A thorn in their pride

As a garden center owner, you’re obligated to provide your customers with standard staples for the home landscape and garden. Seasons change, and there always seem to be new, exciting varieties that come out, but one plant has been tried and true for decades — the rose. The rose has its place in all of our hearts for different reasons, be they romantic or aesthetic. The glamour of a rose is something that is hard to beat, and to sell rose bushes can be an incredibly lucrative business.
 

Smells sweet? Maybe not.

Selling roses isn’t all about flowers and fragrance. There are a few complications of selling roses to consider. Roses are beautiful, yes, but they can be very ugly as well. Recently, rose rosette disease has become a black eye in the pretty face of roses in the East and is rapidly spreading. This disease is transmitted by an eriophyid mite that hops a ride on the breeze and lands wherever it pleases, like your garden center. The disease will cause an extremely unsightly witches' broom and will spread to other plants if they aren’t quarantined and destroyed. There is no real way to control the spread of this, and if you sell somebody a rose that had the disease, they could spread it even farther, like into their own yard or neighborhood.

Roses also carry an environmental impact in terms of the care needed to keep them looking lush and blooming. The plants are susceptible to so many different ailments that a proper spray regimen is almost mandatory in order to keep them from looking like wind-battered stems. Some varieties of landscape shrub roses aren’t as prone to getting things such as black spot, but in garden center environments almost anything is possible. Commonly, garden centers receive roses in large shipments, and then they are crammed into a highly visible area in order to sell them quickly. This cramming method is a breeding ground for a plethora of rose problems such as black spot and mites. Spraying is helpful, but you also have to look at the long-term environmental and financial impact of that spray regimen. Are you willing to take the time and effort needed to spray all of your roses to keep them prime enough to sell? If so, what steps are you taking to avoid having the plant or irrigation systems contaminated?
 

So I shouldn’t sell roses?

No, but being aware of the shortcomings of your merchandise will only make you a better salesperson. And a store that is aware of its environmental impact is one that will gain respect in the community. The diversity of roses is something that you can capitalize on in many ways, not just selling pretty bushes. Roses, however, can’t just be bought cheap and sold for a high price. Carefully select growers to make sure they practice a sound and sanitary growing environment. Be aware of all of the treatments that go onto the roses, especially what they’re fertilizing with. Common questions to ask your grower before accepting plant material would be:

• What growing environment did they come from? If they’ve been greenhouse grown, what cold hardiness do they have?
• What sort of pest management was in place while they were growing in the nursery? If they’ve been given a one-time systemic insecticide, you shouldn’t have to worry about treating them for the growing season, or at least a portion of it.
• What fertilizers were used in the mature plants' development? Make sure the roses were fed a healthy diet of a complex fertilizer, not just a nitrogen- and phosphorous-rich food. Root systems are very important in keeping roses healthy and happy in your store.
• Who else buys these roses? If you’re getting them from the same people who grow for the big box up the street, there is no way that you can get away with selling them for “boutique” prices.
   

Why buy?

Your customers undoubtedly will have an idea of what they want; it’s up to you to make sure you’re able to meet their needs. The fact they might encounter diseases and bugs shouldn’t be the first thing to pass your lips when talking with a customer, but it should be mentioned, along with the beautiful aspects of the shrub that might be overlooked such as how pretty the rose hips look in winter and how to dry rose petals for potpourri.

But not every gardener is up to the responsibility of growing roses, especially some of the higher maintenance hybrid tea roses. The beauty for some rose growers is in the challenge, but that challenge might be enough to make a novice gardener call it quits all together. If there is any doubt as to if your customer is up for the challenge of roses, you might want to make some suggestions other than roses in order to keep the customer happier for longer. Unhappy customers don’t come back and may spread the word that you’ve sold them a bad plant.
 

Special treatment

Use your imagination for a moment and pretend you’re in the shoes of a novice gardener going to a garden center to seek out a treatment for black spot. With a sense of pride, you want to “figure it out yourself.” Looking down the aisle, you are astonished at all the different bottles, bags and sprayers available. Finding the area that says fungicide (because that’s what black spot is — isn’t it?) you scan the labels to find not one but four different treatments for the same thing. One offers you quick results; one offers you long-lasting results. Which do you chose? Why does it have to be so complicated? You look for help, admitting that you can’t do it yourself. You have just taken a blow to your gardener ego.

Just like we take pride in being able to figure something out ourselves, like changing the headlight in our car – gardeners like to figure things out, too. When they do this, they become confident and will more than likely feel that they’re “good at gardening,” which will cause them to become a repeat visitor. Roses are one of those plants that people take great pride in growing, so make it as easy as possible for your shoppers to find exactly what they need. Don’t carry five different black spot treatments, and if you must, make sure there is a vibrant sign that cleverly points out which will treat black spot on roses. Make sure you also keep all the necessary accessories on hand to offer as tack on sales. Rose pruners, specialty gloves and bud vases are all easy-to-sell items that go hand in hand with selling roses. Give customers literature with every rose purchase that includes information about the proper planting technique such as what your garden centers favorite compost is and how often to lime.

Keeping the customer happy after the sale is the most important part. If they leave without knowing key things for growing success, you’ll wish you’d never sold it in the first place. Education is very important, and the profits will smell as sweet as a summer garden full of roses if you’re able to master the art of selling roses.

Nikki Weed is a horticulturist and professional adventurer who uses her experiences and knowledge to manage a successful garden center in Greenville, S.C. She can be reached at pepitaweed@gmail.com.