Re: Perennial plant of the year 2001
Hello Nan, Al and Chris.. among others...
Nothing is ever as simple as if first seems. Nursery industry is so big and
varied.. like the plant world itself.
I do know from reading past newsletters and blips from PPA that they have
aligned themselves with the Dutch import trade. When the PPA makes its
recommendation for a plant of the year it has to have a lot of momentum behind it
for this plant will be promoted and sold in the millions in one season. You can
bet they are not going to choose a difficult or slow to propagate plant. Much of
the nursery trade has become automated in the seed sowing, germination and
processing of trays of plants. Huge investments to produce millions of a single
plant. These people are dealing in volume. They want to reach the most people
possible and have the distribution system set up to do exactly that... with a
particular customer on the end of the chain. Garden centers.
As a small nursery owner I can not hope to compete with garden centers and
discount stores who almost, or do, give plants away to get you into a store to
purchase milk, bread and wheelbarrows. I only sell plants. Discount chains has
just about killed off the family owned small nursery that could not adapt. I do
not even try to compete and aim my sights at a much smaller piece of the overall
pie. The collectors and the specialists in gardening... and believe me it is a
much smaller share of the pie. All of you may be very knowledgeable and collect
only the best or most unusual, but that is not the case in overall numbers of
gardeners out there to make a purchase.
My nursery is set up to sell service as much as plants. I operate by
appointment only. That means you are the only gardener here receiving my undivided
attention for around two hours. That means I can only set up a maximum of 3 to 4
appointments a day. I do mail order from my site and hard copy catalog as a
service to those who can not come here in person. Believe me I would drop mail
order if I could. Far too expensive, time consuming and eats at the profit
margin... as well as my personal time... and I truly do have a persona life out
side the nursery and garden.
So why do it? I like the life style... enjoy sharing my garden, love to meet
people and in particular gardeners. Do I make lots of money? Nope.. but have not
lost any, as yet, either.
Incidentally, we did this one last year if I remember correctly.
Gene Bush Southern Indiana Zone 6a Munchkin Nursery
around the woods - around the world
genebush@otherside.com http://www.munchkinnursery.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Nan Sterman <nsterman@mindsovermatter.com>
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