Geroge Ball's talk at GWA Philly Flower Show

**"Susan McCoy" b*@impact-pr.com**

Happy First Full Day of Spring! Several people requested George Ball's
talk from the GWA Philly Flower Show Brunch so I thought this was the
best way to get it out. If you want to chat with him directly, please
feel free to contact us.

Draft of speech to Garden Writers Convention, March 6, 2006

“Putting Down Roots”

Good Morning.  It is a pleasure and privilege to speak to you.  Mr.
Evison will be a hard act to follow.  I especially appreciated, sir, the
idea of pruning a plant while upside down.  Never heard that one.  It is
a great image to take away from this lecture.  So I hope I can be as
imaginative as he. 

I am going to present 3 topics today that address the great growth
taking place in gardening.  First, I am going to talk about the Baby
Boom and its characteristics, how it is going to work.  Then, second, I
am going to talk about the significance of the quality of people who
make up the Boomers  ¾ what kind of people, what they think, how they
feel.  Third, I am going to talk about their specific tastes and
preferences in gardening, and then finally I shall conclude with a
discussion of what all these points mean in the major ways that make an
impact on the future of this industry.

First, Baby Boomers – I struggle sometimes when I make the point of how
utterly fantastic this “big bang” of population growth is.  There are
lots of figures mentioned,            
but most agree that this one generation of Baby Boomers, spreading
across 20 years from 1946 to 1966, is about 3 to 4 times larger than
previous generations.  That’s a 400% increase or a factor of X 4.  Some
put it a bit lower, but suffice it to say that in sheer numbers we are
talking about a very significant increase.  This is why I call it a “big
bang”.  Another reason I call it a big bang is for the same reason the
sociologists call it a  “structural trend”, meaning that it represents
permanent growth ¾ it’s not going away.  The reason that I say this
should be obvious ¾ babies are going to become reproductive adults.
And, of course, adult gardeners, which we will get to shortly.

Also significant is the consumer society of today, most notably ours
here in North America.  We can buy a great deal of things, and in an
assortment unheard of in the past, and of a general quality higher than
ever before and costing us significantly fewer dollars than before.  I
am not a historian, so perhaps a similar phenomenon took place in the
ancient world of Greece or Rome or Persia, I don’t know.  What is unique
today is when a sort of “Perfect Storm” occurs, which is the coming
together of a fourfold increase in the size of a generation ¾ an age
group ¾ and an unprecedented level of affluence, combining with an
unprecedented quantity of inexpensive goods.

Now let’s talk about these people’s personalities, their tastes and
preferences ¾ living, homemaking and especially gardening.  The Baby
Boom generation is extraordinarily “taste conscious”.  What I mean is
they are very conscious of the stories behind the products ¾ much more
so than our parents and grandparents.  Today, we want to know where
things come from, what their names mean and who else likes them.  As we
age we also become more relaxed and broader minded and in fact more
interested in the little details than we were when we were young.  We
are not rushing around so much anymore.  Also we are very interested in
living longer and better than our parents and grandparents did.  This is
both qualitative and quantitative.  One friend I know is taking up
baking her own bread, another has started making his own cheese, still
another has taken up brewing beer in his kitchen.  Probably half the
women I know have discovered knitting.  But I see everyone doing these
different things in a very knowledgeable way and with a great deal of
emphasis on knowing and being familiar with as many details, aspects,
stories and background information as possible.  They like to take time.
Instant gratification isn’t gratifying to them.  To get time, you have
to take time.  The so-called “aging hippies” have know this for a long
time.  The rest of us are getting to know it more slowly.

