Got Plants?

The green industry’s independent spirit is both an asset and an obstacle. That’s painfully obvious when you scrutinize the many consumer marketing campaigns popping up these days. Collectively, we agree that something needs to be done to promote plants and gardening on a national level. As to what form that effort should take … the jury is most definitely still out.

We’ve got the National Garden Bureau pushing its “Year of the [fill in the plant]” program. America in Bloom has its community beautification program encouraging citizens to plant trees and flowers. The National Wildlife Federation wants people to turn their gardens into Certified Wildlife Habitats. Meanwhile, industry leaders such as Danny Takao of Takao Nursery in Fresno, Calif., are attempting to build momentum for a Got Milk?-type campaign for plants.

And this list doesn’t begin to enumerate marketing programs created on a local level.

Speaking of those local efforts…
Many state/regional trade associations serving the green industry have made their own attempt to promote the gardening lifestyle. At January’s ANLA Clinic in Louisville, Ky., the Arizona Nursery Association introduced one of the latest: The “Plant Something” campaign (www.plant-something.org).

“Our slogan is ‘Don’t just stand there. Plant something!’” said Cheryl Goar, the association’s executive director. “It’s not just for Arizona now. Our next step is to try to take this national and get the rest of the country interested in the theme ‘Just Plant Something.’”

The program, developed with a USDA specialty-crop grant, soon will have a place on the website that will let visitors input their ZIP code (wherever it is in the U.S.) and be immediately linked to the consumer-gardening site serving that area.

On the other side of the country, a similar marketing project is in the works in Massachusetts, where the state’s flower growers association and nursery and landscape association are creating a task force that would promote plants to the public.

As with the Arizona campaign, the Massachusetts group is going with the “Plant Something” theme. “In the interest of time, we decided to adopt the Arizona campaign so that we could begin to implement it immediately this spring,” said task force member Tina Bemis, owner of Bemis Farms Nursery in Spencer, Mass. “It is still in its infant stage and needs lots of work, but we decided to take a ‘ready, FIRE, aim’ approach, so we would not miss a year.”

Bemis said her group has shared plans for the project with the Northeast Greenhouse Conference board, which is forwarding the word to state associations in the Northeast. “I don’t know whether all of New England will buy in,” Bemis said, “but it’s a start.”

The task force has created a website, www.PlantSomethingMA.com, which offers regional industry professionals an outline of the plan. Content will be updated on the site around April 1, at which point promotion will begin in earnest.

“We are in the process of producing our giant green signs, truck decals and bumper stickers,” Bemis said. “Our immediate goal is to plaster the state with our message, using our own members’ store fronts and ‘mobile billboards’—aka, trucks—as opposed to the initially prohibitive traditional advertising.”

The Garden Trail encourages citizens to get out and view locally-grown plants at public gardens, garden centers, growing facilities and landscaping showcases.

In yet another regional campaign, Connecticut is trying to get folks into the garden via its GardenStars and Garden & Landscape Trail programs. The initiatives are spearheaded by Connecticut Greenhouse Growers Association and the Connecticut Nursery & Landscape Association.

GardenStars (www.ctgardenstars.com) is a straightforward marketing program that promotes Connecticut-grown plants ideal for local landscapes. The Garden Trail (www.ctgardentrail.com) encourages citizens to get out and view those plants at public gardens, garden centers, growing facilities and landscaping showcases. A widely circulated brochure lists companies and organizations acting as “trial stops” throughout the state.

“Last year, the Trail got heavy publicity in the news media, on the Trail website, and in our Trail brochure,” said Bob Heffernan, executive secretary of the Connecticut Nursery & Landscape Association. “In all, people were exposed to the Trail nearly 1 million times.”

This is the fourth year for the Trail program, and it’s still going strong. “We started with a specialty crop block grant from USDA, which helped launch the Trail program,” Heffernan said. “We’ve stayed the same course over the years because it has worked so well: Focus on retail sites that get the most exposure, with secondary emphasis on the non-profit gardening sites—arboretums, public gardens etc.”
 

On the writer front
Garden writers want to have their say, too, on what a national plant marketing program should be. One of the more recent—and more aggressively promoted—ideas to emerge is “You Can Grow That,” proposed by C.L. Fornari. “The Garden Lady,” as Fornari is known (www.gardenlady.com), is a writer, master gardener, professional speaker and the host of the radio program “Gardenline,” heard weekly in the New England area.

