The housing market has been rough everywhere over the last two years, and few spots were hit harder than Florida. But that doesn’t mean independent garden centers can’t be successful with landscape and design. Take a look at this year’s Revolutionary 100 Southeast Region winner, VerdeGo. We spoke with Brian Brown, general manager of VerdeGo’s new Port Orange location, about how this retailer has utilized its Design Center to not just maintain, but actually grow its business in one of the toughest economic climates in memory.

Q: How has your design business changed over the last couple of years?
Brown: Until recently, Flagler County in Florida was the fastest growing county for new construction in the U.S. Our Design Center couldn’t keep up with the amount of new construction that was being thrown our way.
Because of the economy and the housing market, though, a lot of people started getting interested in the redesign aspect for their landscapes. People realized they can’t just buy a house and flip it in a couple of months. They have to stay in their house for a while. So they’re fixing it up to make it a nicer place to live, in addition to helping the resale value.
Redesign has definitely taken over as the breadwinner for our Design Center.

Q: Has it been difficult to adapt to these new conditions?
Brown: First of all, you have to adjust your mindset. You kind of get spoiled when $20,000 jobs are a dime a dozen. We contacted all of our vendors and asked them to work with us on their prices. Pretty much everybody has been very accommodating with that. They’re seeing it, too. If we’re not selling their product they’re not going to be in business. They want to see us succeed as much as we do.

Q: How are you working differently with your customers?
Brown: It changes every month. One month people are gung ho on landscape. The next month it’s pavers. A lot of it is geared toward budget. A lot of people now don’t have $20,000 to drop on everything, so they can’t really do the pavers and the summer kitchen and the landscape all at the same time. We try to help them do it in phases. They’ll start with the landscape and they’ll add lighting later. Or they’ll start with the pavers and do landscape next year.

Q: How do you set your design business apart from your competitors?
Brown: We’re involved with our local homebuilder’s association. It keeps us fresh in the builders’ minds. It’s a really good networking opportunity to let people know we’re here. Sometimes they have a mix and mingle, after-hours get together. We’ve held that at our garden center. They really enjoy the atmosphere and it’s another way to stay in front of them on a regular basis.
Also, our entire design staff is Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association (FNGLA) certified. Our lead designer has the FNGLA Certified Designer certification, and all of our designers are FNGLA Certified Horticulturists.

Q: How has that helped?
Brown: I think a lot of times you can go to the box stores and ask a plant or fertilizer question and the knowledge is just not there. We try to let people know that we know our stuff. We know Florida’s plants, and whether they have problems or issues in the landscape. “Right plant, right place” is the motto we always try to live by. I think people like to know they’re talking to intelligent people who know what works in Florida.

Q: Do you use any software to help with your landscape designs?
Brown: We know other landscape companies that have design centers and they basically do their designs with a piece of paper and colored pencils. We use a design software program called Dynascape. It’s the traditional bird’s-eye view landscape design format, but it’s full-color and you can get really detailed as far as shadows and lighting. You can make it look really good for the customer.

Another benefit is it gives my crew a design to go by – ‘Here, this is what it’s supposed to look like.’ And not only is it a design program, but it has a quote and contracting program built into it. So once I do a design and label it, I just push a button and it spits out an itemized quote or contract, which we were doing previously in Excel and it would take forever. And there was so much room for error. This takes all the error out of it and it’s a simple process. Do your design, push a button and there’s your quote.

1 of 3

123

Before: Often, the biggest challenge for VerdeGo's landscape design team is showing customers the possibilities for a backyard space like this.