Cha-ching! (11-16)

Green Gardens Nursery in San Diego, Calif., is big on education, and its classes inevitably help area gardeners craft practical and beautiful things that make a home and lawn more appealing.

To wit, last month the garden center hosted master gardener and award-winning succulent designer Laura Eubanks, who demonstrated how to create unique succulent-topped pumpkins for the holidays. The course taught how to design, create and maintain a one-of-a-kind pumpkin.

Then, the store's own floral designer Patsy Epply hosted a seminar on creative designs for Paperwhite bulbs. Those who attended either seminar (or both) came home with great decorative accents for the home. Those who couldn't make it had a chance to benefit, as well, as Green Gardens offered already crafted designs from both classes at the store -- just in time for holiday shoppers to buy special gifts for that "special someone."

Education is nothing new to the market -- you probably do some yourself. But retailers such as Green Gardens show that tailoring a seminar to special occasions is a wonderful way to make themselves pertinent during the holidays -- and to make themselves plenty of "Cha-ching!" in the process.

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