It seems like no matter where you go or what you do, no matter who you’re talking to or what you’re talking about, the conversation always comes back to COVID. Over the past few months, there has been an onslaught of bad news, scary developments and new things to worry about.

Even if you, your family and your business are doing well, there’s a cloud of uncertainty and distress hanging in the air. Vacations are canceled, school plans are up in the air and everyday stress is starting to take its toll.

Despite a boom in sales for many so far this year, no one knows what the rest of this year, and next year, will hold. At Cultivate’20 Virtual, Ken Fisher, CEO of AmericanHort, noted that the industry has seen about a 25% increase so far. But consumer spending will continue to be key and stubborn unemployment could make things difficult.

The recession that we’re currently experiencing isn’t like those in the past so it’s hard to know what will come next. As Louise Sheiner of the Brookings Institute said, this recession, unlike the Great Recession, is the result of external factors, rather than an internal economic imbalance. And the economic recovery will depend strongly on a vaccine and declining case numbers.

Your customers are no doubt dealing with the same fears and crisis fatigue that you are. Thankfully, the green industry is poised to provide much-needed optimism. One of the best things to do now is continue to emphasize the essentiality of the green industry. Dr. Charlie Hall said, “In the midst of a health crisis, there are many opportunities to promote the benefits of plants for human health and psychology.”

During the Great Recession, there were tons of great examples of marketing campaigns that seized on the opportunity to provide comfort, hope and a human touch. Remember Coke’s “Open Happiness” campaign from 2009? “Plant Happiness” is just as catchy.

Kate Spirgen
kspirgen@gie.net

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF RESPECTIVE COMPANIES

CONTAINERS

The Weekender

Eckert’s Greenhouse & Perennials

The 16-inch Weekender hanging basket is perfect for homeowner or commercial use and with year-round capabilities makes this planter very versatile. The removeable liner makes it easy to change between seasonal plantings. With a 1-gallon water reservoir water is cut to every two to three days. Available in seven colors. eckertsgreenhouse.com

GARDEN DÉCOR

Happy Harvest Pickup Truck

Rustic Arrow

This vintage metal truck is the perfect addition to your fall décor. It will instantly bring that charm to any room and looks beautiful placed on a table, bookshelf, on a front entrance, or as an outdoor decoration. Handmade with recycled metal. Dimensions are 10.5” x 20” x 12”. For more, contact Rustic Arrow at sales@rusticarrow.com or (956) 729-7741. rusticarrow.com

Pumpkin Wagon

Rustic Arrow

Pumpkin decorations are a must for every fall season, and this beautiful pumpkin wagon is a multipurpose decoration asset. You can display it empty, use it as a flowerpot stand or fill it with your favorite fall decorations to create a warm and cozy vibe. Handmade with recycled metal. Dimensions are 15” x 25” x 16”. For more, contact Rustic Arrow at sales@rusticarrow.com or (956) 729-7741. rusticarrow.com

GARDEN GEAR

“Bee Nice” Waterproof Comfort Shoes

Sloggers

Sloggers is introducing a new print that was designed entirely interactively with their Facebook Fans: “Bee Nice” Boots and Shoes. They asked their fans and they answered with this adorable Bee print in Sloggers Shoes and Boots. Featuring Sloggers’ “All-Day-Comfort” insoles and signature deep lug tread, Sloggers are made in the USA with the highest quality materials. It’s no wonder Sloggers are “America’s Backdoor Shoe.” Available now. Women’s sizes 6 – 11. To learn more about Sloggers, join their online community at facebook.com/sloggers.USA or sloggers.com

ColorPoint Bypass Pruner

Nutra Gel

Baicor

A unique and advanced slow release fertilizer that is superior to others. Essential nutrients required by plants are infiltrated with this gel. These nutrients are in a specially balanced formula designed for optimum plant growth. This gel can hold up to 200 — 400 times its own weight in water, which helps retain moisture in the soil. Nutra Gel™ provides continuous fertilization for up to four to six months. Best of all, it is easy to use and it enhances your plants and soils nutrition. This product is great for hanging baskets and containers, and wonderful in the spring for transplanting. baicor.com

RETAIL DISPLAYS & SUPPLIES

Table Top Sign Holders

Collier Metal Specialties, LTD

COL-MET table top sign holders are made as a self-standing, one-piece design from prime galvanized steel and can be powder coated in green, brown, black, red, white and blue colors. Designed to withstand harsh outdoor conditions, they are an economical, durable alternative to plastic signs that fade and crack outdoors. Ten various sizes are available. COL-MET is the largest manufacturer of galvanized steel nursery sign holders in the industry. colmet.com

Double Face Hanging Sign

Collier Metal Specialties, LTD

One-piece design is popular for hanging baskets and maximizes your square footage of retail space. Also, the sign catches your consumers’ eyes from both sides of the aisles. Signs are constructed of galvanized steel material for years of use in all conditions. Available in various sizes. colmet.com

Hydroponics might be a niche offering for hobby gardeners but offering a fully stocked hydroponics department can attract a solid customer base. Hydroponics offers customers the option to grow plants — vegetables such as tomatoes, herbs, hemp and a variety of others — in a specialized environment without the use of soil in a controlled area. Hydroponic aficionados can quickly grow plants without the fuss of pests by using special fertilizers and lighting systems. If your IGC dabbles in this department, here are the latest trends owners are seeing in the market.

