Market Buzz

Showcasing Chicago’s IGCs

During the 2013 Independent Garden Center Show tour in Chicago, Ill., conducted in conjunction with Garden Centers of America, The Garden Center Group and magazines IGC Retailer and Garden Chic, attendees had the opportunity to visit three dynamic and successful IGCs, each with its own personality and strengths. Here are highlights from our stops to Chalet Nursery, Gethsemane Garden Center and Pasquesi Home and Gardens.

All photos By Michelle Simakis other than Gethesemane’s Container Designs, by Karen E. Varga

DIGITAL TRENDS
 

Vested Pinterest

Janet Thaeler and Paul Wilson created PinnableBusiness.com, a website dedicated to sharing information about how companies can utilize the social media site, based on industry research and data they started collecting very soon after Pinterest launched. The savvy pinners explain how small businesses and garden centers can communicate with customers and promote their brand on the website.
 

Garden Center: Why did you think early on that Pinterest would be a good social media site for businesses to join?

Paul Wilson: Unlike other relatively new social networks at the time, such as Quora or Google+, Pinterest and its alluring visual elements seemed easier to engage and accept. We quickly realized that Pinterest was going to be another great social tool for businesses. So, we started researching everything we could on the network. From our intense research a mountain of business data on Pinterest surfaced. We created our website in order to make sense of this research, and to further help businesses turn this information into actionable items.

Janet Thaeler: At first my reaction was like many — not another social network! Our attention span has gone from short to shorter and pictures are faster to grasp than reading. Images also evoke emotion, which is part of marketing. Pinterest is so full of content that just takes minutes to browse. It’s easier than Facebook, and they made it quick to save and share what you find. I read reports about how fast the site was growing. To me, this signaled opportunity.
 

GC: Do you think every retailer should be on Pinterest? Why? Or does it make more sense for certain industries?

Wilson: The Pinterest target demographic is right for many retailers, and like Facebook, as Pinterest reaches critical mass it will be right for all retailers — but only if retailers are determined to actively engage the network. Just creating a profile and not providing useful content adds clutter to Pinterest and the web as a whole.

The retailers who actively build relationships via Pinterest now may or may not see immediate benefits. However, what they will see is the long term effect Pinterest has on consumers, particularly as more and more consumers emotionally resonate with the network. We’ve seen this emotional connection much more with Pinterest than with other social networks.
 

GC: How can garden centers take advantage of Pinterest during the holidays?

Thaeler and Wilson: When it comes to holidays, providing timeless pins are a must. One thing we have learned is that Pinterest favors pins older than a year. Having holiday theme boards and pins will become more and more popular as years pass.

Here are 3 Pinterest ideas a garden centers can consider: 

• Doing a holiday contest around Do it Yourself (DIY) home decor and crafts. Have people repin their favorite DIY pins and select one that the garden center will do in real life. This allows for additional content you can use and it also helps the garden center to know what people like. Keep in mind that Pinterest has tightened their rules around Pin it to Win it contests, so be sure to read up on their rules and guidelines (http://business.pinterest.com/brand-guidelines/).
   
• Create a Pinterest Board that is a Holiday Advent Calendar. Each day provide a new pin that is themed around the holidays. Have those pins, and also pins on your website, be what people can do at a garden center.
   
• Finally, provide pins that share tips on how people can give garden-friendly gifts during the holidays. For example, stating the different types of flowers that are best to give during the New Year vs. Easter. 

The most important thing is to be creative, fun, and have timeless contest.

Your holiday campaign may not gain much traction this year, but the beauty of Pinterest is that pins can easily be found and shared regardless of how long ago they were pinned. 

Editor’s Note: Portions of this conversation were edited for space. To see the full Q&A, visit www.gardencentermag.com/pinterest-for-retailers-pinnable-business.aspx

Registration opens for Spring Trials tour

For the fourth year, a tour of several of the main stops along the Spring Trial route in California is being organized by floriculture/greenhouse specialists Dr. Mark Bridgen and Dr. Neil Mattson of Cornell University from April 8-10, 2014.

This one-of-a-kind guided excursion is an intense, educational, and entertaining way for growers and horticultural professionals to visit several of the key Spring Trial locations with fellow horticulturists. It allows attendees the convenience of not having to arrange for their own stops, hotels and transportation.

The itinerary is jam-packed with three full days of tours with the days beginning early and continuing at a fast pace late into the evening. The cost includes hotel accommodations, bus transportation, breakfasts, lunches, and shuttle service to and from the airports. Space is limited, so register by Feb. 28 to secure a spot on this trip.

For more, www.concepts.us.com/registration-greenhouse-spring2014.asp. Be sure to go to the site labeled: Greenhouse Growers Spring Trials 2014.
 

NGB provides info for 2014 Year of the Cucumber, Echinacea and Petunia

National Garden Bureau, the non-profit organization promoting gardening on behalf of the horticulture industry, has announced the three crops that will be featured in its 2014 “Year of the” program.

As always, NGB selects one annual, one perennial and one edible that are easy to grow and genetically diverse with a lot of new varieties to choose from. For 2014, it is the cucumber, echinacea and petunia.

The cucumber is one of the top five most popular garden vegetables. Cucumbers are very adaptable; they have been grown in space and a mile underground in a nickel mine. Very easy to grow from seed, cucumbers deserve praise and a place in the modern garden.

Echinacea was chosen as the perennial for the National Garden Bureau’s 2014 Year of program because of the vast assortment of flower colors and shapes available to today’s gardener but also because they are such an American staple. The classic flower shape continues to be a favorite in home and public gardens so the NGB found it time to highlight the history of the “tried and true” classics as well as some of the newer varieties.

Petunias are incredibly versatile plants that come in an abundance of sensationally bold colors, are widely adaptable, vigorous, self-reliant and largely pest and disease free. They are low maintenance and drought tolerant, available nation-wide, are a great value, sport a variety of forms and colors, and some even exhibit a light, sweet fragrance.

Additionally, these fail-proof, tried-and-true beauties are easy to grow, bloom ceaselessly from late spring to fall and settle in comfortably whether planted in gardens, trailing from containers or spilling out of hanging baskets. They’re beautiful, desirable and completely irresistible to butterflies, hummingbirds and gardeners alike. Thanks to new, fashionable shapes and attractively colored blossoms, the petunia is still one of the most popular summer flowers. In short, the perfect go-to gardening friend for sunny places.

For fact sheets, photos and more information about the “Year of the” program and the 2014 featured crops, visit www.ngb.org

Garden Center finalist in Eddie & Ozzie Awards

Garden Center magazine is a finalist for an award in the 2013 Eddie & Ozzie Awards, organized by Folio, a publication serving the magazine industry. The Eddies specifically recognize and highlight editorial excellence in both consumer and trade magazines, while the Ozzies showcase design. Editor Karen Varga’s December 2012 article, “Branch into berries” was nominated for an Eddie in the Business to Business, Retail, Single article category.

There were more than 2,300 entries in this year’s contest, and judges narrowed submissions down to about 500 finalists.

For more, visit http://www.folioawards.com/finalists-2/#e31