Merchandisers from Meadow View Growers and Alden Lane Nursery were the big winners in this year's OFA Short Course display contest.

The second annual OFA Short Course Merchandising Contest was an even bigger hit this year, drawing good crowds to watch all three rounds of the event. The “Iron Chef”-style contest, held in the convention center concourse, pitted expert merchandisers from garden centers across the country in head-to-head design battles.

The benefit for attendees – besides watching the creative process of four very good merchandisers in action – was seeing how easy it can be to create displays that not only look nice, but also help you sell product.

Contestants were given a theme and materials to work with about two hours before each round, and then had an hour to create an attractive, shoppable display.

The Merchandising Contest winner was Abby Thompson, of Meadow View Growers in New Carlisle, Ohio. Heather Wissink, from Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore, Calif., was this year’s runner up. Heather, who was sponsored by Today’s Garden Center, was recognized by the judges with the Customer Information Award and the Creativity Award for her designs. Click here to see a slideshow of both of Heather’s award-winning displays.

Congratulations Heather!
 

Check out the displays created by Alden Lane Nursery's Heather Wissink for this year's Merchandising Display Contest.

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The OFA Short Course Merchandising Contest gives two expert designers a theme, a set of plants and other items and one hour to create an attractive and shoppable display. The designers compete head to head in an "Iron-Chef" style contest.

A panel of seasoned and successful retailers shared their best event ideas, tips and some possible pitfalls. On Tuesday at 2 p.m., this was one of the last sessions at Short Course and in my humble opinion, it was hands down the best. So, if you're looking to get into events or just improve on the ones you already host, check out the following notes I jotted down.

Tina Bemis, Bemis Farms Nursery, Spencer, Mass.

• "We were tired of people coming to our Easter Egg Hunt and then turn around and go home without buying anything," Tina says. That's why she explains the importance of soft-selling one or two items. "Find the right price point...get something in their hands and get them to the register." From there, Tina can get event attendees, who might be new to the garden center, into their POS system.
• Tina also reminded us that anywhere you stage an area for photos, be sure to work your sign or company name into the backdrop. "It will be a part of a memory they'll always have," Bemis says.

Linda Zoerb, La Crosse Floral, La Crosse, Wisc.

• La Crosse hosts a "Winter Is A Bear" event in January, whichs aims to fill the holes and empty spaced left by poinsettias and Christmas trees. La Crosse uses a warm greenhouse (scented with suntan oils) as an escape for its customers from the cold Wisconsin winters, Zoerb says. Big sellers at this event are tropical plants and teddy bears.
• When getting other businesses involved to help with an event, Zoerb mentioned to consider offering gift certificates to those businesses instead of cash.

Ray Greenstreet, Greenstreet Gardens, Lothian, Md.

• Ray raised a good point during the session about those customers not attending the event. "You have to watch for those customers that come in for mulch or fertilizer and don't really care about your event," he says. Your employees need to be trained to treat all customers the same and not give preferential treatment to those there for your event, Greenstreet adds. This retailer, located in a rural area, says it's important to spread the wealth when bringing in and teaming up with area businesses. Greenstreet Gardens doesn't go the cheap route when catering an event, and when food is involved he rotates caterers.

Between a sustainable certification at the industry level or a consumer facing green push, where is the demand for sustainable products coming from? 

Are your customers asking for sustainable products? If you answered no, are you sure about that? At an OFA Short Course roundtable by GIE Media, industry leaders in the field of sustainability discussed where the push for sustainability comes from.

Where does demand come from? If you ask most garden centers, they're not stocking sustainable products unless their customers ask for it, according to Buglady Consulting's Suzanne Wainright-Evans. If standards and certifications want to succeed, they need to become familiar to the consumer and come back up the supply chain instead of a top-down approach.

The desire for sustainable or organic products might not be passed back up from store employees to management, she points out. Have you asked your store employees if they've had any requests for sustainable products? 

And while not all gardeners are asking for sustainable products, Lloyd Traven of organic grower Peace Tree Farms says that 40 percent of first-time gardeners are asking for organic products. "Newbies say they want it and store buyers are saying they don't care," he says. "It's not presented as an option, the customers aren't being told when these products are in stock, if they do carry them."

The Green Supply Chain. As a grower-retailer, Traven says he is now looking back up the supply chain, going all the way back to the unrooted cutting supplier to see how they're produced. It all must be organic, because if unrooted cuttings are produced from plants under traditional crop protection, biocontrols won't work during rooting and production.

"We look for places that are able to supply a report of what they've applied," Traven says. "We demand that information. We can't have plants covered with chemicals." 

What's the story about your business that you're not telling? Bridget Behe of Michigan State University shared some thoughts on how garden centers can better market themselves to appeal to customers, in store and in the media.

Plants are the biggest manufactures oxygen and take they carbon dioxide out of the air. "Where are we on this? we don't even mention this. It makes the world a better place. that should be front and center in a lot that we communicate."

Why do we mulch? To save water and prevent weeds from growing.

"When did we stop telling that story?" Behe asked. And saving water is a main point in the sustainability movement. It's a marketing hook that many garden centers don't use.

