Community calibration

Its annual Tropical Day is celebrated with a load of sand in the greenhouse, steel drum music and margaritas. And, despite the latitude, the February sun is strong enough to warm up the space, allowing kids to play on the faux beach while their parents or caregivers gather in patio chairs to “sit and relax and visit or have a snooze,” says owner Bernie Whetter. “Lots of them will come in the morning, and they'll just stay for hours.”

While the event is a great winter warm-up for customers, it also means more visitors to the Manitoba mainstay — started by the Vreeman family in 1978 and now operated by Whetter, who purchased the business in 2007. That’s important for an IGC that doesn’t get much drive-by traffic.

“We’re truly a destination location, so they have to have a reason to come here,” Whetter says. “My idea is to give them as many reasons as I can to come here so that it's sort of second nature for them to come this way.”

It also allows The Green Spot to transform into a community gathering space — a “third place.”

“It is an extra effort over and above the daily chores, but it is nice to do it,” Whetter explains. “And people generally really appreciate the venue for just being something different...They can see beyond the walls: there’s plants, there’s sky, there’s sunlight and those things that kind of make us feel good.”

What’s a third place?

Urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term “third place” in his 1989 book, “The Great Good Place.”

Oldenburg, who passed in 2022, described third places as informal public gathering places distinct from home and work, which are the first two places. The third place, he posited, allows people “to gather easily, inexpensively, regularly, and pleasurably,” with no expectations or pressures. Third places include locales like cafés, coffee shops, community centers, bookstores, bars, hair salons, churches, social clubs, libraries, gyms and parks.

Third places are critical, Oldenburg said, because “social well-being and psychological health depend upon community.”

Stuart M. Butler and Carmen Diaz from the Brookings Institution have built on Oldenburg’s ideas. In a 2016 report, they wrote that the third place has become virtual for many young people: extending from in-person places to digital spaces like Facebook, chat rooms and group texts. That shift was amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it wasn’t safe for people to gather in public.

But the world continues to recover, making in-person gatherings possible again. That’s a good thing when it comes to third places, since Butler and Diaz write that “the most effective ones for building real community seem to be physical places where people can easily and routinely connect with each other.”

So now, in the waning of the pandemic, garden centers have an opportunity to engage in conversations, build community and simply help people enjoy each other's company. They can become a third place.

Garden centers as third places

According to Garden Center magazine’s 2023 State of the Industry Report, garden centers hosted a wide variety of events in the past year, top among them plant workshops, seminars and holiday markets. But they also engaged in events that one might not associate with a garden center, like yoga and social mixers. The report also found that more than a third of garden centers considered classes and events as an important part of how they market themselves to customers.

Some garden centers charge for some of their events, but many of the events are free. The focus is more on building community, drawing new customers and capturing return visits for future sales, rather than making money directly from the events.

Devitt’s Nursery & Supply in New York’s Hudson Valley (#69 on Garden Center magazine’s Top 100 Independent Garden Centers List for 2023) features an especially unique event each holiday season that’s been an annual tradition for decades.

Devitt’s Christmas on the Farm event features Eggbert, an animatronic egg created in 1930 at Cornell University to help promote the egg industry during the Great Depression. Former owner Jack Devitt, who attended Cornell, acquired Eggbert in 1971.

“Eggs are a symbol of hope and renewal, and that’s why they’re usually linked to Easter. But those same concepts work for Christmas,” says co-owner Joe Gizzarelli.

Many people grew up with Eggbert. But after the late ‘90s, the ovum was shelved due to ownership changes and business shifts — until Gizzarelli and co-owner Chris Fitch purchased Devitt’s in 2010.

Gizzarelli had been at the business, which started in 1951, for 20 years, so he’d set up Eggbert plenty of times. But he wasn’t sure if he’d be as popular as in the past. They decided to restore him to the throne in 2011, and he was once again a huge hit.

Eggbert remains hugely popular today. And after a two-year COVID hiatus, he was joined by a new friend, EggClair (who likes to go by just Clair). This year, the pair will feature motorcycle-themed costumes to align with a toy drive Devitt’s is hosting with a local motorcycle shop.

“Not that events at the time generate tons of money,” Gizzarelli says. “They don’t, at least for us, but they do give us a lot of word of mouth as far as advertising.”

Animatronic eggs aside, Gizzarelli said he absolutely agrees that garden centers are becoming community hubs.

