Highlights from the garden center stops on this summer's American Nursery & Landscape Association Retail Roadshow in the mid-Atlantic.

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Buck’s Country Gardens kicked it up a notch by building raised bed displays of herbs and vegetables. They show how customers can create their own kitchen gardens, and how to incorporate edibles into a landscape for a beautiful result.

 

Check out the great ideas retailers found to take home while on the Retail Roadshow.

At this year's Retail Roadshow, attendees found great ideas at each stop to take home with them. Click on the videos below to find out what made the trip for these retailers, as well as a snippet from Scott Daly of Homestead Gardens talking about hosting events:

It's so hard to say goodbye!

I’m sad to say that’s it, folks. You’ll see more coverage from the tour in the magazine and through various features we do based on ideas from the tour. But the official tour coverage is over, and I’m exhausted. I have to thank everyone who gave me ideas, looked for the live coverage and helped us with my little video experiment. Look for those videos soon on TGCTV (we’ll link to it in the E-newsletter).

Special recognition is in order, too, to Ashley Giuda, Amanda Flynn and Stephanie Stockton for their hard work before and during the Roadshow. They did a wonderful job, and deserve a nice, long vacation.

In the past I didn't provide the list of sponsors for the tour, but this year I’m going to. Each one of these companies not only contributed finances during a very difficult year, but virtually all were also present, which says volumes about the importance of events like this. Please, if you have a chance, remember these companies when you’re looking for product or making buying decisions. These are industry supporters:

Nexus Corp.
Master Nursery Garden Centers
Espoma
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co.
Monrovia
Proven Winners
Novalis
Commerce Corp.
Bailey Nurseries
Carolina Nurseries
Imperial Nurseries
Bonide
Hines Nurseries
Arett Sales
Bench Systems
Novelty
Activant
Overdevest Nurseries

A few random thoughts from the third day.

Extra Notes: 

• I received a response to my question on Wednesday about the pots (scroll down to Day 2 Extra Notes for the full story). A Florida retailer responded with this: "Our customers don't care about pot size... that's an industry issue. It's about value. Is a large soda the same at all restaurants?" Have a thought on it? I started a discussion on Fresh Air Forum here. Let's talk about it.
• Terrain at Styer’s will likely be getting into the farm market business, planning one for next spring.
• Terrain also is eyeing at least one more but possibly two more stores in the Atlantic.
• The figure of $1.4 million in sales for County Line Landscape Nursery yesterday was last year’s figures. It hasn’t been determined yet what sales impact this year’s extensive structure and traffic flow changes will have.
• Stauffers designed its new store to have two entrances and two exits – that’s it. So people (and product) don’t walk out anywhere the staff doesn’t know about. There are gates in various places around the fenced in yard that stay locked for the most part. 
   

We visited the Exton store, which is flush with every category known to garden centers.

We visited the Exton store, and my first thought when walking in was ‘wow, that’s a lot of product.’ They have so much, from furniture and home décor to artwork, silk flowers, children’s gifts…I could go on and on. Virtually every garden center category you can think of, they have it.

It was a bit overwhelming walking through there (possibly because it was the last stop and I was experiencing garden center overload at that point), until I reached the greenhouse. The greenhouse automatically made me feel better. There were wonderful little displays that cross-merchandised and color blocked well.

They had a great container potting center that was a circular desk with a wide aisle and then circular benches around it that showed off pre-planted containers, as well as pottery. Very well done.

Some of the perennials displays out in the yard were the same, with multi-tiered benches holding two alternating colors of the same plant. Very cool.

And finally, the greatest thing Waterloo offered (which very much came in handy): extensive covered shopping. Only on a rainy day is that a complaint, but there were lots of shoppers still wandering Waterloo on a stormy day when others were looking rather devoid of customers during showers.
 

We visited a remodeled location in Rohrerstown, which was also the topic of our June cover story.

I can’t imagine what it takes to rebrand a store and create all new marketing material, signage, etc. I really can’t imagine what it takes to do it for eight locations, three of which are supermarkets, as well.

Garden Center COO Steve Gallion did note that they had the image and logo set in 2005, and waited a full year before launching it because they felt they didn’t have a strong plan in place to do it completely. That’s restraint, but it was also smart. There were no traces of the old “diamond” SKH logo anywhere, which is exactly how it should be.