Lighting systems

The latest trend that’s making ripples in the market is LED light usage. Nino Pompei, co-owner of Pompei Nursery in Oakley, California, says most people who take up hobby hydroponic gardening grow exclusively indoors. And with that, he’s seen an increased interest in LED light systems, but notes it’s not a popular draw at Pompei Nursery due to competition from online retailers. He says the department is popular for its organic nutrients, organic pesticides, fungicides and soils.

“We don’t carry a lot of the lights and the systems anymore because, quite honestly, people find that stuff on Amazon or other online places that it’s impossible to keep up with the pricing,” he says.

The department does fairly well because it fulfills specialized needs for the curious customer or novice gardener, thanks to its wide range of nutrient-rich fertilizers and growing materials.

“There’s everything from grow tents to grow rooms set up, there’s all different types of material to put flood and drain systems. There’s a lot of ways to grow inside,” he says. “As far as ourselves, again, we mostly just deal with organic products that would assist the grower. And we’re pretty much one of the few areas in this region that deal with that specifically.”

Charles Burley, store manager at Atlantic Gardening Company in Raleigh, North Carolina, agrees that LED light systems have seen the biggest boom in hydroponics. That, and the fact that people have access to more resources to information and products than ever before.

“Well, more people are leaning towards the LED lights. I mean in general, just more common people are becoming a little bit more knowledgeable about the hydroponics,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of people doing microgreens, a lot more people growing actual herbs just inside year-round and I’ve even seen a few people this year that are trying to grow outdoor vines indoors. So, they’re actually replacing their light bulbs with grow light bulbs to keep that growth going.”

Burley notes he even had one customer come in whose project was to grow a jasmine vine in her house. And while LED lights are popular, Atlantic Gardening offers everything from incandescent lights, fluorescent lights and even some of the older style high-powered sodium and metal halide bulbs. He notes that Atlantic Gardening tries to stay competitive with Amazon the best it can, and the only thing it can’t put a deal on are those LED lights because cutting a deal would be too pricey.

Customer demographics

Mike Weeks, co-owner of Fifth Season Gardening, which has locations throughout North Carolina and one in Virginia, says the biggest change he’s noticed is the varying demographics of customers who have taken up hobby hydroponic gardening. In his area, he says there has been a surge of interest.

“We’ve certainly seen an increase in popularity of growing hydroponics. I don’t sell full systems, but I’ve seen definitely an increase of folks coming in to buy the materials to set up the sort of gravity-fed PVC systems, your hybrid MFTs,” Weeks says. “I actually did an offsite set up for 2-by-4 grow tents and LEDs, and some deep-water culture lettuce and greens.”

He notes that while the department has seen steady business from homeowners and hobbyists of all ages, there hasn’t been a change in what customers want to grow. However, he’s seen an increase of women who are taking up the craft.

“I’m probably seeing more women getting into hydroponics compared to the roots of the industry being totally dominated by men which is great,” he says.

Burley has also noticed a shift in customers who peruse the hydroponics department. Customers who are interested in growing tomatoes or peppers occasionally stroll in, but hemp is responsible for the influx.

“We do get quite a few of the local farmers for the hemp. I’ve actually seen quite a few young people in their 20 to 30s. But this year I’ve actually seen kind of an uptick, actually, in older people, like the 40 to 60 range.”

Since Pompei Nursery is located in California, cannabis is legal, and Pompei says a lot of customers who come into the store have been avid hydroponic cannabis growers, regardless of the plant’s legal status.

“I’d say the age group is somewhere ranging between 18 to 40. But, however, I have 70-year-old ladies that come in here and buy material for that. I have a lot of gentlemen that are, I’d say, in their 50s to 70s that grow,” he says. “A lot of these folks, for their whole life, cannabis has been something in the … what would you say ... in the society — whether it’s been legal or not. So, it’s not unusual to see someone who’s 50, 60 years old, man or a woman, growing cannabis.”

Popular products

When it comes to display, Atlantic Gardening provides customers with a clear view of and easy access to the items available for purchase.

