco, etc. for a much better price. There is no way that can be, I don’t buy any plants from wholesale nurseries that deal with these places. We take the time to make sure we can stand proudly behind what we sell.

Katie at garden punks sent me a link to another article on the solar vs. tree issue. In this article we have a picture from the solar panel side and its pretty clear that the solar panels will be shaded. Oh well, the courts decided in favor of solar man so the trees will now be topped or removed.

Over at the Costco in Folsom near where Katie lives there are 15 gal. sized Sequoia sempervirens (redwoods) for $29.99. These trees are at 9-10 feet tall. I have asked my vendors, but no one seems to be able to tell me how it is that Costco can sell these trees for a price less than what I as a nurseryman can buy them for. Whats up with that? Could someone out there tell me how it’s possible to grow a tree for a number of years only to sell it for $29.99?

I am wondering is if there is a correlation between plants sold as commodities, like these redwoods and their mis-placement in the suburban landscape. There are all sorts of large sized plants, like the redwoods for sale at Costco. Leyland cypress, palms, photinia trees, etc. They are all displayed on pallets inside the store. How do they water these things? Do they even have too? My guess is that at $29.99 they expect all of them to sell out BEFORE they have to water them. Maybe one to two weeks.

The home owner who shops at Costco loves a deal, and so you see truck loads of these trees and others be distributed and planted around the neighborhood. “Honey, I’m home and I have a surprise.” Next thing you know you have redwood trees growing larger than most suburban lots have room for, blocking the neighbors solar panel, view, sun deck, etc. I have a special issue with the Leyland cupress they we’re selling, which are better suited to the coastal areas. Here, in the hot interior of California they have a short life span of about 7 to fourteen years, by which time they are attacked by borers and die. Last year it was Queen palms that people we’re getting real cheap, planting in the foothills and having die that winter.

There is something strange about seeing all these plants on pallets, shoved together, and kept inside a warehouse. Water, that will have to wait. The proper planting instructions, who need those? How big will these things grow, and are the appropriate for you small Folsom neighborhood? Why would they be selling them if they weren’t. Who grows these things? Are they proud of how their plants are being displayed? Must not be since I can’t find any labels proudly displaying their name. I guess they want to remain behind the scenes.

Right across the aisle from the Leyland Cypress are all the fertilizers you’ll ever need to keep these things healthy. Giant boxes of Miracle-Gro from Jim, who loves independents!

I wrote a post about what to do with the empty nursery pots here. I just got a comment from faboomama. She asks “It would be nice if there was a comprehensive statewide effort to reduce the waste of these pots, but barring that, I’m looking for anyone who can take my pots and recycle them. I’m actually really surprised that there is no concerted effort among nursery owners (do you guys have an association?) where you can direct gardeners to dump them.

Well faboomama, we do have a California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers (CANGC). This was at one time a powerful and influential organization. What has happened to them? I joined when we started our business here four years ago. I soon dropped out because I sensed it was an organization that seemed to have lost it’s way. I tried to e-mail them a couple of times concerning a number of issues and never heard back.

I have come to the conclusion that it’s up to each independent to do what needs to be done. Counting on associations to help, at least here in California is a uphill climb. Am I missing something, or can someone tell me what the C.A.N.G.C.’s position is on recycling plant containers?

I want to address Jays concerns with my last post, Reducing inventory while increasing sales. Jay says,“They (the chain stores) offer the most popular items which account for the major percentage of their sales and give up the opportunity to sell slow moving items (which either don’t contribute to profit or do so minimally).” He continues, “The downside to this is that the shopping experience becomes homogenized. Walk into any Box and it’s predictable.”

I agree with Jays assessment of the homogenized shopping experience that is encountered at these stores. I don’t however think that by simply reducing the number of items you carry will make you become homogenized like the chains. The very nature of being independent allows us to pick and choose which items we carry. The only way you can experience a homogenized experience at my store would be if I choose the same items that my local Home Depot carries. We don’t! I choose in most cases to buy from those suppliers that do not service the chain stores. My goal is to give you the anti-homogenized experience.

My goal with the last post was to suggest that we in the small garden center business sometimes try to carry everything, just like the old fashioned hardware store that Jay mentions. We have the oldest continuously running hardware store west of the Mississippi right here in Placerville. Placerville Hardware is a joy to visit. Exactly what you would have expected Grand Pa to shop at. Pot belly stove, hundreds of drawers with all sorts of nuts, bolts, etc., wood floors, and those cool ladders that run along a rail so they can get to the real high stuff. Tourists stop to visit and spend money. The locals do too, but not to the extent that it would survive strictly on local business. The tourist traffic on Main street keeps this store alive. It’s more like a living museum. It’s not making it because it has every little thing you want, it’s making it because it appears to carry every little thing you want. Its a representation of what we picture the “good ‘ol days” to be. Locate this store off of Main St., away from the tourist trade and I doubt it would still be operating.

I think that re-creating the old fashioned nursery atmosphere is a viable business model. The kind of store Grand Ma would have shopped in. It doesn’t mean that you would have to carry every item an actual garden center would have carried in those days. The competition for the gardening dollar makes it impossible to compete with the infinite selection available through the Internet or a well stocked chain store these days. So yes to re-creating the ambiance or feel of the old fashioned garden supply store, but to try and carry everything that they would have in those days won’t work now. They didn’t have box stores or the Internet back in the “good old days”.

I thought this post has a lot to offer the smaller independent garden center, even though it involves bookstores. Recently Borders cut it’s inventory by 5 to 10% and saw it’s sales increase by 9%. What they did is start placing more of their books on the shelves facing with the cover out, rather than with the spine of the books showing. I love this stuff. It’s not about the volume of books you have, but rather how you display what it is you do carry.

This method assumes that maybe most people don’t know what it is they have come into the store for. They may have a basic need, privacy from a nearby neighbor, or they want to try vegetable gardening. It’s up to us to show them all the possibilities for reaching this goal, in ways that they may have never thought off.

This is a very hopeful way to think of our business. Realizing that the amazing choices that are available from Amazon.com or some cool mail order nurseries is a great thing, but doesn’t resonate with everybody all the time. There are plenty of people that really don’t need a large selection of varieties, but are looking for new ideas, excitement, or different way’s of using the varieties that we do carry. More and more I feel that the small garden center shouldn’t be about just stuff to buy, but rather a place that inspires, rejuvenates, and surprises with every visit. Do that and sales will follow.