We did the June cover story on the new Rohrerstown location (which is the one we visited), so I won’t go too in depth. But it took a lot of work to get this facility to what it is now (if you want to find out, click here), and the principals involved still consider it a work in progress. That’s one of the great things about the folks at Stauffers – they’re still willing to learn and make changes despite just finishing a giant remodeling effort. They’re still mining ANLA members and their consultants for more ways to make the stores better. It’s a great attitude to have.

Overall, the store is really a beautiful one, with a meandering semi-covered path in the nursery yard, a covered patio store, an inspiration- and end cap-heavy annuals section and a giant gift and furniture shop. And it’s one of the first I’ve heard of that is actually outpacing its projected sales in furniture this year. That isn’t happening in too many places, so they must be doing something right.

There was lots of great feedback from our bus, too, about flow and ways to improve some of the gondola positioning for better sightlines. It’s a big store, and I’m sure it takes constant tweaking to ensure customers are directed properly.

Another interesting note is they are leasing space to a patio enclosure company and merchandising the enclosures with Stauffers furniture. The displays are changed weekly, and both are selling well.

A final note; Rohrerstown also has a brand new supermarket, which is gorgeous. It gave me grocery store envy, with its bright, wide aisles and beautiful, mouthwatering signage of things like tomatoes and fresh seafood. I could envision some of that signage in the garden center, as well.

This garden center is a plant-lovers dream.

The owner of this small, 1-acre garden center called it the “smallest garden center in the world.” It’s not quite that small, but it is space-challenged. They had a great traffic flow and some unique features, like a wooden footbridge over a running brook to get to perennials under beautiful shade trees in the back. They are able to take advantage of a park-like setting to the tune of $1.5 million in sales.

Their strength was the plant material, and its no wonder. The owners also own North Creek Nurseries, which produces the American Beauties line of native plants. The signage, bench tape and POP for the program looked great there.

A few things I would change about this store: the pottery section was hit or miss with only a few products and a couple of different brands. I’d build up a slightly bigger display (not too big, there’s not much room) to create a powerful display that’s color blocked to encourage more pottery sales.

I’d also move some product around. I found ponding supplies in one building (there are a couple on the property) and wondered where the rest was. In another building I found koi and pond liners. Combining those could help propel those sales, along with some of the materials for creating the cool pottery water features with lilies in them.

By all accounts, Terrain is continuing to grow into its own as a major presence in the retail garden center market.

 
A living wall in the cafe at Terrain at Styer's.

Back in November, my fellow editor at Today’s Garden Center Pete Mihalek described Terrain as Pier One in an expensive flannel shirt. It was a great description of a store striving to stand apart and appeal to its core audience of Baby Boomers by way of reconnecting with the Earth. In the process I think they created a store that appeals to a younger audience, as well.

The response to this location was mixed on our bus. Not everyone fell in love immediately, but many did. Some wondered what the big deal was, while others gushed. I was one of the latter.
A couple of observations:

• Terrain has a clear message and story that is consistent throughout the 5-acre retail operation. It’s dedicated to sustainability, and emphasizes that throughout with all types of recycled materials, including bamboo, burlap, wood and more. One attendee took a peek into a back storeroom, and the sustainability theme is carried back there, as well, showing it's not just a schtick.
• The café is a true restaurant with an executive chef that opens for lunch during weekdays and brunch on the weekends. It features a seasonally focused menu that changes based on produce availability (with exception to the uber-popular chicken salad sandwich, which stays on the menu year-round). It’s very garden-focused and ties in well with the atmosphere. According to the special events coordinator, the café has not only kept customers happy, but driven sales enough to launch it into the Top 5 in category sales.
• In the gift house many of the products appeared to be one-of-a-kind, or at least very special finds from an excellent buyer. The signage matched to explain to the customer where it came from and what made it such a great find. To the flip side of that (and my main complaint), I found little or none of that in the plant yard outside (granted it was raining, and I was a bit rushed). I didn’t get the same “finding a jewel around each corner” feeling out there as I did in the shop. I think this is easily fixed with some signage creatively describing the history of the plant, common names or nicknames if they’re interesting, or even uses for them. Anything to make that plant unique and special.

Here are some of the tidbits that I picked up on the bus, at lunch and in various stages of transit.

