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!
It seems like all our Home Depots in Atlanta stock now is Hines plants. I guess the hostas and ground covers are Stacey’s in some of the stores. Doesn’t leave a lot of room for locally-grown plants, although the local Home Depot with the biggest garden center gets about 5 native plants from the University of Georgia delivered in the spring. (Not five species, 5 1-gallon plants.) Sigh.
Comment by Sarah — December 31, 2009 @ 8:44 am
Things have gotten even for Hines and Bordier’s in northern California. Hines has given all their reps notice that at the end of January they will be let go. Home Depot is going to a program where the merchandising company will manage the ordering at the store level. This is the same merchandising company that regularly confuses agapanthus with hemerocallis or phormium with dietes. At Lowe’s they are going to a computer program for product replenishment and sales reps will no longer be welcome in their stores, much like WalMart did two years ago. How the plant selection at your local WalMart?
While this is a mess for the growers involved, this is all good news for independent nurseries. Selection at the boxes will continue to deteriorate, as will capable assistance in their “garden centers”. Landscapers not ordering directly from growers will now longer be able to count on ordering anything through the big boxes and will return to their local nurseries. The shake up will continue all year, but I expect product availability to be a huge issue this season. After all, how many plants can a bankrupct nursery be producing? I hope all for the little guys & gals out there will continue to support those growers who were there for you while the big boys sold their souls to the boxes.
Comment by Les — January 15, 2010 @ 12:53 pm
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