Howdy, partner!

Landscape companies aren’t much different from consumers when it comes to the product and services they need. Both groups want a large selection of plants in a variety of colors. Both landscape and retail customers look for a clean shopping environment with fresh, healthy plants. Most importantly, both are willing to pay a fair price for a quality product.

But, while landscapers are conventionally most-closely associated with growers – after all, growers supply a lion’s share of the plant material that goes in the yards – the less-tapped relationship between garden center operator and landscaper could be a profit center just waiting to emerge.
 

Education 101 
Consider what you have that the landscaper needs. If you’re a grower yourself, plant material immediately comes to mind. Even if you don’t grow much (or at all), landscapers need help with questions about plant culture, design concepts and quantity calculations.

Educating the landscape contractors is critically important. A fair amount of seasonal color-installation work is performed by landscape companies that don’t typically provide this service. Often, a landscape maintenance and/or lawn service company receives a customer request for this project, which falls outside its normal realm of services.

The landscaper will rely heavily on the resources and knowledge of an expert in selecting the appropriate plants. Why can’t that expert be the collective garden center staff? Who is better qualified to impart information about proper placement, cultural practices and fertilizer recommendations – just the kind of expertise that will ensure success for the contractor and further a positive relationship with the customer?

Four Star Greenhouses in Michigan does in-house training with landscape contractors’ key employees, including crew foremen and designers. By offering a consulting service to the landscaper, you, too, could provide valuable training that would pay dividends three ways – for the landscaper, for your company, and, most importantly, for the customers.

Topics we discuss include plants that work, how to install them and how to maintain them. Four Star also holds a spring open house during which landscapers can come into the greenhouses, see the product and ask questions. We conduct mini-seminars for landscapers. All of these services are something you could do, either as a contracted consultant with landscapers or on a pay-per-participation basis.

Planning ahead 
You’re in the thick of things right now, but when the off season approaches, use the time to evaluate opportunities for working with the landscape community. It’s a great time for growers, garden centers and the landscape/maintenance community to build relationships and develop realistic strategies for the next season.

Dedicate time to educate landscape customers about new products, assist with project designs, and help build orders. Rather than being just a supplier or consultant, it is important for growers and garden centers to become partners with the professional end-users.
 

For more: Polly Bailey-Rule, Four Star Greenhouse Inc., (734) 654-6420; www.pwfourstar.com