The Blogging Nurseryman by Trey Pitsenberger

The headline, “College student finds creative outlet in dorm room garden”, got my attention. Gee, I wonder what he is up to? Well it turns out Matt Lehman, ” has two tomato plants, beans and a cucumber plant doing quite nicely under the artificial lamps he has installed above the 1-by-3-foot wooden box he built.” According to The Baltimore Sun, “he is already eating tomatoes. The beans have blossoms. And the cucumber seedling sprouted…” The article continues, “the reaction of his dormitory neighbors has been positive - sort of. ‘After we get past the part where they ask me if I am growing marijuana, they say either, ‘Wow. Cool.’ Or ‘You’re a nut.’ ”

We talked about hydroponics and indoor growing before. Most of my readers find it to be a bit to esoteric or tainted by illegal activity to be a serious concern in the garden center world. I don’t think it is something for most garden centers to be involved in. A lot like water gardening, it takes a comitment of time and resources to make it a profitable venture. It’s is still a niche market in the garden center world. A whole industry arose to meet demand while the garden center industry looked the other way. Oh well, that’s just what happened with organic gardening back in the 70’s. Something that the hippies we’re doing and not worth getting involved in. Now it’s all the rage, with garden centers asking the “experts” how to sell “green”. What I find interesting is the market is filled with young, and middle aged males. Not exactly your typical garden center customer. It would seem that they are into gardening, but they are spending their time and money in hydroponic shops located in warehouses.

This is not an area for most garden centers to be involved in. We decided to pursue it because my customers we’re indicating a need for it. I just like looking into the future when it comes to the small garden center trade. It seems we are often caught up in the way business was done in the past, that we don’t see the future staring us in the face. That’s why I beleive the future for the small garden center is good. Younger people, who have no pre-conceived notions as to how garden centers “should” be run, will propel our industry for years to come. It seem that, “wow cool” and “your a nut” are often synonymous with the future.

Thanks to Sid Raisch for pointing me to the Baltimore Sun article.

My question from yesterday has been answered.

Greenhouse Grower Magazine confirms that Color Spot Nurseries has purchased El Modeno Gardens Nursery. According to Greenhouse Grower, “El Modeno Gardens will close its doors after Oct. 31 and Color Spot Nurseries is purchasing the operation’s equipment, raw materials and inventory.”

It’s interesting how the nursery industry is fragmenting. I think once wholesale nurseries decide which “industry” they want to service, the better off they will be. It becomes harder and harder to supply both the chain stores and the independents. You have to focus on one or the other. I think we are going to see even more medium sized nurseries get gobbled up by bigger players, or go out of business.

This is a unique time in the nursery business. No one really know what the playing field will look like in the near future. Everything is up in the air, and the winds are ripe with possibilities.

I have been hearing rumors that Color Spot has bought El Modeno Gardens Nursery. If it is true, Color Spot is emerging as the number one supplier of plant goods for the chain stores in the west and southwest. By purchasing El Modeno, Color Spot moves into the shrub and tree category along with their bedding plant business.

This all makes sense to Home Depot and the other chains. By having one supplier for all their plant needs, they can work together to make sure the right plants are grown and shipped to the right stores. When you get as big as the box stores you want to make sure your supplier network is on the same page as you are.

What’s to happen to other smaller companies that have decided to service the box stores will remain to be seen. I would be a bit concerned with this development if I we’re one of these companies. What happens when Color Spot can sell that juniper to The Depot at a price lower than what you can? Another rumor is companies wanting to service the box stores with plants will have to sell their product through Color Spot first?

The trend seems to be clear. Box stores will have fewer, but larger suppliers of plants and fertilizers. I would have to guess that Scotts and Color Spot have the bulk of the garden business from these chains.  This does not bode well for the myriad of smaller wholesale nurseries who are sitting on a mountain of unsold plants this year.

My guess as to how this will shake out is you have two different horticultural industries. One larger, with the likes of Home Depot, Lowes, Wal Mart, Costco, and others buying from just a few of the largest growers and suppliers like Color Spot, and Scotts. The second horticultural industry is everyone that is left. Smaller and medium sized outfits trying to find their way in the plant world. I beleive we will see a lot of these businesses going out of business this year.

While the advantage to the big boys is clear, there is a disadvantage to having only one supplier for a particular category. Remember the late blight this last year? It cost Bonnie Plants millions in sales when infected plants we’re found at the box stores, whether the blight originated at their greenhouses or not. So with the power size brings, the downside is equally powerful.

Does anyone have more information on Color Spot buying El Modeno Gardens?

