Adapt or die
Monica standing in the flowers at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Over at Garden Rant there is a post from Michelle titled, “What should a flower show be?” It addresses the declining attendance at these types of shows. At one time flower shows where the “bee’s knees”. If you recognize that saying you remember when flower shows we’re popular.
Elizabeth has a couple of good suggestions for making the shows more exciting. I think that Duane Kelly, who founded the San Francisco and Northwest Flower shows hit it on the head when he said, ”younger people are…less interested in the aesthetics of gardening and more in the environmental benefits, like composting.”
So there you have it. The answer is staring us in the face. Change the shows so there are more displays utilizing what people want to see, “how to” displays. Why not have displays showing composting, pest control, high-density fruit tree planting, etc.” Give the people what they want! We talked about this very subject just a post or two ago here. People have changed along with their needs. If flower shows are going to exist in the future they, like the rest of us, had better change and adapt or face an irrelevant future.
This is so true, Trey. Things contantly change and although it can be mind boggling to try to figure out what the public wants, it’s essential to try. Trends come and go.
For me seeing a display of what ‘can be done’ like the cube of vertical walls of succulents, personnally leaves me cold. I want to see what ‘ I ‘ can do in my garden.
I don’t agree at all . These folks in charge of these shows have missed the forest for the trees. I make it a habit to walk quietly around at our local show eavesdropping on conversations by shoppers and hands down the greatest enthusiasm is still over unusual / fascinating plants either in display gardens or in vendor’s booths . This is the one thing they can’t easily find at their local nursery/box store or Pier One Imports. People come to these shows to be inspired and there is less and less to be inspired over . Several years ago our live plant booth was placed across the aisle from a vendor selling the cheapest gas-station pin wheels imaginable.
Re: young folks and compost . How many 20 somethings do you think are going to really buy compost or compost “makers” at these shows. In my experience young folks think and talk alot about being green and a few dedicate themselves to it , but they are not so common and usually prefer to DIY than spend money they don’t have on expensive stuff that isn’t absolutely necessary to growing food or flowers.
I think garden shows should comp or greatly reduce the live plant vendor’s booth fees. My nursery has had a booth at our local garden show event for 15 years. Wonderful small niche nurseries have come and gone never to return due to the inability to make it worthwhile after expensive booth fees, gas , truck rentals , hotel etc.( Also small growers cannot afford to pay sales staff and end up burned out after a grueling 5 days.) I realize that booth fees support the show but with more interesting plants to buy , over time the shows attendance will go up instead of down. The event could promote “50 new and exciting never- before- seen exotic , native plant purveyors” Something like that would bring in lots more attendees . And don’t blog about every vendor beforehand . Leave some mystery,
Most everyone who attends these shows agree they used to be way better . They were better because there used to be LOTS more cool and interesting plant vendors .
I’m positive the market is still there . Our booth is always extremely busy but the shows promoters ( and staff who often change every year) don’t really know their market or the local garden world .
Annie, the question is, will attendance go up if you have more “interesting” plants to buy? Like you say about flower shows, “they were better because there used to be LOTS more cool and interesting plant vendors.” My concern is those plant vendors are going out of business. Not all, but many of the smaller ones that have always just been hanging on.
Your booth is always happening because you have built a fan base like few other small, or medium sized nurseries. Are there enough people in the gardening world that seek out rare, unusual, or exotic plants to support many other nurseries like yours? There we’re a lot more niche nurseries in the past. Where are they now? The number of people who support that kind of gardening may be as enthusiastic as ever, but there are fewer of them. This bodes well for those of us who can find our niche and claim it as our own.
Annie, I couldn’t agree with you more! I feel a lot of the younger consumers want to be part of the “IN” crowd and will support greener causes, but when it comes to real everyday living the only green thing that they do is seperate their garbage. The “X” are X tremely ignorant when it comes to gardening, and the “Y” are Why garden? There is no connection anymore to visiting “Grandmas farm” in the summer.
I rarely will meet anyone that is inspired by composting, but, show a person a beautiful, fragrant, colorful garden full of flowers and that person will just gush with awe and inspiration.
Our industry, as a whole, just doesn’t inspire anymore.
Maybe that should be the theme of the next garden show…
Passion & Inspiration in the Garden!!
P.S. Oh and no Jewlery vendors, Chiropractors, gadget vendors, Aging cream vendors, Beer Vendors, Car showrooms etc at these Home and Garden shows. Just industry related please!!