Now let’s take a look at gardening.
Gardening is a function of age, which is to say of time available to a
person.  Our  statistics at Burpee are hard as rock.  I’m confident of
what I can tell you about committed, dedicated gardeners.  People begin
gardening seriously sometime in their early to mid 40’s and they
typically do not stop until their late 60’s or early 70’s.  Why is this?
Why does gardening reflect such a demographic?  Well, the house will
probably, by your early to mid 40’s, be the one you will live in for the
rest of your life.  Most, if not all of the children are past puberty,
and they become relatively low maintenance by that point ¾ at least, in
terms of time needed caring for them.  At the office, as well as in your
own life, these are the years when you begin to pass over the hump, if
you haven’t already.  Indeed, like your house, your job is probably
going to be the last one you will have.  The “rat race” is over.  Also,
physically, as we know, “time is metabolism”.  Few can argue
persuasively that we move faster when we reach 50.  In fact, it is
universally true that everyone slows down quite a bit, and in this case
we’re speaking of hundreds of thousands of Baby Boomers.  All these
changes in life point to an interest in, if not a love affair with, home
gardening.

Think of the immediate impact that a vegetable and herb garden has in
the back yard, and that flower beds have in the front yard.  Suddenly,
your house is truly beautiful.  It’s like a woman in a dress versus a
pair of overalls or a uniform.  No comparison!  As we slow down our
immediate surroundings actually become filled with light.  We notice
this ¾ we want our surroundings to be attractive.

Also, the impact that aging has on health causes Baby Boomers to take a
hard look at what they are eating, and this is something we do every
day.  Suddenly, fresh vegetables and herbs look very interesting.
Remember, this is the generation that 20 years ago was smoking a lot of
cigarettes and enjoying fine wine, whiskey and restaurant meals.  Now we
are discovering antioxidants, lycopenes, good fats, and bad fats.

Finally, we can’t forget gardening when we talk about the quality of
life and when we refer to the inner self versus the outer self.  I can
tell you that there is no single thing that gives me more satisfaction ¾
in fact, that gives me more pleasure ¾ than spending all day gardening.
These are the days I’ll take to my grave:  getting up at dawn and going
outside and gardening straight through the day ¾ all day ¾ until the
light fades out in the sky.  Words cannot express the feeling that this
experience gives a person.  You just feel perfectly happy.  I understand
the attraction of golf, I really do.  I’m not very good at the game, but
there are moments when I walk around the corner and suddenly there is
this vision of landscape beauty I never saw before.  I have to say I
golf almost entirely in New Mexico where there are very unusual golf
courses.  And, if you want to see a good example of the way a company
has handled the Baby Boom perfectly, check out the way that Nike has
developed their golf business.  What they did to make jogging easy, fun
and sexy, they are doing the same to golf.  Take my word for it.
However, golf does not hold a candle to day long gardening ¾ it’s not
even close.  The soil is mine, the roots are mine, the plants are mine
and, in a weird way, the sunlight and the air become mine too.  And
everywhere I turn, every day of the Spring, Summer and Fall, I see
beauty that only I created or helped along, as if I was breathing life
into creation.  This is the secret of the attraction of real gardening.
This is the reason we call it “The Burpee Army”.

In conclusion, people ask me sometimes what makes a good gardener?  I am
reminded of what a friend told me when I bought Heronswood, our rare
plant nursery in Washington.  He said if you can survive one complete
winter in Seattle without leaving, and you are willing to try another
year, you are a survivor, you can be a resident if you want.  Perhaps
it’s not a neat or perfect comparison, but I like to say that if you can
garden one full season ¾ dig in the ground outside in the summer time
several hours a day all summer, digging lots of holes on your hands and
knees, and still want to do it again next year ¾ you’re a gardener.  It
is as simple and unmistakable as that.  Everyone knows if they’re a
gardener or not, and everyone knows who the gardeners are.  It is very
similar to pet ownership.  It is not a subject of fashion ¾ in fact
gardening is “anti-fashion”.  Like “anti-matter” ¾ it’s very real.
People garden to get away from the world of trendiness, faddishness and
fashion.  “What’s hot”, “Are you in or out?”…  These are questions that
gardeners find uninteresting if not boring.  The garden is their refuge.
Social status may have been part of their youth but now it is very much
part of their distant past and they do not want to hear about it.
Gardeners like things the way they are in the garden ¾ simple, direct,
wholesome.  “Garden variety” means traditional to the point of being
ordinary.  Gardeners are not interested in razzle dazzle.  There is
quite enough of that going on in their flower bed, and they aren’t
interested in the flashly lures of the fashion world.  On the contrary,
they shun it.  They’ve put down their roots and it is in their front
yard and back yard gardens that they with to stay, and keep “booming”
forever.