The local and vegetable messages can also be kicked up. Behe says that Bordine's used in-store signage that labeled vegetables as "Heart Smart," encouraging shoppers to think about the real benefits of vegetable gardening.

And a branding program that labels plants as local means that shoppers are contributing to the local economy, helping local business and also that the plants are already acclimatized for the garden. "We make these choices, but we sometimes forget to tell these stories," Behe says.

Whatever message you share, be sure to share the message digitally, as well. The web allows so much more information compared to what can be printed on a tag or signage.

Get 100 retailers in one room and great ideas begin to flow.

The annual Garden Center Idea Exchange is one of the best places at Short Course to find out what’s working – and what’s not – for other garden centers. Nearly 100 retailers spent two hours talking about successes and sharing ideas on Sunday afternoon.

Here are just a few of the highlights:

Need some unique signage for your garden center? Look no farther than your local grocery store. Trader Joes franchises often work with local artists to create their in-store signage. Find out who they use and see if you can hire them to do the same for you.

“We put a low dose tab of slow-release fertilizer in each hanging basket that we sell. It sets up the customer for success and it’s a low dose so there’s no risk of burning the plant if they add fertilizer to it.”

Pot up overgrown cherry tomato plants in mid-May into 12-inch pots with cages. Let them grown in a back greenhouse and bring them out with ripe tomatoes on them in mid-June. Irresistible, and quick to sell too!

“For the past five years we have created a 12 x 12 gardening calendar. It features great garden pics, tips for each month, and events and a coupon for each month. We print 5000 and sell them for $3.99. It’s our way of getting customers to come see us 12 times a year.”

“Instead of traditional TV commercials this year we positioned ourselves as experts by creating 60 second commercials called “The Garden Minute.” They are how-to videos we run on TV and our website, and we’re about to upload them to YouTube.”

For a panel of container aficionados, premade planters continue to prove themselves worthy as a stand-alone category in the garden center.

Container gardens are a big deal and this session's panelists explained what they do to get the most out of these miniature gardens.

Nectar & Co.'s Tommy and Carmen Johnston

• Nectar & Co. rents containers to its clients on three-day contracts. Due to the short contract, they can get multiple rentals and even a final sale out of one arrangement.
• "If they are just amazing and beautiful, they end up turning into a sale," says Tommy Johnston.
• Rentals are a good way to get non-gardeners to test the waters with how easy maintaining plants can be.
• Some popular sellers are birdcages and lanterns planted up. They also plant large strawberry pots with bright color and then place a glass tabletop on two of them to create a beautiful and unique table for backyard parties.

A Proper Garden's Bob Van Cura

• Container gardens aren't as weather or season dependent.
• "We've been getting into themes and collections made up three to five pots," he says. This has helped increase sales.
• Along with container fairy gardening, succulents have alos been a hot seller at A Proper Garden.
• Try a mannequin container. Van Cura describes mannequin containers as ones that may not sell (fast) and range in price from $400 to $700, but they help set a tone and anchor a display.
• Custom potting is done out in the open to get customers involved and watch the process that goes into creating a high-end container.
• Stuck with some product? "Mixed containers are a great way to sell what you have," he says.

A few simple steps can help make sure your garden center isn't invisible to people passing by.

By now, every garden retailer is familiar with the concept of “curb appeal” and how it can attract customers. But, says garden retail consultant Judy Sharpton, not everyone understands that if you don’t do things correctly, you can actually create visual “barriers” that in effect make your store invisible to passers by.

To make sure your garden center isn’t invisible, Sharpton identifies three key investments you should make:

1. Invest in structures that “talk to the street” and let people know you’re there. A simple white fence running along the front of your property will grab attention. And those same structures can help clearly mark your entrances and help pull people in.

2. Invest in seasonal plantings, not display gardens. Hang striking in-season baskets along that white fence. Or install easy-to-change-out pot-in-pot beds in front of it, again, focusing on one or two solid colors of in-season plants. You’ll not only catch their eye as they’re driving by, they’re likely to want to come in and buy the plant they just saw – and that you just happen to have available for sale.

3. Invest in a professional, readable sign. Start with white letters on a contrasting, dark background, make them big enough to see at 50 mph, and include the words “garden center.” It may not be obvious from the street what kind of business you have, she says. Don’t let them miss it.

“Things are tough enough out there right now,” Sharpton says. “Don’t have barriers – you don’t need anything that makes it tougher for people to see you.”

New ideas flew around the room at the four-hour Social Media Workshop, hosted by new media marketer Jeff Korhan (@jeffkorhan). Here's a few interesting thoughts Korhan shared.

- One size fits all does not apply. Try things out. Experiment. It's the only way to see if it will work for you.

- Get comfortable with authenticity. Be real and have conversations with people.

- Even if you're not "on" social media, you are. Use Google Alerts to see who's talking about you and what they're saying.

- Think of the keywords that your customers will search for, and use those words often on your site, on your blog and in your social media.

- Sites that are updated more often are indexed more often by Google, bumping them up in the search rankings. Update often.

- Hang in there with blogging. Even if you don't think you have any followers, you have one very important follower: Google.