“We’ve got a whole department. It’s actually the whole back wall of our store. I’ve got kind of the chemicals starting off, and then it goes into my grow tents, then into water pumps and air pumps, and then my lighting kind of leads into the corner, where I have a tent set up with the lights,” Burley says.

Atlantic Gardening offers fertilizer lines from FoxFarm, Happy Frog, General Hydroponics and most recently Botanicare, along with a water-soluble fertilizer from Lotus.

“I think that Lotus has been maybe in the last three or four years, and we’ve just recently got it in, and then the Botanicare has been out for a while, but we’ve just kind of like spread out our selection into their line as well,” he says. “General Hydroponics always sells really well. Probably after that would be the FoxFarm, just because it’s kind of become our general brand, so a lot of the hydroponics and the regular gardeners have started using it.”

Likewise, Pompei stocks nutrients from FoxFarm, Botanicare and General Hydroponics, as well product lines from Maxsea and Grow More. Price points for these vary.

“Most of the nutrients for that type of growing are slightly more expensive than something that would be, let’s say, for vegetable gardening, because they are more entailed in what’s in them. There’s everything from bat guanos, to worm castings, to microbes for root development,” Pompei says.

At Fifth Season Gardening, Weeks stocks the above fertilizers as well. “I’m selling a lot of the VEG+BLOOM because it’s a dry soluble and it’s pretty simple, one part. I still sell a lot of FoxFarm and I’m selling a decent amount of Canna. And then, the General Hydroponics kind of sells itself,” he says.

Marketing

Pompei says they don’t do a lot of hydroponics advertising because the store has an established client base, and it helps that customers have faith in employees.

“We diagnose issues for folks if they’ll bring in a sample of a leaf in a bag, something that’s maybe got black rot, mold, mildew or something like that. They bring it in a Ziplock bag and we’re able to say, ‘This is what’s happening to your garden. This is what you need to fix it. So being a nursery, we’re able to offer that advice,’” he says.

Burley says Atlantic Gardening has found success through social media outlets such as Instagram and Facebook, along with weekly newsletters. Facebook has especially been great for word-of-mouth advertising because the store has joined hemp groups, where many of the members swap questions and advice.

Weeks says his IGC focuses on SEO methods to help boost searchability.

“If you type in one of the brand names of the nutrients or soils we carry, we’re going to pop up,” he says.

In regard to the coronavirus, Burley says customer traffic has increased.

“I’ll say just in general; it’s been kind of amazing how many people have come in just because they’re more or less forced to stay home. But I think part of this year is just the general curiosity to get out and try it,” he says.

All the rage in the ‘70s, houseplants fell out of favor in the subsequent decades. But they’re back with a vengeance. In the past three years, houseplant sales have grown by 50%, according to the National Gardening Association. Some plants have become status symbols for Instagram “Plantfluencers,” driving their price tag into the three digit-range. The thrill of exclusivity motivates these social-media savvy plant parents to splurge on a pink princess philodendron or variegated monstera. Being able to post a “shelfie” of a rare find on social media is a powerful pull for younger millennials and Generation Z.

“The demand for houseplants has been steadily increasing over the last few years as plants have become cool again, thanks to social platforms like Instagram and YouTube,” says Maggie Bridge, manager of sales and marketing for Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses.

At Sam Bridge, a Greenwich, Connecticut, institution and No. 37 on Garden Center magazine’s Top 100 list, demand has surged from both new and existing customers. Though the trend is a few years old, it noticeably ticked up a notch during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During quarantine, there was definitely a push to green up personal spaces whether inside or out,” Bridge says. “For us, quarantine kicked in during the tail end of winter and we continued to have cold weather through May, which helped the houseplant trend.”

Jennifer Rolo handles all the buying for Weston Nurseries’ 300-acre garden center in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. She has seen a substantial increase in the demand for houseplants and she believes the trend is being driven by new customers. The new customers are part of a younger generation, she says, mostly living in apartments, and they’re buying plants for their indoor living spaces.

The opportunities for IGCs don’t end with the houseplant sales, though. Rolo says there has been a corresponding increase in sales in indoor accent pottery that correlates with the houseplant boom. Those first-time home buyers and even apartment-dwellers want to put a pot on their front step or patio.

“Most of the time when someone comes in for a house plant, they want to buy a pot with it,” she says. “It goes hand in hand.”

Rolo relies on her staff of 20-somethings in the greenhouse department to keep up with houseplant trends.

“They certainly keep me on my toes and they’re very much into houseplants,” she says. “I also take requests from them on what they find cool and interesting.”

Many of her orders are direct from Florida. She also uses her connections, from local contacts to brokers that help her find some of the more unusual, unique items that a big grower wouldn’t necessarily stock.

