City Escape Garden Center & Design Studio – Chicago, Illinois

When City Escape founder Connie Rivera left her CEO career behind, she returned to her farming roots. But instead of an idyllic country setting, her dreams took shape on 3 acres in an underdeveloped Chicago neighborhood. Inspired by European gardens, she set out to create an unforgettable experience. In the process, she experienced a great deal herself.

In the IGC’s early days, crime was commonplace, from open drug deals to disappearing plant material whenever Rivera landscaped the site with her signature waves of bulbs and flowers. “We just had to be tenacious and steadfast,” she says.

Many early hires came from the neighborhood, and Rivera worked with the community and police. “Today, the theft is not occurring,” she says. “The community has taken great pride.”

Landscape installation and maintenance for municipal sites and high-end HOA (homeowner association) buildings is a core part of Rivera’s business, one she originally was forced to pursue. When she started out, she went to 11 banks before someone believed in her vision. Steady income from landscape contracts impressed lenders and became vital to Rivera. “We don’t lose clients,” she says. “Client satisfaction is very important to me.”

In the shop and in landscaping, City Escape is known for pushing the envelope on unusual plant combinations and one-of-a-kind results. Rivera offers the example of four HOA contracts on Chicago’s ultra-affluent East Lakeshore Drive: “Each one has its own personality, and each one wants to be the best.”

With City Escape, every property warrants unique designs, with seasonal changes planned months in advance and all plants contract grown.

Retail presentation is another strong point. “I’m dogged about merchandising,” Rivera says. “It has to be a thoughtful process … It can’t just happen randomly.” Inspiration comes from travel, magazines and retail scouting trips, where she looks for what stores carry and what they don’t.

Community investment comes with the territory for Rivera. When a sizable nonprofit for food-industry entrepreneurs opened nearby, she donated all the landscaping — plants and labor.

As she explains, “It was an opportunity to be a good neighbor, embrace a significant project and let them know how important it was to the community.” She also won another landscape contract in the process.

Greensgrow – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Twenty-two years ago, the full city block that houses Greensgrow was a former industrial site capped by the Environmental Protection Agency. Then Greensgrow’s founders transformed it through a small-scale hydroponic lettuce farm that, within a few years, became a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. A seasonal nursery and garden center followed in 2001, with a second garden center added on Philadelphia’s west side in 2014.

Though four-season vegetable production still happens on site, the farm and community have changed dramatically. “We have the double-edged sword — both lucky and difficult — of being in a community that’s in rapid transformation,” says Executive Director Meg DeBrito. “There’s a lot of gentrification and growth happening in the neighborhood.”

Large houseplants and pollinator-friendly selections cater to new Millennial neighbors, but Greensgrow’s focus remains on education and food access. “We run a garden center and a farm, but that space really becomes an education space and a launching pad for a larger greening and educational opportunity,” DeBrito says.

Greensgrow nurtures community through educational programs, often with an environmental focus, as well as food- and greening-related events and outreach. Hands-on programs target children and adults. “Team retreat” workshops for businesses occur on and off site. Monthly music-and-food events with crafty, farm-market appeal complement quarterly farm dinners highlighting local growers and chefs.

The nonprofit also partners with a farm share program to subsidize community supported agriculture-style boxes for families that receive SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits. Between the subsidy and food-assistance benefits, 30 families receive produce at no cost to them. The program allows families to buy edible Greensgrow plants, seeds and herbs with SNAP benefits as well. “We’re able to both support one’s ability to grow their own food and then make sure everybody has access to healthy and fresh produce,” DeBrito says.

“Greensgrow is really a special place because we’re in an urban area,” DeBrito says. “While we’re a garden center, we’re very much a green space, a public space that engages community on many different levels. Within that, we’re able to empower and educate at the same time.”

NORTH PARK NURSERY – San Diego, California

San Diego’s trendy North Park neighborhood has come a long way from its Craftsman bungalow beginnings. North Park Nursery CEO and co-owner Jeff Thrift, who bought the business with family members in 2017, reports the transformation in neighborhood demographics has elevated area businesses. “It’s been a very positive shift,” he says.