I have lots of extra side notes from today, and they’re going to sound pretty random.
 

• Some good advice from Sid Raisch, Jeff Warschauer and several others about doing major research before jumping into something like a farm market or carrying specialty food. It can be lucrative, and there are several examples of retailers being successful (Robert Sickles and his $800,000 cheese counter came up quite a bit today) but you have to make sure your market is right for it. I can’t remember who said it, but one attendee said steady local traffic is more conducive to a farm market than a destination garden center, which gets lots of one- or two-time visitors. Willey Farms, for example (see below for our visit there yesterday) sees loyal customers back twice a week.
• There were two vendors at Buck’s Country Gardens during lunch to talk about the option of adding an ice cream, smoothie or coffee machine in the garden center, as well as adding a full-blown café. I didn’t catch all the info on this, so I’m going to try to get more from Jeff Warschauer (from Nexus Corp. who set up the session) and post it later. Again, these seemed lucrative in the right market with a fairly short return on investment if positioned correctly.
• Some news I hadn’t heard before – Imperial Nursery closed its Florida growing operation in part because of the economy and because of the increasing trend toward locally grown material. Instead, they will expand some of the operations at the Connecticut location. They do 70 percent of their business with IGCs, and showed us some new marketing material from New Growth Marketing that was very nice. It’s a bench card system and book tag made of laminated vinyl. It’s got a nice, heavy stock with a glossy look and appears like it would last for a good couple of seasons.
• Platt Hill talked to our bus briefly about what he called a “small but growing movement” to standardizing pot sizes. When he asked for a show of hands to see who would like to see that, virtually everyone on the bus raised their hands.
  “Until we standardize, cleaning them up, sterilizing them and reusing pots is not going to happen,” he said.
  He specifically mentioned 1-gallon pots, and said no details have been discussed about how it would happen or what the standard model would be. I have to wonder if this talk would include smaller pots like 4-inch and 6-inch sizes, and what it would take on the manufacturer and grower sides. I’m guessing there would have to be a massive outcry for this movement to get a foothold. Back in 2006 when everyone was talking about accurately labeling products, there was a panic among manufacturers and growers that molds might have to be broken and computerized equipment that made growers more efficient would have to be repurchased or changed. And that was heavily mandated. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

That's it for today! On Thursday we've got Terrain at Styer's, Gateway Garden Center, Stauffers of Kissel Hill and the final stop, Waterloo Gardens. Stay tuned!

Creativity abounded here with great displays and fun signage that keeps customers in good humor.

I remember when I met Denni Jones, co-owner of County Line. It was on the Minneapolis Retail Roadshow, but we met on the shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel. I instantly liked her, so it would stand to reason I would instantly like her garden center. And I did. I didn’t know all the backstory, but apparently Denni and crew have been attending Roadshows and visiting garden centers for over a decade in an effort to keep perfecting the business.

County Line is the spunky, fun counterpart to the charm and stateliness of Buck's. Someone mentioned the lack of product in the gift shop, saying it was too open. I thought the opposite – one thing I hate about gifts is they’re often crowded together and you lose focus of whole clumps of products altogether. With less product, you can focus more on what’s there, like these fantastic umbrellas with art-like images on them that County Line carried. Or the flags of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Starry Night (I’m a sucker for Impressionism). Equally great were the pieces of jewelry, some of which were set off by small flower pots. All told, gifts account for 6 percent of the total sales of $1.4 million, so it's not a huge amount of the business but it's bigger than garden decor and a few other categories.

One item to note before heading to the live goods – County Line charges for Make & Take classes, and gears them to a minimum 60 percent margin. For that, customers get a “that day only” coupon that generates additional sales.

OK, back to live goods. It was when I walked into a small transition greenhouse with colorful plants potted up in beach buckets that I really started to enjoy myself. Then I moved into the main greenhouse to see Doug Boyd’s creative triangle “prototype” hanging basket display that really allowed each basket to shine. I think we’ll see more of these in the future.

And then I got outside to see displays that allowed customers to shop by color, or by “solution” like deer-resistant, butterfly garden, etc. Fun touches like shovels for aisle markers and colorful butterfly nets to signify butterfly-friendly plants made me smile.