Keith, I agree with the notion that our industry doesn’t inspire anymore. The problem is there is no “our industry”. It has fragmented and most people think of the box store when they think of garden centers. The smaller operations like ours have fallen off the radar for most people, especially the younger generations.
I will disagree with your statement that people are un-inspired by compost. Put on a composting workshop and they will come. Lot’s of people are so inspired by this stuff that as gardening magazines are going out of business new “home farming” magazines take their place. People seem to be inspired to raise chickens for food and eggs. Look at all the fuss recently concerning “urban homesteading.” I can see why Annie bemoans the state of flower shows the days, and why you feel we don’t inspire anymore. It’s true. Now what?
Let’s make a distinction between “Garden Shows” and “Home and Garden Shows”. Most “Home and Garden Shows” are heavy on the “home”, light on the “Garden”. If there are display gardens in those shows, they are a loss leader for the show promoter. “Garden Shows” should be just that: 95% of the booths (or more) should be related to horticulture. (Placing a flat of annuals on the hood of a Subaru does not make a car display “horticultural”). And yes, attracting vendors, especially nurseries, on the cusp of spring is hard enough without having them pay exorbitant booth rates. Perhaps show producers could take a small percentage of booth sales instead of charging booth rental space fees. Yes, I’m dreaming.
Fred,
Yes, you are a dreamer! You might know better, but I would guess that those Home and Garden Shows are more profitable than traditional garden shows? I am going to head down on Sunday to check out the SF Flower show in San Mateo next Sunday. Haven’t been to one of these things in years.
Actually Keith the a lot of young people here in the bay area and i’m guessing elsewhere, are quite interested in gardening and often know alot . They just don’t have alot of money to spend which is totally normal.
They make awesome gardens out of nothing & junk , do their thing in community gardens and volunteer at urban school garden projects and native plant restoration. .
they’re so inspiring and and when they come to visit the nursery i feel enriched and hopeful.
I stopped going to garden shows years ago because they weren’t really directed at me. (When I lived in Massachusetts, I went to the late great Boston show, because it was a breath of spring in midwinter.) In NoCal, the garden shows seemed more to be aimed at people looking for landscape contractors, without much stuff for the individual gardener. I went looking for rare and local plants, and came away with empty hands.
I totally agree with Keith about “No Jewlery vendors, Chiropractors, gadget vendors, Aging cream vendors, Beer Vendors, Car showrooms etc at these Home and Garden shows. Just industry related please!”
Here’s a simple reason why I still patronize my local nursery, Roger Reynolds in Menlo Park. Last week I came to them with a leaf from a sick citrus, sealed in a plastic bag. Their tree expert took one look at it, said, “Your soil is too alkaline.” I asked if they carried Miracid, and he said “No, but what you really want to do is put a cup of cider vinegar in five gallons of water and use that.”
Now *that’s* a gardener-centered nursery. I then spent $100 on things having nothing to do with my sick citrus.
Madame Hardy, Ah, Roger Reynolds. They we’re our competition to the south when I worked at Christensen’s Nursery in Belmont in the early 80′s. Peter’s and Wilson and Burlingame Garden Center we’re the competition to the north. If you remember those places, then we are talking about the glory day’s of Peninsula Gardening. Of course Christensen’s, Burlingame Garden Center, and Peter’s and Wilson are long gone now. There is a place for well run garden centers and Rogers proves that. I always loved Rogers and would visit often to “spy” on what they we’re up to.
Trey: Yes i’m sure attendance would go up ( that is if the economy and gas prices don’t get much worse).
All you have to do is listen to folks like Madame Hardy, people say the same thing every year -(don’t listen to the show reviewers), listen to the gardening customer. They are dying to buy something -but there’s not much they’re interested in buying . How many years can you buy a lily bulb before you stop going- especially when its like 20 bucks to get into the show and maybe more to park.
Whenever the other vendors were there in years past , like Richard from the Dry Garden (oakland) , Larry Lee (san leandro, exotics) , Digging Dog Nursery
(Albion) their booths were just as busy as ours. They just couldn’t make it worth their while after expenses and it was totally exhausting. You figure if you’re selling 5.00- 10.00 plants ( which is what sells fastest) you have to sell a ton of them to break even.
I don’t have all the answers for sure but helping out and promoting live-plant vendors would be a totally smart step . I have heard countless times from folks who don’t go anymore : its always the same, the interesting plant vendors have dwindled. and there’s way too many barely-garden related booths.
Hey, unless they’ve figured out that its more profitable attracting the non-gardener who wants to attend a big Spring- themed indoor event .
