From white collar to green thumb

 
Dan Truesdale

When Dan Truesdale left his creative director gig at Lotus.com, he never dreamed he would end up working in a garden center. He came to Rolling Green Nursery in Greenland, N.H., five years ago looking for a part-time job in a pleasant environment. What he found was a new and exciting set of professional challenges. The part-time job quickly turned into a full-time career.

These days, Truesdale oversees the tree and shrub department, works with the owners in developing and implementing marketing/merchandising plans, and acts as the store’s Web developer.

“I had never even had a garden before in my life,” Truesdale said. “I would’ve never seen myself in that position.”
Truesdale thoroughly enjoys working with Rolling Green’s owners, Rick and Beth Simpson. They are dynamic folks,” he said. “I have never before seen two owners who are so good at playing to their employees’ strengths.”

The common theme that influences everything at Rolling Green Nursery can be summed up in three words: education, information and empowerment.

“We’ve recognized that this type of field [gardening] is very intimidating to folks,” Truesdale said. “We want customers to leave the store feeling like they can do it.”

GARDEN CENTER MAGAZINE: Tell us about the new ‘Creation Station’ at the nursery.

DAN TRUESDALE: We decided to shake things up a bit by expanding our courtyard annual-area and grouping offerings by color. We’ve aligned ourselves with Proven Winners, and we’ve been working with [consultant] Judy Sharpton on this project. But we’ve all had a hand in it: me, Beth, Rick and Tammy Hathaway, our perennials manager.

It’s a dedicated area and provides an opportunity for customers to come in—with or without a pot—and create a container garden. Everything you need is at your fingertips. It’s open seven days a week, and it’s staffed every day.

GCM: What do you do to make the displays within the nursery more “shop-able”?

DT: I deal a lot with trees and shrubs. These displays have a lot of substance. I like to get people inside the display. I’ll add a bench, some teak chairs—something that gives people the ability to come in, sit down, look and enjoy.
I also like to keep them well-signed. One sign I’ll always put in reads, ‘Feel free to choose from our displays.’ And I always like to place a sign that reads, ‘Thank you for supporting New Hampshire Agriculture.’ It gives the customer a sense of ownership and engages them not only in local garden center, but also the bigger picture—that being New Hampshire agriculture.

GCM: What product category provides the most merchandising/display challenges for you?

DT: Without a doubt, cement statuary is the hardest. Pottery would’ve been on the list, but I think we nailed it this year. Pottery used to be our ‘kitchen drawer’—you know, the drawer filled with a jumble of stuff. That is, until we started our Creation Station. Customers can now easily shop pottery by color. And Rick built the most beautiful shelving display with a network of interconnecting arbors. It visually connects the whole courtyard area, and we’ve got the pottery there, sorted by color.

It’s the statuary that still poses a problem. How do you visually tell the compelling story with these products to get a customer’s attention? We’re getting there. We’ll know we’ve nailed it when we don’t have to move the statuary displays around more than twice a season!

GCM: Your nursery is big on native plants. Do you have to go the extra mile to communicate the benefits of these plants to customers?

DT: We’re a local grower, and a few years ago Rick decided we should focus on natives. We created our own brand called New England Natives. We’ve used packaging—even tote bags and T-shirts—to create a story for this brand. It makes people want to know more about creating sustainable landscapes. It really creates a sense of ownership with the customers. They feel good about it.

GCM: Do you find time to toil in your own garden after work?

DT: I try to keep my garden as simple as possible. It’s tough, really, just finding the time to do it. Not that I leave Rolling Green not wanting to see plants! I love them. I’ve got some great Pieris, hydrangeas and hollies, among other things.

I still find time for swimming. I’ve been swimming competitively since I was a little tyke. I’ve the head coach of the Portsmouth High School swim team for the past five years, and I’m on the board of Swim Across America. It’s a national organization that holds swims in major cities every summer to support cancer research.