During the recent California Spring Trials there was quite a buzz surrounding BloomIQ.com, the consumer website John Henry Co. introduced late last year. For retailers, this buzz soon could -- should? -- morph into a knock, as in the one opportunity tends to deliver to those willing to listen for it.
In a nutshell, the site walks prospective gardeners through the entire process, from planning to implementation. They go there, enter some geographic and demographic specs, and -- presto! -- they find all they information they'll need to be successful gardeners. They can choose the color and the texture of the landscapes they want to create, and then be pointed toward a plethora of plant options that fill those bills. They then can print out their "blueprint" to bring to the garden center -- any garden center -- where the dream has the chance to wed the reality.
In addition, there's all manner of gardening advice available to the site's visitors, from design tips to plant care instructions. And the plant suggestions are just generic enough that any garden center should be able to match or adapt suggestions to fit a customer's particular needs.
It's almost a given that this site will become instrumental in shaping gardening the nation over. It's also almost a given that the savvy garden center operator who becomes familiar with the process will become familiar with another: the one that starts with "Cha-" and ends with "ching!"
Looking for a Cha-ching! you might have missed? Go to the search box and type Cha-ching! Items are listed by date.