The Blogging Nurseryman by Trey Pitsenberger

According to to commenter Les, “It seems Hines will acquire Bordier’s and lock up their position as the primary source for the Home Depot. With Color Spots’ take over of El Modeno, that leaves two major players running just about everything at the big boxes. How long before one absorbs the other?”

This was bound to happen. The management team that Hines has gone with is the same management team that was at the helm at Bordier’s during their bankruptcy. Funny how such large corporations make one bad decision after the another.

Happy New Year!

No matter where you stand on climate change it’s quite obvious that climate talks in Copenhagen will end in failure. Depending on which side of the argument you are on, that’s either a great or terrible thing. So many people want BIG things to happen. Trillions spent here, trillions spent there. Flying to Copenhagen in private jets and limousines our leaders seem to be floundering.

The answer is not in spending more money or attending useless meetings, but in taking control of our lives. The world we live in is in a transformational time, and it seems everything we use to know no longer applies. We could talk politics or other subjects, but my blog is about gardening and the business of gardening. What can we do to make a better world, and keep our businesses thriving?

It’s as simple as planting a tree! The old saying is true. The best time to have planted a tree was ten years ago, the second best time is now. It seems that the garden business has a unique opportunity to change the world and change how the world sees us. When everything seems to be collapsing, the simple act of planting a tree is life affirming. Those of us in the garden world should be driving home this point. Let’s quit talking about how the consumer just want’s to decorate the yard. Instead lets talk about how our customers can empower themselves to change their world now.

Fruit tree planting season is upon us here in northern California. I can think of no better way to take control of your life, than the act of planting a home food garden.  Using modern techniques like Home Orchard Culture we can grow all, or most of the fruit we need to live. Later on when the vegetable season arrives we an continue planting, so that the majority of food we consume is safe, nutritious, delicious, and from our own backyards. Add the fun hobby of indoor growing along with hydroponics, and we can feed ourselves without depending on the supermarket. It’s possible. Take a look at what one nursery in the UK is doing. Otter Farm, according to it’s web site is, “the UK’s only climate change farm - where we’ve planting olives, peaches, pecans, persimmons, apricots, szechuan pepper, vines and much more.” I love it. The climate is changing, so let’s take advantage and improve our lives.

We would encourage garden centers to focus like a laser beam on becoming the source for sustainable lifestyle choices.  Somehow the greenest business around, you local garden center is missing out. Maybe too much attention on trying to attract people who just want to decorate their yard, or worrying about dumbing things down for Generation Y. We need to quit listening to marketing experts, and instead listen to our own hearts. It seems to be a lack of communication by the nursery industry. We should trumpet who we are and what we are about.

In the past the bare root fruit tree season was just a prelude to the rush of spring. Our customers are sitting at home wondering what they can do during the winter. We need to make sure we communicate the hopeful message we have. That there is no more hopeful, life affirming action than planting a fruit tree.

Someone felt the need for a Christmas Tree and chose a Keteleeria, a rare Asian conifer growing at the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle. The trees value is estimated at $10,000. Those of us who are into plants know the value is much higher!

Considering the tree is not that attractive a Christmas tree, perhaps it was cut down by someone with a grudge? Even good ol’ Charlie Brown would know better.

I think we can all agree what kind of Christmas those who cut it down have.

I use site meter to find out why people end up at this blog. I am interested in the number of people who came by. After a mention by a popular blog or a big news story it is fun to watch your traffic spike. Never the less I realize my blog will never have the number of visitors that other sites have. That’s o.k. since I beleive that it’s not just the number of people who show up, but the quality of people who read this blog that’s important.

What the site meter tells that’s important to me are the search words used.  Often just before important news breaks I often find people using the same search words to arrive at the site. Sometimes the word, “financial troubles”appears before or after the name of the company folks have questions about. I found out about Bordier’s, El Modeno, and Hines Nursery bankruptcy from the search words used by visitors.

These days lot’s of people have been prefacing their search of various large and small companies with, “financial troubles”. One reason that they end up at this site is it is one of the only places that has discussed these companies before the fall. Google Hines nursery, Bordier’s Nursery,  El Modeno Gardens, or Smith and Hawken, and up pops this site.

This seems the way news comes to the surface these days. Citizen journalism.  Web sites that depend on readers to bring the news to them. In the past news outlets sent reporters out to gather the news. Now everyone is a reporter, even if they don’t know it. As a news gatherer I do feel a sense of responsibility not to announce what companies are showing up at this time. Big names and maybe just rumors, so it’s best not to feed the rumor mill.

An additional note. For some reason I had not not  moderated comments on a number of past posts. We have been without power for the last few days because of heavy snow. If you posted a comment and it did not appear, I apologize. One comment was from Joe, who said about my post on social media, ” If you really want to write a blog please use proper spelling and grammar! Here is what you wrote: Just a few years ago we we’re told that nurseries really should not worry about or bother with social media, we are now told that your a dinosaur if you don’t. This is the way it should be: Just a few years ago we were told that nurseries really should not worry about or bother with social media; we are now told that you’re a dinosaur if you don’t.”

Joe is right! I disliked English in school, and as such it shows in my writing. I always thought it was more important to get the info out, and worry about spelling and grammar later. Since plenty of my visitors understand the English language better than myself, I will try and do a better job. As for Joe, proper spelling and grammar are not requirements for writing a blog. Anyone can write a blog, and I encourage you to write one concerning proper English spelling and grammar. Please continue commenting here on my use of spelling and grammar. I did try to follow the link for your name to find out who you are. Unfortunately, your name led to “server not found”. Joe, if your are going to comment at a blog and leave a link for your name, be sure it leads to somewhere besides “server not found”. That’s the way it should be.

In the past we have talked about Hines Nurseries, at one time the largest nursery in the country. I was checking out GreenhouseGrower.com when I came upon a discussion started in April 13th of this year, concerning the new management team at Hines. If you remember, Hines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late last year. “The Blogging Nurseryman” was the only source of information on what was happening at Hines pre-bankruptcy at the time. My post and the comments were made in August 10th 2007, long before the most knew the bankruptcy was coming.

The greenhousegrower.com post is an interesting read. If the mood of the anonymous commentator’s are any indication, Hines has a long way to go to regain the trust of it’s former suppliers and customers.  The post also includes a quote from Mike Trebing, senior vice president of sales and marketing. According to greenhousegrower.com Mike say’s “‘As a company we are returning to our core values and business philosophies which the company has been built upon over the last 90 years,’ Trebing says. ‘As an outcome of the bankruptcy, Hines has emerged with one of the cleanest balance sheets in the nursery business.  During these challenging economic times, that flexibility will help Hines rebuild its operations and inventory.’”

I love this comment from anonymous, “Unbelievable, this guy is bragging about having one of the cleanest balance sheets in the industry. Wouldn’t we all like to have all our debt just disappear? However, this is at a horrendous cost to suppliers who were just discarded. Are these same suppliers going to do business with them? Experience?? Why should this team, whom all come from companies that they helped bankrupt–Bordiers, Hines, and Powell be expected to do anything different? They can continue doing the same things that bankrupt their respective companies now that their debt load is gone.”

Wow!

I always thought it would be fun being a book store owner. I have always loved book stores, books, and the whole vibe that goes with wondering through the store. Of course I grew up in an era before the internet. There is a post today at Boing-Boing by Cory Doctorow concerning the future of book selling. In many way’s it mirrors the changes going through the plant selling businesses. I always thought that bookstores and garden centers we’re under the same challenges. Now I think bookstores have even more challenges before them.