Thrift also launched Eden, a nearby interior plant store, in 2017. In September 2018, he opened The Bungalow, a gift/event shop housed on nursery property. Staff rotate between the three shops. “That was originally by need, not design, but it’s been a very positive benefit,” he says. Employees stay connected to all three stores, and customers do the same. “These communities really take pride in and like to shop in their own communities,” Thrift says.

North Park’s primary customer base prefers communicating via Instagram. “We really leverage social media,” Thrift says. “Instagram is the most powerful avenue we use. It’s a very interactive tool.” He devotes two full-time employees solely to monitoring, interacting and posting (two to three posts per day) on the North Park/Bungalow and Eden Instagram accounts.

Houseplants and plant parenting are hot at North Park, where an Instagram-announced Bungalow plant swap drew nearly 100 attendees. “We have plant moms and dads that are really engaged,” Thrift says, but that’s not the only craze.

“Our customers love ‘different.’ That’s the biggest trend,” he says. “Whenever we see anything unusual, we grab it. As soon as we post it on social media, they gobble it up.”

Thrift transcends his urban footprint by thinking outside the walls. A music-filled, parklike space for workshops, weddings or simply hanging out now connects the nursery and The Bungalow. A new design, installation and maintenance division, focused on commercial interiorscaping, has driven business growth. Exterior landscaping isn’t on the menu, but custom planters and planter maintenance are.

Thrift offers a simple recipe for urban success: “Know your business ABCs, leverage social media, stay on the hunt for new, give your customers a great experience and be a good community member in the area you’re in.”

The author is a freelance writer specializing in the horticulture industry and a frequent contributor to GIE Media publications. Reach her at jolene@lovesgarden.com.

Cultivate’19 was a whirlwind of fun new displays, gorgeous plants, networking and so much more! Since there’s no way to see everything going on, we rounded up some of the highlights from this year’s event. For more photos from the show, search #Cultivate19 on social media to see what other attendees thought was noteworthy.

At my garden center we’ve been answering questions about cannabis cultivation for years, although often the customers were reticent to admit what they were growing. It was always amusing to hear how many 20-somethings who came in for rockwool cubes were “Helping my mom with her petunias.”

But in 2018 it became legal for individuals in Massachusetts to grow a limited number of cannabis plants, so now we can openly help customers of all ages and levels of experience. In fact, in early February I ran cannabis propagation and growing seminars at Hyannis Country Garden. We charged $20 per person for admission and capped attendance at 80 people. The first talk sold out, so we added a second class the following week. I recall how Jeff Lowenfels, author of the forthcoming book “DIY Autoflowering Cannabis: An Easy Way to Grow Your Own,” frequently says, “Cannabis is the new tomato. It’s the plant that everyone wants to grow.”

Whether cannabis is the new tomato or not, it is a plant that garden centers increasingly need to be informed about. As additional states legalize or decriminalize the use of this plant, more customers will want the information and products needed to grow it.

It was interesting to see the audience that attended the cannabis classes at Hyannis Country Garden. Although I’d expected a younger audience, about 75% of those in attendance were baby boomers. I remember speaking with David Deardorff, co-author of “What’s Wrong With My Marijuana Plant?” about this a year ago. David and his co-author, Kathryn Wadsworth, present classes on cannabis cultivation in the Seattle area, and he said that the majority of people attending are women age 55 and older.

“That population of women usually have experience growing plants, and the idea of raising herbs for medicinal reasons is familiar to them,” David told me. It was clear that the baby boomers in my audiences are interested in using cannabis for treating insomnia, arthritis or other physical problems, and they are interested in growing their own.

The younger members of my audience weren’t as familiar with plants, so they needed the most basic information; subjects such as fertilizing or pinching tips to create bushier growth are totally new to them. This makes me hopeful that cannabis does indeed prove to be the “gateway” that the public was told it was 40 years ago, although I’m thinking that it’s the gateway drug that will get them hooked on Rhododendron, Plectranthus and culinary herbs.

Whether your cannabis-growing customer is 22 or 82, they’ll appreciate information that is factual and local. There is so much misinformation online, and much of it is geared toward indoor or hydroponic growing. Your business will also need to be aware of your state’s particular regulations and remind people to be responsible in how and where the plant is grown; this isn’t a plant that children should have access to.