One attendee I talked with made a great point about there being too much signage in the yard, and that some of it drowned out the plants. I can totally see that – it’s a very valid point. Some of the signs could be consolidated to have the purpose of the display (Plants That Attract Butterflies), as well as list the plants that are recommended.

But of all the places we went, I really felt my creative juices flowing there and wanted to start digging in the dirt. And isn’t that the whole point?
 

This operation is steeped in charm, and you can't help but wonder what gem you'll find around the next corner.

There are so many things to talk about when it comes to Buck’s, but I’ll head straight to the demonstration gardens first. The employees there did an amazing job of inspiring customers to buy more herbs, vegetables and fruit trees. These were raised-bed beauties featuring statuary, decorative stones and decorative labels for the plants. Beautifully done and sure to entice anyone to start their own garden.

In the perennials yard, benching was angled, clean and well-spaced for great shoppability. Inside in the blooming potted and annuals section, mixed baskets hung from poles adorned with brightly painted wood, drawing the eye up to the baskets. Even further inside than that, the merchandisers did a great job of creating stories with the outdoor furniture for every occasion and patio.

Another great idea came in the ponding section. I can’t take credit for spotting this one, I wouldn’t have noticed, but a couple of other attendees remarked how great a net held down with a pool “noodle” worked for keeping fish in and predators out.

I also have to comment on the jaw-dropping display of Garden Splendor product at Buck’s. These heucheras were unbelievable. I can’t include a photo here for space, but when I create a slideshow, I’ll be sure to put a picture in there.

On a final note, Buck’s is making a concerted effort to help customers recycle plastic pots. It has a bin set up out front to collect pots, and will take them to a recycling partner in Lancaster. Great for the Earth, and great for word-of-mouth marketing.

Mostly a landscape firm, this operation opened the garden center three years ago to complement the business and showcase multiple aspects of landscaping.

This was a surprise for me. Initially I was a bit put off by a sign at the entrance that asked customers not to bring carts in. I think they had baskets there, but it still threw me off. That said, once I got inside I was excited to see fun, colorful gifting and garden accents.

Then I was truly blown away when I walked out the greenhouse/gift house to the main outside display area. The business’ main focus is on landscape, and they even said the retail shop is really showcase more of the landscape abilities and provide customers with larger landscape materials.

They had beautifully paved walkways with koi ponds and running fountains, all intermingled with large, blooming trees and shrubs. They merchandised garden art and statuary on red gravel paths, which really set off the concrete and stone.

Gasper’s also had four different types of pricing on trees and shrubs: one for wholesale, one for retail installed, one for non-guaranteed and yet another for guaranteed. The reason is customers had been asking for discounts, so they began offering the non-guaranteed price at a 15 percent discount off the retail price.

In the gift shop they carried a product called Down Under Pots, which looked like a fancy stone or ceramic topsy turvey for annuals.

Another great idea from the place was pricing stone individually, so they didn’t have to mess with weighing heavy products. They could just scan and multiply.

And finally, at the cash wrap a captured customer couldn’t help but watch a flat-screen television looping beautiful images of Gasper’s landscaping achievements. What perfect marketing.

This store has so much gift and furniture that during a redesign a couple of years ago it dropped the garden center off its title.

I remember talking with founder Jim Feeney not that long ago about the road presence of his store, and how it’s difficult to catch potential customers’ eye based on their location. This morning I figured out why – it’s set back behind almost obscured by another building, making it tough for potential shoppers to see the store or the entrance.

Once inside, it’s a gifting extravaganza. They do much of their business in gifting and holiday. In fact, of the $4.6 million in total sales, $1.4 million come from Christmas.
It was evident, too, with a huge year-round display of Department 56 in the back of the store.

Gifting is difficult to buy, and there were no clear winners with customers this spring in terms of break-out product. But female Roadshow attendees flocked to the Switch Flops display (flip flops featuring Velcro decoration that could be removed and replaced with other colors and styles). A buyer at Feeney’s said the Switch Flops have done OK, but haven’t been a huge hit with the clientele. We saw them at Buck’s Country Gardens, as well.

One interesting comment from attendees on the bus was that the merchandising and wow factor from inside the store didn’t follow out to the nursery and garden center sections. I would agree with that assessment; however, that’s a relatively easy thing to fix to push more live product. A few well-placed, creative displays would go a long way to entice customers who are already coming for a gift and furniture experience.