- Some things that seem counterintuitive are extremely beneficial on social media. Ford gave away cars to some bloggers, giving them the fuel to share their thoughts on the cars with their social network.

- Traffic to Flickr and YouTube are growing. They're morphing to become social networks themselves. Create accounts there, and your customers can subscribe to your accounts.

- What should you post? Here are a few ideas: lists (Top Five Plants We Sold This Year), how to (How To Prune A Hydrangea) and favorite (My Favorite Plant Is...). Readers really respond to these types of posts and videos.

Maybe my favorite comment of the workshop: Pull back the curtain to show that the wizard behind the works is a guy just like you and me.

Some tools to check out to manage social media:
Tools To Help Integrate Social Media: SocialOomph, HootSuite, Seesmic, Ping.FM
Photo Tools: Picnik
Blog Tools: WordPress, TypePad
Twitter Tools: TweetDeck, UnTweeps, bit.ly

I've always been proud to be a Clevelander (no matter what Lebron James does), and now after experiencing the OFA Short Course garden center tour, I'm extremely proud to be an Ohioan...especially in this industry. Ohio has top-notch garden centers and today's tour was proof of that. What follows are some great ideas I picked up today.

Stop 1: deMonye's 

Display gutters, petunia trees, fairy gardens and shoe pots were just a few of the many cool ideas this garden center offered tour attendees.

Let me explain some of those "what in the world are you talking about" ideas I just mentioned. The deMonye's staff makes use of old gutters in the best way possible...by making them an integral part of a display. They hang rows of gutters horizontally on a blank wall and then fill them with 4-inch annuals.

The petunia tree idea is the garden center got while taking part in another garden center tour in Michigan. A local welder pieced this hanging basket tree together and the end result is quite the attention-getter (not too mention, a pretty sizeable sale for those customers who just have to have one).

Shoe pots? Denny, an employee at deMonye's starting visiting local thrift stores for container ideas. One idea (and item) he brought was the shoe pot. He buys slightly worn children's shoes for cheap and plants succulents in them. The shoes are always sold in pairs and range between $9.98 and $19.98. This was the first year for this idea, and the garden center sold through all 150 pairs of shoes they potted up.

Stop 2: Oakland Nursery

For near mid-July, Oakland Nursery was quite a sight. What I mean by that is Oakland looked like it was stocked for Mother's Day weekend. This prominent Ohio operation is celebrating its 70th year in business, and because of that they were having a "thank you" sale on every item in the place. The reason for the well-stocked appearance? Oakland's wholesale and landscaping services make up a huge chunk of the business. So trucks are still coming in everyday to give Oakland landscapers (and customers) plenty to pick from.

Speaking of sale, Oakland did a nice job realizing that all of us (customers) are not math majors and not everyone can easily figure out what 20 percent off of 24.98 is.

Stop 3: Franklin Park Conservatory

The trial gardens at the conservatory were a great reminder that there are places out there working on your side - letting you know (unbiasly) what plants are performing well and, well, not so well in your region.

Stop 4: Ciminello's Garden Center 

I stole this idea from our bus leader, Stephen Barlow, who said he was going to do this as soon as he got back to New Jersey. Barlow liked the way Ciminello's worked its store's ceiling. He felt by duplicating this look in his greenhouse, it would look great all-the-while softening any harsh light.

Stop 5: Darby Creek

Darby Creek was probably the most talked about and most popular stop on the tour - and it wasn't even for the location we visited. Just a few years ago, Darby Creek decided to get into pop-up or seasonal garden center locations. Darby's Jeff Turnbull says he got the idea from Linder's Garden Center in Minnesota. Linder's has 51 temporary locations. This year Darby Creek had eight locations, and unlike other garden centers taking on this business add-on(s), Darby Creek is not placing them near any local independent garden center competition, but rather situating them to compete with big boxes. 

Turnbull says this has been a profitable move, and he only stocks the locations with items he can get the highest margin on, which happen to be items he grows. On our way back to the convention center, we stopped by one of Darby Creek's seasonal locations. Our visit happened upon the same day the location was coming down...so the photo doesn't do it justice.

Today's Garden Center's Steal This Idea section is just one highlight of the new Garden Center Live! area at Short Course.

The organizers at OFA Short Course are trying something a little different to provide useful information to garden centers and grower/retailers this year. The Garden Center Live! area in the convention center concourse is an interactive experience filled with innovative merchandising concepts and educational opportunities throughout the show.
Today’s Garden Center is hosting a Steal This Idea section in the room, with 20 idea sheets retailers can take home.

Garden Center Live! will also host the second annual Merchandising Contest, a popular event pitting skilled merchandisers from four garden centers in head-to-head, live 1-hour merchandising demonstrations. (If you’re at the show, stop by Sunday morning at 9:30 to cheer on Alden Lane Nursery’s expert merchandiser Heather Wissink, who is sponsored by Today’s Garden Center.)

There's so much to learn at OFA Short Course, and we'll bring you highlights on our Sessions & Events page. Get tips from the show's expert speakers and a peek inside the events surrounding the show.