Re: annuals for Gene/ nurseries

At 08:34 AM 11/8/2002 -0500, you wrote:

Hello Doug,
    Lots of changes in the plant market.

Gene: I'm sure none of this is much news to you. ;-) For the non-trade folks out there - specialization is the name of this economic game. If you google "hourglass theory" you'll get the basics pretty quickly of what is happening to the nursery industry. It has already happened to others.

In short, those companies who are well niched or specialize in their core business have a chance of surviving. Those companies that don't - that still try to be a grower and a retailer and a marketer and a ... those guys are in trouble.

The hard reality is that Wal-Mart is the largest retailer of green goods in North America. The product moved through the other chains is in large quantities as well. If small growers such as Gene are to survive (and I do know the workload etc that this takes) then they have to specialize and niche market like their life depends on it (it does.) To the extent that they try to compete with the chains, they lose money. It is really that simple. When you see a train coming down the tracks, if you're smart you get off those tracks. Wal-mart (and theother box stores) is a big retail train and if you try to compete -they'll run you over.

The key word for most small perennial nurseries is differentiation. Differentiate or die. Get those very unusual plants and locate your nursery in an area where there's enough people who want those plants to sell/make enough money to live on. Or, find a distribution channel that will allow you to grow those plants and distribute them (sell them) in a way you can make money (mail order, Internet, whatever).

The people on this list are the perennial lovers - these are the lifeblood of Gene and other small growers. The average consumer on the other hand doesn't really care. Just as another writer here said "I get some deals at Lowes" - that's money from a small grower's pocket. We just "can't" resist the deal. You guys can convince and moan all you like about the smaller growers but just as you can't resist a "deal" :-) - neither can most of the rest of us.

For example, a nursery providing perennials to Lowes will grow approximately 300 varieties. This is way more than enough for the average gardener. How many of you have more than 300 varieties in your gardens? (Don't answer please - its a rhetorical question) :-) I have over 1000 in mine but I'm crazy. The nursery I work for regularly offers 1500 to the independent garden centre trade (this means I have another 500 to go next spring) :-) So - plantaholics go to independents looking for the unusual but most gardeners at one time or another wander through the chains to see if there's a deal there. I get all my clay flower pots at a chain because they are cheaper. I also get most of my pack annuals there - I time my purchases to get there the day the delivery trucks do. Coming off the truck, the plant is almost identical to that being offered by the independent garden centre at a fraction of the price (wait two days and the difference - caused by no maintenance at the chains - is pronounced).

The nursery industry is like most others now. You do an excellent job at one specific thing - growing perennials, growing woody plants, wholesale, retail. To the extent that you cross the borders and mix your functions, this is the extent that you are actually losing money in mainstream nursery operations.

Small guys like Gene are another matter. They have to differentiate or die. That is their unique challenge and this is why there are so many failures among them. Even differentiation is no guarantee of success. Building a better mousetrap is simply no guarantee of success in this industry. Our nursery can produce a plant and make money on it far better than Gene can. This is the difference between growing 4 million pots and a financial system in place to ensure each plant is profitable and Gene's love of plants and producing things that I'll bet he underprices (the vast majority of nurseries underprice their rare perennials) for the amount of capital investment and operating costs he undertakes to produce that plant. Biz guys routinely shake their heads at the cost structures in the small nursery industry.

    Everyone seems to be attempting to re-invent themselves from the major
wholesalers on down. I have a feeling there is a whole lot more shaking down
to come.
No question about it. Trade show speakers this fall from the big box stores spoke of their marketing plans and how they hoped to eliminate an entire class of garden centres in the next two years. Interesting talks and a fair warning shot across the bows of those being targetted. It is going to get much more "shaking" before it settles down.

Do support your local grower, they are an endangered species.

End of rant - I have to transplant some shrubs today.

Doug

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

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