She recently wrote a guest column for Garden Center magazine (http://bit.ly/YCGTcampaign) to introduce the “You Can Grow That” campaign and now has begun to put a foundation in place to turn the idea into a viable, national marketing program.

“I think a national campaign is important not only to build our businesses, but to tell the truth about what we do,” Fornari said. “We need to remind the public—and many people in the green industry—that plants and gardening enhance all aspects of our lives. We’re not just providing pretty flowers and nice landscapes. Plants and gardening provide seasonal celebrations, exercise, entertainment, better air quality, children’s well being, healthy diets, habitats, enhanced spirituality, creativity, tasty food, community connections and more.

“Gardens improve quality-of-life. They connect us with the deepest parts of ourselves and give our lives more meaning. We need to be doing a better job of getting these truths to the general public.”

Fornari chose “You can grow that!” for several reasons:

1. It can be used as a way to talk about those quality-of-life benefits. Seasonal celebrations? You can grow that! Your daughter’s wedding bouquet? You can grow that! A lush, fragrant party venue? You can grow that!
    
2. The phrase works for everyone in the horticulture industry, from those who make compost to those who grow plants, from bloggers to retail garden centers.
    
3. It’s a phrase you can use seriously or lightheartedly. It can be made silly and surprising so it has an element of fun. It can also be made fun of , a la the famous line: “Where’s the beef?”
    
4. “You can grow that!” can be combined with other phrases such as “Plant Something” or “Passionate about Plants.” It allows for those who have signed onto a local campaign to join their ideas with this one. “A private place to sit with your wife in the evening? You can grow that! Plant something.”
    
5. There are ways all segments of the hort industry can begin to use this right away, without a national organization or industry-wide consensus in place. Here are ways Fornari is proposing to get the various segments involved with the program:
    

Individuals/confirmed gardeners and garden bloggers/communicators
Fornari’s suggested tack for this group is Four Words on the Fourth - You can grow that! “If you write a personal blog, devote the fourth of every month to posting something with the tag line ‘You Can Grow That,’” she said. “For example: Giant Pumpkins—You Can Grow That! You follow up with information and photos about how you grew a giant pumpkin. Take photos and video of great plants and gardens that you see and post them online. ‘Look at this beautiful shrub border I saw last week. You can grow that!’”

Master Gardeners
Master Gardeners can compile a list of the plants many people in their area are interested in growing. “Then,” Fornari said, “they can make a handout for each of these plants. Example: A Tasty Tomato? You Can Grow That! Next, give the basics that people need to know to cultivate these plants in your region. Post these as downloadable PDFs online or have them available wherever the Master Gardeners do outreach programs.”

The idea isn’t confined to plant-specific promotion. For example, Fornari said you can go with something like this: A Less Toxic Landscape? You can grow that! “Explain IPM so that home landscapers in your area understand the concept of first doing no harm,” she said.
 

Arizona Nursery Association recently introduced what it hopes will become a national initiative:  The “Plant Something” campaign

Garden centers
Fornari has a simple way to loop our segment of the industry into the program: Start your own “You Can Grow That!” campaign.

“Pick a new YCGT message every week,” she said. “Every message starts with a plant, landscape outcome, or quality of life. Make some touching and some funny; surprise people. End each with a tag line from your garden center: ‘We’re Hyannis Country Garden, and we’re passionate about plants.’ Or ‘I’m C.L. Fornari, from Hyannis Country Garden, and I’m passionate about plants.’”
 

Decision time?
With a variety of campaigns in the works, from the regional programs noted at the start of this story to something broad like the “You Can Grow That!” project, garden center operators now have, at least, some promising ideas at their disposal as they plot how to best promote their products and services.

Whether the rest of the hort world will join them as a unified, national plant-promoting body remains to be seen—and certainly isn’t the surest bet. As the opening paragraph reference to the blessing/curse relationship involved with our independent spirit suggests, “same page” undertakings aren’t always what the industry does best.

That said, current “same page” circumstances have made this a critical year for retailers—and for growers and landscapers and every other industry professional, as well—to find a way to make plants a valuable part of their customers’ lives. If ever the time was right for a national marketing campaign, this is probably that moment.