Readers of my blog know we have been discussing bringing hydroponics into my garden center since July 2nd, 2008. Here is a list of articles I have done on the subject since then.  My latest post on the subject was just this week. It seems like the idea is somewhat less than welcome with a lot of my fellow nursery people. I can’t blame them, since until now much of the hydroponic business has been done out of warehouses, and not mainstream garden centers. So it is welcome to see people outside of our businesses start to see the benefits of this type of gardening.

Over at Garden Rant this article got my attention. Called “Urban Gardening in Saigon” it touches on the very areas we have been discussing. Check out this quote concerning who is doing this most of this urban gardening, “most of them are male, aged above 30″.  Why are they doing this? “I accidentally learned from the Internet that anyone can grow sprout vegetable in their homes with simple tools and I decided to grow vegetables myself. The health of my child is the most important thing for me now.”

So there you have it. People in Saigon, and the rest of the world are learning about this stuff through the Internet, and they are doing it for food safety. In addition, it’s that illusive group of nursery customers known as “males”, that are really getting behind this.

You heard it here first.

Had a great talk yesterday in Carmichael for the district meeting of the California Garden Clubs. We had people from Lake Tahoe, Truckee, the Sacramento Area, and Foothills.  Talking to this group, and others over the years one theme I have reiterated is to get a web page up. A lot of younger people might join a club, but often the meetings are during the day when people are at work. With a web page people can still stay involved without having to attend the meeting. This group has done a great job with their web page! They even have a page where you can type in your zip code and find a club near you. Entering our zip I see our local club, The Divide Garden Club still has no web page.

We are a mountain area that still has areas where there are no cell signals, or high speed Internet.  Never the less they should have web page since it cost nothing to put up a Wordpress, or Blogger hosted site.  They will come around eventually. I am convinced that the way for any small business or group to keep people informed is via a web site. You can supplement it with a Facebook Page, Twitter account, or e-news. The e-news is the most effective way for us to reach out to our customers, who have signed up to receive the news. I use Constant Contact, where we currently send out over 1000 e-news every week or so.

We have talked in the past how conversations are taking place about you, and your business.  You may not even know it! I use Twitter the least. We live in a rural area where the constant give and take of Twitter makes less sense (to me) than in a urban setting. Still, I do check in now and then. For the first time I searched the word nurseryman to see what comes up. I thought my account name was nurseryman, but it’s actually goldengecko. Wow, was I surprised! Up came all sorts of tweets concerning my last post on, What is a Garden Center and What is a Garden Center, Part 2. The other interesting thing about these people is they follow, and are followed by thousands of people. Unlike my self, who is a casual user, these are “Sneezers” Sneezers are the people who are much more likely to spread an idea. They are the ones who will spread the word (good or bad)because people follow, and believe what they have to say.

I had no idea that people we’re referencing my post in their tweets.  Just realized a few months ago that your suppose to check the @goldengecko page, to see if anyone wants to get my attention. So now I check that daily, but had no idea the other conversations we’re going on. Head over to Twitter and search the name of your business, your name, your occupation, etc. What do you find?

Doug Green wrote a good post on why he finds Twitter less than useful for his purpose. Not even sure it’s a good media vehicle for our rural garden center. An urban garden center on the other hand should definitely be involved. Of course, by now you know I blog for other reasons than just promoting the nursery. Still don’t plan on using Twitter any more than I do currently, but think I am going to go back after this post and type in a few more key words and see what comes up. Being involved in the conversation doesn’t mean you have to do all the talking. Sometimes just listening will open your eyes.

Thanks for the responses to my last post. I wanted to address a couple of them, since I have also asked some of these same questions. As to Christian’s concerns about an unsavory type of person buying this equipment, I am sure it happens. I wonder if nursery people back in the 70’s had the same concerns about the long-haired hippies that we’re coming in looking for organic supplies for their gardens back at the commune. Remember, it was not that long ago when “organic” was considered esoteric, and the realm of the ” medicinal tomato” growing hippies. “Why carry organic?”, nursery people would say. “It’s for the hippies, and they will never be as good a customer as the 50 and 60 year old ladies we have now.”

Victor say’s, “hydroponic use will become a distant memory if pot ever becomes legal. Until it does I believe that there is money to be made in ‘indoor gardening’. Nothing wrong with selling hydroponics. Herbs and veggies are grown to some extent but the big movement to hydroponics is really about hiding an illegal crop.” Hydroponics are used at Disneyworld to produce all the vegetables served in their restaurants. It is the source of “hothouse grown” tomatoes and lettuce you buy right now in the store. Hydroponics is here to stay. The question is about the home market for hydroponics. If all of gardening was about producing a bountiful selection of produce we would be out of business! It’s about having a hobby. Most of us garden as a hobby, just like setting up a model train set in the basement. What practical reason does a grown man or women have a model train set? It’s a hobby that fires up the imagination, and someone is making money selling model train sets.

