Re: Plants magazine

 Many of the perennials coming into New York and New
> England are from Canada.  These will be assortments quite different from
> the
> local nurseries.
Well, as the Territory Sales Manager for the U.S. east coast for a major Canadian perennial nursery :-) thank you for this assessment. It is actually true - largely because of several factors. Canadians as a whole garden more than U.S. residents; likely spending more per capita on their gardens. Also, our growing traditions are tied into the European ones so we tend to look to the continent for new plants. This is not to say that the U.S. doesn't have great breeders or plant introductions. Far from it, the U.S. is still a major hort force - just different varieties.

Local
> nurseries will not take a chance on unknown plants and I guess I cannot
> fault
> this as they know their market.

This again is simply economics. A local garden centre has to purchase at least 8 (in gallon sizes) of any plant to obtain it from a wholesale nursery. In other words, a full tray - depending on size of pot a tray can contain between 4 to 25 pots. This is an investment that has to pay off and if that entire tray is not sold, the garden center loses money (the profit is in the last pots sold). It is tough for small garden centers to carry the numbers. Wierd plants just don't sell that well in some markets for local garden centres to carry many of the "different" plants.


===>I do understand why marketing theory prevents introduction of very new
plants, Claire, but why do all the markets have to ignore us plant
collectors?
Again, simple economics. Collecting by the nature of the activity means those folks don't want what everyone else wants. The comments here about not wanting to pay the higher costs associated with "Plants" magazine points out the fact that many of you also don't want to pay the higher costs associated with new and very unusual perennials or the magazines that describe them - such as the new double Echinacea (or the ones coming along that have different colours - all of which will find themselves in my trial gardens this summer) :-)) The vast majority of gardeners are quite contented with the offerings of nurseries (Heritage Perennials for example produces approx 1600 varieties - enough for almost any gardener) If this group hesitates to pay the big bucks for new plants; you can imagine Ms. Homeowner when she gets to the perennial section and sees a Hosta 'Tattoo' for $50. or a double trillium for $100. ;-))

We'll do the newest stuff because we can afford to trial them but we can't continue to do them unless they sell well.

Specialist plants will never by mass-produced - if they were, they wouldn't be specialist plants. ;-))



===>Yes, we need a magazine for the gardener's gardener, right?  Some depth,
unusual plants, some taxonomy, genera surveys, etc.  But no one perceives
that there is a market for such a thing, apparently.
Well again, speaking from some experience, magazines have to follow the money. The fact that magazines (which are devilishly expensive to produce) have to follow the advertising money limits what they can produce. If there were enough advertisers willing to advertise to any market segment, there would be a magazine producing to that segment. Face it guys - folks like us who collect perennials seriously are a limited market compared to the thousands who purchase annuals and woody plants. :-)

This for example is one of the limiting factors that Organic Gardening faces. It can't access an entire range of advertisers without annoying their core audience. The magazine essentially is in a straight-jacket of what it can and can not afford to print. Other magazines face the same problem with their unique markets. The more specialized a publication, the more limited it is in terms of both audience and advertisers who will pay to access that specialized market. "Plants" is a specialized perennial magazine and look at the reaction on this list to that one. ;-( It does come down to dollars and cents.

However, if you can find the advertisers, I can find the writers. :-)

Fortunately, folks like Chris find ways to let folks exchange information on lists like this. A fact that I'm grateful for (thanks Chris!)

And to all of you who continue to share great perennial information with the rest of us - a very Merry Christmas from Eastern Ontario, Canada where the sun is shining and I'm designing my greenhouse for next year's garden construction project.

Doug

Doug Green
Author of the award winning "Gardening Wisdom"
See gardening articles at http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com

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