“How many 20 somethings do you think are going to really buy compost or compost “makers” at these shows. In my experience young folks think and talk alot about being green and a few dedicate themselves to it “,
This is so true………….they are media whores to put it lightly. They cannot be seen out in public without their “graphic tees” sports team logos on their backwards caps etc. They hate corporate america but that is where they shop. In general they are the laziest generation to date who yes, separate their trash, but most do little else
“Your booth is always happening because you have built a fan base like few other small, or medium sized nurseries. ”
You hit the nail on the head Trey!
Basic marketing: built your fan base. Good product cool interesting people working there and SIGNAGE that backs up the whole package…………………
If the show is local you need to piggy back on the show booth and turn the visitors into customers. It really turns out to be an inexpensive marketing/advertising exercise if you follow through after the show ie:
-collect emails for e-blasts with specials for those who attended the show
-sell discounted gift cards for use at a later date
5% for card to be used in 30 days
10% for 60 days
15 % for 90 days etc
if the show is in dead of winter you are getting some cash
flow now.
-special “package” of show specials featuring specials at later dates etc.
These shows are great for colelcting customer data as well as creating excitement.
Once you get the information it is up to you how it is turned into dollars at the register
Greg
Speaking as a guy who used to work for a bulb vendor at the big Philly Show and as a competitor at our state fair’s flower show (which I also took a turn at Directing) – the event managers/owners haven’t got a clue how to rescue their shows. It’s like turning around a cruise ship on a tiny lake. Things have changed. People are different now. They spend money differently than they did just 5 years ago. Event owners want to make lots and lots of money and they really don’t want to change anything, the last thing they want to do is start over from scratch.
Most of the junk vendors at a show got in at a reduced rate as a last minute fill in for vacant slots. Most of them have inventory costs and labor costs that a plant nursery can only dream of – unless you want to break some laws. I coined a word for it when describing the vendors at a large show – “Luckybambooishness”
I predict that gardeners will rise up and form their own kind of show that won’t involve the contracts and contacts of the big convention centers.
I don’t own a small business and I don’t work in this field. I don’t attend flower shows either. But I wanted to respond anyway.
I am a Generation X customer who is passionate about gardening and that includes growing some of my own food, composting, general landscaping, and collecting cultivars that intrigue me.
In spite of my passion, I can’t convince myself to put up with the hassle of fighting traffic and paying to park, wandering around a fluorescently-lit convention center for a few hours only to leave empty handed and disspirited because I couldn’t find anything that I wanted to buy or could afford.
My flower show is the Internet. On the Internet I can learn about plants, I can stop and pause to think about how those plants might fit into my plan, and I can choose just the plants I want. And the blogging/discussion forum communities fulfill a lot of my desire to rub elbows with like-minded individuals so I don’t even feel as much need to go and physically rub elbows with other gardeners.
I’m not opposed to going to a flower show, but what’s the draw compared to what I can experience online?
Chad, fantastic comment! You just summarized the challenge and opportunity facing flower shows, and really any business looking to attract the generation x or y or younger people. Things have changed and if these stores and events are to survive they need to be online to even be considered. Not necessarily selling online, but a presence online.
Hey Greg–Watch it! I’m sure the generation before you called your generation the laziest too. I am gen X (okay-just barely–but still), and most of my friends are too. AND a fair amount of my customers too. Just like in any age group, there are people I admire and people I don’t. And people who need to be educated and inspired. And there are just a hell of a lot more people these days to sift through to get to the ones we need as customers. But I see more and more customers my age and younger come in and buy all the time.
Jodie, I hear what Greg and others in our nursery group say about the younger generations. We sound like the old timers complaining about the “long haired hippies that are listening to their crazy rock and roll.” It doesn’t matter whether we think they are too digital or not. This is the challenge we face as a trade. It’s hard to get hundreds of small, locally owned independents, on “the bus”. Some are doing it on their own, while others are not even at the “bus stop”. We must quit wishing things we’re different, and instead jump into the way they are. Then we can work on changing things.
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As a 20 something ‘new generation’ gardener, I just had to chime in on the composting comment. I certainly do composting, but I’m not going to spend money on it when I can use elbow grease and scrap lumber instead.
However, no amount of elbow grease or dumpster diving is going to get me an unique plant none of my neighbors have. I spend my money on what I can’t get elsewhere: the plants. I do buy the smallest plants I can find, because they grow and time is cheap. But I will pay for genes I can’t get elsewhere.
Like Chad, I get the impression flower shows are mostly about landscaping contractors (and again, I won’t pay for what I can either sweat out or wait out myself). I would go to meet small plant growers in my area if I thought any were attending.
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