Chris say’s, “We have the same type of occasional customer in Cleveland. They are always looking for products to take care of their ‘indoor tomato plants’( wink, wink, nudge, nudge!)” So Chris has occasional customers looking for products for their “indoor tomato” plants. What does he sell them? Or are the asked to shop somewhere else? Realizing that there are more of those customers out there in Cleveland, where do they go now for their fertilizers and supplies?

I realize that here in northern California things may certainly be different than the rest of the nation (hey, quit that laughing!). As an example I Googled hydroponics in our zip code. Four pages of hydroponic shops come up in a 45 mile radius. Well over 40 shops! We are not blind to what the different reasons hydroponics can be used for. Any nursery person, or garden center that sells a bag of potting soil could very well be helping someone grow, “medicinal tomatoes”, including those 50 and 60 year old ladies shopping at Christian’s nursery.

Often the exciting new technologies, and resources that we take for granted start in the fringes of the gardening world. Remember, real change takes place in the fringes. Organic gardening, now all the rage, started with hippies living in the hills growing “whatever”. We, in the nursery business pretty much ignored this movement as being “out of the mainstream”. Some people saw the potential and jumped on the bandwagon. They are now called “visionaries”. “Oh, please tell us how to sell organic fertilizer and pest controls”, we ask.

One of the things that keeps me interested in this business is pushing the envelope. When the wizard say’s, “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” I want to look. In an urban setting where land for gardening is sparse, hydroponics will become an important way of producing safe, healthful food. It already is, whether you know it or not. During the winter when people suffer from the lack of light, having a indoor hobby that grows healthy food, and at the same time helps to wipe away the winter time blues is important. Just like the person who spends hours working on that train set in the basement, hydroponics can entertain someone for hours on end.

Hydroponics, like water gardening, orchid growing, home wine making, or growing “wicked plants”, is not for everyone. Home Depot and it’s like are there to service “everyone”.  We need to find the niches that they don’t address. That of course, is not for everyone.

It seems that often the “new” ideas and products that we sell at the garden center are not new at all. We jumped into the indoor gardening scene over the last year. This happened after I visited a local hydroponic shop in the middle of last winter. While my conventional garden center was in the winter doldrums, the hydroponic shop was jumping. Not only was it jumping, but it had many of the illusive garden shoppers known as males of generation x and y. Our industry is always asking where these people are, and why they don’t garden. They do garden, and they are not visiting conventional garden centers! We talked about this a year ago, and the reasons for our entry into this market.

Now many of us prefer the outdoors for our gardening. The less involved gardening is with modern technology, the better. That’s fine, but there are lot’s of people who enjoy growing indoors, and using modern technology to that end. Reading my morning Boing Boing I came across this post about Farms as Skyscrapers. As the article points out, “The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another 3 billion people. An entirely new approach to indoor farming must be invented, employing cutting edge technologies.”

This resonates with many people who ask themselves, if it has been done commercially for the last decade or so, why can’t the same technology be used by individuals? It can, and is. What I enjoy about indoor gardening and hydroponics’s is it engages a customer base that has not been a big customer of conventional garden centers.  It also can become an obsessive hobby that keeps the indoor gardener visiting the garden center time and time again, trying out all the new products and equipment. It’s also is mostly a winter time activity which is traditionally a slow time for the nursery.

Like water gardening, this is not an area you can just dabble in.  If you are going to educate and sell indoor equipment you have to get into it in a big way. We are expanding our garden center into two units of a small strip mall in front of the nursery. This will increase our indoor space by about 900 sq. ft.,providing a place to showcase and demonstrate how the technology works. The key in my opinion is to have actively working displays to show just how this stuff works.

Many in generation x and y respond to the idea expressed in the Boing Boing post that indoor gardening, “if successfully implemented…offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.” Even if it is for reasons other than creating a sustainable food supply, it’s an area that engages peoples imagination, and an area that traditional garden centers have allowed to be usurped by hydroponic shops that operate out of warehouses. I read in a indoor gardening trade magazine that the indoor gardening industry is recommending that hydroponic shops change their names to something more user friendly like, “garden center.”

Did you get that? They want to call themselves garden centers! Not indoor gardening shop, or hydroponic shop, but garden center. You don’t think that local hydroponic shop operating out of a store front is a garden center? Doesn’t matter what you think! The people using those shops think of them as their “garden center.” You just gained a whole lot of competition. Actually, that competition has been there all along. We just didn’t know it!