On a side note, I did think the children’s gift section was very well done, and was very shoppable for parents and grandparents alike. I even debated buying an Ugly Doll, which are adorable "ugly" little guys that are soft and fun for kids. I've only seen them in a few shops. When I do a slideshow I'll include a picture because my description doesn't do them justice.

A few extra tidbits from the day.

We finished up the night at Longwood Gardens, an extraordinary and historic garden set on 325 acres. There was no way to cover everything, but what I saw was just awe-inspiring.

A few extra tidbits from the day:

• I’m hearing a lot of talk about resurgence in birding. I heard a figure today that more than 100 million people are expected to consider themselves “birders” by 2010, according to a new study. It’s always been a traditional garden center category, but Dave Hanger from Homestead Gardens had great advice on birding. He said to really focus on the seed, because people only buy one or two feeders a year, but they buy seeds far more consistently throughout spring, summer and fall. It generates return business that gets traffic back in the stores. He said don't give up the feeders entirely, but be selective and merchandise them up to reduce the amount of space they take on the retail floor.
• More from Homestead – Scott Daly said they carry a brand of sauces and rubs from McCutcheon, but they don’t just set up the fixture and let it sell itself. They set up a grill and throw on chicken and whatever other kinds of meats they want, use the sauces and put them out for sampling. The customers get an idea of what they’re buying into. So far it’s worked out to the tune of $80,000 annually for four fixtures.
• I saw some great giant mug planters (pictured here) from KiP/Don Wasserman International. Someone said a representative from the company was there, but I didn’t get a chance to meet him.
• I learned today that Kennett Square (near Longwood Gardens) is the mushroom capital of America. Who knew? 

That’s it for today. Keep following my Tweets at www.twitter.com/jepolanz and hopefully I’ll get more up on the site tomorrow early evening. We’re on our own for dinner tomorrow, so hopefully I can update before I head out. Have any questions? Text me at 440-749-2131 (I don’t have e-mail access on the bus) and I’ll see if I can get an answer!
 

A combined farm market and garden center, this Townsend, Del., business entices customers to come back for more each week.

 
Willey Farms had a great sense of
humor on the sign despite a hail storm Monday
night that damaged quite a bit of plant material.

This is a second-generation run farm market and garden center. The greenhouse, nursery and garden center account for about 13 percent of the whole business, so it’s definitely not the main focus. But you can tell they do a nice business on the garden center side during the peak seasons and likely during the holidays, as well.

The number that everyone on our bus kept coming back to was the answer to the question “How Many Times Per Year do Loyal Customers Shop Your Store?” The answer? 104. That’s right, twice a week. What garden center owner would turn their nose up at that number?

It was clear by the amount of Roadshow attendees walking out with bags that the place was abundantly shoppable and fun to not just browse, but also purchase. I also made some purchases, going for some unique popcorn (it looks like corn on the cob, and you throw it in the microwave), and some coffee for my husband. Another thing to note, much of the product had a focus on all-natural or organic, as well as locally grown and sourced.

The purchases led to a discussion on the bus about farm markets and their potential. Homestead is going to start one, as have several others in the industry, like Jim Dezell of Flamingo Road Nursery in Florida. Stauffers of Kissel Hill (an upcoming stop on the Roadshow) has had great success with the dual supermarket/garden center model. So is it a natural progression?

In the last couple of years Willey Farms also saw a new bypass come through that removed about 75 percent of the operation’s traffic. Owners say only now is the foot traffic building back up to what it used to be for the $12 million business.

Find out more at http://willeyfarmsde.com/

From dog bones to llamas, ladies night events and top-notch Homestead-grown plant material, this operation does it all.

Scott Daly has written a column on merchandising for us off and on for a while, so it was a pleasure to finally meet him in person. He gave a great talk on hosting events in the garden center during the tour. I’ve got a little video of it, we’ll get it posted as soon as we can and link to it.

Homestead is a 15-acre, $14 million a year operation, and also has a growing arm (totally separate from the retail) that supplies much of the live goods sold there. You could see the flexibility in having its own grower with moderate pricepoints on 1 gallon perennials ($9.99 for the most awesome astilbe I’ve seen yet).

