Why Garden Center magazine changed the 2025 Top 100 Independent Garden Centers List

Shortly after publishing our Garden Center Top 100 Independent Garden Centers List in 2024 (the first under my editorship), I received an email from one of the participants. Why, they wondered, did we insist on measuring the success of massive multi-store garden center businesses and single-store locations by the same metric? How could a small, vital, singular garden center possibly compete with geographically sprawling brands on a list ordered by gross annual income?

The message was blunt but not unkind or mean. There was a hint of frustration in the words, revealing that maybe resentment had been bubbling for some time. And you know what? I totally understood the criticism. I took it to heart.

One of the best ways to make a business stagnate and lose progress is to do things because “that’s just the way it’s always been done.” Every once in a while, we need to step back, look at our work and ask: Does the way we do it still meet the goals we’re trying to achieve?

What are the goals of the Garden Center Top 100 IGCs List? It’s not just to give you something pretty to hang on the wall. We ask businesses to submit so we can take a reckoning of the most innovative, vibrant, unique and successful garden retail businesses whose brands best meet the needs of their gardening community.

The old criteria did not really give the clearest picture. That’s not to say that businesses with multiple locations had a finger on the scale. On the contrary, it’s a tremendous achievement to expand and serve more gardeners in more areas with more stores. That kind of expansion takes grit and gusto and courage and a ton of careful business management.

But you have no less grit and acumen if you have built a single location. There are barriers to expansion that can’t always be overcome. And some IGCs are quite content to be the best at the one place they are.

In order to align our list closer with its goals, we decided to change the criteria: Businesses would submit the gross annual income for only their single largest or flagship location. That means multi-store brands would be putting their best-performing locations up against garden centers with only one retail store.

It was a nerve-wracking change, as changes often are. But when we opened the list for submissions, the results were pretty extraordinary. There were some big moves: City Floral Garden Center and Cornell Farm both moved up the list 31 spots. The Farm At Green Village moved from 36th on the list to 10th, a shift of 26 spots. I was surprised by the list after the new criteria. But we could do more to ensure this list is representative of the industry. We have ideas of how this list might take shape in the future. And I’m sure you do, too.

So, reach out to me at pcoleman@gie.net, catch me at Cultivate’25 in July at the GIE Media booth (#1637) or stop me for a chat at the Garden Center Conference & Expo Aug. 5-7, 2025, in Kansas City, Missouri. I’d love to hear from you.

More on the Top 100:

The 2025 Top 100 Independent Garden Centers List

Stats about the Top 100

Meet the Top 100: Hicks Nurseries, #2

Meet the Top 100: Vandermeer Nursery, #49

Meet the Top 100: Luis' Nursery, #87

Meet the Top 100: Smith's Gardentown, #90