Fairy Gardens | Miniature Gardening: ‘Everybody just loves it’

Fairy gardens are more popular than ever with customers at Gertens Greenhouses & Garden Center, and the minimal amount of space the displays require makes the product attractive from a retail sales standpoint.

Teresa Pitera, gift shop manager and buyer, says she is pleased to see fairy gardens come back in popularity.

“We carried fairy about 20 some years ago, and then it fell off,” she says. “About five years ago we started to see it again, and it came back full force.”

Because of the interest, Pitera says the selection of fairy garden product at Gertens remains extensive, taking up about 600 square feet of their indoor retail space.

“We carry [a dozen] manufacturers. It’s quite a large section and we carry everything from the fairy figures, to the houses, to the accessories,” she says.

Among those vendors is Georgetown Home and Garden, a miniatures, fairy gardens and garden décor manufacturer. They have carried the line for about five years.

“This time of year, the kids love all the flip-flops, and the flamingos are huge,” she says.

Pitera says the Georgetown products come packaged well, which aids in displaying the items and deters theft. Keeping the displays organized is a constant task. Most of the product is organized by manufacturer, she adds.

“Georgetown puts their accessories in a nice bag with a nice header card. You can hang it on the sides of shelving. They are the only company that does the packaging,” she says. “We [allot] more space for [Georgetown], just because of that. It’s much easier to keep track of them because they are all in their own packages.”

The ages of fairy garden enthusiasts run the gamut — from age five to 85.

“I would say the majority of customers are putting them in some sort of low garden bowl,” Pitera says. “I also suggest [that they] look in their garage and see what they can use. An old wagon, an old wheelbarrow, a pretty dish that they have never used in their house that’s tucked in a cupboard, a birdbath.”

Teacup gardening is a popular fairy gardening trend, and Georgetown’s Micro Mini fairy garden accessories allow customers to bring their creations indoors.

The very small fairies, tables, chairs and houses are all small enough to be used for teacup gardens.

She recently placed another order with Georgetown for these tiny products because they are selling so well.

“Everything is so small. You can do a huge amount of sales in a small space,” she says.