One interesting note – it pays to have a llama farm, as Homestead does. They sheer the wool off the llamas and sell it in the birding section for nesting material. Homestead also followed the footsteps of Pasquesi’s in Chicago and Petitti’s in Cleveland with a Biscuit Bar. The Biscuit Bar houses homemade baked treats for canine friends (sourced locally) and provides great margin on a small square footage. The Biscuit Bar has proved to be very popular and successful, making about $5,000 to $6,000 annually in that small space, and general manager Dave Hanger said Homestead will likely expand its pet food offerings in the future.

I also heard on the bus that Homestead will offer food for people, too, by way of a new produce market that will be housed under a tent in front of the store where a stone lot is now.

On a side note, I talked to Scott a little about the business, and he said the merchandising at Homestead has been scaled back somewhat because of the economy and budget restrictions. He says he put much of his budget into labor for cleaning the store, opting to ensure customers have a safe, comfortable and clean place to shop.

Fun Stuff: Check out this super sweet Tillandsia one of the Homestead employees showed me. How could you not buy this thing? And by the way, the pricepoint was $19.99 for a 4-inch pot, and customers loved them. They were also carrying the DeLeon’s mini-orchids in 2-inch pots and selling them at $9.99. And apparently they are flying off the shelves, too. Pretty cool stuff.

Perfecting the three C's.

Gary’s is on our Revolutionary 100 Garden Centers list this year, and Mary and Gary Blondell attended our Roundtable event in February. And yet I’d never been to their small, 1-acre garden center. I’m so glad that changed today.

Three C’s come to mind with Gary’s Gardens: Color, Creativity and Cleanliness. They have a small amount of space to work with, but they do a great job of setting off top quality plant material with multi-colored fences, decorative chairs, pavers throughout the greenhouse and as a pathway to the outside retail, and other creative touches (including canvas “leaves” from IKEA that were a big hit). A lot of the material sold there is brought in weekly since there’s no storage space.

Ian Baldwin, a garden center consultant who has worked with the retailer since 2002, told the tour attendees: “this is a tremendous story of tenacity and networking.” The Blondells have been very active in ANLA, attending Management Clinic and many Retail Roadshows, as well as heading to England with Baldwin for garden center tours there. They’ve taken many of the ideas from those events and made them work for them, turning the operation into a $1.3 million garden center.

The company also spent about $2,000 on huge lifestyle signage that hangs from the top of the main retail structure. The signs came from Big Image Graphics in Richmond, Va., and is definitely eye-catching from the busy highway. They also have great product-level signage that identifies varieties and sales. Mary Blondell said they get their waterproof stock for the signs from Specialty Tag & Label, and they can be reused for about two years before they need to be replaced.

Mesquite Valley Growers Nursery in Tucson, Ariz., gives us the lowdown on a great local sponsorship opportunity.

My first entry for live coverage comes from the opening night reception, a dinner and drinks extravaganza sponsored by Commerce Corp. But the best little tidbit came from Thomas and Cathy from Mesquite Valley Growers and Nursery.

You might remember them - they're the ones who saw 800 percent growth in their herbs and veggies this year. That's right - 800 percent!

They also have a unique marketing and advertising promotion. Every year for the last several years they've sponsored a cruise hosted by a local country radio station, KIIM, at the end of May. The station asks a nationally known country singer to perform on the cruise, and Mesquite Valley sponsors the singer's quarters. So they get time on the radio station while the event is being promoted, and they get kudos during the cruise. In a previous year, Keith Urban was the performer. This year, it was Neal McCoy.

The target audience of the cruise are country listeners around Tucson, who are in the same age demographic that Mesquite Valley wants to target.

That's only the first of many ideas that will come out of the Roadshow. Stay tuned for more!

Get your daily Retail Roadshow fix here.

It's time! Wheels up for the Retail Roadshow - bookmark this page now so you can return to it frequently to see photos, interviews, ideas and more from this year's roadshow in the Mid-Atlantic. I'll be arriving Monday night, so hopefully I'll get some reception-time in before retiring to the host hotel in Baltimore for the night. Tuesday morning starts bright and early at 6 a.m.

Along with this live coverage, I'm hoping to Tweet from the event, too, so follow me at http://twitter.com/jepolanz. Check the Today's Garden Center Facebook page, too, for updates and some photo galleries.

See you on the road!

~Jen