In the beginning...

In December, Garden Center was pleased to award Mark Hildebrandt and Rita Davis, owners of The Garden Market in Wake Forest, N.C., a tuition scholarship to American Nursery & Landscape Association’s Garden Center University. They’re planning to join GCU’s class of 2012, which convenes for the first time this month at ANLA Management Clinic in Louisville, Ky.

“We are in the process of opening a new garden center from the ground up, and we feel that there are many large challenges, but I would say in addition to working within a tight budget, the large challenge is going to be mastering the purchasing of plants, flowers and inventory management as a whole,” Hildebrandt said. “Our hope is that if we can start off in the right direction that we could keep on course with many minor adjustments.”

GARDEN CENTER: What attracted you to the garden-retail business?
MARK HILDEBRANDT: We figured the garden business would be a little less stressful than the printing business, which we’ve been a part of for some time. To be honest, the garden-retail business is an area that both Rita and I have been interested in for many years. Rita has always worked with cut flowers, orchids and potted plant arrangements. I enjoy landscape design, gardening and working with bonsais. Our friends and associates have always encouraged us to open a small shop to share our designs with others. Our love for gardening and flowers has become a passion for us today.

GC: E-commerce is a part of your business plan. Why do you feel this component is important?
MH: Having a strong IT background, an e-commerce solution seems to be a natural extension of our business. Our thinking is that the e-commerce site will help us extend our product lines without having to carry the additional inventory. A couple of wholesale vendors that we have started working with offer the ability to drop ship products that are ordered from our online solution. These vendors have also supplied all needed resources to add their products to our site, which will help reduce the site setup and configuration.

We do understand the struggle with an e-commerce site and the time and efforts involved in the setup and management of such sites, but we feel that there are going to be a certain set of products and customers that fit the online model. We do believe that it will take time to find the right mix and that it will take an additional marketing effort to drive new and existing customers to the website.

GC: Do you and Rita consider yourself "plant people"? Have you always liked to garden?
MH: We’re gardeners, and both of us spend much our free time in the yard. Rita’s idea of a great Valentine’s gift is 100 bales of pine straw for the yard! We have always enjoyed being outdoors.

Yes, we are plant people. We have a tremendous amount to learn as far as species, but we’ve always loved to create garden environments.

GC: What kinds of customers do you think your store will attract?
MH: With Rita’s style and design, the store will be very attractive to female customers. But we think with our location, offering unique tools and bonsais will help get a fair amount of male visitors to have a look around. Worst case, we’ll have a couple of comfortable chairs for the guys to relax and have a cup of coffee.

GC: Do you already have an idea of how you’re going to split duties within the business?
MH: As with our last business, the duties are already fairly well-defined. Rita will handle the day-to-day operations, which will include the store style and design, plant and flower arrangements, product ordering and the customer-service end of the business. I’ll handle the marketing, finance, HR, and garden center maintenance and improvements.

GC: What prompted you to choose the particular location you selected for your store?
MH: Our new location is centrally located in our town. It sits on a main street and is the right size, both in terms of the indoor and outdoor retail space. This new location wasn’t our first choice. A few years back we tried for another location, which was zoned residential. This location seemed to be a perfect fit to our vision. Though it wasn’t on the main road, it had an acre of outdoor space and lots of trees and just felt right. In the end the town voted not to change the zoning, and we moved on. Our new location has much better exposure and will help to drive traffic into the business.

GC: What do you think is going to be the hardest thing about getting your business off the ground?
MH: I guess it boils down to basic retail—offering the right products at a price point that customers are willing to purchase. With that said, Rita and I feel that managing live inventory is going to be a tough challenge for us. This will be a new area for us, and we’re looking for all the knowledge and help we can find to make the right buying decisions for the first few years. Also, there’s the fear of the unknown of starting a completely new business.

GC: What are you looking forward to the most?
MH: We’re looking forward to building the business, planting a seed and watching it grow. We’re grateful that we have an opportunity to build a business around our passion. It’ll be great when we reach the day we pass the break-even point. We are looking forward to the excitement of spring each year, and to selling products that are good for customers and our community.

GC: What have been your best learning resources as you’ve worked to launch The Garden Market?
MH: Trying to read every article in the trade magazines and speaking with vendors. We’ve been amazed by the support of the vendor community. We are also very excited about the opportunity to attend Garden Center University.

GC: You’re planning to create a very sustainable operation. What elements are you going to try to put into place from the start?
MH: Our first step is to renovate our new location using sustainable and energy-efficient construction techniques and materials. The current structure is a 1930s house, so we have a bit of work to do on the remodel. Our renovation plans also include rainwater collection and radiant floor heating. The next steps would be to add a solar hot-water collector followed by solar PV modules. Our ultimate goal is to be a net-zero operation and use our location as an education center for sustainable practices, both in the home and in the garden.