The need for seed

Now that much of the nation has decided – been forced? – to roll up its sleeves and get its fingernails dirty growing veggies and the like, enterprising retailers are eagerly pursuing ways to ride the New Wave gardening craze into next year and beyond. 
    
For many, the logical next step is figuratively planting a seed with customers by literally planting a seed with customers. Showing the virtues of home seed-starting not only has the potential to keep the momentum going; it’s giving garden center operators a chance to flex some marketing muscles through classes that edify the customer and boost a store’s reputation as the local authority on seeds.

“This past winter – late February/March – we held several seminars in conjunction with our extension office on seed starting, plant selection and harvesting. There were very well attended and received,” said Sandi Hillermann McDonald, owner of Hillermann Nursery & Florist in Washington, Mo. “We are definitely repeating them this next year.”

Garden centers can help promote their expertise as seed experts via classes promoted in newsletters and e-letters, or, as SummerWinds Nursery does, on the company Web site.When-when situation
The seminar idea gets a big “green thumbs up” from Frank Benzing, president and CEO of SummerWinds Nursery, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, but with stores in Arizona, California and Missouri. SummerWinds offers seed starting classes that are promoted through the company Web site. “We offer them free,” he said, “and we provide instructions and tips – things to help make seed starting a success.”

Gary Guzman, owner of Color Your World Nursery in Las Cruces, N.M., likewise, is targeting the garden center “preseason” for his sales push. “We haven’t had any seminars on seeds [since the spring],” he said. “We usually do those in January.”

This January, in particular, could be a stellar time for Color Your World. “I have restocked all new 2010 seeds with larger numbers and have ordered larger numbers of seeds that have a proven track record,” Guzman said.

Paper trail
Tim Lamprey, owner of Harbor Garden Center in Salisbury, Mass., spreads the “gospel” in yet another way. “I do a column in the local newspaper and do one column on seed starting,” he said.

“From about 2000 to 2008, the sales on seed starting supplies had been flat to declining,” he said. “In the winter of 2009, sales on seed-starting supplies climbed dramatically. We sold the majority of our holdover stock plus plenty of new merchandise. Winter set in here in early November. This was about a month early to have snow and have it ‘stick.’ People may have been buying seed starting supplies to have something to do. That being said, we had a large number of mothers who came in with their kids and would wind up buying the seeds and supplies to start flowers and vegetable plants.”

As a result of the boom, Lamprey decided to expand seed lines to help meet the newfound demand. “Not so much new vendors,” he said, “but more emphasis on vegetable seeds and less emphasis on flowers.”

Lamprey said he plans to use the Arett Sales Spring Open House to help shore his seed supply. “One of the lines they sell is Jiffy seed starting supplies,” he said.

Sue Allison’s store, NatureScapes LLC in Armonk, N.Y., hadn’t been a seed supplier until this year. Now, seeds have become something of a priority. “The kids are driving the market,” she said. “This was our first year carrying seeds. That’s all we did, put up the rack and sold seeds. Surprisingly we did well, mostly with vegetables.”

What veggie craze?
Finally, there is Alice Longfellow, owner of Longfellow’s Garden Center in Centertown, Mo., where her most loyal customers have been far ahead of the curve for a long time.

“We have not done too much unusual with seeds or bulbs in this new ‘gardening craze,’” she said. “Being rural, many of our customers were already vegetable gardening, so we didn’t see the huge increases other places did. We did carry a line of seed this spring of unusual vegetables from Baker Creek (a Missouri-based heirloom seed company).

“Plus, I talked a lot on my radio show, at speaking engagements, and through the e-mail newsletter about this new craze and the ‘how to’. We especially hit on using vegetables ornamentally, and using ornamentals with your vegetables, as well as growing veggies on your deck (color bowls of spinach, radish, etc.).”