Get inspired!

On August 20, 2012, Garden Center joined 450 registered attendees for the Chicagoland Garden Center Tour, an eight-bus caravan that visited three independent garden centers, a trial garden and the corporate headquarters of a water gardening company. For those of you who weren’t able to attend this excellent tour, check out the photo highlights on the following pages.

The tour, part of the Independent Garden Center Show, was sponsored by Scotts Miracle-Gro and conducted in conjunction with Garden Centers of America, The Garden Center Group, and IGC’s Clint Albin.

The Growing Place
The Growing Place in Naperville, Ill., a former perennial production nursery turned garden center, stands out in part because of its Learning Gardens - themed gardens that show the type of plants that can be used in different environments (sunny, dry, shady, etc.), how to achieve certain goals with plants (attract hummingbirds and butterflies, provide flowers for bouquets all summer, have a distinctive look, etc.) and demonstrate techniques (how to achieve balance, unity and contrast in a garden, for example).

Customers can walk the grounds and visit each of the Learning Gardens in order to decide which design elements would work best in their own home. The Growing Place provides a detailed map and descriptions of each of the Learning Gardens for customers to use, and encourages them to visit often, since they are constantly changing or updating some aspect of the gardens. The garden center also holds “Learning Garden Strolls” from June through September for those wanting a guided tour of the gardens. They are conducted by the gardeners themselves.

For more information, visit www.TheGrowingPlace.com

The Growing Place’s Learning Gardens are an interesting treat for both customers and visiting garden center owners searching for inspiration. Shown (r to l): A Cottage Garden, The Rock Garden and A Miniature Garden.

Schaefer Greenhouses
Tour members were excited to visit Schaefer Greenhouses, a fourth generation garden center, located in Montgomery, Ill. One of the first facts we found out about Schaefer’s was that they grow more than 80 percent of their crops in their on-site greenhouses. The plants in the greenhouses were uniform in size, shape and color, and displayed in neat rows, with clear signage.

According to information provided to tour attendees, 33 percent of Schaefer’s total sales comes from their floral/gift department. Upon walking through this department, we saw a Yankee Candle Company store-in-a-store, including a display of candle-flower combinations called Schaefer’s Yankee Toppers that retail for $39.95, and are one of their most popular gift items. Other displays showcased wine and seasonal decorations and gifts.

For more information, visit www.SchaeferGreenhouses.com.

Right: Schaefer’s wine display is an integral part of their floral/gift department. Inset: Schaefer’s Yankee Toppers.

Blumen Gardens
Blumen Gardens, an art-inspired destination garden center, is located in a reclaimed brick factory in Sycamore, Ill. Blumen prides itself on its creative indoor and outdoor displays that incorporate repurposed everyday items- bathtubs, wooden doors, ladders, stairs, tree branches and many others. In the outdoor green goods area, perennials were arranged both in alphabetical order and by bloom color, which many visitors found to be an interesting approach.

The visiting garden center owners that Garden Center spoke with were inspired by the indoor retail store displays. Each display was a small scene in itself, showing how the different products could go together. The walls behind each “scene” were color-blocked, creating movement and separating one display from the next. Blumen offers garden design and maintenance services, as well as a reception/event hall.

For more information, visit www.BlumenGardens.com

Perennials are arranged alphabetically and by bloom color. Common household items are repurposed and used in displays at Blumen Gardens.

Aquascape’s Aqualand
Aquascapes’s corporate headquarters, named “Aqualand,” was the third stop on the Chicagoland Garden Center Tour. Attendees enjoyed a delicious lunch provided by Aquascape, the largest water garden supplier in the USA, and listened to an energizing speech by Greg Wittstock (AKA “The Pond Guy”), founder and owner of the company.

Visitors had the opportunity to explore the unique, Silver-Level LEED-certified building, which houses the training and distribution centers, design studio and display water gardens. It was designed to be a “workplace utopia,” and 25 employees were instrumental in brainstorming ideas for it. A fitness center, spa, terrace recreation area and employee-designed relaxation rooms complete with couches and relaxing artwork, are available on the third floor for employee use, and the Signature Pond offers a relaxing view just outside the building. Garden center owners had the opportunity to walk through the retail storefront and see different ways that they could market water gardens in their garden centers.

For more information, visit www.AquascapeInc.com.

Left: The Signature Pond at Aqualand. Right: One of the employee-designed relaxation rooms at Aqualand.

The Gardens at Ball
After the afternoon thunderstorm cleared, tour attendees were able to visit The Gardens at Ball, the evaluation and testing grounds for Ball Horticultural. The variety and beauty of the plants on the grounds and the sheer size of the gardens were our main reasons for visiting. Attendees were inspired by the displays, including several vertical walls filled with different plants and unique container combinations.

For more information, visit www.BallHort.com

Clockwise: 1) Container combination idea from Ball. Varieties pictured: Pennisetum Millet ‘Jade Princess’, Capiscum Pepper Ornamental ‘Calico’, Capsicum Pepper Ornamental ‘Purple Flash’, Lantana Camara ‘Little Lucky Pot of Gold’; 2) Vertical Wall applications at The Gardens at Ball; 3) Colorful display at The Gardens at Ball. Varieties pictured: Mix Masters ‘Lemonade Stand’, ‘High Voltage’, ‘Betsy Ross’, ‘Bridesmaid’ and ‘Orange Blush’.