“I’m a plant geek myself,” she says. “I do my homework; I source vendors and go to other garden centers when I have time and I do look at their vendor tags on their pots, because that helps.”

Bridge also sources a lot of houseplants from Florida and credits a longstanding relationship with a broker who always seems to help them find what they want. Later in the season, when filling a truck becomes more difficult, the IGC turns to local sources. Bridge says there are some great places to find rare houseplants on Long Island and a few come out of Canada as well.

Sam Bridge tends to plan orders based of what sells best, though finding a grower that has some of the most popular Instagram plants in stock is like finding a $100 bill on the sidewalk.

“Anything new or cool we come across in the social world definitely makes it on the wish list — whether it’s actually available is another story,” she says.

She’s looking into sourcing exciting new plants from California, but shipping coast to coast is an expensive proposition.

“We’ve been making it work with what’s available, mixing up selections and so far the results have been great,” she says.

She says the Connecticut IGC has even had success adding houseplants they’d usually consider basic, like some palms and cordylines, if they’ve been out of the limelight for a season or two.

“If we haven’t carried it in some time, it still has that ‘new and cool’ feeling for both staff and customers,” she says. “There’s still plenty to be excited about.”

How to price rarity

Dr. Bridget Behe, professor of horticultural marketing at Michigan State University, says retail pricing for rare plants complies with the law of supply and demand. If you only have two or three of a particular plant in your inventory, you only need a couple of buyers to sell out.

“Pick a number that you think is obscenely high, not thousands of dollars, but you need to test the waters,” she says. “Even the markups of three, five, 10, 50 times the price, these rules don’t really apply when you’ve got something novel and unique.”

If the plant sits for a few weeks, you can always bring the price down, Behe says. A decent point-of-sale system will let you change prices at the drop of a hat, without the appearance of putting it on sale. She urges IGCs to let a rare plant’s scarcity and popularity work for them and not to let it slip away too quickly.

“Are you the only one that has that plant? Well, you’ve got an opportunity to really make some money from somebody who really badly wants that plant,” she says. “Don’t be afraid to put what you would consider to be an extraordinarily high price on that and see what happens. But the only way you’ll know is to try it. And if you go in too low and it sells the next day, I think you’ve really lost an opportunity to make a profit.”

At Weston Nurseries, Rolo audits the competition before pricing. There are a lot of IGCs in Massachusetts as well as the big-box stores, and she shops around to see where they stand. But a hard-to-acquire plant will cost more.

“If it is a rare or unusual specimen or a difficult plant to get, we do charge more,” she says. “We price what we feel that it’s worth and being plant geeks and experts, I think that we come up with a good middle ground of what we might pay for it.”

At Sam Bridge, pricing is usually based off what they pay for the material. But if a plant arrives looking incredible and the IGC staff thinks they can get more for it, it will get a bump.

“Formulas are great on paper, but nothing can compare to double-checking that material in person and asking yourself if that calculated price makes sense,” Bridge says.

Rolo sees the houseplant boom as an opportunity for IGCs to differentiate themselves from the big-box competition, which rarely stocks any plants that could be categorized as rare or unusual — certainly nothing that would inspire envy on Instagram or among the 365,000 members of the Reddit houseplants community.

“You have your bread and your butter and your milk at box stores,” she says. “But at the garden centers you have all the other goodies.”

IGCs can be the destination for the savvy shoppers who want the hot plant they can’t find anywhere else — and are willing to pay a premium for it. A plant specialist who can track down a rare item builds trust and customer loyalty.

“The trust is a big selling point because even if our price may be slightly higher for an item like bread, our customers still will come back to us and buy that bread because they trust that they’re going to be successful and they can get the guidance,” Rolo says. “They can come back to us and say, ‘How come this didn’t work?’ versus not having that personal connection with anybody in the box stores.”

The opportunity is there for IGCs to seize. Because of the quarantines, more people are turning to gardening and many IGCs have had a huge spring. Planters and raised beds have been incredibly popular at Sam Bridge and soil has been next to impossible to keep in stock. Maggie Bridge says the IGC has shortages that won’t be filled until the fall or even next year.

“With more and more people staying home than ever before, every DIY project is now within reach,” she says. “People want to get their hands dirty whether it’s inside or out and our industry has a golden opportunity. We finally have the audience we’ve been waiting for so it’s up to us to show them how cool plants are.”

Behe concurs and underscores the opportunity for IGCs to maximize their profits on these hot items.

“We need to be brave,” Behe says. “We need to be thinking about the potential profitability for that plant. The tendency is to underestimate the value of the plant. If consumers were rational, economists would rule the world, but people are not rational and some people will pay what you might consider to be an exorbitant price for a plant.”