Garden centers will also need to be prepared for pushback from other customers. Cannabis is still a hot-button issue, and some aren’t pleased when an IGC passes out information about growing this plant. At Hyannis Country Garden we drafted a letter that was sent out when a couple of people complained about our propagation classes. All employees were given a copy so that they knew how to respond if a customer objected in person.

Most garden centers frequently receive questions about certain plants. On Cape Cod, where Hyannis Country Garden is located, people ask about pruning their blue hydrangeas, the lichen on their trees, and how to grow tomatoes. We have informational handouts on these and other topics on our website; the newest document posted there is about growing “the new tomato,” cannabis.

C.L. Fornari is a speaker, writer and radio/podcast host who has worked at Hyannis Country Garden, an IGC on Cape Cod, for more than 20 years. She has her audiences convinced that C.L. stands for “Compost Lover.” Learn more at www.GardenLady.com 

Grabbing the interest of younger customers and new plant enthusiasts has proven a tricky endeavor for many traditional garden centers. You may have found yourself frustrated with the younger generation’s seeming lack of interest in your idea of gardening, while your existing customer base may be aging out.

If you aren’t seeing an influx of new younger customers the way your business needs to, it’s probably time to audit your overall marketing and branding strategies. Are you creating a community with your marketing efforts or just pushing product?

I’ve been saying this for awhile now, but I think the concept of gardening is due for a rebranding. How and where people engage with plants is changing, and the conventional ideas about what gardening is, or isn’t, require evolution. Older customers see gardening as an outdoor activity, with a focus on landscape plants or vegetables. Younger customers commonly consider gardening the act of keeping a single houseplant indoors. Both of these ideas about gardening are valid. The challenge for many garden centers is, and will be for the near future, how to satisfy their existing customers’ wants and needs for more traditional gardening activities, while simultaneously attracting an entirely new audience who gardens differently.

Rather than thinking about “how to market to Millennials,” which is still a common refrain, it’s better to think about how to market so you continuously replenish your customer base — no matter their generation. Gardening and plant keeping is an equal opportunity hobby. New people can come to the love of plants at any age. As I always say, your customer wants to see themselves — regardless of age — reflected in your business before they choose you. Relevancy, trust and comfort are key components of the modern customer relationship.

But let’s get back to those newbies. There’s no lack of plant love among the younger generations. In fact, they might even be more rabid about plants than we were in our 20s and 30s. I’d say houseplant-crazy is an accurate description. Interest in growing food indoors and in small spaces is also on the rise. The difference is, younger plant enthusiasts’ lifestyles are less homeowner-centric, and conventional outside gardening and landscaping may still be out of their reach.

With work productivity pressure at an all-time high and personal budgets stretched thin, many may feel traditional outdoor gardening activities are too complicated or costly for them, at least for now. But that doesn’t mean you can’t feed their need for indoor jungles and countertop herbs.

If you can’t seem to connect with younger consumers, take a step back and evaluate your marketing and messaging. Do you know why younger customers are buying plants and what they really want? While you are busy focusing on promoting gardening products and supplies for projects, your target customer may be focused on something completely different: healthy habits and meaningful connections.

A key marketing focus for many customers today, especially younger shoppers, is health and well-being. That’s a huge opportunity and advantage for anyone operating in the green industry. People are super stressed out these days. Depression and anxiety seem to be rampant, and the political climate has made a lot of people want to flat-out hibernate.

I’ve recently hosted some community plant swaps as part of the promotion for my new book “Plant Parenting.” I’ve had multiple young attendees approach me to wax poetic about how much tending their indoor plant collection has helped them deal with intense anxiety and stress, and how appreciative they were of an opportunity to get out of the house to make meaningful connections in person with other plant lovers.

If I give you one single piece of marketing advice to use regarding younger customers, it’s plant for peace of mind. Whether you get a harvest from your gardening endeavors or you simply fill your apartment with foliage, there’s a huge emotional reward that comes with cultivating and nurturing plants. Gardening and plant keeping is one of the ultimate healthy habits.

Creating a community around plants is really what this all comes down to, both at your store and in your digital marketing. Younger customers aren’t as interested in solo gardening and plant keeping activities. They want to be part of a group, share their projects and questions, and commune with other plant lovers.