“So many people come here to meet. I think a garden center’s often a lot of people’s happy place,” he says. “I think the millennials have really ushered it in to being much more of a thing.”

Know your customers

For event offerings to work, IGC owners need to know what customers want. For New York’s Hudson Valley, that’s Eggbert.

For Moana Nursery, which has three locations in northern Nevada, it’s all about education, say director of marketing Deanna Gescheider and assistant director of marketing Kylea Scott.

“We’ve been working hard to make sure that Moana Nursery is more of a destination experience than a retail experience,” Scott says.

The business — founded in 1967 and #19 on the Top 100 list — focuses on plants suited to the high desert climate of northern Nevada. Moana makes it clear that it’s not an event company.

“I think what our philosophy has become is that we don't run events,” Gescheider says. “We just add value to the shopping experience.”

Its annual Ladybug Release has become hugely popular. The business also gives away free T-shirts as a draw to get people to attend, which has worked well.

Moana hosts several seasonal after-hours open houses, including “Fall-O-Ween,” which drive more sales.

“Let’s be honest, it’s basically a sale that we’re having after hours. But we invest just a little bit of money in the music and the hors d’oeuvres and cocktails or tastings,” Gescheider says. “It's carefully curated so that it becomes community engagement-motivated, not about making money.”

One area the business has cut back on is workshops, which were held weekly before COVID, when they transitioned to making online videos. They became so popular that they’ve stuck with weekly videos instead of returning to workshops.

Become a destination

Like many businesses, English Gardens — which has six locations in Michigan and is #16 on the Top 100 list — scaled back its event offerings during COVID, but in a survey conducted this past January of customers and target audiences, the results were resounding: they wanted events, education seminars, yoga and more.

“That kind of helped solidify us continuing with bringing events back,” says vice president of marketing Olivia Zarndt, who added that there’s a specific focus on being a destination for wellness.

Its events include a houseplant adoption event, where customers can get extra help picking out the plants and necessary products best suited for them; a “garden party” weekend of seminars in the spring; a summer yoga series; a fall festival; a Christmas open house; and ladies’ nights.

Next year, English Gardens plans to host more consistent monthly seminars, quarterly workshops and monthly kids’ events. (The family-owned business turns 70 next year.)

It’s all about building community and becoming a destination.

“In our garden centers, it’s an experience. It’s a place that you can kind of just get captivated away,” Zarndt says. “At the end of the day, we still need to drive sales, but how can we inspire and give our customers a place to go and have some fun as well?”

Third place advice

For garden centers looking to develop as a third place through events, the recommendation is to start slow — but still start.

“Ease into it slowly. They aren’t going to bring in big dollars on the event itself. But you’re in it for the long haul,” Devitt’s Gizzarelli says. “You want to show you’re part of the community, that you’re their neighbor...You want to make them feel supported.”

Gizzarelli also notes that events throughout the year allow garden center staff to better connect with customers who visit in the hectic spring season.

“You can’t spend the time that you’d like to talking to people and explaining things the way you really want to; it’s always kind of a rushed conversation,” he says. “You’d rather take a little time and get to know them and build a relationship. And the events give us that opportunity.”

Consider partnering with other local businesses, charities or nonprofits to add value and further the community feel. For instance, Moana partners with a local chocolate company for some of its events.

Many garden centers host events throughout their properties — like English Gardens, which makes for picturesque and plant-filled yoga events — while others have built specific event spaces.

The Green Spot, in Manitoba, added a 5,500-square-foot building for its store in 2021. Combined with utilizing free space in the greenhouse in the off season, that additional space means the ability to host more — and different — events.

The business also features a tropical fishpond with a waterfall, tropical plants and seating, as well as a café and a flower studio, providing even more reasons for customers to come, even if they’re not making a purchase at the garden center.

Whether it’s Tropical Day or not, the garden center is a little oasis amid the Manitoba prairies, offering fellowship, community and, of course, plants.

“People do come here and just enjoy wandering around in the atmosphere,” Whetter says. “It’s always warm; it always smells like earth and water and plants. We’re known for people coming out and enjoying the experience of being here.”

They’re known for becoming a third place.

Emily Mills is associate editor of Garden Center magazine. Contact her at emills@gie.net.

Read the rest of our State of the Industry Report below:

2023 State of the Industry Report: Finding balance

SOI insights: Inventory: Building balanced inventory

State of Greenhouses: Instinctive momentum

State of Nurseries: Steady as she goes