Draft of speech to Garden Writers Convention, March 6, 2006

“Putting Down Roots”

Good Morning.  It is a pleasure and privilege to speak to you.  Mr.
Evison will be a hard act to follow.  I especially appreciated, sir, the
idea of pruning a plant while upside down.  Never heard that one.  It is
a great image to take away from this lecture.  So I hope I can be as
imaginative as he.  I am going to present 3 topics today that address
the great growth taking place in gardening.  First, I am going to talk
about the Baby Boom and its characteristics, how it is going to work.
Then, second, I am going to talk about the significance of the quality
of people who make up the Boomers  ¾ what kind of people, what they
think, how they feel.  Third, I am going to talk about their specific
tastes and preferences in gardening, and then finally I shall conclude
with a discussion of what all these points mean in the major ways that
make an impact on the future of this industry.

First, Baby Boomers – I struggle sometimes when I make the point of how
utterly fantastic this “big bang” of population growth is.  There are
lots of figures mentioned,            
but most agree that this one generation of Baby Boomers, spreading
across 20 years from 1946 to 1966, is about 3 to 4 times larger than
previous generations.  That’s a 400% increase or a factor of X 4.  Some
put it a bit lower, but suffice it to say that in sheer numbers we are
talking about a very significant increase.  This is why I call it a “big
bang”.  Another reason I call it a big bang is for the same reason the
sociologists call it a  “structural trend”, meaning that it represents
permanent growth ¾ it’s not going away.  The reason that I say this
should be obvious ¾ babies are going to become reproductive adults.
And, of course, adult gardeners, which we will get to shortly.

Also significant is the consumer society of today, most notably ours
here in North America.  We can buy a great deal of things, and in an
assortment unheard of in the past, and of a general quality higher than
ever before and costing us significantly fewer dollars than before.  I
am not a historian, so perhaps a similar phenomenon took place in the
ancient world of Greece or Rome or Persia, I don’t know.  What is unique
today is when a sort of “Perfect Storm” occurs, which is the coming
together of a fourfold increase in the size of a generation ¾ an age
group ¾ and an unprecedented level of affluence, combining with an
unprecedented quantity of inexpensive goods.

Now let’s talk about these people’s personalities, their tastes and
preferences ¾ living, homemaking and especially gardening.  The Baby
Boom generation is extraordinarily “taste conscious”.  What I mean is
they are very conscious of the stories behind the products ¾ much more
so than our parents and grandparents.  Today, we want to know where
things come from, what their names mean and who else likes them.  As we
age we also become more relaxed and broader minded and in fact more
interested in the little details than we were when we were young.  We
are not rushing around so much anymore.  Also we are very interested in
living longer and better than our parents and grandparents did.  This is
both qualitative and quantitative.  One friend I know is taking up
baking her own bread, another has started making his own cheese, still
another has taken up brewing beer in his kitchen.  Probably half the
women I know have discovered knitting.  But I see everyone doing these
different things in a very knowledgeable way and with a great deal of
emphasis on knowing and being familiar with as many details, aspects,
stories and background information as possible.  They like to take time.
Instant gratification isn’t gratifying to them.  To get time, you have
to take time.  The so-called “aging hippies” have know this for a long
time.  The rest of us are getting to know it more slowly.

Now let’s take a look at gardening.
Gardening is a function of age, which is to say of time available to a
person.  Our  statistics at Burpee are hard as rock.  I’m confident of
what I can tell you about committed, dedicated gardeners.  People begin
gardening seriously sometime in their early to mid 40’s and they
typically do not stop until their late 60’s or early 70’s.  Why is this?
Why does gardening reflect such a demographic?  Well, the house will
probably, by your early to mid 40’s, be the one you will live in for the
rest of your life.  Most, if not all of the children are past puberty,
and they become relatively low maintenance by that point ¾ at least, in
terms of time needed caring for them.  At the office, as well as in your
own life, these are the years when you begin to pass over the hump, if
you haven’t already.  Indeed, like your house, your job is probably
going to be the last one you will have.  The “rat race” is over.  Also,
physically, as we know, “time is metabolism”.  Few can argue
persuasively that we move faster when we reach 50.  In fact, it is
universally true that everyone slows down quite a bit, and in this case
we’re speaking of hundreds of thousands of Baby Boomers.  All these
changes in life point to an interest in, if not a love affair with, home
gardening.

Think of the immediate impact that a vegetable and herb garden has in
the back yard, and that flower beds have in the front yard.  Suddenly,
your house is truly beautiful.  It’s like a woman in a dress versus a
pair of overalls or a uniform.  No comparison!  As we slow down our
immediate surroundings actually become filled with light.  We notice
this ¾ we want our surroundings to be attractive.

Also, the impact that aging has on health causes Baby Boomers to take a
hard look at what they are eating, and this is something we do every
day.  Suddenly, fresh vegetables and herbs look very interesting.
Remember, this is the generation that 20 years ago was smoking a lot of
cigarettes and enjoying fine wine, whiskey and restaurant meals.  Now we
are discovering antioxidents, lycopenes, good fats, and bad fats.

Finally, we can’t forget gardening when we talk about the quality of
life and when we refer to the inner self versus the outer self.  I can
tell you that there is no single thing that gives me more satisfaction ¾
in fact, that gives me more pleasure ¾ than spending all day gardening.
These are the days I’ll take to my grave:  getting up at dawn and going
outside and gardening straight through the day ¾ all day ¾ until the
light fades out in the sky.  Words cannot express the feeling that this
experience gives a person.  You just feel perfectly happy.  I understand
the attraction of golf, I really do.  I’m not very good at the game, but
there are moments when I walk around the corner and suddenly there is
this vision of landscape beauty I never saw before.  I have to say I
golf almost entirely in New Mexico where there are very unusual golf
courses.  And, if you want to see a good example of the way a company
has handled the Baby Boom perfectly, check out the way that Nike has
developed their golf business.  What they did to make jogging easy, fun
and sexy, they are doing the same to golf.  Take my word for it.
However, golf does not hold a candle to day long gardening ¾ it’s not
even close.  The soil is mine, the roots are mine, the plants are mine
and, in a weird way, the sunlight and the air become mine too.  And
everywhere I turn, every day of the Spring, Summer and Fall, I see
beauty that only I created or helped along, as if I was breathing life
into creation.  This is the secret of the attraction of real gardening.
This is the reason we call it “The Burpee Army”.

In conclusion, people ask me sometimes what makes a good gardener?  I am
reminded of what a friend told me when I bought Heronswood, our rare
plant nursery in Washington.  He said if you can survive one complete
winter in Seattle without leaving, and you are willing to try another
year, you are a survivor, you can be a resident if you want.  Perhaps
it’s not a neat or perfect comparison, but I like to say that if you can
garden one full season ¾ dig in the ground outside in the summer time
several hours a day all summer, digging lots of holes on your hands and
knees, and still want to do it again next year ¾ you’re a gardener.  It
is as simple and unmistakable as that.  Everyone knows if they’re a
gardener or not, and everyone knows who the gardeners are.  It is very
similar to pet ownership.  It is not a subject of fashion ¾ in fact
gardening is “anti-fashion”.  Like “anti-matter” ¾ it’s very real.
People garden to get away from the world of trendiness, faddishness and
fashion.  “What’s hot”, “Are you in or out?”…  These are questions that
gardeners find uninteresting if not boring.  The garden is their refuge.
Social status may have been part of their youth but now it is very much
part of their distant past and they do not want to hear about it.
Gardeners like things the way they are in the garden ¾ simple, direct,
wholesome.  “Garden variety” means traditional to the point of being
ordinary.  Gardeners are not interested in razzle dazzle.  There is
quite enough of that going on in their flower bed, and they aren’t
interested in the flashly lures of the fashion world.  On the contrary,
they shun it.  They’ve put down their roots and it is in their front
yard and back yard gardens that they with to stay, and keep “booming”
forever.

Draft of speech to Garden Writers Convention, March 6, 2006

“Putting Down Roots”